down memory lane
This article appeared in the ‘Solemn Opening’ booklet on the opening day of Saint James the Greater in 1961.
The Twelfth Century
Our separated brethren in Scotland have recently been celebrating (not without some misgivings and heart-searchings) the fourth centenary of the Reformation Parliament of 1560. We who belong to the “auld religion” of Scotland, who share the Faith of Columba and Ninian, of Margaret and David, of Wallace and Bruce, must go much deeper into the past in search of the earliest recorded activities of the Catholic Church in our area. By a happy coincidence the solemn opening of our new Church of St. James in the Monklands comes almost precisely on the eighth centenary of the granting of these lands to the monks of Newbattle Abbey.
This event took place in late 1160 or early 1161, by charter from King Malcolm IV, grandson of David I.
The first half of the twelfth century was a ” Golden Age” for the Church in Western Europe. The Cistercian Order, founded in France in 1098 as an offshoot of the Benedictines, had developed with almost miraculous rapidity. For nearly forty years, till his death in 1153, the great St. Bernard himself was Abbot of the Cistercians at Clairvaux, the trusted adviser of Popes and Emperors, and by his moral and intellectual stature the dominating figure in the Europe of his day. From Rievaulx in York (itself founded by the monks of Clairvaux) King David in 1136 brought the Cistercians to Melrose, whence they made their new foundation at Newbattle in 1140.
The Cistercians
Scotland was to benefit incalculably from the coming of the Cistercians. There is no need to stress the graces that came to the nation from the Masses and prayers, the labours and austerities of the white-robed monks. But even on the material level their work was of immense value in the country’s development. The Cistercian monks were expert farmers and handed on their skills to the people; in addition, they built roads, mined coal, tended the sick, fed the poor and the traveller, buried the dead.
The Cistercians in Monklands
Such were the benefits, spiritual and material, which came to the Monklands in 1160-61 when the Cistercians acquired their lands here, including their “grange at Dumpeldre” (Drumpellier).
The area, at the time of their arrival, was sparsely populated, wild and undeveloped, extensively forested. The monks in time, with the aid of their tenants, transformed it completely. The forests were cut down. A new road was made from Monklands to New-battle. The Cistercians were almost entirely self-supporting and taught the people to live likewise. They constructed their own buildings, made their own clothes, built their own waggons. Thus for four centuries the Cistercians of Newbattle supervised their Monkland territories and probably ministered spiritually to their tenants from their chapel at Kipps.
The monks banished
With the Reformation Parliament of 1560 came disaster. The monks were turned out; to harbour them could bring imprison-ment, confiscation of property and even banishment. The monastic territories in Newbattle and Monkland fell into the hands of a lay commendator, Mark Ker (wrongly styled ” Abbot” since the true Abbot was alive long after Mark Ker obtained the lands in com-mendam). The commendator’s sons in due course obtained legal possession of the lands and so established the family and fortunes of the Marquis of Lothian.
The secular clergy in Monklands
In recalling the achievements of the Cistercians we must not forget, however, that the responsibility for the spiritual well-being of the district resided primarily in the Bishop of the Glasgow Diocese and in the pastors of the parish of Cadder and Monkland.
We have the names—good Scottish names—-such as Douglas, Calderwood, Inglis, Herbertson, etc. of many of the priests who ministered in the Church, which was almost certainly situated in what is now the “old graveyard” in Old Monkland cemetery.
Generations of our Catholic predecessors worshipped in that Church and were buried in that hallowed ground. In their wills they made provision for Masses to be said for the repose of their souls. Thus Sir Archibald Calderwood, Vicar of Cadder, who died on 30th June, 1510, provided in his will that the priests of “the Kirk of Monkland” should pray for him daily in their Masses and should also say “Mass of the Requiem on the morn of my father’s soul, my mother’s soul and myne nane saule.” But with the Reformation came an end of the Mass and of Catholic worship generally in the Monklands, and the church and the burial ground passed into Presbyterian hands.
The faith goes underground
Did the practice of the Faith in the Monklands continue a little longer in secret? Very probably. Certainly we know that for years after the Reformation the Catholics were still in a majority in Scotland and many priests were working “underground.” But as the clergy grew old and died and few new priests came from abroad to take their places, the practice of the Faith, in our area at least, almost entirely disappeared. For years, however, persecution was not relaxed and in the circumstances many subscribed to the new doctrines rather than suffer impoverishment, banish-ment, or even (like Blessed John Ogilvie in 1614) death itself.
