Saint Ninian of Whithorn
The twenty-sixth of August in the Holy Orthodox Church is also the feast-day of Saint Ninian of Whithorn, traditionally the first man to bring the Gospel to the Pictish people of northern Scotland. Though much of what we know about Saint Ninian comes from much later sources beginning with Bede the Venerable, the church he founded at Whithorn has survived along with several other intriguing pieces of evidence. The following hagiography draws on the tradition of Saint Ninian beginning with Bede and continuing with Æþelræd of Rivaulx and James Ussher of Ireland.
Saint Bede refers in Book III of his History of the English Church and People to a Bishop Ninian [also Saunt Ringan in Scots, or Trynnian in northern England], as ‘a most reverend and holy man of the British race, who had been regularly instructed in the mysteries of the Christian Faith in Rome’. His see had been dedicated to Saint Martin, and he had used it in preaching missions among the southern Picts. By Bede’s time, the Church of Saint Martin, which was still in active use by the English, was located within the borders of the sub-kingdom of Bernicia. Because he had built it from stone – a rarity among Brythonic sacred architecture of the time – it was called Candida Casa, and the relics of Saint Ninian ‘and those of many saints’ were housed there. It was very likely this brief mention in Bede’s History, along with Bede’s reputation as a historian, that saved Saint Ninian from total obscurity and historiographical oblivion.
Filling this account out a bit, it seems likely that Saint Ninian would have come from Yr Hen Ogledd during its heyday – being born perhaps in the middle of the fourth century – and belonged to the Romano-British tradition of Celtic Christianity. He would have to have been born somewhere south of Hadrian’s Wall. If Bede’s account is to be credited, he spent some time studying in Rome and may have spent some additional time in Gaul to have been familiar with Saint Martin, who may himself have sent masons to Britain to assist Ninian in building his stone church at Whithorn, which was modelled after Gallo-Roman architectural conventions.
Ninian came back to Cumbria and journeyed into Scotland, probably around the year 394. He settled in Whithorn, which is now in the region of Dumfries and Galloway. The stone church he founded there soon became a thriving monastery and a centre of learning. He preached to both the Picts and to the Goidelic Irish settlers in the south – the ancestors of today’s Scots – with significant success. The disciples of Ninian spread the living Word of Christ throughout the British Isles from thence, as attested by the several churches throughout Scotland, the Isle of Man and northern England dedicated to his memory. He worked a number of wonders in life, and his relics continued to do so after his repose. Along with Iona and Lindisfarne, Whithorn became one of the most important monasteries in the North Country. It seems to have taken several of its ascetic disciplines from Palestine and Ægypt.
At the time of Saint Ninian’s repose, it is said that a bell began to ring of its own accord – announcing the death of a righteous man. He was buried in a stone coffin and entombed at the altar of the church at Whithorn, where his relics remained until the English Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries. Holy bishop Ninian, equal to the apostles, intercede with Christ our God to have mercy on our souls!
Having been instructed and blessed by saints, O holy Father Ninian,
Thou didst return to Northern Britian to preach Christ to thine own people.
Following thine example, O Apostle of the Picts,
Light of those in the darkness of paganism,
True shepherd of the sheep,
Teacher of the Orthodox Faith and Founder of Candida Casa,
Pray that we will tirelessly labour for Christ among our fellow countrymen,
That our souls may be saved.
Whithorn Priory, Scotland
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