Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/August 26 2007

Saint Ninian (c. 360 - 432) (also Nynia) is the earliest known bishop to have visited Scotland. Neither his place and date of birth, nor his early life, are known with any certainty.

Ninian is first mentioned by Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Bede's comments are limited to two sentences. Also dating from the eighth century is a source known as "The Miracles of Bishop Nynia".

The traditional story is that he was born in Brythonic Cumbria, probably Rheged, but travelled to Rome as a young man to study Christianity. There he was made a bishop and given the task of converting the Picts by the Pope, St Siricius.

Tradition (first mentioned by Bede) states that around 397 he set up his base at Whithorn in south-west Scotland, building a stone church there, known as the Candida Casa which means the White House. From there he began work among the Northern Brythons of the surrounding area. Later he undertook a journey northwards along the east coast in order to spread Christianity among the southern Picts. The word southern is almost certainly a misnomer based on the maps of early times which mistakenly depict the east coast of Scotland as if it were the south coast, and it is possible that what is meant is the peoples living around the Firth of Forth. Placename evidence and local tradition suggest that he may have travelled as far as the Shetland Islands. He trained many missionaries, among whom, it is said, was the man who converted Saint Columba.

Attributes: crozier, book, holding a model of a white church

Patronage: diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada; diocese of Galloway, Scotland

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