St Æbbe
By Rodger Moffet
Like many of the early Christian Saints, Æbbe was from royal blood.
Æbbe was the daughter of King Æthelfrith the Ravager of Bernicia and his third wife Acha of Deira. She was also related to St. Oswald and St. Edwin, King of Northumbria. Æthelfrith had become the first king of Northumbria when he had invaded the kingdom of Deira in 604, he had taken princess Acha of Deira as his wife to strengthen his position at the same time deposing Edwin her brother who fled into exile. Into this troubled kingdom Æbbe was born in 615.
At the age of ten her father died and the throne passed to Edwin who had returned from exile. Escaping possible persecution Æbbe fled with her seven brothers to Scotland. They were taken into the care of Dumnual Brec, the King, and were converted to Christianity.
Æbbe took to her new religion with some degree of enthusiasm. Deciding to follow a celibate life she took the veil from St. Finan, Bishop of Lindisfarne. This did not please Aidan, a Scottish prince who had intended to marry Æbbe and he decided to pursue her and take her by whatever means at his disposal ('courting' was not quite as delicate a ritual as it has become more recent times!). Æbbe escaped to a place of safety on a high rock by the sea. As she prayed and Aidan approached the tide came in around the rock, cutting it off from his advance. There the tide stayed high for three days and Aidan took the hint and gave up his attempt at wooing.
Oswiu, her brother decided to give her a site of an old roman camp in County Durham where she could found a monastery. This site was called Ebchester (Aebbe's castle or camp), however her more famous monastery was built on the site of her escape from Aidan further north in Berwickshire. The site was extremely defensible with high cliffs on three sides and a mostly impassable marsh on the other. The site is known as St Abbs Head.
The Monastery was held in high regard, visited by St. Cuthbert, Prior of Melrose, and Abbot of Lindisfarne.
It is said that Æbbe gave him a piece of cloth as a gift and that the saint treasured the gift so much that he was buried in it. The monastery was also a famous place of refuge, helped by the tidal phenomenon that had also saved Æbbe, St. Etheldreda wife of Egfrith, King of Northumbria escaped there. When Egfrith attempted to bring her back the tide once again flowed into the marsh and sealed off the island. Etheldreda then became a nun under Aebbe's care.
Egfrith soon married again taking Ermenburga as his Queen. Egfrith was also Æbbe's nephew and visited the monastery under a more peaceful banner one evening as he toured his kingdom with his new Queen. However during the night the Queen suffered a severe flagellation and was found in convulsions the next morning. Æbbe immediately identified the cause of the suffering to be the result of their persecution of St. Wilfrid, Abbot of Hexham and Bishop of York. The pair had imprisoned him at Dunbar and Ermenburga had stolen from him of a valuable reliquary which she carried with her wherever she went. After Æbbe's intervention St. Wilfrid was released and his property restored.
The community Æbbe had founded was a mixture on both nuns and monks, this was common in Saxon times but did lead to trouble, human nature and temptation being what it is. Behind her back all manner of antics went on. The cells, which had been built for prayer, were converted into places of revelry, drinking, and other amusements. The nuns would also dress in fine garments rather than their more pious habits which led to greater temptation.
One night a monk called Adomnan had a vision that the monastery would be burned to the ground as a punishment from God. He immediately told Æbbe of his vision and she was greatly distressed, however Adomnan told her that the vision had conveyed that the event would not happen in Æbbe's lifetime. The divine warning also alarmed the other occupants of the monastery and they mended their ways.
Alas their new found piety only lasted until the death of Æbbe in 683, after this they fell back into their old ways with even greater zeal and whether through fulfilment of the prophesy or perhaps just drunken carelessness the monastery caught fire and did indeed burn to the ground.
Much later, around 1099 another priory was built slightly further inland. Build by Edgar, King of Scots this one was dedicated to three saints; Cuthbert, Mary and St Aebbe.
St Aebbe would have been delighted to learn that in recent years the area around At Abbs head has once again become a refuge of a different sort as a sanctuary for wildlife and in particular nesting seabirds
St Andrew
By Rodger Moffet
On the 30th of November St Andrews day is celebrated across Scotland and indeed around the world. So how did this most eligable of all saints come to be Scotland's patron saint?
Saint Andrew was one of the original Christian Apostles, he was the older brother of Saint Peter. The name 'Andres is though to come from the Greek Ανδρ?ας or Andreas, This was common among Jews living around Galilee at the time. Although not much is known about Andrew the bible stories tell us he was a fisherman and originally a disciple of John the Baptist. He joined Jesus at the same time as John the Evangelist with who he shared a house at Capharnaum. On becoming a follower of Christ he introduced his brother to him and both became his disciples. He was the disciple that pointed out the boy with the loaves and fishes to Christ.
Andrew became one of Jesus' closest followers and after his crucifixion went on to preach across Asia Minor and along the Black Sea coast up into Russia as far as Kiev. This is why Andrew is also patron saint of Romania and Russia. He founded the See of Byzantium in AD 38, later developing into the Patriarchate of Constantinople. There are very few incidents recorded of his time preaching and no recorded miracles. Andrew would have appeared to have lived a simple life.
A legend from the 4th century says that he was eventually crucified at Patras in Achaea by the Black Sea. It is said that he declared himself unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as Christ so asked instead to be crucified on a cross called a Crux decussata (X-shaped cross). This shape has become known as Saint Andrew's Cross. Andrews was tied to the cross ('nailing' was generally not used in crucifixions) and remained there for several days, preaching to those who came to see him.
After his death his relics were moved to Constantinople. by order of the Roman emperor in 357. From there Crusaders stole Andrew's alleged body in 1210 and took them to Amalfi in Italy. His head and some other parts was removed and taken to Rome in the 15th century where they were enshrined in St Peter's Basilica.
