On the 25th April, a group of S1 pupils went on pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s church that is over 200 years old and is the shrine to a woman who could become Scotland’s next canonised saint. The building is now a Catholic church but it used to be a protestant church before they sold it to the very large Irish catholic community in the area, who at the time required a larger space to hold Mass. It was this Catholic community which began the parish football team which became Hibbs. They faced difficulty in breaking into the football scene at the time due to anti-Catholic and anti-Irish prejudice but quickly went on to win the league. They wore the green hoops before Celtic did!
On arrival we received an introduction from a nice lady named Marion. Afterwards we went to a mini museum which contained information and relics from/about Margaret’s life.
The second activity was a tour of the large church where we were taught the history of the statues and paintings which included ancient paintings of the 14 Stations of the Cross. We were also shown the large altar and learned about reverence and the Real Presence in the Eucharist.
The final indoor activity was watching a presentation that shows how the area around would have looked during Margaret’s lifetime. This was followed by an informative talk about the life and example of Margaret Sinclair given by Mr Hughes. Formerly the head of RE at Turnbull, Mr Hughes is now the education advisor to the Margaret Sinclair committee.
After a quick break and time to write our prayer petitions, Fr Gerrard Hatton offered Mass. Three of our group read for the liturgy of the word and Father gave a homily about Margaret and St Mark. It worked out well that we visited on the feast of St Mark because we study his Gospel in S1 and lots of our learning matched up with what was said. Following Margaret’s example of reverence for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we all knelt at the communion rail to receive Holy Communion. After Mass we returned to the rail to venerate a relic of Venerable Margaret.
Next thing was that we had a lunch break. After that Mr. Hughes took us around to show us the streets and building Margaret grew up, even pointing out the flat her family would have lived in as well as her primary school. We also learned about an anti-Catholic speech given outstide St Giles Kirk on the Royal Mile from which a mob of nearly a thousand set out to burn down St Patrick’s church. Inexplicably, undeterred by the 300 or so Catholic men who intended to defend the church, the mob stopped at the top of the street and turned back. Some consider this to be down to the intercession of Venerable Margaret.
Finally, we were shown a small shop where we could purchase things such as rosaries. After the shop our bus arrived and we headed back to the school.
Ryan and Ben, 1HT
