Celebrating St Columba’s historic anniversary on the Inverness site of Old High Church where the meeting with Pictish King Brude was said to have taken place
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A small group has marked the anniversary of the historic meeting of St Columba with the Pictish King Brude at the site where it was said to have taken place.
The original meeting is reputed to have taken place in Inverness city centre, resulting in the pagan king’s conversion to Christianity in 565AD.
Last Wednesday’s gathering, on the small knoll known as St Michael’s Mount, marked the saint’s feast day and the 1500th anniversary of his birth.
The site has been for centuries the stance of the city’s historic Old High Church and is arguably the cradle of Christianity in the north of Scotland as a constant site of worship since the saint’s arrival.
The short ceremony was organised by Deacon Dot Getliffe and kirk elder Jim Alexander and included a brief account of St Columba’s life and work read by Mr Alexander as well as prayers and hymns.
Its highlight was a humorous pageant enacted by the pair, which recalled an initially somewhat strained meeting between St Columba and Brude at the site.
In the “re-enactment” the latter was apparently so overawed by the saint’s miracles that he willingly agreed to convert to the Christian faith.
Ms Getliffe, a former drama teacher, initially accepted a post as outreach worker with the church but has been leading the joint congregation of Old High and its sister church St Stephen’s since its last minister, the Rev Peter Nimmo, accepted a call to a charge in Cambuslang, near Glasgow.
An event spokesman said: “After Columba departed, some of his followers founded a monastic cell, followed across the centuries by more elaborate structures.
“A substantial building, referred to as the Church of St Mary, was completed in 1171.
“The site has, across the centuries, successively been occupied by Columban, Roman Catholic, early Protestant Episcopalian and finally Presbyterian denominations.”
St Columba was born into an influential Irish family around December 7, 521 and died in Ireland on June 9, 597, the date which has since been celebrated as his feast day.
