Saturday, June 20-Sarah McConnell

St. Giles

This morning we got a tour of the St. Giles cathedral and it was AMAZING! Built in 1120 as a Catholic church, St. Giles cathedral survived the turbulent period of the reformation and, although most of what is there was not original, it still stands. Currently, St. Giles is a Protestant church and one of the biggest names in Scottish history, John Knox, preached in St. Giles for a long time. John Knox was largely influenced by Martin Luther and helped take Scotland away from Catholicism and toward Protestantism. In St. Giles stands a statue of Knox and it is gorgeous. The stained glass windows are all new—some built as late as 1992. One of the windows was put in in 1985, which I personally was excited about because it is the year of my birth.
The cathedral is free (or donation-only) to tour and wander around and everyone who worked there was incredibly nice. There were a few tombs inside the cathedral which was a little weird to me. Interestingly, these men had, at one point, been sentenced to death for being on the “wrong” side of the leadership. However, with Scotland’s history being as chaotic as it was, sometime after their deaths they were literally pieced together (their bodies had been cut apart and buried around the city) and placed in tombs to rest. One of the men is a beloved Scottish figure and poet/writer and to this day people bring flowers/herbs/cards to lie on his tomb. Today there were a few bouquets of flowers and a card resting on his tomb. We saw the room in which people in Scotland are knighted and each person has a commemorative plaque at a designated seat. Their plaque has an animal and that animal has a corresponding helmet. When each knight dies, their family gets the helmet. Both men and women can currently be knighted and one of their duties is to act as a “body guard” to the Queen. Our guide pointed out that this is a little silly as most people are in their seventies or eighties by the time they are knighted.
St. Giles was the patron saint of animals and around the church there are animal symbols. The pelican, for example, is often seen feeding her babies. This is to symbolize love as the pelican is apparently the best mother a creature can have.

One of the most fascinating stories to me was that of Jenny Geddes. Rumor has it that she, along with many other women, was a passionate support of John Knox (even though we’ve read that John Knox hated women) and the Protestant reformation. A new minister was reading from the Book of Common Prayer and telling the church members that they needed to read from it. Jenny got so angry about this—because she wanted to keep progressing Protestantism—that she yelled at the minister and threw her stool at him.

I asked the tour guide what happened to Jenny Geddes and she replied that she disappeared into time. Furthermore, she stated, it is unlikely that the stool on display in St. Giles is the one she threw as it is too heavy to throw, especially for a woman. Also, some people say it was not Jenny Geddes at all but gave her credit because she has a good Scottish name. The guide explained that so many of the stories are often just stories with small bits of the truth. I loved this answer because it was so realistic and true. Although it is fun to believe that some woman got so furious she chucked a stool at the minister, it is also realistically unlikely that it was that dramatic.

I’m planning on attending services at St. Giles tomorrow morning before we head to Stirling which I hope will be incredible.

Overall, St. Giles was amazing and I loved it!