Someone Else's Saint

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.