13 March 2025

The interest in St. Ninian has been rekindled once again by two things – a recovery of interest in Celtic Christianity and the contemporary archaeological discoveries at Whithorn. They both encourage us to follow in the footsteps of Finnian and King James to discover for ourselves our Christian roots and ancient heritage.

The contemporary pilgrimage renews our confidence in the gospel in a day when so many people are indifferent to it. For it has been proclaimed in Scotland for some sixteen hundred years! From this perspective, the light reflected in the Candida Casa and the person of Ninian cannot be extinguished.

Norah Chadwick described the study of Ninian as ‘the study of a palimpsest’. It’s like an ancient document where the text has been almost completely erased and reused by another scribe. But through the second layer, we catch glimpses of the first!

Although we do not know his exact name and cannot pin him down to any particular date, he cannot be erased completely from our Scottish history books because his influence lives on in the existence of our Kirk. And there’s something very attractive about being almost forgotten.

Afterall, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Who is Ninian? Who are you? ‘I planted, Apollos watered but God gave the growth.’ wrote St. Paul. ‘So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.’