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List of saints of Scotland

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TheMonymusk Reliquary,orBrecbennoch,dates from c. 750, and purportedly enclosed bones ofColumba

This is alist of saints of Scotland,which includes saints fromScotland,associated with, or particularlyveneratedin theKingdom of Scotland.

One of the main features of Medieval Scotland was theVeneration of Saints.Saints of Irish origin who were particularly revered included various figures calledSt. FælanandSt. Colman,and saintsFindbarrandFinan.[1]Columba remained a major figure into the fourteenth century and a new foundation at the site of his bones was endowed byWilliam I(r. 1165–1214) atArbroath Abbey.[2][3]In Strathclyde the most important saint wasSt. Kentigern,whose cult (under the pet name St. Mungo) became focused in Glasgow.[4]In Lothian it wasSt. Cuthbert,whose relics were carried across Northumbria after Lindisfarne was sacked by the Vikings before being installed in Durham Cathedral.[5]After hismartyrdomaround 1115, a cult emerged in Orkney, Shetland and northern Scotland aroundMagnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney.[6]

Veneration of Saint Andrew

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St Andrewis thepatron saintof Scotland and has a long history of veneration there.[7]The cult of St Andrew was established on the east coast at Kilrymont by the Pictish kings as early as the eighth century.[8]The shrine, which from the twelfth century was said to have contained the relics of the saint brought to Scotland bySaint Regulus.[9]

Developments in the Early Middle Ages

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By the twelfth century it had become known simply asSt. Andrewsand it became increasingly associated with Scottish national identity and the royal family.[8]Queen Margaretwas canonised in 1250 and after the ceremonial transfer of her remains toDunfermline Abbeyemerged as one of the most revered national saints.[8]In the late medieval period, as the doctrine ofPurgatorygained in importance in the period, the number of chapelries, priests and masses for the dead within them grew rapidly,[10]along with the number of altars to saints, withSt. Mary's in Dundeehaving perhaps 48 andSt Giles' in Edinburghover 50,[11]as did the number of saints celebrated in Scotland, with about 90 being added to themissalused inSt Nicholas church in Aberdeen.[12]

Impact of the Reformation

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TheReformationmade the veneration of saints illegal and removed almost all evidence of saints and shrines from churches,[13]although Catholicism continued as a minority religion. The period created only one Catholic saint, the convert and martyrJohn Ogilvie(1569–1615).[14]

List of Saints

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A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

W

See also

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References

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  1. ^G. W. S. Barrow,Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000–1306(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989),ISBN074860104X,p. 64.
  2. ^M. Lynch,Scotland: A New History(Random House, 2011),ISBN1446475638,p. 76.
  3. ^B. Webster,Medieval Scotland: the Making of an Identity(New York City, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1997),ISBN0333567617,pp. 52–3.
  4. ^A. Macquarrie,Medieval Scotland: Kinship and Nation(Thrupp: Sutton, 2004),ISBN0-7509-2977-4,p. 46.
  5. ^A. Lawrence-Mathers,Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries(Woodbridge: Brewer, 2003),ISBN0859917657,p. 137.
  6. ^H. Antonsson,St. Magnús of Orkney: A Scandinavian Martyr-Cult in Context(Leiden: Brill, 2007),ISBN9004155805.
  7. ^St Andrew, Patron Saint of Scotland
  8. ^abcG. W. S. Barrow,Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 4th edn., 2005),ISBN0748620222,p. 11.
  9. ^B. Webster,Medieval Scotland: the Making of an Identity(New York City, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1997),ISBN0333567617,p. 55.
  10. ^Andrew D. M. Barrell,Medieval Scotland(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000),ISBN0-521-58602-X,p. 254.
  11. ^P. J. Bawcutt and J. H. Williams,A Companion to Medieval Scottish Poetry(Woodbridge: Brewer, 2006),ISBN1843840960,pp. 26–9.
  12. ^C. Peters,Women in Early Modern Britain, 1450–1640(Palgrave Macmillan, 2004),ISBN0-333-63358-X,p. 147.
  13. ^J. D. Mackie, B. Lenman and G. Parker, A History of Scotland (London: Penguin, 1991),ISBN0140136495,p. 153.
  14. ^J. Buckley, F. C. Bauerschmidt, T. Pomplun, eds,The Blackwell Companion to Catholicism(London: John Wiley & Sons, 2010),ISBN1444337327,p. 164.
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