Loyalty to the Faith then was no child’s play; as Blessed John himself expressed it, “It’s past laughing when the heid’s aff.”
The blessed John Ogilvie and the Monklands
Incidentally, we of the Monklands have a special interest in the story of the martyr. One of Blessed John’s friends was Sir James Cleland, Laird of Monkland, who may have travelled with Blessed John from London to Edinburgh. Certainly when the latter moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow he sent word to Sir James and in due course travelled to Monklands and there said Mass and administered the Sacraments. After Blessed John’s martyrdom, Sir James and some friends were arrested and accused of the treasonable harbouring of “Mr. John Ogilvie, Jesuit, within their dwelling-houses and hearing of diverse Masses said by him there, contrary to the Acts of Parliament.” But eventually the charges were dropped and Sir James and others did public penance for their “crimes.”
Thereafter, for two centuries, dim memories of the Church in the Monklands remained only in names, in relics and ruins. Names such as High Cross, Priestrigg, Monkland itself, told their own story. A historian in 1793 wrote, concerning the chapel at Kipps,
“this venerable monument of antiquity is now demolished, a more than rustic farmer having lately removed the walls and turned the site of it into a cornfield.” Andrew Miller in his Rise and Progress of Coatbridge (1864) records that “A number of years ago the late sexton of the Parish Church (Old Monkland) whilst digging a grave close to the precincts of the old church, came upon the supposed remains of one of those holy fathers, as a crosier and other symbols of the monastic order (sic) were found lying beside the human relics.”
The second spring
At the beginning of the nineteenth century it must have seemed that the Catholic Church in the Monklands was only a fading memory. Yet in fact a wonderful “Second Spring” was about to begin. Vast changes were taking place in the industrial sphere.
A district that had been described as one large, fertile garden became the centre for thriving new industries. Railways and roads were constructed, mines opened up. Villages of a few thousand souls developed into thriving and populous industrial towns.
Thousands of newcomers came to the Monklands from elsewhere in Scotland and from Ireland. The Irish incomers included many Catholics, fleeing from poverty and persecution. Catholics were not welcomed, but they were tolerated. With their arrival, the Church returned to the Monklands.
The pioneers
Space permits of only a very brief outline of this fascinating story. Holy Mass returned to the Monklands in 1830. From that year, till 1839, a priest from St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow, visited Airdrie once a month, approximately, and offered the Holy Sacrifice in a hired room. On the intervening Sundays local Catholics thought nothing of travelling to St. Andrew’s Cathedral on foot. Their zeal was excelled only by that of their priests.
Their first pastor, Father Daniel Gallagher, who took charge of the new church of St. Margaret’s at Airdrie in 1840, was responsible for a parish covering the greater part of Lanarkshire. So arduous were his labours that his health broke down within a year.
‘The parish of Coatbridge St. Patrick’s was separated from St. Margaret’s in 1845. Its first pastor, Father William Walshe, offered Holy Mass in a carpenter’s shed in Canal Street. In April, 1847, he began arrangements for the building of a church; in July, 1847, after weeks of heroic ministrations to the victims of a typhus epidemic, he himself fell a victim and died at the age of twenty-eight. His successor, Very Rev. Michael Canon O’Keefe (as he was later to be known), took over in August, 1847, his parish of five thousand souls and his territory that stretched from Coatdyke to Parkhead and from Cardown to Carnbroe. Canon O’Keefe lived till 1893 and founded numerous churches and schools throughout the area. St. Mary’s, Whifflet, was opened in 1874; St. Joseph’s, Cardown, in 1875; Our Lady and St. Joseph’s, Glenboig, in 1880; St. Augustine’s, Coatbridge, was founded in 1892, but Canon O’Keefe did not live to see the opening of the new church there in 1899. Similar developments and subdivisions were taking place in the Airdrie district with the opening of new missions at Chapelhall (1859), Longriggend (1879), Meikle Drum-gray (1893), Whiterigg (1897), All Saints’, Coatdyke (1902).
