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

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

in the city centre of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. 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 or a metropo ...

of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow The Archdiocese of Glasgow ( la, Archidioecesis Glasguensis) is the metropolitan see of the Province of Glasgow in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. The episcopal seat of the developing diocese was established by Saint Kentigern in the 6 ...

. The cathedral, which was designed in 1814 by

James Gillespie Graham James Gillespie Graham (11 June 1776 – 11 March 1855) was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century. Life Graham was born in Dunblane on 11 June 1776. He was the son of Malcolm Gillespie, a solicitor. He was christened as J ...

in the Neo Gothic style, lies on the north bank of the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

in Clyde Street. St Andrew's Cathedral is the seat of the

Archbishop of Glasgow The Archbishop of Glasgow is an archiepiscopal title that takes its name after the city of Glasgow in Scotland. The position and title were abolished by the Church of Scotland in 1689; and, in the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is now part of ...

, 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, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of Scotland,

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Pete ...

History

St Andrews RC Cathedral Glasgow Interior

From the

Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland broke with the Pope, Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Church of Scotland, Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterianism, Presbyterian in ...

of 1560 until the beginning of the

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

process in 1791, with the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1791 – which restored certain civil rights and freedom of worship – Roman 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 was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, there emerged an increasing demand for a Roman 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 and Scots term for a ghost or folkloric being,''The local historian's table book, of r ...

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. Completed in 1816, and designed by

(1776–1855), the church of St. Andrew formally re-introduced the Roman Catholic presence to Glasgow. The continuing hostility to the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland 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 Relief Act of 1791, that were not ultimately repealed until the later Catholic Relief Act of 1829. In the wake of the

Restoration of the Scottish hierarchy The re-establishment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Scotland took effect on 15 March 1878. This followed the restoration of the English hierarchy in 1850. The restoration was carried out on the instructions of Pope Leo XIII and w ...

, undertaken by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-ol ...

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 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 prefecture or apostoli ...

in 1884, and was also extensively renovated at that time by the architects

Pugin and Pugin Pugin & Pugin ( fl. 1851– c. 1958) was a London-based family firm of church architects, founded in the Westminster office of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812–1852). The firm was succeeded by his sons Cuthbert Welby Pugin (1840–1928) ...

. In 1947, with the establishment of the new Dioceses of

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

and Paisley, the Archdiocese of Glasgow recovered the status of metropolitan diocese 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 pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

was originally built in 1903 by

Henry Willis & Sons Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family served as principals of th ...

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

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

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

and the installation of a new canvas by

Peter Howson Peter Howson OBE (born 27 March 1958) is a Scottish painter. He was a British official war artist in 1993 during the Bosnian War. Early life Peter Howson was born in London of Scottish parents and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrs ...

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 raised 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 principal ...

to St Andrew's Cathedral from the temporary

of the Archdiocese of Glasgow at Saint Mary's, Calton. 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–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