397 – St Ninian Arrives at Galloway

Saint Ninian preaching to the Picts (from the Book of the Hours of the Virgin and Saint Ninian)

When Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica was written in 731, it named Ninian as the first Scottish Christian. The Romans left Britain with traces of their Christianity remaining.

Ninian, the son of a Christian tribal chief, was trained as a bishop by the Romans before founding a church at Whithorn in Galloway which he called Candida Casa (Stone White Church).

His name spread from there to many new religious sites across Scotland, though this is believed to be through the use of his appellation as a cult symbol of the period rather than through personal visits as a missionary.

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