St. Margaret's RC Church - History (Pilgrim People)

St. Margaret's RC Memorial Church

Dunfermline, Fife

The monastic tradition of education and charitable works was re-established in Dunfermline in 1898 when the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul came to the town. They set up residence in St Mary's, Abbey Gardens, a house which is set at the eastern gate of the old Abbey and overlooks the shrine of St Margaret. The nuns' habit, which included an elaborate French starched linen coif (headdress) caused something of a stir among the "more ignorant and bigoted section of the townsfolk" but their good works soon won them the respect and love of all. Two of the sisters were appointed to the school and a "marked increase in the average attendance" was recorded. The first Superior of the Sisters was the saintly and much-loved Sister Magdalene who later became Headmistress. Like St Margaret she was an educated woman of aristocratic stock (Lady Fielding, daughter of the eighth earl of Denbigh) who devoted herself to the poor.

Sister of Charity with schoolchildren from St. Margaret's School 1920

Father Mullan now had an assistant priest to help him serve the Carmelite Convent in Oakley and the Community of Sisters of Charity in Dunfermline. He doubled the school accommodation by adding a second storey to the chapel-school building and at the same time added to the presbytery to provide better accommodation for the clergy.

The time was now ripe for the graces showered upon Dunfermline's Catholics through the intercession of St Margaret to bring forth the sweetest fruit. On 10th June 1899 the first Annual Pilgrimage to Dunfermline in honour of St Margaret took place. Even the newly-built railways were pressed into the service of the Saint. The Victorian pilgrims left Edinburgh by steam train at 9.1Oam. Rosary and Litany of Our Lady were recited during the journey. Pilgrims heard mass at 1Oam in the beautiful new Church of St Margaret. After mass the Veni Creator was sung and there was an address by Monsignor McKerrell. Next there was a solemn procession to St Margaret's cave where the Litany of the Saints was recited and a hymn to St Margaret sung. Another solemn procession took pilgrims to St Margaret's Tomb where they again recited the Rosary and sang 'Faith of our Fathers'. Benediction took place in the Chapel of the Sisters of Charity nearby before pilgrims boarded the train once more at the Lower Station. Another Rosary and Litany were recited on the train. It was truly a pilgrimage in the spirit of those medieval ones but it had taken four long centuries to reinstate it.

Father Mullan's flock continued to increase with the development of the coalfield in the vicinity of Crossgates. In 1902 Father Mullan purchased a hall where Mass could be offered as often as possible. This further increased the workload of the Dunfermline Priests. In 1903 Father Mullan was moved to Edinburgh. He was later to become Monsignor and Vicar-General.

He was succeeded in Dunfermline by Father David Robertson (right). Despite his heavy workload Father Robertson had no curate for a long period. Nevertheless his extraordinary devotion to the sick was long remembered by those who had the privilege to know him. It is said of him that he knew how to be "all things to all men". A non-Catholic, well-known in the town, said of him: "He was awfu' weel respeckit. " He made alterations to the priests' house and incorporated the old presbytery within the school to accommodate the increasing numbers of pupils, 225 by 1910.

His successor was Rev William Mellon (later Bishop of Galloway). He was appointed to Dunfermline in 1916. Two years of the Great War saw the military housed in the school. The children had to be taught in the Church. It was a trying time for both pupils and teachers. Father Mellon, however, was a "true friend and comforter to old and young alike". He was determined to cancel the Parish debt which, with accumulated interest, was now a heavy burden on the people, their circumstances straitened by the deprivations of war. Happily the Fife Education Committee in 1921 became responsible for Catholic Education, and the school buildings were sold to this authority. The substantial sum realised enabled Father Mellon to leave the Mission practically debt free when he was moved to Edinburgh in 1924.

St Margaret's pilgrims had been becoming increasingly international since the turn of the Century with the coming of the first Italian families en route for America via the great Victorian port of Glasgow. Many of these families settled in Scotland. Most of these families established businesses which made them household names with Catholics and Non-Catholics alike. Swiss emigres too who came to work in Dunfermline's thriving silk mills swelled the ranks of St Margaret's devotees.

1930 saw the revival of the Pilgrimages on a grand scale. With the encouragement and support of the Archbishops and Bishops of Scotland and the organisation of the Catholic Truth Society the Pilgrimages became a National event attracting between eight and ten thousand people when held in November but an astonishing twenty thousand when they were held in June. The National Memorial Church could no longer accommodate the pilgrims for Mass and so began the co-operation with Dunfermline Athletic Football Club. Each year, after a colourful procession from the station, High Mass was celebrated in the football ground. Many distinguished preachers addressed the huge congregations, in particular Monsignor John Barry, secretary of the CTS.

