Whithorn Priory was a medieval Scottish

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

that also served as a cathedral, located at 6 Bruce Street in

Whithorn Whithorn ( �ʍɪthorn 'HWIT-horn'; ''Taigh Mhàrtainn'' in Gaelic), is a royal burgh in the historic county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about south of Wigtown. The town was the location of the first recorded Christian ...

Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has f ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

(54.7357N, 4.415954W; OS grid reference NX445405).

History

The priory was founded about the middle of the 12th century by Fergus, the

Lord of Galloway The lords of Galloway consisted of a dynasty of heirs who were lords (or kings) and ladies who ruled over Galloway in southwest Scotland, mainly during the High Middle Ages. Many regions of Scotland, including Galloway and Moray, periodically ...

, (died 1161) during the reign of King

David I of Scotland David I or Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim (Modern: ''Daibhidh I mac haoilChaluim''; – 24 May 1153) was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians from 1113 to 1124 and later King of Scotland from 1124 to 1153. The youngest son of Malcolm ...

(died 1153), initially for a community of Augustinian

Canons Regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

. Around 1175, the monks were replaced by

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

canons regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

, referred to colloquially in Britain as the White Canons.Hunter-Blair, Oswald. "Whithorn Priory." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 21 January 2019] Sometime before 1161, the Premonstratensians had been established at

Soulseat Abbey Saulseat or Soulseat Abbey was a Premonstratensian monastic community located in Wigtownshire, Galloway, in the Gaelic-speaking south-west of Scotland. History There is some evidence that Soulseat Abbey is ''Viride Stagnum'' ("green loch"), t ...

. The canons of Whithorn formed the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

of the

Diocese of Galloway The Diocese of Galloway was one of the thirteen (after 1633 fourteen) dioceses of the pre-1689 Scottish Church. The Diocese was led by the Bishop of Galloway and was centred on Whithorn Cathedral. In the Middle Ages, there was only one archd ...

, which was re-established about the same time, also by Fergus, the old succession of bishops having died out in the 8th or 9th centuries. The

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

stood next in rank to the

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, as can be seen from the order of signatories to an episcopal charter early in the 13th century; and the community enjoyed the right of electing the bishop, although this right was occasionally overruled in favour of the

secular clergy In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogra ...

by the

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

, of which see Galloway was a

suffragan see A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, ...

for several centuries. The full list of priors has not been preserved; among them were: Maurice, who swore fealty to King

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...

in 1296; Gavin Dunbar (1514), who rose to be

Archbishop of Glasgow The Archbishop of Glasgow is an archiepiscopal title that takes its name after the city of Glasgow in Scotland. The position and title were abolished by the Church of Scotland in 1689; and, in the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is now part of the ...

; and

James Beaton James Beaton (or Bethune) (1473–1539) was a Roman Catholic Scottish church leader, the uncle of David Cardinal Beaton and the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. Life James Beaton was the sixth and youngest son of John Beaton of Balfour ...

, successively Archbishop of Glasgow and of St. Andrews, and chancellor of the kingdom. Whithorn was long a noted place of pilgrimage, owing to its connection with the venerated memory of

Saint Ninian Ninian is a Christian saint, first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland. For this reason he is known as the Apostle to the Southern Picts, and there are numerous dedication ...

. Many Scottish sovereigns, among them Margaret (queen of James III),

James IV James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...

, and

James V James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV and Margaret Tudor, and duri ...

, made repeated pilgrimages to the

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

, and left rich offerings behind them. The

, thus endowed, became opulent, and its income at its dissolution under the

Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland broke with the Pope, Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Church of Scotland, Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterianism, Presbyterian in ...

was estimated at over £1000. Possibly as a result, the priory was put under the rule of a commendatory prior in 1516. The last Catholic prior, Malcolm Fleming (d. 1568), was committed to prison in 1563 for the crime of saying

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

. The whole property of the priory was vested in the Crown by the annexation act of 1587, and was granted in 1606 by King

James VI James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

to the occupant of the See of Galloway when he established Episcopalianism in Scotland in that same year.

Dissolution

The monastery lands continued to belong to the bishopric until the Revolution of 1688, at which date that see was the richest in the kingdom next to St. Andrews and Glasgow. The priory church, which served also as the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

of the diocese, had a long

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

without

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s, a

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

of about the same length, and a lady

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

beyond.

Thomas Sydserf Thomas Sydserf(f) (1581 – 1663) was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland who served as Protestant Bishop first of Brechin, then Galloway and finally Orkney. Life The eldest son of James Sydserf, an Edinburgh merchant, Sydserf gr ...

, Bishop of Galloway 1635–8, undertook an ambitious remodelling of the nave. In 1684 the nave and western

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

were still intact; but the existing remains consist only of the roofless nave and the extensive vaulted crypts constructed under the eastern end of the church. Such restoration as was possible has been carefully carried out by the third Marquis of Bute. The complex is now a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

Excavation

The cathedral was subject to a major excavation and restoration in 1886/7 by William Galloway at the expense of

John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, (12 September 1847 – 9 October 1900) was a landed aristocracy, aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, and architectural patron. Succeeding to the Marquess of ...

Burials

Walter of Whithorn Walter (died 1235) was Chamberlain of Alan, Lord of Galloway and later Bishop of Galloway. As Alan's chamberlain, he succeeded Bishop John after the latter's death, in 1209. His election coincided with the northern expedition of King John of Engl ...

* Henry of Holyrood *

Simon de Wedale Simon de Wedale was a 14th-century Augustinian canon who rose to become Abbot of Holyrood and then Bishop of Galloway. Little is known of Simon until he appears on 27 February 1321 as Abbot of Holyrood Abbey near Edinburgh.Watt & Shead, ''Heads ...

Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus (c. 1449October 1513), was a Scottish nobleman, peer, politician, and magnate. Tradition has accorded him the nickname Archibald 'Bell-the-Cat' due to his association with the 1482 rebellion against Jam ...

(heart buried at

Douglas, South Lanarkshire Douglas ( gd, Dùbhghlas) is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located on the south bank of the Douglas Water and on the A70 road that links Ayr, on the West coast of Scotland, to Edinburgh on the East, around 12 miles south west of ...

)

Gallery

Image:St. Ninian's Priory, from Bruce Street, Whitehorn..jpg, St. Ninian's Priory from Bruce Street Image:Stninianschapel.jpg, Saint Ninian's Chapel

References

External links

Archaeological and Historical Collections relating to Ayrshire and Galloway
(1894), vol.VII. pp. 53–55 {{Subject bar , portal1= Catholicism , portal2= Scotland Medieval cathedrals in Scotland History of Galloway Premonstratensian monasteries in Scotland Former cathedrals in Scotland Historic Environment Scotland properties Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Monasteries dissolved under the Scottish Reformation Historic Scotland properties in Dumfries and Galloway Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Dumfries and Galloway Former Christian monasteries in Scotland Whithorn Burial sites of the House of Douglas and Angus