Saints and Apostles

The line of saints with Christ in the centre, now framed and mounted on the east wall, is thought to have come from the balcony of the rood loft. Originally they must have been more in number, for they had to extend most of the way across the church. Comparison with the altar-piece suggests that the same artist, or artists, may have been involved: their robes are similar, and St. Peter, in particular, has been observed as bearing a resemblance to John the Baptist.

Each of the saints has an ’identifier’. Peter wields the key of Heaven; John is in the act of purifying the poisoned chalice; Thomas rests his carpenter’s square on his shoulder. Saints Catherine, Matthias, Simon and James the Less all display – with admirably calm demeanour - the gruesome instruments of their martyrdom: a wheel, a spear, a saw and a fuller’s club (used for ‘beetling’, or shrinking, cloth). One figure has been truncated but is thought to be St. Paul.

Two of the characters are distinctively dressed. St. Anthony wears monkish robes and is accompanied by his pet pig, which befriended him in the Egyptian desert. The other figure is endowed with the full panoply of a bishop - vestments, mitre, pastoral staff and jewelled glove – and the border of his robe bears the arms of Gray. The manacles on this figure’s wrist might identify him as St. Ninian, who broke the ‘restraining bonds’ of paganism; but could this commanding figure not be St. Marnock himself, patron saint of Fowlis Church and missionary-bishop to the northern Picts?

The central figure in the row is unquestionably Christ, sensitively portrayed and marked out by the rich damask of his garments, the fleur-de-lis on his halo, the tiled floor beneath his feet, his toes curling round the orb of the world and the open book in his hand. Books are important in this church - viz. the Fowlis Breviary; the saints clutching their gospels; Mary turning from her Bible to hear the words of the Angel – but Christ is the only one who presents us with the open page and displays, in black and white, the Word of God.