Rev Father Maguire (later Bishop Maguire of Ilium and coadjutor Bishop of Dunkeld) succeeded Father Smith-Steinmetz in 1933. Father Maguire became well-known to Catholics and Non-Catholics alike as a member of the staffing Committee of the Education Authority for many years. Church and community were growing ever closer just as they had been in St Margaret's time. Father Maguire had a long association with Fife having served as a curate in Dunfermline and built the church and school at Kelty. In 1934 he determined to extend St Margaret's Church and had plans drawn up by the architect Sir Reginald Fairlie. The extension was ready for use after Easter 1936 and an extension to the school too was carried out to accommodate increasing numbers of Secondary pupils travelling in to Dunfermline from Rosyth, Inverkeithing, Oakley, Steelend and Valleyfield. In September 1936 Father Maguire was moved to Edinburgh.

Father Richard Delaney (later Canon then Monsignor) was formally inducted by His Grace Archbishop MacDonald on St Margaret's Day 1936. Father Delaney (pictured right) was the first Parish Priest formally inducted in Dunfermline, indeed in Scotland, since the Reformation. He set about completing the Church sanctuary by the addition of a marble altar, marble altar rails, flooring and walls. The extension built by his predecessor was, in style and quality, a rather disappointing approximation to the style of the original building. It is to Father Delaney that the sanctuary owes its most distinctive feature. This is the beautiful carved stone Reredos mentioned on Page 1 of this history. The reredos resembles the architecture of a medieval fortified building, perhaps Malcolm Canmore's Tower, and is surmounted by a wooden canopy reminiscent of a portcullis. On it in low relief and two friezes, one of Norman chevrons (like those of Dunfermline Abbey's west door and pillars) and the other of stylised flowers. Between these are two colonnades, one of interlaced arches and one of pilasters between which appear four columnar figures in frontal hieratic poses.

The design was by Huw Lorimer, one of the most distinguished Scottish sculptors of the 20th century. Lorimer was not a man to swim with the tide of individualism which was the dominant philosophy in the Modernist art of his day. He was an inheritor of the Arts and Crafts tradition and a devout convert to Catholicism. His most famous work is the gigantic open-air sculpture, "Our Lady of the Isles" on South Uist, executed in the mid-fifties. Originally from Edinburgh, he lived and worked at Kellie Castle in Fife till his death in 1993. On the little prayercard requesting prayers for the repose of his life is inscribed a quotation which conveys Lorimer's philosophy of art and life:

"I believe that in the humblest way we are collaborators on earth in God's continuing Act of Creation and that is the role of the artist in society."

The reredos which Lorimer designed and particularly the figures which he sculpted upon it are a testament to his deep appreciation of the Faith he had embraced. The figures have a deeply devotional, medieval feel, reminiscent of the column figures flanking the portals of Chartres or Notre Dame de Paris. These are intended to preach a pictorial sermon. Each saint is easily recognised by his or her symbol or dress. St Columba wears a monk's habit and carries a book, the symbol of the missionary teacher. His hand is raised in blessing. St Andrew carries the symbol of his martyrdom, a saltire, the cross on which he was crucified. St Mungo wears a priest's cope and carries a book and a bell, symbols of his priestly power to preach and to forgive sins. St Margaret wears a crown and carries before her in a circular glory or halo-shape (created cleverly by the sculptor's positioning of her hands and cloak) the cross of Christ. She seems to show it forth and at the same time to protect it with a tenderness which is moving. These symbols show her royal power and the saintly use she made of it.

What more fitting focal point could the Church of St Margaret have? Patrons who made possible the extension and its furbishment were Mr John Goodall, a local businessman who bequeathed £1,500 and Miss Honora McGuigan who donated £1,000. By 1946 the anonymous author of "The Faith in Dunfermline", a short history of the Parish written to celebrate the centenary of the Parish and the golden jubilee of the building of the Church, wrote with satisfaction:

"We are very happy to put on record that now the church and parish have been completely cleared of debt, and for this congratulations are due to the good and generous Catholics of Dunfermline who have almost solely borne the heavy burden since the National appeal in 1890."

The period 1924 till 1933 saw a rapid succession of priests in charge of St Margaret's: Father Samuel France till 1926; Father Allan Gray till 1929; and Father Smith-Steinmetz till 1933. In 1920 Saline and Steelend were attached to Dunfermline and because of this another curate was appointed.

Parish Pastoral Council