Peter Davidson salutes the memory of St John Ogilvy, the only post-Reformation Roman Catholic saint from Scotland, on the four-hundred anniversary of his death.
GLASGOW, 10 MARCH, 1615
Through shadows, from the dark of history,
Out of torn Europe in an evil time,
Alone and not alone, you carried home
Your hidden name, your secret heraldry.
My broken Captain, glorious in your loss,
Beaten in triumph, killed in victory;
Your love could force the great ones of your day
To go in fear of your humility.
What is it like -- this love, this clarity?
It is yet purer than the airs that pass
Over the frozen hills beyond the Spey;
More brilliant than white sunlight on white ice;
It moves as freely to our hearts as fine
Wind from the snowline, like a blade, like Grace.
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