After the big three, Saints Ninian, Columba and Mungo, Scotland was blessed with many other early saints building on the work of their predecessors and extending the Kingdom of Christ in our land in the centuries that followed. Saints Machar, Maelrubha, Duthac, Magnus, Finan, Donan, Drostan, Blaan, Aidan, Adamnan, Kenneth and many others criss-crossed our country spreading the message of the Gospel and initiating people into the Mass and the Sacraments. The photo typifies the circumstances in which they worked: the difficult terrain, the wide expanses of water which had to be crossed, the local chieftains with whom they had to deal, and last, but not least, our beautiful Scottish weather. I knew one priest who said that it was no wonder that most saints were Italian, Spaniards and French because they had the sun. It’s easy to be a saint when you have good weather all the time! Let us never underestimate the hard slog it must have been for our forebears in the Faith as they set out time and again to bring Christ to the people of their time, to people who had never heard of Him before. Now it is our turn to make Him better known and loved in our time.