The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew or Glasgow Metropolitan Cathedral is a

Latin Catholic The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 ''sui iuris'' churches in full communion w ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

in the city centre of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of the Archdiocese of Glasgow. The cathedral, which was designed in 1814 by James Gillespie Graham in the

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style, lies on the north bank of the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

in Clyde Street. St Andrew's Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Glasgow, currently William Nolan. It is dedicated to the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of Scotland,

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Church stems from the Gospel of Jo ...

History

St Andrews RC Cathedral Glasgow Interior

From the

Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process whereby Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church, and established the Protestant Church of Scotland. It forms part of the wider European 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Fr ...

of 1560 until the beginning of the Catholic Emancipation process in 1791, with the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 ( 31 Geo. 3. c. 32) – which restored certain civil rights and freedom of worship – Catholics in Glasgow had to worship covertly. By the end of the 18th century, particularly with the influx of Irish Catholic immigrants to Glasgow during the nascent stages of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

, there emerged an increasing demand for a Catholic church in the city. In 1805 there were approximately 450 Catholics in the city, but by 1814 the number of recorded communicants in the city had increased to 3,000, and in that year the decision was taken by the Rev. Andrew Scott to build a new church in Clyde Street. The lands upon which the church was built had been purchased from the owners of the firm of

Bogle A bogle, boggle, or bogill is a Northumbrian,''Rambles in Northumberland, and on the Scottish border ...'' by William Andrew Chatto, Chapman and Hall, 1835 Cumbrian and Scots term for a ghost or folkloric being,''The local historian's tabl ...

and Scott which had previously traded from that site as part of Glasgow's tobacco and sugar trade with America and the West Indies. The families of Bogle and Scott, mostly Presbyterian and Episcopalian, were prominent names in Glasgow who owned numerous estates around the city and often held leading municipal offices, such as George Bogle of Daldowie, Lord Rector of the university. Designed by James Gillespie Graham (1776–1855) in 1814, the church of St. Andrew was completed in 1917 and formally re-introduced the Catholic presence to Glasgow. The continuing hostility against the

Catholic Church in Scotland The Catholic Church in Scotland, overseen by the Scottish Bishops' Conference, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church headed by the Pope. Christianity first arrived in Roman Britain and was strengthened by the conversion of the Picts thr ...

was evident during the construction of the church: work completed during the day was torn down by saboteurs at night, delaying completion and eventually guards had to be placed on the building site to protect the construction works. However, congregations of other Christian denominations in the city donated money for the completion of the project in a gesture of ecumenism in light of the difficulties faced in construction. The church building is relatively modest in scale, without a steeple or bell tower. This was due primarily to continuing restrictions on the prominence of Catholic places of worship under the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 ( 31 Geo. 3. c. 32), that were not ultimately repealed until the later

Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 ( 10 Geo. 4. c. 7), also known as the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that removed the sacramental tests that barred Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom f ...

. In the wake of the Restoration of the Scottish hierarchy, undertaken by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

in 1878, the church of St Andrew was eventually raised to the status of

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish Church (building), church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefect ...

in 1884, and was also extensively renovated at that time by the architects Pugin and Pugin. In 1947, with the establishment of the new Dioceses of

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and Paisley, the Archdiocese of Glasgow recovered the status of

metropolitan diocese A metropolis, metropolitanate or metropolitan diocese is an episcopal see whose bishop is the metropolitan bishop or archbishop of an ecclesiastical province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces. Eastern Ortho ...

which it had had before the Reformation and St Andrew's became a metropolitan cathedral.

