113 Edinburgh: St Mary’s RC Cathedral. Grateful Polish exiles.

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This church is for your Roman Catholics, not to be confused with your Anglo-Catholics, innit?  It was opened in 1814 and became a cathedral in 1886, once the structure of Catholic bishops had been re-established (It had been too dangerous to appoint Catholic bishops for a good while after the Scottish reformation). Architecture? Neo-perpendicular!

The church contains “the Scottish national shrine to Saint Andrew”, Scotland’s patron saint, a fisherman, among whose claims to fame is that he was the one who recruited Saint Peter.

There is a very fine John the Baptist statue (though perhaps showing the limits of the locust-and-wild-honey diet). Frescoes above the altar arch – not a habitual place for frescoes - show Mary being crowned by her favourite son. The Stations of the Cross, installed into wooden panelling, are worth a look.

The confessionals supplied with instruction booklets “How to go to confession”, since the practice is less common than it used to be, and gifts to help the church can be made by contactless credit card. The noticeboard provided much of interest : I thought the lectures about famous Catholic writers like Tolkien and C S Lewis were pretty cool, and I was not aware you could do a master’s degree in catholic theology.

On the centenary of Polish independence (so that would be 2018), a plaque was presented “to the Scottish people” in thanks for their welcoming Polish exiles in the previous period. This hangs in the cathedral today.



















































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