Dunfermline Abbey
| Dunfermline Abbey | |
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Dunfermline Abbey from Pittencrieff Park
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 Dunfermline Abbey
Location in Scotland
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| 56°04′12″N 3°27′49″W / 56.0699°N 3.4636°WCoordinates: 56°04′12″N 3°27′49″W / 56.0699°N 3.4636°W | |
| Location | Dunfermline, Fife |
| Country | Scotland |
| Denomination | Church of Scotland |
| Previous denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Website | www |
| History | |
| Founded | 1128 |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Active |
| Functional status | Parish Church |
| Architect(s) | William Burn |
| Style | Romanesque |
| Completed | 1250 |
| Clergy | |
| Minister(s) | MaryAnn R. Rennie |
Dunfermline Abbey is a Church of Scotland Parish Church located in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. The minister (since 2012) is the Reverend MaryAnn R. Rennie. The church occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts of a large medieval Benedictine abbey, which was sacked in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation and permitted to fall into disrepair. Part of the old abbey church continued in use at that time and some parts of the abbey infrastructure still remain to this day. Dunfermline Abbey is one of Scotland's most important cultural sites.
The Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Trinity and St Margaret, was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland, but the monastic establishment was based on an earlier foundation dating back to the reign of his father King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, i. e. "Malcolm III" or "Malcolm Canmore" (regnat 1058-93), and his queen, St Margaret of Scotland. At its head was the Abbot of Dunfermline, the first of which was Geoffrey of Canterbury, former Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, the Kent monastery that probably supplied Dunfermline's first monks. At the peak of its power it controlled four burghs, three courts of regality, and a large portfolio of lands from Moray in the north south to Berwickshire.
In the decades after its foundation the Abbey was the recipient of considerable endowments, as seen from the dedication of 26 altars donated by individual benefactors and guilds and it was an important destination of pilgrims because it hosted the reliquary shrine and cult of Saint Margaret of Scotland, from whom the Abbey later claimed foundation and for which an earlier foundation charter was fabricated. The foundations of the earliest church, namely the Church of the Holy Trinity, are under the superb Romanesque nave built in the 12th century.
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Wikipedia