MSP ENCOURAGES PILGRIMAGE BACK TO WHITHORN (Jim Hume)

MSP ENCOURAGES PILGRIMAGE BACK TO WHITHORN

September 16, 2009 12:22 PM

Jim Hume, Liberal Democrat MSP for the South of Scotland, will this evening welcome a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the historic and religious significance of Whithorn, dubbed the cradle of Christianity.

Jim Hume said:

"The South of Scotland is laced with historically important and significant sites which are all too often overlooked for other well marketed attractions, and this debate highlights the importance of the South of Scotland and Whithorn in particular in tracing our theological roots.

"Such a site is important in terms of theological history and study. The most significant of the early Scottish saints was undoubtedly Ninian. He began his pilgrimage as a bishop, having been born in about the year 350AD, in the years that the Roman Empire were seeing its terminal decline. He was sent to Rome for religious instruction after his parents adopted the faith from Roman soldiers and returned to Whithorn where he built his Candida Casa or the original White House in 397AD. But the story of Bishop Ninian does not appear in the historical record until 300 years later, in the writings of the Northumbrian monk Bede, in 731AD. This is perhaps why St Ninian is not so well known as St Columba. But it seems from archaeological evidence that this area would have been for a long time important in terms of ancient trade, perhaps as far back as when the ice melted on its northern track.

"The Pilgrimage to Whithorn and the importance of the are went into decline, with the economy and population following, during the times of reformation, and names synonymous with that area moved to the New World of America, Canada and Australia. So in this year of the Homecoming, I hope this evening's debate goes some way to encouraging people to visit the Isle of Whithorn for the good of the local economy. I hope also that it will highlight the excellent work of the Whithorn Trust to keep alive the ancient memory of those settlers believed to be Scotland's first Christian community back in the 5th century and the work of St Ninian; the apostle of the southern picts."

ENDS