Someone Else's Saint

How a Scottish Pilgrimage Led to Nova Scotia

Matthew R Anderson (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

222 Seiten

2025
Pottersfield Press (Verlag)
9781990770692 (ISBN)

Titel nicht im Sortiment

Artikel merken

Someone Else's Saint is the story of a path that started in Scotland and led to Nova Scotia, chasing a mysterious Celtic saint who slips in and out of history's shadows. The book is filled with dark castles, crannogs and plaster holes, Mi'kmaq, Acadians, and Gaels, hagiography and hypothermia, deep-fried haddock and hauntings.

Second Place Winner of the Pottersfield Prize for Creative Nonfiction. The Whithorn Way is a 1,600-year-old pilgrimage route from the city of Glasgow to the shrine of St. Ninian - a mysterious Celtic saint whose lonely cave still looks out over the waves toward England, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man. When the path was recently revived, pilgrimage scholar Dr Matthew Anderson gathered the first group of Canadians to walk it.

Three years later, Matthew and his wife Dr Sara Parks moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, only to discover that they were once again following Ninian - the cathedral at St Francis Xavier University somewhat unusually bears his name. Thus began a search for the origins of this half-legendary figure on both sides of the Atlantic, turning up little-known histories of Gaels, Picts, Acadians, and Mi'kmaq, and resulting in a new East Coast Canadian Walk that Anderson came to call the Nova Scotia Ninian Way.

In alternating chapters, travel through the wild Scottish Lowlands and along the salty Northumberland shore. Meet the locals and the come-from-aways, hearing stories of shipwrecks and shortcuts. Find a place to dry your boots with a pint in hand and bright company in landscapes that have seen murder and oppression as well as hope and reconciliation. Visit teashops looking out over smugglers' islands and ceilidhs in Acadian halls, where old-timers speak of priests falling through ice, hunters disappearing down gypsum holes, and bishops mistaken for pirates. Slog through downpours and stinging nettle in the never-ending moors and walk past decaying mid-century theme parks and political bypasses.

The "slow travel" of a pilgrimage on foot reveals two lands linked not only by Ninian, but also by common struggles. Someone Else's Saint is a thoughtful, funny, and perceptive travelogue for lovers of walking - or reading.

Originally from Saskatchewan (Treaty Four territory) and arriving in Nova Scotia via Montreal, England, and Ireland, Matthew R. Anderson is Gatto Chair of Christian Studies at Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He has walked ancient pilgrimage paths and inaugurated new ones in Spain, Austria, Norway, Scotland, England, Ireland, Iceland, Quebec, western Canada, and the Maritimes. He teaches, researches, and writes about history and pilgrimage. His 2024 bestseller, The Good Walk, tells of the long treks he initiated with others across the prairies to help recover traditional First Nation, Métis, and settler trails. Matthew's podcast is "Pilgrimage Stories from Up and Down the Staircase" and his walking blog is www.somethinggrand.ca. Matthew lives with his wife Dr. Sara Parks in Pomquet, Nova Scotia. Someone Else's Saint is his sixth book.