Recent developments
Further increase of the Catholic population of the Monklands and modern housing developments have led to another great era of church-building in our own day, under the zealous leadership of His Lordship Bishop Douglas and his successor, His Lordship Bishop Scanlan. New parishes founded in our area in the post-war period include St. Kevin’s. Bargeddie (1947), Corpus Christi Calderbank (1948), St. Bartholomew’s, Coatbridge (1950), St. Andrew’s, Airdrie (1950), St. Monica’s, Coatbridge (1950).
The founding of St. James’s, Old Monkland
In 1956 His Lordship Bishop Scanlan decided that the time had come to provide a new parish in Old Monkland, that of St. James’s, Kirkshaws. Care of the new charge was given to Rev. Peter McCann, then senior curate at St. John the Baptist’s, Uddingston.
For the first two weeks the parishioners of the new parish shared the premises of St. Monica’s; priests and people of St. James’s wish to put on record their deep gratitude to Rev. Father Kelly, P.P., and his assistant priests at St. Monica’s for all their assistance then and since.
In churches all over the diocese such announcements as this were being read on a particular Sunday in 1956: “To-day is the fifth Sunday after Pentecost. The Banns of Marriage are proclaimed between Margaret Grant, Old Monkland Road, and Bernard Cassidy of Hamilton.” In Kirkshaws there was possibly a shade more of attention and interest on the part of the congre-gation. The new parish had just moved into its own premises, and the above extract is from the announcements at that first Mass, in two classrooms in St. James’s School. Grateful thanks are due to the Education Authority for its consideration then and since in granting the continued use of the school. Our thanks are due also to Rev. Father Craigen, as most of our marriages and funerals thereafter took place in St. Mary’s, Whifflet.
By good fortune, a young Spanish priest, Father Felipe Planas, was on holiday in the neighbourhood in those first few weeks. With his assistance, Father McCann was able to start off with four Masses—-not too many considering the small hall and the growing population, especially of children. Later that summer, from the Eternal City itself came Father Henry Docherty, S.T.L., our first assistant priest, just in time to take over from Father Planas, now due to return to Burgos. The following year the parish welcomed Father Aidan D’Arcy from Ireland. Having moved into the new school assembly hall, we were now able to have the extra Masses (including one in the evening) which the growing parish required.
Parish societies
A very necessary thing in a new parish is the Parochial Committee—-a group of parishioners who assist the priest in pass-keeping duties and organising the usual money-raising functions.
St. James’s has been blessed with a loyal and hard-working parochial Committee. In due time a Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul was founded and the Brothers took over the pass-keeping duties in addition to their primary work of visiting the poor. A Junior Legion of Mary Presidium was also formed whose members still do excellent work in distributing the Catholic newspapers.
With such a population of young people, there was a crying need for some youth activity. Father Docherty organised Scout and Guide Companies in the parish with, of course, Cubs and Brownies. A Youth Club was also established.
St James’s School
Here we must put on record the great debt the parish owes to our Headmistress, Miss Annie T. Graham, F.E.IS., and her most efficient staff. In theory it is possible to prepare children for Confession, Holy Communion, Confirmation, to teach religion, prayers and hymns, and to do all this only through the home and at Sunday school. In theory, yes—-when children are few and from good Catholic homes. However, in the conditions we find today, perhaps few Parish Priests would care to work it out in practice.
Two events in the short history of our parish stand out from all the rest–the cutting of the first sod in May, 1958, and in June of the following year the laying of the foundation stone. Both ceremonies were performed by His Lordship the Bishop of Motherwell, assisted by the neighbouring clergy, and watched by an appreciative gathering of parishioners. On both occasions a choir of school children sang very pleasingly under the direction of the Headmistress.
Shortly before the foundation stone ceremony we lost Father Docherty, who was transferred to St. Patrick’s, Shieldmuir. In his place came Father John W. Boyle from Hamilton. While sorry to lose Father Docherty who had worked so hard for the youth of the parish, we gave a hearty welcome to Father Boyle, who soon became a familiar and accepted figure in the area as he went around on his priestly duties.
Such, briefly, is the story of St. James’s, Kirkshaws. A description of our new church is given elsewhere. It only remains to thank all who have helped in any way to bring it into being or who have contributed to its furnishings; and to remind you, the parishioners, that while there is something very satisfying in the bright newness of our church, it will be still more gratifying to see the passages and kneelers lose their shiny new look under the traffic of many worshippers young and old. For then our church will be truly a House of Prayer. May it also be for all of us the Gate of Heaven.