Editing Ninian (section)

===Aelred ({{circa|1160}})===
Leaving aside the stories regarding miracles, in the ''[[Vita Sancti Niniani]]'' [[Aelred of Rievaulx|Aelred]] includes the following incidental information regarding Saint Ninian: that his father was a Christian king; that he was consecrated a bishop in Rome and that he met Saint Martin in Tours; that Saint Martin sent masons with him on his homeward journey, at his request; that these masons built a church of stone, situated on the shore, and that on learning of Saint Martin's death, Ninian dedicated the church to him; that a certain rich and powerful "King Tuduvallus" was converted by him; that he died after having converted the Picts and returned home, being buried in a stone sarcophagus near the altar of his church; and that he had once travelled with his brother, named "Plebia".<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Forbes|1874|pp=1–26}} ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=0K8uAAAAMAAJ&pg=1 The Life of S. Ninian by Ailred]''</ref>

Aelred said that in addition to finding information about Ninian in Bede, he took much additional information for his ''Life of S. Ninian'' from a source written in a "barbarous language"; there is no further information about this text. Aelred wrote his ''Life of S. Ninian'' sometime after spending ten years at the Scottish court and thus had close connections both to the Scottish royal family and to [[Fergus of Galloway]] (who would resurrect the [[Bishop of Galloway|Bishopric of Galloway]]), all of whom would have been pleased to have a manuscript with such a glowing description of a Galwegian and Scottish saint. His work is what Thomas Heffernan refers to as a "sacred biography", probably intended for a politically ambitious audience.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Dowden|1894|pp=23–32}} In ''The Life of St. Ninian''</ref><ref>Thomas Heffernan, ''Sacred Biography: Saints and their Biographers in the Middle Ages,'' Oxford University Press, 1992.</ref>