ST NINIAN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR - 16 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 16th of September

WELCOME!

SAINT NINIAN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR 

Saint Ninian's date of birth unknown; he died about 432. He was the first Apostle of Christianity in Scotland. 

BEDE'S ACCOUNT

The earliest account of him is in Bede: "the southern Picts received the true faith by the preaching of Bishop Ninias, a most reverend and holy man of the British nation, who had been regularly instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the truth; whose episcopal see, named after St Martin the Bishop, and famous for a church dedicated to him (wherein Ninias himself and many other saints rest in the body), is now in the possession of the English nation. The place belongs to the province of the Bernicians and is commonly called the White House [Candida Casa], because he there built a church of stone, which was not usual amongst the Britons". The facts given in this passage form practically all we know of St Ninian’s life and work.

FROM THE "LIFE" OF ST AELRED

The most important later life, compiled in the 12th century by St Aelred [Ælred] states, that while engaged in building his church at Candida Casa, Ninian heard of the death of St Martin and decided to dedicate the building to him. Now St Martin died about 397, so that the mission of Ninian to the southern Picts must have begun towards the end of the fourth century. 

THE MONASTERY AT WHITHORN

St Ninian founded at Whithorn a monastery which became famous as a school of monasticism within a century of his death; his work among the southern Picts seems to have had but a short lived success. 

THE "APOSTATES"

St Patrick, in his epistle to Coroticus, terms the Picts "apostates", and references to Ninian’s converts having abandoned Christianity are found in SS. Columba and Kentigern. 

HIS RELICS

The body of Saint Ninian was buried in the church at Whithorn (Wigtownshire), but no relics are now known to exist. The "Clogrinny", or bell of St Ringan [St Ninian], of very rough workmanship, is in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)