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Between the 1520s and the 1550s the Roman Catholic authorities in Fife severely punished a number of Protestant sympathisers. No less than four Protestants were burned at the stake in St Andrews. The first and most high profile of these was Patrick…

The 1540s saw fighting between Scotland and England. The conflict was partly driven by the English government’s wish to arrange a marriage between Edward VI and the young Mary Queen of Scots (which is why this period is sometimes called the Rough…

The bishops of St Andrews had for centuries claimed to be the most important churchmen in Scotland. In 1472 their special status was officially recognised by the pope, when the bishopric of St Andrews was raised into an archbishopric. The new…

In the early 1430s a doctor named Pavel Kravar (sometimes known as Paul Craw in Scotland) was burned for heresy in the centre of St Andrews. Kravar was from Bohemia and had tried to gain support in Fife for the Hussite movement, which then had a…

In 1349 the Black Death (probably a severe epidemic of bubonic plague) reached Fife. Churchmen were particularly likely to catch the disease as they often tended to the sick and dying. The communal lifestyles of monasteries also proved ideal for…

Like many religious orders, the Franciscans (or grey friars) grew slightly less strict over time. This concerned some people, and led to the establishing of the Observant Franciscan movement. The Observant Franciscans had unusually strict rules on…

The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw major building projects at many Fife churches. New churches were built and old ones remodelled. The parish churches at St Andrews and Cupar were rebuilt at this time. Late medieval bell towers survive…

During the late Middle Ages universities increasingly took over responsiblity for higher education. In 1410 a group of churchmen established a university in St Andrews (which was already an important place of learning with many scholars attached to…

In the 1360s King David II spent a large amount of money rebuilding the church at St Monans. The king did this because in 1346 he had survived being severely wounded by an arrow in the face at the Battle of Neville’s Cross (where the English defeated…

During the thirteenth century some people felt that monasteries had become too wealthy. In response new religious orders of friars were created. The friars were committed to extreme poverty and earned much of their income from begging. Unlike many…

The origins of the close connection between St Andrew and the people of Scotland go back into the early Middle Ages. However, during the wars between Scotland and England in the 1290s and 1300s a particular emphasis was placed on St Andrew’s role as…

Queen Margaret (the wife of Malcolm III) seems to have been regarded as a saint by the residents of Fife soon after her death in 1093. Miracles were recorded at Margaret’s tomb in Dunfermline in the twelfth and early thirteenth century. Margaret was…

In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council officially declared the Roman Catholic Church’s belief in the doctrine of purgatory. This was the idea that most people did not proceed directly to heaven when they died, but spent time in an unpleasant waiting area…

In the 1160s work began on a grand new cathedral at St Andrews (to replace the smaller church now known as St Rule’s which was then in use). The new cathedral was the largest roofed space constructed in Scotland in the Middle Ages. It took more than…

King David I (one of the sons of Margaret and Malcolm III) supported major changes in the Scottish Church. He increased the number of bishops and gave them oversight of dioceses organised in a similar fashion to Continental Europe. He also backed a…

The late eleventh and early twelfth centuries saw a wish for monks to follow stricter rules. A number of new religious orders such as the Cluniacs and the Cistercians were founded, who led a more austere way of life. The Scottish royal family proved…

Around 1070 King Malcolm III’s wife Margaret (later known as St Margaret of Scotland) brought a group of Benedictine monks to Dunfermline. The Benedictines were the commonest monastic order in Western Europe at that time. Over succeeding years…

By the tenth century St Andrews had become one of the most important churches in the kingdom of the Scots. In 965 the brother of the King of Tara died while on pilgrimage to St Andrews. This incident is the earliest evidence for St Andrews as a place…

In the ninth and tenth centuries a new monastic movement known as the Céli Dé arrived from Ireland. Céli Dé means servants of God and is sometimes spelt as ‘Culdee’ in English. Communities of Céli Dé were established at St Andrews and Loch Leven, as…

Since the sixteenth century there had been no cardinals resident in Scotland. However, in 1969 Gordon Gray, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.

In the late 1960s the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland agreed that women could be ordained as ministers on the same terms as men. The first woman to serve as a Church of Scotland minister in Fife was Mary Morrison, who began her ministry at…

St Andrews was an important religious centre from an early date. There seems to have already been a monastery here in 747 when the death of the abbot Tuathalán was recorded. The spectacular stone monument known as the St Andrews sarcophagus probably…

The seventh and eighth centuries saw increasing conversion of the Picts (who then inhabited Fife and much of Scotland north of the Forth). Missionaries seem to have come from the island of Iona in the west, and from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of…

Silver from the Traprain Law Treasure, East Lothian, Scotland. Bowls of river spoons.

The earliest evidence for Christianity in Fife comes from Christian symbols on carved stones and in caves. Early examples include the carvings on the Skeith Stone (which was found near Kilrenny) and cross markings at Caiplie Caves. These carvings…

Christianity was introduced to Southern Scotland during the Roman occupation of Britain. It is possible that some Christian communities survived the departure of the Romans and the subsequent period of migration and political change.

