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The facts we know about St Ninian are few, and can
be briefly stated; even the proper form of his name is uncertain - he is also
called Ninias, Ninus, Dinan, Ringan or Ringen. We do not know when he was born,
but he died around 432; he was a Bishop and confessor, and according to Bede
"had been regularly instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the
truth".
He is said to have been buried at Whithorn, in Wigtownshire, in the church he
built himself, which was known as the Candida Casa or White House, apparently
because it was built of stone, a practice then unusual in that part of the world.
The success of his mission to the Southern Picts is uncertain: although the
monastery he founded at Whithorn became famous as a school of monasticism within
a century of his death, later missionaries such as Patrick, Columba and Kentigern
suggest the Picts afterwards abandoned the faith Ninian taught them. Nevertheless,
he is rightly revered as the first Apostle of Christianity in Scotland.
St Ninian's Church, Inverness: a brief history
St Ninian's was rebuilt in its present form in 1977, but it was nearly two decades
earlier, in 1959, that the growth in the Catholic population of Inverness persuaded
Bishop Walsh that a second church was needed to serve their needs.
The original St Ninian's, built in 1960, was only the second Catholic church
built in Inverness since the Reformation- St Mary's, Huntly Street, built in
1837, was the first. Before St Mary's, Catholics used a room in Margaret Street,
pithily described at the time as "the place where Lord Lovat and the tinkers
worshipped". This room survived looting during the "No Popery"
riot of 1829, when feelings ran high as a result of the Catholic Emancipation
Bill: an effigy of the MP for Inverness-shire, Charles Grant - a supporter of
the Bill - was burnt and the windows of the Caledonian Hotel, where he was staying,
were smashed.
Although of relatively recent origin, St Ninian's is linked - through its site
- to those much earlier days. In 1845, soon after St Mary's was built, Franciscan
nuns came to Inverness from their Mother House in Glasgow. They were first based
in King Street, and then moved to a house adjoining the church in Huntly Street.
The Convent School they ran acquired a high reputation and attracted boarders
from all over the country.
When, after more than 80 years of good work in teaching and among the poor of
Inverness, the Franciscan sisters were recalled to Glasgow in 1935, their place
was taken by the Sisters of Notre Dame, who reopened the Convent School, moving
it to Huntly Lodge, on the corner of Culduthel Road and Southside Road. They
also owned the house next door, Hill Park, a handsome three-storey building
standing in its own grounds - the site of the present St Ninian's.
Hill Park was at first let to a Mr Kenneth Chisholm-Pant, but was later used
as a hostel for the convent, serving Catholic schoolgirls from outside Inverness
who attended Inverness Royal Academy and Inverness High School. (On an ecumenical
note, the clerical associations of Hill Park go back further - in 1876, it was
occupied by one Reverend Mr D.R. Macdonald, whose neighbour in Hedgefield House
(now part of Inverness College) was the Right Reverend Bishop Eden.)
In 1953, the Sisters of Notre Dame handed over to nuns of the Order of La Sagesse,
or the Daughters of Wisdom, who continued to run the school and the hostel.
Then on 12 June 1959 a disastrous fire completely destroyed Hill Park. A nun,
Sister Rose, was injured in the blaze, as was one of the residents, Chrissie
Buchanan (13) of Barra. The contemporary account from the Inverness Courier
paints a vivid picture of an escape that is not without its heroic qualities:
"[Sister Rose] was awakened by the fire and found the way downstairs to
the telephone barred by flames. Assisted by some schoolgirls, she immediately
set about tying sheets together to make a rope, then started to climb down it
from the top floor, 30 feet up. When only a few feet down, however, she lost
her grip and fell to the ground, breaking her right shoulder bone. After climbing
out of a top storey window, Chrissie Buchanan (13), a schoolgirl from Castlebay,
Barra, missed her grasp on a ronepipe and fell 30 feet. She sustained a compound
fracture of her left leg, and both she and Sister Rose were taken to Raigmore
Hospital. Miss Edna Walton, Oban, an Inverness High School teacher, led the
seven other girls in residence to safety."
The remains of Hill Park form the foundations of the present-day St Ninian's.
Altar
The plans for the first St Ninian's were submitted to the Dean of Guild Court
in Inverness in October 1959 and approved in November. The estimated cost was
£6000. The church was opened in 1960 and the first parish priest was Fr.
George McCurrach. The church served the East of Inverness well for a number
of years, but as the town expanded under the influence of industrial development
- principally North Sea oil - the Catholic population increased in proportion,
and it soon became clear that the existing church building was too small to
serve them.
The present St Ninian's was conceived and planned in 1976, to be built at an
estimated cost of £56,000. The building incorporates the basement of the
original church, which now serves as a hall for various functions. The design
of the new St Ninian's reflects the thinking of the Second Vatican Council,
with the tabernacle separate from the centrally situated altar, which provides
the focus for the congregation seated around it on three sides. In the original
design there was a Blessed Sacrament chapel behind the altar, to the left as
you look at it, but that has now been converted to a sacristy. The extent to
which the new building enlarges on the old can be seen in the Nave and the East
transept, which lie outside the boundaries of the old church, defined by the
altar area and the West transept.
Father McCurrach was succeeded as Parish Priest by Fr. Bernard Macdonald (1979-1989)
who gave way to Fr. Alistair Doyle (1989-1995). When Fr. Doyle moved to Elgin,
the Parish was run from St Mary's, with Fr. Robert Macdonald (Fr. Bernard's
brother) as Parish Priest, (1995-98) assisted in turn by Fr. Gerry Livingstone
(1995-97) and Fr. Stuart Chalmers (1997-98). Fr. Chalmers moved to Stonehaven
and St. Ninian's joined with Culloden Parish under the care of Father Peter
Barry.