As is the unfortunate lot of saints the 'Relics' ('bones' in other words) tend to be moved around and traded between churches like currency. Some of the relics from Rome were returned to Patras asa gesture towards the Greek Orthodox Church.
There are several opinions on how some of the relics made their way to Scotland. The romantic tradition is that they were brought here by St Rule (Regulus) an Irish monk who had been expelled from Ireland along with Saint Columba. The story going that he landed with the relics in Fife Scotland and the place where he landed took the name St Andrews. There is another theory though that the relics came into the hands of Acca, bishop of Hexham in the 700's and took them north when he fled from Hexam in 732 AD. Sometime around the middle of the tenth century Saint Andrew became Scotland's patron saint. Saint Columba had been venerated before then but it was decided that Saint Peter outranked him and that Peter's older brother would 'trump' the lot! The Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 cites Scotland's conversion to Christianity by Saint Andrew, "the first to be an Apostle".
Andrew is now the patron saint of Scotland, Russia, Romania, Amalfi, and Luqa - Malta. He was also the patron saint of Prussia. The Saltire a representation of the cross of the saint is not only present in the Scottish (and subsequently the Union Flag) but is also the Flag of Tenerife and the naval jack of Russia. The Confederate flag also features a saltire commonly referred to as a St Andrew's cross, although its designer, William Porcher Miles, said he changed it from an upright cross to a saltire so that it would not be a religious symbol but merely a heraldic device.
Saint Andrew is generally pictured as an old man, generally with a book and transverse or saltire cross. Sometimes the image may contain fish, a fishing net or rope or Andrew sitting in a boat.
St Ninian
By Donald Cuthill
Scotland welcomed Pope Benedict XVI for his first visit to Britain on 16 September 2010, on St Ninian's Day. The Pope began his visit in Edinburgh, where a St Ninian's Day parade welcomed him to the city. But who exactly was Saint Ninian, and what was his historical significance? The precise details of Ninian's life are disputed.
The Catholic Church described him as the man from south west Scotland "who first brought the Christian faith" to the country around 397AD, when he is said to have established a religious community at Whithorn in Galloway. The church said Ninian studied in Rome before being ordained a bishop. His monastery in the south of Scotland was known as Candida Casa, from the Latin meaning "White House". The name possibly refers to the stone used to construct it or the whitewash used to paint it, and has survived as the modern name, Whithorn. It was from this base that he is said to have set about proclaiming the Gospel to the southern Picts.
The first historical reference to Ninian of Whithorn came from the Northumbrian scholar and monk Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written around 731. He described him as a Briton who was instructed in Rome and noted that his church was made of stone, which was unusual at the time. Bede said Ninian named his episcopal see after Saint Martin of Tours, although other accounts claim he actually met the French patron saint on his return to Scotland.
The historian conceded he was only passing on "traditional" information in his brief reference to Ninian, and does not claim it is factual. In the 12th Century, Aelred, the abbot of Rievaulx in Yorkshire, wrote A Life of Saint Ninian - thought to be at the behest of one of the new bishops of Galloway, who was eager to promote their bishopric to the wider world. Aelred attributed 10 miracles to Ninian, six during the saint's lifetime and four after his death.
Whatever the truth of Ninian's life, over the centuries his tomb at Whithorn became one of the centres of Christian pilgrimage. It was also an important place of worship for the Scots royal family. In the 14th Century it is said a dying King Robert the Bruce went there to pray for a cure from leprosy.
Two centuries later, King James IV spent eight days walking to the shrine, and is said to have distributed money to the poor as he travelled.
When the visit of Pope Benedict was confirmed, Scotland's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien, said he wanted to resurrect the festivities that used to surround St Ninian's Day. He suggested organising "a grand Scottish spectacle to welcome Benedict XVI".
The Font Stone of Abriachan
By Amanda Moffet
If you're walking through the Abriachan Gardens by the shores of loch Ness you will come across a heart-shape stone which is deeply embedded in the ground called the Font Stone. The flat rock has a hole in the middle which is filled with water.
The stone is within the Abriachan Community Gardens, if you follow the path up through the gardens to the left it's about 3/4 of the way up. The gardens here are definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.
There is some dispute over the origins of the stone; some associate it with St. Columba, others with St. Finian's monastic cell, whilst some claim it's just a post-hole from a normal house. However, what isn't disputed is the claim that the water hole is never dry, no matter what the weather is like, and if it's emptied then it will refill itself quickly. It is a mystery where the water comes from, but it is believed to have apotropaic as well as healing qualities.
As recently the 20th century, drops of water from the Font Stone were put in the baptismal bowls of newly born babies believing that this would relieve the pain of childbirth, and women would also secretly let their infant have a taste of the magical water before being baptised by the minister at the church. It was thought that the water would help keep fairies away from the child, and pieces of cloth were even kept around the stones, and were later worn by the child as an anti-fairy talisman.
Royal Legends
Ask anyone what they know about Scottish Kings and they may say Robert the Bruce, or even MacBeth. With such a bloody past Scotland's rule changed hands many times whether by design of by force. Some Royal legends are well known bedtime or inspirational tales such as Bruce and his spider. Some stories have been warped by time and literary licence such as Shakespeare's version of MacBeth. But with so many great Scottish kings we have no shortage of great Royal legends.
The Stone of Destiny
By Rodger Moffet
I'm sure most of our readers have either read Dan Brown's book 'The Davinci Code' or at least watched the film of the same name. The connection with Scotland is seen as the story reaches it's climax in the enigmatic Roslyn Chapel. The tale of intrigue surrounding an ancient biblical artefact is a popular subject for storytellers, from the tale's of The Holy Grail and even films such as 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.