Catholicism in Edinburgh

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 37, 10 September 1903, Page 30

Catholicism in Edinburgh

In 1801 (writes • Layman,' in the ' Catholic Herald') nine years after the Relief Bill had received the Royal assent, the site of the present St. Mary's Cathedral in Broughton street was purchased, but on account of want of funds it was not possible to finish the church before 1814. Its Gothic architecture, its origin, and an altarpiece by Vandyck, ' The descent from the cross,' showed at a glance that it was of the same family as those sublime creations of the Middle Ages. This church has almost from the first been a lreq.uent ret>oil of Piesbyter;ans, attracted by the music and lectures. It has been enlarged from time to time, as its needs grew with its promotion from church to cathedral, and it possesses .a relic of St. Andrew. St. Mary's was followed in 1835 by a church, also with a fine exterior, in Lothian street. It was many years ago made into a school, but the school was lately removed, and the building is meanwhile unoccupied. The Next Step was Significant. It was the opening of St. Margaret's Convent of Ursuline Nuns, also in 1835, at Whitehouse Loan. The Catholic Emancipation Act was passed a few years before this time, and St. Margaret's was the first convent opened in Scotland after the dark days. It is not far from the site of the ancient chapel of St. Rogue, on the grounds of which, seven years after the battle of Flodden, were gathered the victims of the Black Death, and in whose cemetery those who died of this plague were buried. The nuns of St. Margaret's engage in educational work in visiting the sack and poor. In the convent are relics of St. Crescentia and St. Margaret. The church in Lothian street having about 1836 become too small for the congregation the present St. Patrick's Church in South Gray's Close, Cowgate was acquired. The history of the building is characteristic of the times. It was built by the Episcopalians in 1771, afterwards occupied by dissenters from the Established Church, and next, as we have seen, passed into the possession of the Church which existed before either of these two off-shoots of the Reformation began its life. At the time of the purchase there was over the altar a painting by Runciman, ' The Ascension.' This church rests on ground which formed part of the gardens attached to the house of the Marquis of Tweeddale in Tweeddale Court, High street, and the site adjoins on the Cowgate side lands which belonged in the fifteenth century to Grey friars' Monastery, and on the St. Mary street side the ground of the old chapel and convent from which St. Mary street gets its name. For the priests of St. Patrick's was acquired a house in South Gray's Close formerly the mansion of the Earls of Selkirk, and successively the residence of the Earls of Stirling, the

Earl of Hyndford, and Dr. Rutherford, maternal grandfather of Sir Walter Scott. Scott was a frequent visitor at it when attending the High School, and a view of the house is given in the Abbotsford edition of his works. It became uninhabitable, and gave place to the present house. St. Patrick's Church has been altered in the years 'since 1856, particularly in 1898, and |it is now internally one of the finest in the city. In 1858 the Convent of St. Catharine at Lauriston Gardens was established for the Sisters of Mercy, who teach and visit the poor. It is built on ground said to have been outlying land of the Convent of St. Catharine at Sciennes. About this time Bishop Gilhs invited The Jesuit Fathers to Edinburgh, and it is remarkable that this Order, famous as scholars and teachers, began their work then on ground probably formerly part of the Greyfriars' Monastery, which had a high reputation as a school of divinity and philosophy. It was in Hunter's Close, Grassmarket, in temporary premises capable of accommodating 400 of a congregation that the Jesuit Fathers as a body resumed their labors in Edinburgh, their former appearance as a body oemg when James VII. of Scotland was at Holyrood and they had charge of Holyrood Chapel. On the same day, 31st July, 1859, the foundation stone of the present Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was laid by Father Johnstone, the Provincial. In 1863 the Little Sisters of the Poor made their appearance in Edinburgh. They met with many rebuffs at first as they went from door to door begging for the support of the aged poor for whom they had provided a home, but now their garb is quite familiar to the citizens, and so generally is their humility and the care they take of the old people appreciated that the blackcloaked and hooded Little Sisters are everywhere received with respect and kindness. Their convent, chapel, and home in Gilmore place have been altered more than once, so that more poor might be admitted. The Social Position of the Catholics of Edinburgh has improved vastly. They are no longer composed almost entirely of the laboring class, as was the case 30 or 40 years ago, but belong to nearly all ranks of life. They no longer live principally in the centre of the city, and, therefore, new churches have had to be erected— St. Columba's, Upper Gray street, in 1889 ; St. Cuthbert's, Slateford road, a handsome ecclesiastical structure in 1896 ; and the temporary Church of St. Andrew, Ravelston place, in 1901. During the same period several schools have been opened. In more recent times four convents have been established—for Poor Clares at Libcrton ; for Servants of the Sacred Heart at Liberton ; for Sisters of Charity, at St. John street ; and for Carmelite Nuns, at Trinity.