by Jim McKendrick

St. Margaret was Queen of Scotland during the 11th century and on her death in 1093, she was buried in Dunfermline Abbey alongside her husband, King Malcolm Canmore. For almost 500 years, her remains lay undisturbed.  Her tomb was destroyed in 1560 during the ransacking of the Abbey, but relics of her body were secreted abroad. They eventually found their way into the possession of King Phillip II of Spain who placed them in the Royal Monastery of the Escurial.

It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that work to arrange for relics of St. Margaret to be returned to Scotland was started. The project was taken up by Bishop James Gillis, then Bishop Apostolic of the Eastern District of Scotland. He initially applied to Rome in 1847 seeking permission to remove the relics from the Escurial in Spain. This permission was only granted during an audience with Pope Pius IX and on the proviso that the Queen of Spain gave her assent.

It had been a lengthy process, but in 1862, after many disappointments, the Bishop returned to Edinburgh with a large relic of the saint, a shoulder bone.  The relic was cared for by the Ursuline sisters of St. Margaret’s Convent for 146 years. On the closure of the convent and school, the relic was returned to Dunfermline on the feast day of St, Margaret, 16 November, 2008.  Finally, the relic had returned home.

Jim McKendrick is a former National President of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Scotland. He worked for many years as a Public Finance consultant to the UK government and the EU. He currently chairs the Louise Project, a Daughters of charity outreach in Govanhill.