Church Overview

St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral now occupies the site of the much smaller Chapel of St Mary’s, that was constructed in 1813-1814 by prolific Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham. All that remains today of Graham’s original neo-perpendicular Gothic chapel is its façade. The church was made a pro-Cathedral at the restoration of the Scottish Catholic Hierarchy in 1878, when ‘Edinburgh’ was added to the ancient title of the see of St Andrews that had been vacant for 307 years. In 1886, at the request of Archbishop William Smith, the church was raised to the status of a Metropolitan Cathedral for the new Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, with all the rights and privileges thereof.

After a fire in 1892, at the neighbouring Theatre Royal, the church’s nave arcade was reconstructed by local architect John Biggar, adding aisles on both sides and extending the sanctuary backwards creating three new bays of arches. The chancel, designed by Buchanan & Bennett, was added in 1895, along with a new baptistry and porch that were removed in 1976-77, and the nave was further widened and heightened by the firm of Reid & Forbes in 1932, who also added the beautiful carved pulpit. A new hexagonal baptistry was created in 1976-77 by T Harley Haddow & Partners.

Prominent Scottish architect Reginald Fairlie was responsible for the war memorial added in 1921 and a marble high altar and baldacchino in 1928. As happened in tens of thousands of Roman Catholic churches across the world, the sanctuary of St Mary’s was remodelled following the new doctrines laid down by the reforms of the liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. Among the changes was the dismantling of Fairlie’s altar, some of which was reused to create a podium for the tabernacle. A marble altar, by Robert Rowand Anderson, was relocated to St Mary’s from the former Catholic Apostolic Church in Bellevue, as was the brass lectern.

The wonderful roof is supported by on painted angelic corbels with wings stretched heavenwards, carved by Scott Morton. The mural painting of The Annunciation on the west wall is by Belgian artist Louis Beyaert and was completed in 1932. The carved Stations of the Cross in the south aisle are from the workshop of Franz Mayer of Munich and the Lady Chapel altar is by Robert Lorimer. The adjacent Cathedral hall complex was added in 2005, to provide a new parish centre. It now hosts a popular café, busy bookshop and community meeting space. A magnificent new organ with 3,324 pipes and a moveable second console was installed by Matthew Copley Organ Design in 2007.

The National Shrine of Saint Andrew is also located in the Cathedral. The former Sacred Heart Chapel, to the north of the high altar, was rededicated in 1982 in honour of Scotland’s Patron Saint. The St Andrew’s Altar houses two relics of the saint, in reliquaries designed by artist Betty Koster and cast by bronze founder George Mancini. One of the relics, a large piece of shoulder bone, was gifted to Archbishop John Strain in 1879 by Archbishop Francesco Maiorsini of Amalfi. The bone was taken from the remains of the saint that had been relocated to Amalfi Cathedral following the sack of Constantinople by Crusaders in 1204. The second relic was gifted by Pope Paul VI in 1869 to the newly created Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray, Scotland’s first cardinal in four centuries. Pope John Paul II prayed with Cardinal Gray during his visit to the Shrine in 1982 and in 2004 an icon of St Andrew, painted by Sister Petra Clare, was donated to the Cathedral that now hangs above St Andrew’s Altar.

Visitors will also see, immediately outside the Cathedral, a massive sculpture in three parts called The Manuscript of Monte Cassino by artist Eduardo Paolozzi, donated to the city in 1991 by Sir Tom Farmer, and, on the road island opposite, a statue from 1997 of Sherlock Holmes sculpted by Gerald Ogilvie-Laing, commemorating the birthplace of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the tenement block that formerly stood on this site.

Services

Sundays at 9am, 12pm & 7.30pm – Mon-Fri 10am & 12.45pm – Saturdays at 10am & 6pm (Vigil Mass)

Polish services – Sundays at 10.30am & 6pm – Mon-Fri at 6pm – Saturdays 9am

Holy Days of Obligation at 8am, 11.15am, 12.45pm and 6pm (Polish)

Opening Arrangements

Open 8.30am to 6.30pm Mon-Fri – 8am to 7.30pm on Saturdays and 8.30am to 8.30pm on Sundays

       (Coffee Saints around corner)

Disclaimer

The information about churches in Scotland’s Churches Scheme has been provided by the congregations or taken from the Historic Scotland list and published sources, in particular, the Buildings of Scotland volumes and the RIAS Illustrated Architectural Guides. To contact this specific church please complete the Contact this Church form above. The information is not authoritative; please contact Scotland’s Churches Trust to let us know of any errors or omissions.