Ninian (Nynia)

Ninian (Nynia) (fl. late 5th/early 6th cent.), bishop of Whithorn (in Galloway, Scotland) and missionary to the southern Picts, is attested only in confused and uncertain traditions. Apart from the brief and incidental notice given in Bede's ‘Historia ecclesiastica’, there is a poem called ‘Miracula Nynie episopi’, written between 731 and 804 and based upon a lost eighth-century Life. There is also an account by the twelfth-century historian Ailred of Rievaulx, which was based on Scottish tradition and earlier sources. For the most part, they agree in stating that he was a British bishop who had studied and trained in Rome, that he converted the Picts south of the Mounth, that he was a contemporary of the British king Tudwal or Tuduael (identified with the son of Riderch Hen, a Strathclyde king who ruled c.580–612), and that he was buried in an episcopal church dedicated to St Martin of Tours.

The most remarkable detail in Bede's account is that Ninian built a stone church called Candida Casa (the white house), because it had been plastered or painted white. Archaeological excavation has confirmed the remains of a stone church and supports the claim that Whithorn was an early Christian site. Although it is usually assumed that he flourished in the fifth century on the basis of Bede's statement that Ninian worked among the Picts ‘a long time’ before Colum Cille (qv), the archaeological and historical evidence would seem to indicate the first half of the sixth century. His association with the cult of St Martin, which was first established in Rome in the early sixth century, and the associations of some sixth-century Irish saints with the foundation of Whithorn, support this dating. The extent of Ninian's mission has not been established. There are dedications to him in many parts of Scotland and three in northern England; the evidence of the dedications is, however, of uncertain value. Ninian's cult survived into early modern times and his shrine was a site of pilgrimage. His feast-day is 26 August.