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Transactions. 163 



been superseded for municipal purposes by a less obtrusive 

 structure, but one more convenient and better suited to modern 

 ideas. The present population of the burgh is about 1700. 



St. Ninian, with whose fame the Priory is so closely linked, 

 was the Columba of southern Scotland, and pursued his Christianis- 

 ing mission a century earlier than the apostle of Zona. The year 

 360 is assigned as the date of his birth, and his death is reported 

 to have occurred in 432. The place of his nativity is a subject of 

 dispute. One account represents him as belonging to a noble 

 Scotch family, whose residence was in the vicinity of ^^^lithorn. 

 On the other hand, some of his biographers favour the idea that he 

 was of "Welsh nationality. Ireland, also, has put in a claim to be 

 the country of his birth ; but with less apparent ])robability. It is 

 certain, however, that during the period of the Koman occupation 

 he established a religious house at Whithorn, and with the aid of 

 a body of disciples set himself to proclaim from this centre the 

 message of the Cross among the pagan inhabitants of the country. 

 Much success crowned his missionary labours, and posthumous 

 fame enhanced the virtues of the saint and invested even his bones 

 with miraculous power. Before devoting himself to the apostolic 

 career, Ninian had visited Kome, where he received consecration 

 at the hands of the Pope, and spent some time at the French 

 monastery of St ^Martin of Tours. This noted soldier saint — from 

 whom we derive our term Martinmas, and whose monastic habits 

 have not been considered inconsistent with his selection as patron 

 saint of the tavern-keepers — is in some accounts styled the uncle of 

 St. Ninian ; and to him the Priory in Whithorn is said to have 

 been dedicated. A circumstance confirmatory of this is mentioned 

 by Symson in his " Description of Galloway," who states that in 

 1684, when his work was written, there was "a little hand-bell in 

 this church, which, in Saxon letters, tells it belongs to St. Martin's 

 church." There is some doubt whether it was at AVhithorn or at 

 Isle of Whithorn that St. Ninian built the modest chapel — the 

 " Candida Casa " or Whitehouse of early chronicles— that was the 

 arst stone and lime edifice built for Christian worship in Scotland. 

 The balance of evidence seems to favour the Isle. But the modern 

 burgh had apparently been the seat of his later ministry ; and the 

 undisputed historical record represents the Priory as the place of 

 his sepulture. 



The Priory of which the ruins now remain i.s of much more 

 recent date, and would be of more extensive proportions than the 



