Singing star Barbara Dickson will lend her support to this year’s St Margaret’s Pilgrimage in Dunfermline.
The West End legend will read one of the lessons during the pilgrimage mass in St Margaret’s RC Church.
She said: “I feel the event is of such importance to Dunfermline and Scotland, both spiritually and culturally.
“I’m a native of the town and I’ve wanted to go for a long time.
“St Margaret is one of the most important women in Scottish history and her influence is still felt.”
Visitors from around Scotland are expected to converge on the town this Sunday for the annual event.
This year’s event, called Pilgrims Together: Celebrating the Legacy of St Margaret, will begin with a joint ecumenical service at Dunfermline Abbey.
It will be led by the Rev MaryAnn Rennie, minister of Dunfermline Abbey Church, and Father Christopher Heenan, parish priest at St Margaret’s RC Church.
Mr Heenan said: “I’m delighted that St Margaret’s pilgrimage will begin with a joint service in the Abbey.
“Margaret is an exceptionally important figure to Dunfermline as well as the whole of Scotland so it is fitting that a celebration of her life is as inclusive as possible.”
Mrs Rennie said: “Margaret was Queen of Scotland as well as a saint and her connections with the Abbey are evident even today.
“Her contribution to life in Scotland is remarkable from her generosity to the poor, her influence on manners and etiquette and her religious devotion.
“I look forward to welcoming everyone to the service and a joyful celebration of this fascinating woman.”
Following the 11am service, guides from Discover Dunfermline Tours will be on hand to take people to visit local sites associated with the saint.
Destinations will include her shrine at the east end of the Abbey, the base of Malcolm’s Tower where Margaret and the royal household lived and St Margaret’s cave, which was her private place for prayer nearly 1,000 years ago.
Lochgelly Brass Band and local pipers will be playing while a procession with the relic of St Margaret makes its way from the Louise Carnegie gates of Pittencrieff Park at 2.15pm towards St Margaret’s Church, where Archbishop Leo Cushley will celebrate mass in at 3pm.
The pilgrimage was originally established in 1899 and was revived by the archbishop in 2015.
Is roots go back to June 1250 when the relics of Saint Margaret were translated to a new shrine in Dunfermline Abbey following her canonisation that year by Pope Innocent IV.
