Saint Ninian
The earliest mention of Ninian of Whithorn is in a short passage of "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People" by the Northumbrian monk Bede in c. 731. The 9th-century poem "Miracula Nyniae Episcopi" records some of the miracles attributed to him. A "Life of Saint Ninian" ("Vita Sancti Niniani") was written around 1160 by Ailred of Rievaulx, and in 1639 James Ussher discusses Ninian in his "Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates". These are the sources of information about Ninian of Whithorn, and all provide seemingly innocuous personal details about his life. However, there is no unchallenged historical evidence to support any of their stories, and all sources had political and religious agendas that were served by their accounts of Saint Ninian (discussed below).