In May 1930 Dysart House, first built in 1756, was sold to Mrs Elsa af Wetterstedt Mitchell, and a month later she gifted it to the trustees for the Sisters of the Carmelite Community. They established a closed community with room for 24 nuns. The…

Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Dysart, John Thomson, and a large part of the congregation joined the Free Church. Their first church was opened the following year (1844) on the corner of West Quality Street and Fitzroy…

In 1802-03 a new parish church was constructed in Dysart and the congregation moved from St Serf’s in an event known locally as the year of the big flittin. Known as the Barony Church and capable of sitting 1600 people, it was located to the north of…

The Anti-Burgher Congregation in Dysart was formed in 1747. In the early years they met in an old barn before constructing their own church in 1763 at a cost of £100. It was capable of sitting 795. It was located in Pathhead, which, although now in…

A congregation belonging to the Relief Church was founded in Dysart sometime in the 1760s. In 1772 they opened their own church, which later became known as the Auld House, in a former malt barn on Relief Street. It cost £600 and was capable of…

A chapel dedicated to St Denis/Denys, one of the patron saints of France, is thought to have been located at Pan Ha' in Dysart. Writing in 1794, George Muirhead noted the local tradition that the chapel had been part of a Dominican Friary. Cowan and…

The church of St Serf in Dysart first appears in the documentary record in the 1220s, although it is clear that it had existed long before then. In the fifteenth century, it was expanded into a large and impressive structure, including the…

St Serf’s Cave in Dysart has been connected to that important local saint since the early middle ages. Serf had dedications across Western Fife, Kinross and Clackmannanshire, and his relics could be found in Culross. The main source of information on…

The priory of May was founded by David I, sometime around the year 1140. It was dedicated to St Ethernan, and was affiliated to a mother house located at Reading in Berkshire. The monks were initially Cluniacs, followers of a reformed and stricter…

The Isle of May was an important early Christian site which included a chapel and shrine from at least the ninth century, and probably earlier. The chapel, as well as a monastic site at Kilrenny and the Caiplie Caves are connected to two saints,…

The parish church of Cellardyke was constructed in 1882. Two years earlier the arrival of a new minister at the parish church of Kilrenny led to a split in the congregation, with the fisherfolk of Cellardyke joining the Free Church and forming their…

Following the Great Disruption in 1843, the minister of Anstruther Easter, William Ferrie, joined the Free Church, taking around 300 of his congregation with him. They built a small church in 1844 on a site in Hadfoot Wynd. In 1858 a larger,…

The Congregationalist Church in Anstruther was formed in around 1800, following preaching in the town by James Haldane and Joseph Rate in 1798. They met initially at 28 East Green, a weaver's shop owned by a Mr Thaw, known locally as the Tabernacle…

The church was formed following a visit to the town by James Haldane in 1812, and meetings were held thereafter in the building known as the Tabernacle. In 1839 the congregation split into two sects (Baptists and Paedo-Baptists), who shared the…

In 1818 applied to join the In 1820 the Burgher Presbytery of Perth granted a group called the Managers of the Associate Society of Anstruther £20 to construct a church in the Backdykes area of Anstruther Easter. They had between 40 and 50 members…

In 1641 Anstruther Easter was separated from Kilrenny and became the smallest parish by area in Scotland at the time. Construction of a church begun in 1634, and it was ready for use by 1641, with a steeple and bell added in 1644. In a tribute to the…

Anstruther Easter was part of the parish of Kilrenny until 1634, but by the later middle ages it was home to a growing fishing community. At some time in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, a chapel-at-ease was constructed to serve…

The parish church of Anstruther Wester is first documented in 1225 when it was under the patronage of the monks of Isle of May. Dedicated to St Nicholas, patron saint of seafarers, by the later middle ages, the church was a large and complex…

The Caves of Caiplie, or the Coves as they are known locally, are found about 3 miles to the east of Anstruther. They are natural caves carved in the rock face by sea action, which in places have been artificially enlarged. They have been long…

Until the late nineteenth century the people of North Queensferry worshipped in Inverkeithing or Dunfermline. The first parish church was built in the village in 1878, belonging to the Free Church. The congregation joined the United Free Church in…

In 1855 Robert Robertson, a local linen merchant, purchased a former inn and converted it into a Meeting House for the villagers of North Queensferry. The name evolved from Meeting House, to Preaching Station and eventually the Mission Hall. It…

The chapel of St James first enters the documentary record in the early fourteenth century, but it was likely to have been founded sometime in the late twelfth or thirteenth centuries. It was a key station on probably the most important and well used…

In 1913, nearly four centuries after the Protestant Reformation, a Roman Catholic congregation returned to Inverkeithing area with the foundation of the Church of St Peter-in-Chains in Jamestown. The development of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Rosyth…

In the early 1900s a revival moment swept through Fife and led to the formation Inverkeithing’s Baptist Church. A mission was first planted in the town in 1903, and following its success, particularly among quarry workers, a Church was founded in…