The

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

and then

Commendator In canon law, commendam (or ''in commendam'') was a form of transferring an ecclesiastical benefice ''in trust'' to the ''custody'' of a patron. The phrase ''in commendam'' was originally applied to the provisional occupation of an ecclesiastical ...

of Culross was the head of the monastic community of

Culross Abbey Culross Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Culross, Scotland, headed by the Abbot or Commendator of Culross. Part of it is still used as the local parish church by the Church of Scotland. History The abbey was founded in 1217 by Malcolm I, M ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The abbey was founded in 1218 on the patronage of

Maol Choluim I, Earl of Fife Maol may refer to: People * Maol Choluim I, Earl of Lennox * Maol Choluim II, Earl of Lennox * Maol Choluim de Innerpeffray * Maol Chosna * Maol Domhnaich, Earl of Lennox * Maol Eoin Ó Crechain * Maol Muire Ó hÚigínn, Irish Catholic clergyman ...

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monks from

Kinloss Abbey Kinloss Abbey is a Cistercian abbey at Kinloss in the county of Moray, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1150 by King David I and was first colonised by monks from Melrose Abbey. It received its Papal Bull from Pope Alexander III in 1174, and ...

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

. Control of the abbey was secularized in the 16th century and after the accession of James Stewart, the abbey was held by commendators. The number of monks under the abbot had also declined by the 16th century, there being only 15 monks by 1557.

List of Abbots

*Hugh (I), 1217-1227 *William de Ramsay, 1230-1232 *Hugh (II), 1232-1245 *Matthew, 1245-1246 *Geoffrey, 1246-1252 *Michael, 1252-1260 *John de Haddington, 1260 *Gilbert, c. 1296 *???, d. 1329 x 1331 *Adam de Strivelyn (or Scrawelyn), x 1337-1340 *Walter, 1340x1354 *Adam de Crail, c. 1399 *John de Peebles, c. 1399-1435 *Robert de Wedale, 1435-1444 *Laurence de Lindores, 1436-1443 x 1444 *Richard Marshall, 1449-1467 x 1469 *James Rait, 1468 x 1469-1489 x 1490 *Laurence Button, x 1486 *Andrew Mason, c1486 *John Hog, 1490-1492 *

Andrew Forman Andrew Forman (11 March 1521) was a Scottish diplomat and prelate who became Bishop of Moray in 1501, Archbishop of Bourges in France, in 1513, Archbishop of St Andrews in 1514 as well as being Commendator of several monasteries. Early life ...

, 1492-1493 *Thomas, 1492-1493 *Andrew Mason (again), 1493-1510 * Philip of Luxembourg, c. 1510 *James Stewart, 1511-1513

List of Commendators

*Thomas Nudry, 1514-1527 * Peter de Accoltis,Cardinal of Ancona. 1529 *James Inglis, 1529-1531 *Sixtus Zuchellus, 1531 *William Colville, 1531-1567 *John Colville (I), 1535-1550 x 1552 *William Colville (again), 1550 x 1552-1567 *Francis Stewart, 1567 * Alexander Colville, 1567-1581/7 *John Colville (II), 1581–1587, *Alexander Colville (again), 1587-1597 *John Colville (again), 1597-1609

Current ministry

The remaining intact part of Culross Abbey is still used by the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

as the local parish church. The current minister of Culross Abbey (since 2009) is the Reverend Jayne Scott.

Notes

Bibliography

* Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E., ''Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Man'', Second Edition, (London, 1976), p. 74 * Watt, D.E.R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), ''The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries'' (The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24), (Edinburgh, 2001), pp. 50–4 {{DEFAULTSORT:Culross Cistercian abbots by monastery Scottish abbots