Scotland: Landmark cathedral marks 200 years

St Andrew's Cathedral Glasgow - Wiki image

One of Scotland's most famous churches marks its 200th birthday this week. St Andrew's Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic community throughout west central Scotland. The first Mass was celebrated in the Cathedral on December 22, 1816 and 200 years on, the current Archbishop, Philip Tartaglia will offer Mass to mark the anniversary on St Andrew's Day.

Originally built as 'St Andrew's Chapel' to serve the growing numbers of highland Catholics coming to Glasgow during the Industrial Revolution, the church was a welcome sight and comforting presence decades later as hundreds of thousands of Irish people disembarked on the banks of the Clyde, fleeing from the Irish Famine. In 1878 the church was elevated to cathedral status when Pope Leo XIII restored the Scottish hierarchy, naming an Englishman, Charles Eyre, as the first Archbishop of the newly restored Archdiocese of Glasgow.

The Cathedral was successfully restored and the adjoining Cloister Garden built in 2011 under the guidance of Archbishop Mario Conti, and today it is one of Glasgow's most visited landmarks. It continues to serve as a busy city centre parish with daily confessions and Masses.

In a letter to mark the anniversary Archbishop Philip Tartaglia wrote: "Fittingly for a great Metropolitan Cathedral, St Andrew's draws its congregations from
Glasgow, from Scotland, and from the nations of the world, but, in a typically Glasgow way, still creates a sense of family and community at the liturgies which are celebrated here. I love celebrating Mass in our Cathedral and am very honoured to do so as Archbishop, not least because of the wonderful catholicity and diversity of the people who come to worship in St Andrew's."

The full text of the Archbishop's letter follows:

"This day was made by the Lord; we rejoice and are glad" (Ps 117: 24). We rejoice to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of St Andrew's Church which was to become the Cathedral Church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow. We rejoice because today is the Feast of St Andrew called by Jesus along with his brother Peter to follow him (cf. Mt 4:19) and become one of his Twelve Apostles. We rejoice because St Andrew, in whose honour this Cathedral is named, is the Patron Saint of Scotland.

This is undoubtedly an historic occasion. It has been said that St Andrew's Cathedral symbolises at once the survival - after very difficult times - and the
revival of the Catholic faith in Glasgow and the surrounding area. We bless God today for these blessings and graces, and we ask him to give his Church succour, increase and growth in our times too.

St Andrew's was always a Church and a Cathedral for the people. It was built to accommodate a growing Catholic population in Glasgow and to serve the men and women and families who came south from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It was subsequently the spiritual home for a mighty influx of immigrants to Glasgow and the West of Scotland from Ireland who had come to find work and to benefit from the opportunities of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. These early generations of parishioners of St Andrew's would be the core of the new Catholic community of Glasgow which would welcome ever more immigrant communities to its number in the subsequent decades right up to the present day.

St Andrew's Cathedral, Iocated very near the city centre on the north bank of the River Clyde, could hardly be better placed to serve Glasgow and, as such, is still a Cathedral for the people. Its parishioners may be few in the traditional sense but they are faithful and engaged in making the Cathedral a spiritual and liturgical hub. Fittingly for a great Metropolitan Cathedral, St Andrew's draws its congregations from Glasgow, from Scotland, and from the nations of the world, but, in a typically Glasgow way, still creates a sense of family and community at the liturgies which are celebrated here. I love celebrating Mass in our Cathedral and am very honoured to do so as Archbishop, not least because of the wonderful catholicity and diversity of the people who come to worship in St Andrew's.

By common consent, our Cathedral is beautiful, and I am grateful to my immediate predecessor, Archbishop Mario Conti, for his vision and energy in undertaking a much needed renewal and restoration of the Cathedral, enhancing its prayerfulness and sense of the sacred. We are justifiably proud of St Andrew's Cathedral. "Restored and renewed, it is a source of pride still" (Archbishop Mario Conti). So today we thank God for St Andrew's Cathedral and for this historic 200th anniversary. As a Cathedral, St Andrew's has the status of being the Seat of the Archbishop of Glasgow, the principal church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and of the Metropolitan area. But above all, it is the House of God and a Cathedral for his people.

Source: SCMO

Visit St Andrew's Cathedral website here: www.cathedralG1.org/