The Friary was first caught up in the Scottish Reformation in 1558: Reformers stole the statue of Saint Giles from the burgh church and the Greyfriars loaned their statue of the saint for use in the Saint Giles' Day procession on 1 September that year. The statue was damaged when Reformers broke up the procession. When news reached Edinburgh of the advance of the Lords of the Congregation on 28 June 1559, Lord Seton, Provost of Edinburgh, abandoned his commitment to protect the Grey Friars, leaving their Friary to be ransacked by a mob. The friars sheltered among their allies in the city. In the summer of 1560, Scotland's Observantine Franciscans, including all but one or two of the Edinburgh Grey Friars, left the country for the Netherlands: these exiles numbered about eighty friars and were led by the Provincial Minister, John Patrick.