SCOTLAND'S SAINT NINIAN

The Venerable Bede, writing in the 8th century A.D., described the establishment of the Christian faith in Scotland as having taken place through the missionary efforts of a Briton long before the time when the Irish missionary Saint Columba came to Iona. Bede called the British missionary Nynia, but in the area of southwest Scotland where his Candida Casa flourished for many centuries he was known as Ninian.

Born somewhere in the Solway region, an area encompassing both the northwest of England and the southwest of Scotland, this Romano-British son of a chieftain was baptised into the Christian faith as a child. When the Roman Empire was beginning to withdraw from the island, Ninian left his home near Hadrian's Wall to study his faith in Rome. He is said to have journeyed overland to the south coast of England, entering Italy over alpine passes in Gaul.

A medieval biography of the saint asserts that Pope Damasus (366 - 384) took a great interest in the serious-minded student, and made sure that he had the finest of teachers. The special adviser to this pope was St. Jerome, author of the Vulgate version of the Scriptures, and it is claimed that Ninian was entrusted to the great Jerome for his studies. Interestingly, Jerome moved to Bethlehem before the death of Damasus, and a letter from there in 386 A.D. states that among the people from all over the world spending time learning more of their faith in the Holy Land was 'the Briton.'

Ninian was consecrated in Rome, supposedly by Pope Siricius (385 - 398), commissioned to take the faith of Christ to those 'in the western parts' of his own land who had not yet heard the gospel. He returned via Gaul, spending some time under the influence of St. Martin in Tours.

Ninian's biographer describes the joy of his people when he returned to them, and of his eagerness to teach them the things he had learned that would correct their false understandings from earlier instruction in the Christian faith. In Whithorn, on the northern shores of the Solway Firth, he built a place of worship in stone, the first of its kind in the region. It was known as Candida Casa, 'the shining white house'. For long it has been supposed that this was because of the whiteness of lime used as mortar, or even used as a whitewash for the building. The traditional date of the commencement of his work, and of the dedication of his church to St. Martin, is 397 A.D., the year of the death of his mentor.

Ninian proceeded, then, to his promised work of outreach among the pagan peoples living in the farther, remoter areas of present day Scotland. Bede said that he converted the Picts who were on the southern side of the mountains. Ptolemy's famous map dating from the century after Christ was still, during the lifetime of Bede, the foundation for understanding of the shape of the island of Britain. That map shows Scotland running east to west where it should run north to south. From that map, anyone considering what was 'south of the mountains' would be describing land that was in reality lying to the east of the north/south spine of mountains in Scotland.

Ancient place names reflecting the presence and work of Ninian are found along this eastern coast of the country in an easily-recognised pattern following the line of well-documented main Roman routes and lesser-known but identifiable marching roads. In every case, no matter how rural the situation, the sites are near ancient Celtic (southern) or Pictish (northern) settlements that would have been occupied in the period contemporary with the traditional Ninian dates.

There are 'Ninian places' in Scotland still remembered as such by local people, particularly those living in rural areas where the terrain remains open. Other ancient sites are buried beneath the concrete and tarmac roads or stone buildings of Scotland's modern city centres. Many people live in St. Ninian parishes, or streets, and do not know the story of Scotland's first, but lesser known, Christian missionary.(A list of such Ninian place names can be read on www.whithorn.com).

The explanation for these 'Ninian place names' has often been that admirers of the saint named in his honour their houses of worship, caves, wells, fields, and even hilltops, many years after his death. However, religious historians have clearly pointed out that the earliest Christian churches in the post Romano-British period were never dedicated to saints of precious centuries. They were named for living founders, or by the immediate disciples of such men.

Ninian place name sites exist even beyond the Scottish mainland, on islands in the Orkney and Shetland groups. These island groups were marked on Ptolemy's maps, and documented in Roman accounts as claimed on behalf of the empire. They were referred to as "Ultima Thule" by the Romans, meaning "the ends of the earth." Rome believed that her western empire had reached the very edges of the world.

When Jesus Christ was taking leave of his disciples, He told them to go 'into all nations' with the message of His kingdom, a kingdom 'not of this world'. He told them that they were to go on 'to the ends of the earth' (or of the age), and that He would be with them always in this endeavour. For a disciple of Christ in a following generation, the thought of being the one to take the gospel to the place commonly recognised in the time as "the end of the earth" would be the greatest privilege that could come to any man. Indeed, the planting of "the Christian flag" at "ultima thule" would be for a convinced Christian a moment of greater triumph and joy than the occasion of planting of the British flag on Everest, or reaching the deepest spot in the world's oceans could ever be. It seems that Scotland's Saint Ninian, or one of his immediate disciples, may have believed, early in the 5th century after the Lord's life on earth, that he had been the one to fulfil the Great Commission.

