The rise of Scotland's first collegiate church

St Mary's Collegiate Church, also known as St Mary on the Rock, was a secular college of priests based on the seaward side of St Andrews Cathedral, just beyond the precinct walls. The church has its origins in Kilrymont monastery and was associated with a group of canons called the Céli Dé, or "Vassals of God." These priests served a side altar in the Cathedral throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Until the foundation of the Augustinian priory in 1140, the Céli Dé and seven clerics known as the personae were the only known clerics of the cathedral. The Céli Dé were headed by an abbot; the only abbot whose name is recorded is Gille Críst, who is noted as feuing out lands in 1172 to 1178, though an unnamed abbot is recorded again in the 1180s. While Bishop Robert intended for the Céli Dé to become Augustinians and bring their property into the new Cathedral Priory, they remained independent, and the priory recognized their holdings as permanent in 1199.

By 1250, the Gaelic-speaking Céli Dé were gradually replaced by clerks and personal dependents of the bishops, most of whom came from France or England. By this time, these French or English-speaking Céli Dé had moved to the church of St Mary and were granted the status and rights of a secular college. This transformation gave St Mary's the honour of being the first collegiate church in the Kingdom of Scotland and the only secular college in the kingdom before the fourteenth century.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons