Lantern procession planned to honour Lossiemouth's St Gerardine
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AN ANNUAL lantern procession will be held in Lossiemouth next week to pay homage the town's patron saint.
Lossiemouth Heritage Association's third St Gerardine's feast day walk will be held on Monday, November 8, after a year's abeyance due to the pandemic.
Irish monk Saint Gerardine established himself as a hermit at Lossiemouth in the 10th Century. His cave became a place of pilgrimage right up to the Reformation and survived into the 19th Century before being quarried out.
Peter Fidgett, chair of Lossiemouth Heritage Association, said: "St Gerardine's cave was more or less where the Station Car Park is now in Lossiemouth.
"The cliff-face used to come right the way up to the river and was quarried out back in the 1800s. He lived in a cave in the side of the cliff.
"He was renowned for lighting a lantern on stormy nights and walking up to the top to guide the fishermen away from the Covesea Skerries and to help them back in.
"We honour him with our symbolic lantern walk, taking the route from where his cave was to the church named after him."
St Gerardine School pupils have been busy making lanterns for the walk, which will set off at 6pm from the Station Car Park after a short speech by Reverend Geoff McKee, minister of St Gerardine's High Church.
The procession will take a route up Hill Street and along Prospect Terrace to St Gerardine's High Church.
Peter is hoping for a break in the rain on the night and added: "We were astounded when we first started this walk as we thought we might get around 20-30 people turning up – but we had about 250 the first year. All the way along Prospect Terrace you could see the glow of the lights. It was quite spectacular."
A competition will be held for the best lantern on the night and refreshments will be provided at the church.
Meanwhile, a free lantern craft session will run this Saturday, November 6, between 1-3pm at St Gerardine Church Hall. Numbers are limited and more information on booking a place can be found here.
