A new sculpture of St Magnus of Orkney has been unveiled at St Mary’s Church in Inverness.
Bishop Hugh Gilbert performed a dedicated and blessed the sculpture during the Solemnity of the Holy Family service on Sunday.
Belladrum artist and sculptor Leonie Gibbs was commissioned to make the piece following a celebration to mark the 900th anniversary of St Magnus’ martyrdom in 2017.
St Magnus is believed to have been murdered on the island of Egilsay by his own cousin Haakon in the year 1117.
Twenty years after his death he was declared a saint, with several reported miracles associated with him.
In 2017, to mark the 900th anniversary of St Magnus’s martyrdom, bishops and archbishops gathered in Orkney along with pilgrims, bishops, priests and deacons.
Father James Bell, of St Mary’s Church, said: “We from Inverness and the Highland Deanery, which stretches from Aviemore up to Kirkwall, were at the celebration of the martyrdom of St Magnus’ 900th anniversary.
“I was struck by the whole tradition of St Magnus and the wonderful words of George Mackay Brown, the Orcadian poet, and the great poem by Gilbert Marcus.
“It was Marcus who inspired Leonie Gibbs to do Bright Marcus, the sculpture, which is a quotation from the poem.
“I thought we should have a sculpture in the church of one of the martyrs from the Highlands and islands.”