Ninian returned to Whithorn, to his own Candida Casa, for the remainder of his life. His renown drew to that place young Celtic leaders, men and women, from the North of Scotland and England, and from both sides of the Irish Sea. He and his successors trained them in the Scriptures and Christian understanding, as he had been trained in Rome by others. The teacher of St. Columba was a student at Candida Casa, as were the founders of many of the earliest Celtic monastic establishments.

Painstakingly copying precious Scriptures, ( in Latin), and the teaching of Latin for purposes of understanding those Scriptures, would have been among the most important elements of this work. Within a few years, copies of many books of the Bible and commentaries by famous men of the time found their way to Ireland, creating the foundation of the libraries used by the Celtic saints of the next generation. Some of the earliest writings found in Ireland bear traces, linguistically, of 'British' effect. It is noted that the 'accent' of Candida Casa can still be perceived in these writings.

In the traditional reckoning, Ninian died at Candida Casa in 432 A.D. There were miracles reported in his life and after his death in association with his work as a missionary throughout present-day Scotland, and in the place he founded as a centre of Christian learning.

For a thousand years, the kings and queens of Scotland made their way in pilgrimage to 'Whithorn of Saint Ninian'. No royal reign was long established before a journey would be made to the saint's shrine in Galloway. Tens of thousands of pilgrims came to Whithorn from all over Europe during these centuries. At the time of the Reformation, such pilgrimages ceased, but the nave of the 12th century Priory of Candida Casa, the place of pilgrimage, was still used by the reformed congregation at Whithorn until it was replaced in the last century by a more substantial building nearby.

The earliest carved Christian stone to be found in Scotland was discovered at the pathway leading through the ancient priory precincts to the Victorian parish church. With its early form of Chi-Rho, and carved Latin inscription, the stone has been dated by experts as mid-5th century. It begins with 'Te Deum Laudamus'.

A commonly accepted translation of the text on the stone gives the wording of a gravestone inscription, commemorating 35-year-old Latinus, who 'made the sign (of the Cross?) here' and his 4-year old daughter, the stone being sponsored by a nephew, Borrovadus.

Another translation of the stone's wording, though, would assign a much more significant status to the stone. "Latinus" can be, as well as a personal name, the title given to a man of Roman connection and certain, lesser privileges, awarded widely to the rulers and their families of client kingdoms of Rome. It was also used to describe one who spoke, or read, Latin. The words understood by some as 'making the sign' are more clearly and perfectly translated as 'made here a place of refuge or sanctuary' (literally, the pocket-fold in a toga). Instead of 'his daughter' can be read, 'his female successor.' Instead of Borrovadus being a personal name, it can be translated as the title of a local Celtic chieftain.

In the northern Scottish lands traversed by the missionary Ninian, the Pictish chieftains or kings were commemorated by wonderfully carved pillar monuments. The years mentioned on them commemorate the years of their reign with its accomplishments, not of their entire life or their age at death.

Since the traditional date of the commencement of Ninians' work has always been given as the year of the death of Martin of Tours 397 A.D., and since Ninian is believed to have died in 432 A.D., it seems remarkably coincidental that there is a carefully carved stone on the place where he is believed to have established his famed Candida Casa, commemorating one 'Latinus' and a 35-year time frame, the exact number of years representing the traditional period of Ninian's work there.

Many of the Ninian place name sites have continued to reflect a sense of 'place of sanctuary' down through the centuries, and among the 'miraculi' associated with his life is one story of an event in a place protected by the sign of the cross.

Ninian was said to have been the son of a Celtic chieftain. If this stone relates to him, a member of his own family would have been the ruling chieftain during the period of his ministry, perhaps even a nephew who bore the title Borrovadus not long after his death.

Finally, the early Celtic Christian work is remembered as being unusual for its inclusion of women among those who led in Christian ministries. Perhaps Ninian was succeeded as principal at Whithorn by a woman, though for only four years? Ancient Celtic church place names denote the work of holy women, as well as other men, as part of the establishment of some of the earliest churches in the land.