| St Giles: The Dramatic Story Of A Great Church And Its People. - Rosalind K. Marshall. |
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Just as nations, fashions and customs evolve over the years so, too, do churches. Nowhere is this more evident than in the history of the mother kirk of the Presbyterian Church, and nowhere is the tale better told than in St Giles: The Dramatic Story Of A Great Church And Its People by Rosalind K. Marshall.
Nor is the title an exaggeration, for under the pen of one of Scotland’s foremost historical writers the tale is as compulsive as best-selling fiction.
Who exactly was St Giles? Not Scottish, but probably a Greek hermit who healed a sick beggar by giving him his cloak. To escape publicity he fled to the forests of France where he lived alone with his tame deer until discovered by
the local king who founded a monastery and made him abbot.
He became the patron saint of lepers and it was his connection to the dreaded leprosy that was to make him famous. In England there were over 150 churches dedicated to him. In Scotland one other survives in Elgin.
Thought to have been established in 1124 by David I whose older sister, Queen Matilda of England, herself washed the feet of lepers, he was inspired to found a new church on the eastern edge of Edinburgh and dedicate it to the lepers’ special saint, thus creating the parish of St Giles.
The High Kirk of St Giles was in pre-Reformation days very different from what it was soon to become. Walking towards the high altar, people had to weave their way between all the side altars that crowded the nave. By 1560 there were almost 50 of these ornate chantry chapels dedicated to a variety of saints. The Reformation was to sweep them all away.
The author describes vividly how the Church was “purged”, how the services were changed and how the building was partitioned into four separate congregations — East St Giles, Great St Giles to the south, Haddo’s Hole to the north and Tolbooth Kirk to the west.
How these four were gradually changed back into the St Giles we know today was largely due to the vision of William Chambers, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, who in 1867 while sitting in the dark and dingy High Church was seized with the idea to renovate the entire building.
It was a long and frustrating business that needed an act of parliament to sanction the new arrangements. MPs objected to its name, the “St Giles Cathedral Bill” for how could there be a cathedral without a bishop?
However, in due course Chambers’ ambition for St Giles to become Scotland’s Westminster Abbey was marvellously realised. The introduction of stained glass, particularly the stunning window dedicated to Robert Burns, caused another huge controversy which was finally overcome.
Change does not come easily to congregations keen to safeguard their beliefs and traditions. Every addition, partition and alteration reflected the nation’s history and was a struggle. This is the story of generations of priests, ministers, kings, parishioners, benefactors and architects — some famous, like John Knox, or unnamed like the water-wives who in 1560 carried pails of water to the plasterers at three shillings a week.
Expertly researched, this enthralling story is full of touching anecdotes and little-known facts that combine to honour an exceptionally beautiful
and hallowed church. |
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