Candida Casa

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Candida Casa was the name given to the church established by St Ninian in Whithorn, Galloway, southern Scotland, in the mid fifth century AD. The name derives from Latin casa (meaning house) and candidus/candida (meaning shining or glittering white), referring possibly to the stone used to construct it, or the whitewash used to paint it.

The church site quickly grew to prominence in the early medieval period, becoming a cathedral and monastery, and remaining a centre for pilgrimage despite the unstable political situation in the region. Whithorn and the area around passed from Brythonic to Northumbrian to Norse control before finally returning to local control by 1100 AD, by which time the area was part of the Kingdom of Scots.

The bishopric of Whithorn was reestablished in 1128, and a new cathedral and adjoining priory were built on the site.

The site fell into disrepair through the Scottish Reformation and beyond, until in 1822 the construction of the current parish church restored the site as a focus of religious worship, as it had been for more than a thousand years from its foundation.