Organ

The cathedral's

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

was originally built in 1903 by Henry Willis & Sons for the former Elgin Place Congregational Church at the corner of Pitt Street and Bath Street, and was reinstalled at St Andrew's Cathedral in 1981, when the church closed for worship. The specification is as follows: Pedals Open Diapason (Mirrlees) 32 Open Diapason 16 Bourdon 16 Octave 8 Flute Bass 8 Choir Hohl Flute 8 Gamba 8 Dulciana 8 Flute Harmonique 4 Piccolo 2 Corno Di Bassetto 8 Great Organ Double Diapason 16 Open Diapason No.1 8 Open Diapason No.2 8 Clarabel Flute 8 Principal 4 Harmonic Flute 4 Fifteenth 2 Mixture 3rks Trumpet 8 Clarion 4 Swell Organ Lieblich Bourdon 16 Open Diapason 8 Lieblich Gedact 8 Salicional 8 Vox Angelica 8 Gemshorn 4 Flageolet 2 Hautboy 8 Cornopean 8 Clarion 4 Couplers Swell to Pedal Choir to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Choir Swell Octave to Great Swell to Great As part of the cathedral renovation in 2009/2010 the organ was dismantled and placed in storage by David Wells (Organ Builders Ltd) Liverpool. There is currently an Allen Protégé AP-6 electronic organ in use. There is an organ restoration fund to reinstall the Willis.

St Andrew's Parish

St Andrew's Parish traces its origins to the reappointment of a

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

for Glasgow in 1792. That year, two hundred people came to the opening Mass in a rented hall in Mitchell Street. Five years later, new premises in the Calton area of the East End provided for 600 people each Sunday until the celebration of the first Mass in the new Church of St Andrew at Clyde Street on 22 December 1816. Since then, the opening of new parishes and the redevelopment of the city centre have depleted the population of the cathedral parish, but the remaining small community of parishioners is augmented by numbers from elsewhere, some of whom travel considerable distances to assist with the celebration of the liturgy and the care of the fabric. Shoppers, workers, students, tourists and passers-by also regularly visit the cathedral – for quiet prayer, for Mass, or for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There are also major liturgies celebrated frequently by the archbishop, which attract worshippers from parishes throughout the archdiocese.

Renovation

A major restoration project began on 14 August 2009 as the cathedral had long been in need of major refurbishment and expansion. The programme of renovation included the completion of new heating and lighting systems as well as redecoration and

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restoration, installation of newly commissioned bronze doors, the repair and reinstatement of the

and the installation of a new canvas by Peter Howson depicting the martyrdom of St John Ogilvie. The work was completed in April 2011, and saw the return of the

cathedra A ''cathedra'' is the throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term ''cathedral'' became synonymous with the "seat", or principa ...

to St Andrew's Cathedral from the temporary

of the Archdiocese of Glasgow at

Saint Mary's, Calton Saint Mary's is a Catholic church in Calton, Glasgow, Calton, Glasgow, Scotland. It is the second oldest church in the Archdiocese of Glasgow and acted as the Pro-Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow from 14 August 2009 to Apr ...

. The cathedral re-opened officially on 11 April 2011.

Clergy

* Rt. Rev. Mgr. Alexander Munro (1867–1892) * Rev. James Mackintosh (1893–1900) * Rev. James McCarthy (1900–1914) * Rev. George Ritchie (1914–1923) * Rev. James Mullin (1923–1925) * Rt. Rev. Mgr. William Canon Daly (1925–1947) * Very Rev. Joseph Canon Daniel (1947–1965) * Rev. Denis Meechan (1965–1967) * Rev. John McGuckin (1967–1980) * Very Rev. John Canon Brannan (1980–1983) * Rt. Rev. Mgr. Hugh N. Canon Boyle (1983–?) * ----------- * Rt. Rev. Mgr. Christopher McElroy (?–2017) * Very Rev. Gerald Canon Sharkey (2017–2022) * Very Rev. Andrew Canon McKenzie (2022–2024) * Very Rev. David J. Canon Wallace (2024–present)

References

External links

Official Website of the RC Cathedral of Glasgow

- Contains historical extracts, engravings and drawings of the cathedral.
Friends of Glasgow Necropolis - Michael Scott and James Bogle
- notes about Bogle and Scott office and warehouse on site of current Cathedral. {{DEFAULTSORT:Glasgow, Saint Andrew Roman Catholic churches completed in 1816 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom

Roman Catholic cathedrals in Scotland

Listed cathedrals in Scotland James Gillespie Graham buildings 1816 establishments in Scotland Listed churches in Glasgow