Someone Else’s Saint: How a Scottish Pilgrimage Led to Nova Scotia 

by Matthew R. Anderson
Pottersfield Press, 2025
222 pages
on Goodreads

Reviewed by Jerald Stroebele | Anchorage, AK

Only a few years ago, I learned Nova Scotia means New Scotland. I’ve never been to New or Old Scotland, but one sunny day I flew north to south over the entirety of Scotland, en route to Madrid. What I could see of it from my airplane window reminded me a lot of where I live in Alaska, and the idea of a pilgrim walk in Scotland quickly appealed to me. Then, I read a Camino memoir where an American pilgrim meets a Scottish pilgrim and they eventually marry; she wants to move back to Europe to be closer to family. “Ok, Scotland, then,” he says. “No, too rainy,” she says, so they move to Spain instead. That threat of rain dampened any desire I had to walk in Scotland. 

That is, until I received Someone Else’s Saint by Matthew R. Anderson. This book coincidentally arrived in the mail as I was visiting my youngest son. We’d work hard each day on a home construction project, and then relax each evening binge-watching old war movies, including some set in medieval Scotland. Plenty of bloodshed, but also lots of stunning scenery (and some rain). 

My interest in Scotland now somewhat renewed, I was eager to read Anderson’s book. In it, he recounts his 146-mile pilgrimage to the cave of St. Ninian in South West Scotland on an established pilgrim route called the Whithorn Way and his three-day pilgrimage to the Cathedral of St. Ninian in Antigonish, the first stone cathedral in Nova Scotia.

As with any good Camino- or pilgrimage-focused memoir, Anderson describes the joys and challenges of walking all day (often in the rain) with his wife and friends, the natural landscapes they struggle through, and the interesting people they meet. He also explores the complex histories of both countries (at times sad, other times bloody, often both).

A professor of religious studies, pilgrimage scholar, and experienced pilgrim, Anderson offers readers a good primer on what pilgrimage is and what it does to and for pilgrims. A serious historian, Anderson also delivers a well-researched, detailed history of the colonization and development of Nova Scotia, as well as the pre-history and history of South West Scotland. Anderson is also empathetic to the invaded, defeated, persecuted, and cheated indigenous Mi’kmaq people; the Acadians and Catholics of eastern Nova Scotia; and the Highland Scots and just plain poor Scots. 

St. Ninian was a Roman Catholic bishop and missionary sent from Britain to southern Scotland around 400 AD to convert the Picts and Scots. He succeeded. Just as Matthew Anderson succeeded in enticing me to want to walk in Scotland, rain or shine.

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