When The Saints Go Marching In

By Emily Graham

 

Saints are known throughout the world for their amazing achievements in religion. They can be linked to many areas, having moved throughout the Globe on their missions. Cumbria has links to many of them. Here are examples of three of them, telling their journey to sainthood and how they visited, and fell in love with the area.

 

Saint Patrick

St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland and famous Christian missionary, was born in Roman Britain. His parents may have lived in Cumbria, although the date is unknown. At sixteen he was unfortunately captured and taken as a slave to Ireland. There, in his twenties, he was brutally forced to work as a herdsman for rich families before he finally escaped and mounted a boat to return home.

 

His newly-hardened exterior helped provide him with a determined personality. Even though his only chance to return to his old life again diminished, he still remained optimistic. He made his way from Heysham, later to be known as St. Patrick’s Skear. Determined to complete his journey and join the church as his family had done years before him, he travelled past Morecambe Bay, avoiding the deathly tides which have taken so many before and after him.

 

In this he was successful. He first became a deacon and then a bishop. This wasn’t enough for him, however, as he wished to travel and convert others to his religion. This is why he became a Christian missionary and moved to Ireland to try and change their faith. This was what he did till his death day, which is believed to be March 17th, also known as St Patrick’s Day. His body, however, has never been discovered. Numerous theories to its whereabouts still remain yet none of which have been proved to be true.

 

Does it rest in Ireland, where he spent so many years? Or England, his birthplace? There is even a theory that it lays here in Cumbria, above the Heysham Parish Church of St Peter and only 20 minutes from the picturesque settings of the Lake District. Above this are the ruins known as St. Patrick’s Chapel and near this there are cuttings in the rock in the shape of a human body said to belong to the old resting place of the patron saint.

 

Saint Ninian

Saint Ninian was the first apostle of Christianity in Scotland. He was a confessor, bishop and intellectual preacher. Ninian is well known to many and an idol for those who still work today on the conversion to Christianity. Suspected to be born around AD 360, a date that has never been confirmed, Ninian grew up in Galloway. He is of Cumbrian origin, but later moved to Rome where he was schooled and actually trained by the current Pope for that time, Dr. Damasus. Damasus’ successor was the man that made Ninian a bishop.

 

However, after he had been taught he was sent back to England to preach Christianity to others who needed to be converted. He is credited in doing this, which is one of the major reasons why he is remembered, despite its original introduction to the area by the Romans.

 

Legend has also suggested that he acquired magical abilities and that he once cured a Chieftain of blindness. This is believed to have helped Ninian on his journey to convert the UK as people began to believe that he was able to contact God. This is said to be why Scotland accepted him and called him their first ever saint.

 

He is believed to have been a hermit in the caves of Isis Parlis near Penrith, which actually overlooks the church which was later to be dedicated to him. These caves have then been named after him and people still visit them today. The church named after him is now in ruins, yet people still use the space to try and understand the saint, and to gain inner peace and meditate etc.

 

The problem with Ninian, however, is that the only information recorded about him was done so long after his death, that is cannot be taken as gospel. Nevertheless, many people are sure that he existed and that he was an important religious man, who gave guidance to those in need.

 

Saint Kentigern

Suspected to be born around Culross in Fife, the young saint was brought up by a local monk in monastery there. There is not a lot of information of his whereabouts in early life, compared to when he was twenty-five and onwards, but it can be confirmed that he was there until manhood.

 

Then at this ripe age he began his mission; to convert people to his religion. In around AD 450, he was made a bishop by the current king of Strathclyde, Roderick Hael and then for thirteen years he laboured in the same area.

 

He worked tirelessly throughout this time and was obviously successful in his efforts. Towards the end of these years he was able to create a whole town of Christians, who lived together in the then small town of Glasgow. This in turn formed the city as it is known today. This group of people called themselves the “dear family,” which I believe may have been given to them by St Kentigern himself or Mungo as he was affectionately known by his true followers. The name Mungo actually means “dear one,” yet Kentigern means “head chief,” both of which indicate his great “leadership.”

 

Was this just a coincidence? Or was St Kentigern destined to become a missionary and lead other people to his religion? Again, this cannot be confirmed, although many opinions for each argument are still very prevalent today.

 

Kentigern also made visits from Glasgow to Wales and during these journeys was said to stop by Cumbria. Here it has been rumoured that he erected many churches in the area. Crosthwaite Church, on the outskirts of Keswick, is actually dedicated to him and his honour, after he came to Keswick in AD 533.