Pope Francis is to send a special envoy to Glasgow to mark the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of St John Ogilvie.
The leading Catholic figure is Scotland's only post-reformation canonised martyr in the church. He was hanged at Glasgow Cross on March 10 1615 for celebrating Mass and sacraments with persecuted followers of the faith.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster, has been asked to represent the Pontiff at the celebrations at St Aloysius Church in Glasgow on the evening on March 9.
He is also due to attend a special Mass in St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow the following evening to coincide with St John Ogilvie's feast day.
John, a convert to the Catholic faith from Banffshire was educated on mainland Europe before being ordained a Jesuit priest.
He returned to his native country to serve for a short time.
He was canonised by Blessed Pope Paul VI in 1976 following the miraculous cure of Glasgow man John Fagan from cancer.
Cardinal Murphy O'Connor said: "I feel greatly honoured to be appointed by Pope Francis as a special envoy for the solemn celebration of the 400th centenary of the martyrdom of St John Ogilvie in Glasgow.
"I am particularly happy because I was in Rome for the saint's canonisation in 1976 and took part in the great celebration for the Church in Scotland and indeed, the universal Church.
"I look forward to the events taking place in Glasgow on March 9-10 and to presenting the Holy Father's message to the Church in Scotland and to all those present at the celebrations."
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, who will preside at the anniversary events and has known Cardinal O'Connor since he was a young priest in Rome in the 1970s said: "The Bishops of Scotland intend to celebrate this anniversary both as an event of great joy for the Catholic community in Scotland and as a moment of new hope for all Christians, for all believers and for all people of good will.
"Cardinal Murphy O'Connor's presence and participation as the Papal envoy will add even greater significance and will bring the Successor of Peter closer to us and to the people of Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article