Saint Ninian

Saint Ninian
Saint Ninian as intercessor ("Ora pro nobis, Sancte Niniane"). Donor portrait in the Book of Hours of the Virgin and Saint Ninian, 15th century
Apostle to the Southern Picts
Born	??
Died	??
Venerated in	Anglican Communion Eastern Orthodoxy Roman Catholicism
Major shrine	Whithorn Priory
Feast	September 16
Attributes	Episcopal

Saint 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 dedications to him in those parts of Scotland with a Pictish heritage, throughout the Scottish Lowlands, and in parts of Northern England with a Northumbrian heritage. In Scotland, Ninian is also known as Ringan, and as Trynnian in Northern England.

Ninian's major shrine was at Whithorn in Galloway, where he is associated with the Candida Casa (Latin for 'White House'). Nothing is known about his teachings, and there is no unchallenged authority for information about his life.

A link between the Ninian of tradition and a person who actually appears in the historical record is not yet confirmed, though Finnian of Moville has gained traction as a leading candidate. This article discusses the particulars and origins of what has come to be known as the "traditional" stories of Saint Ninian.

The Southern Picts, for whom Ninian is held to be the apostle, are the Picts south of the mountains known as the Mounth, which cross Scotland north of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. That they had once been Christian is known from a 5th-century mention of them by Saint Patrick in his Letter to Coroticus, where he refers to them as 'apostate Picts'. Patrick could not have been referring to the Northern Picts who were converted by Saint Columba in the 6th century because they were not yet Christian, and thus could not be called 'apostate'. Northumbria had established a bishopric among the Southern Picts at Abercorn in 681, under Bishop Trumwine. This effort was abandoned shortly after the Picts defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685.