St. Giles Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is ironic in several ways. First off, I find the idea of a Presbyterian Cathedral, Presbyterians have no bishops, to be almost oxymoronic. But what I really find funny is the stained glass in the Cathedral. John Knox, the leader of the Scottish Reformation and minister of St. Giles, was famous for knocking out stained glass windows from churches, including this one. He felt it was idolatry. He was conflicted by the fact that they conveyed the bible to illiterate Scotsmen. He liked conveying the message but felt it better for them to learn to read the bible for themselves. He fostered education in Scotland and made it, at the beginning of the 18th century, the most literate place in Europe. In another irony, reading fostered the Scottish Enlightenment led by the rationalist David Hume.

Knox preached at St. Giles. There is a stained glass window of his preaching in the cathedral. I don’t think he would have appreciated that tribute. I did not get a printable picture of that window, but I did get a picture of Knox with a window behind him.

We reached the cathedral at the right time, lunchtime. The American Festival Choir made up of members of choirs from Louisiana and Maryland was performing. The sound in the Cathedral was flowing with joy. We are just plain lucky in our timing.

The Cathedral was founded in 1124 by King David I of Scotland. St. Giles is the patron saint of lepers and David’s sister Matilda established an abbey dedicated to the saint. The current building was begun in the 14th century and completed in the 16th. It was a multipurpose building, for a while the seat of the Scottish Parliament, a prison and a Church, partitioned off to serve several parishes. It is the mother church of Presbyterianism. Wikipedia referred to it as “High Church Presbyterian/low church Anglican.”

For me the two striking features of the Cathedral are the organ, built in 1992 and designed to look like a ship’s prow and the Robert Burns stained glass window. It was designed by Icelandic artist Lefur Breidfjord who studied art at Edinburgh University. At the top is a sunburst “Love, blooming like a rose,” an homage to Burns’ poem “O my Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose.” It was installed in 1985.