This is alist of saints of Scotland, which includes saints fromScotland, associated with, or particularlyvenerated in 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. Fælan andSt. Colman, and saintsFindbarr andFinan.[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 hismartyrdom around 1115, a cult emerged in Orkney, Shetland and northern Scotland aroundMagnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney.[6]
St Andrew is thepatron saint of 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]
By the twelfth century it had become known simply asSt. Andrews and it became increasingly associated with Scottish national identity and the royal family.[8]Queen Margaret was canonised in 1250 and after the ceremonial transfer of her remains toDunfermline Abbey emerged as one of the most revered national saints.[8] In the late medieval period, as the doctrine ofPurgatory gained 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 Dundee having perhaps 48 andSt Giles' in Edinburgh over 50,[11] as did the number of saints celebrated in Scotland, with about 90 being added to themissal used inSt Nicholas church in Aberdeen.[12]
TheReformation made 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]
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