As it’s St Fillan’s 900th anniversary I’m looking at Rev. Rutherford’s children’s address, where he talks about the history of the church, this one is for 23rd April, at the door of the church looking at looking at the Benatura.
As you come down the steps to enter the church there is a small cutting in the wall of the church on the right of the doors.
It is a Benatura – you will need a very big dictionary to find that word (you will even have difficulty on Google). It means stoup or basin and it contained holy water and was probably installed between 1520 and 1550.
You would have stopped before entering, dipped your fingers in the water and sprinkled some on your forehead, and also when you came out. People were very superstitious and believed that by sprinkling holy water, they would be specially blessed and it had magical powers and they would be cleaned.
In the early church people were less superstitious and believed as the Apostle Paul said, “all have sinned and have come short of the gory of God”, they realised they needed to be cleaned before they entered the house of God and they would offer a prayer of repentance.
God has called not the righteous, the good people, but the sinners to repentance.