Page 23 - LOTN Spring Issue 49 2022

FAITH AND CULTURE

influence from Canterbury and York. In the twelfth century
this was a politically charged question of immense
importance. David’s support for the church emanated
from his own personal piety, which stemmed from an
almost damascene shift from the wilderness of youth, back
to the foundations of his faith which had been so firmly
Holy StoneS established in childhood.
In the 8th year of his reign, David is mentioned in the
(margin) text of an early unfinished copy of the Latin gospels
known as the Book of Deer. It was written in Aberdeenshire
and contains many entries in Gaelic, which were added at
a later date. It is here that the entry mentioning King David
may be found, and Text III bears the date, written as '8
DAVID I'. The year is 1132.
David built a lasting legacy in Scotland, and in the early

In the fourth part of her series on the "Holy" stones which
mark our faith history in Scotland, Tina Harris examines the
legacy of St David, King of Scotland.
St David, the

reluctant King

on of St Margaret, Queen of Scotland and
Malcolm III, David reluctantly became King of
Scotland in 1124, crowned on the holy Stone
Sof Scone. King David devoted himself to the
improvement of a land that would one day defy
the king of England. He arrived with a whirlwind of
revolutionary ideas, and began creating new burghs
and regional markets, a feudal system of land tenure
to replace the existing system, as well as a revised
judicial system. He also introduced Scottish coinage,
which was one of the chief symbolic acts of kingship A charter granted to the monks of Deer Abbey by King David I
and statehood. of Scotland (From the Book of Deer).

days of his kingship, he visited the Isle of May, in the Firth of
Forth. As a pilgrim, he prayed at the shrine of St Ethernan,
who died in 665, a Pictish martyr and saint.
In the same way as St Ethernan built his tiny rectangular
cell on this island, stone upon stone, nearly three centuries
earlier, David began a restoration project to turn what had
become a popular place of healing and pilgrimage, into a
functioning Priory, which he then filled with Benedictine
The Stone of Scone monks from Reading Abbey. The monks agreed to maintain
However, the introduction of Christianity was the biggest nine priests on the island to pray for the souls of the Kings
of Scotland.
agent for change, as people throughout Scotland began to Then began a mission to set up religious institutions at
become a more unified and outward looking nation. Selkirk and Melrose, and Cistercian abbeys were established
Knights Templar and Hospitallers were introduced into in 1113 and 1128, while in Edinburgh he built Holyrood
Scotland by King David, as well as elements of Gregorian Abbey, as a House for the Canons Regular.
reform. Beginning with the Bishopric of Glasgow he began This is one of the first original stone buildings for religious
diocesan reorganisation, which included moving the purposes in mainland Scotland. Legend has it that in 1127,
Bishopric at Mortlach to Aberdeen and the creation of the while King David was hunting in the forests on the day of
Diocese of Caithness. the Feast of the Cross, he was thrown from his horse. The
king was saved from being attacked by a marauding stag
The goal was to defend Scotland's churches against
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