INTRODUCTION

150 years of Community are being celebrated in this year of Our Lord 1996 by the members of St. Margaret's Roman Catholic Church in Dunfermline.  But who are the Christians of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Margaret, Dunfermline? To find the answer to this question we have only to look at the REREDOS (carved stone altarpiece - see below) behind the present high altar of the Church.

The reredos depicts four figures who represent symbolically the identity of Scottish Catholic Christians:

• The first is an Irish missionary monk: St. Columba of Iona. The Celtic missionary monks who struggled against overwhelming odds in the Dark Ages to establish the early Church in Scotland are represented by St. Columba.

• The next is a Jew, the Apostle, St. Andrew. The Jewish roots of our Christianity are represented by St. Andrew.  Apostle and martyr, patron saint of Scotland, his relics were brought to St. Andrews by early missionaries from Rome and became a focus for pilgrimage.

• The next is a Hungarian princess who became Queen of Scotland when she married King Malcolm Canmore in the 11th century.  She is St. Margaret.  The universal influence of the Catholic Church in the medieval world, and indeed today, is represented by St. Margaret. By her saintly life and the far-reaching influence of her royal position she established a great Abbey Church and Monastery at the capital city of Scotland - Dunfermline. After her death she was canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1250 and a pilgrimage was instituted in her honour, thus urging the faithful to use her intercession with God for the remission of their sins. Dunfermline's Abbey and her Saint became the Scottish equivalent of Canterbury or Compostella.

• The last is the Scottish missionary, St. Mungo. The heroic Scottish priests who led the people to God by their example are represented by St. Mungo (native of Fife, educated at Culross Abbey, he was guided by St Serf and is said to have had a hermit's cave at Dysart. He became Bishop of Glasgow in the 6th Century).

A Pilgrim People led towards God by the example of apostolic missionaries, monastic teachers, heroic priests and visionary saints - this was the Scottish Catholic Church's identity in the early Renaissance world.

The great schism of the Reformation saw a gap in this long tradition - St. Margaret's Abbey Church was sacked and partially destroyed, the monks and priests were deported, the relics of the saint were scattered and the pilgrimages stopped.