Carfin and the Little Flower

Williamson, Clifford

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-33347-6_5

Clifford Williamson³

Part of the book series: Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000 ((HISASE))

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Abstract

This chapter has as its aim to examine and explain the significance of the Carfin Grotto founded in 1922 in Lanarkshire. Among many circles there was willingness for the Catholic faith to be more visible, challenging secular ideologies in mobilising the people, and second, to deepen faith through the promotion of a more intense piety. These trends had significance in Scotland not only in presenting tangible examples of Catholic Action, but also as they challenged perceived prejudice in Scottish society towards Catholics. This chapter has three elements. The first part considers the role of Mgr Thomas Nimmo Taylor in founding and shaping the Grotto. The second part considers the role of Scots in the growth of the reputation of St Thérèse of Lisieux – the ‘Little Flower of Jesus’ – and then looks at the influence on Scottish piety of the form of spirituality associated with the saint, the so-called ‘new way’. The third and final section considers the role of continental influences through the clergy on the making of Carfin and in particular the influence of the Very Reverend Monsignor Octavius Francis Claeys, a colleague of Mgr Taylor’s at St Peter’s College and a man who shared much the same spiritual outlook as the Carfin priest and who was instrumental in shaping the character of the Grotto and its devotional make-up. This section expands the discussion on Carfin to allow it to be seen not purely as a local phenomenon but as a manifestation of changing trends in European Catholicism.

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Notes

1.
Conway, Catholic Politics in Europe, p. 18.
2.
T. N. Taylor, ‘The Very Reverend Monsignor Octavius Francis Claeys’, St Peter’s College Magazine [SPCM] 8.31 (1928), p. 138.
3.
St Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame (trans. Thomas Nimmo Taylor) (London, 1926), pp. 402–7.
4.
D. McRoberts, ‘Scotland and Our Lady’, SPCM 21.82 (1954), pp. 108–9 and editorial SPCM 23.90 (1958), p. 54.
5.
For an account of the early development of the Lithuanian Catholic community in the west of Scotland, see E. O’Donnell, ‘To Keep our Fathers’ Faith: Lithuanian Immigrant Religious Aspirations and the Policy of the West of Scotland Clergy, 1889–1914’, The Innes Review49.2 (1998), pp. 168–83.
6.
T. N. Taylor, ‘St Thérèse and Scotland’, SPCM18 (1937), p. 63.
7.
Ibid., p. 63.
8.
S. McGhee, Monsignor Taylor of Carfin (Glasgow, 1972), p. 2.
9.
Ibid., p. 21.
10.
Ibid., p. 42.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Ibid., p. 46.
13.
Ibid., p. 56.
14.
Ibid., Chap. 7, pp. 58–78.
15.
Neuner and Dupuis (eds), The Christian Faith, p. 340.
16.
Ibid., pp. 341–2.
17.
The Glasgow Observer, 10 July 1915, p. 6.
18.
T. N. Taylor, ‘The Carfin Grotto’,SPCM23.90 (1958), p. 93.
19.
Ibid.
20.
St. Francis Xavier (1506–1552) was a Jesuit saint and martyr.
21.
Taylor, ‘The Carfin Grotto’, p. 94.
22.
Ibid., p. 96.
23.
Ibid.
24.
Ibid., p. 97.
25.
For a fuller account of the incident see S. McGhee, ‘Carfin and the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1926’, The Innes Review16.1 (1965), pp. 56–77.
26.
Ibid., p. 61.
27.
Ibid.
28.
Taylor, ‘The Carfin Grotto’, p. 96.
29.
D. Blackbourn, Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Bismarckian Germany (London, 1995), p. 17.
30.
Ubi Primum, 2 February 1849.
31.
Ineffabilis Deus, 8 December 1854.
32.
Coppa, The Modern Papacy since 1789, p. 104.
33.
See Conway, Catholic Politics in Europe.
34.
StThérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame, p. 245.
35.
J. Cusick, ‘Saints of the Jubilee Year’,SPCM8.25 (1925), p. 52.
36.
Ibid., p. 53.
37.
H. Forbes, ‘Omen Novum’, SPCM 16 (1935), p. 63.
38.
St Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame, p. 23.
39.
Taylor, ‘St Thérèse and Scotland’, p. 61.
40.
See St Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame.
41.
Benedict XV, ‘Allocution on the Promulgation of the Decree concerning the virtues of the Venerable Thérèse of the Child Jesus’, in St Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame, p. 256.
42.
Forbes, ‘Omen Novum’, p. 64.
43.
Cusick, ‘Saints of the Jubilee Year’, p. 52.
44.
Ibid.
45.
Ibid.
46.
Many of the examples of the ‘shower of roses’ date from the war years and are recorded in L’Histoire d’une Ame. See pp. 410–14.
47.
St Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame, pp. 256–76.
48.
Pius XI, ‘Vehementer exultamus hodie’, in St Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame, pp. 278–89.
49.
St Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame, p. 211.
50.
Ibid., p. 389.
51.
Ibid., pp. 389–402.
52.
Ibid., p. 392.
53.
Ibid.
54.
Ibid., p. 400.
55.
See Pope Benedict XV, ‘Allocution on the Promulgation of the Decree concerning the virtues of the Venerable Thérèse of the Child Jesus’, pp. 256–67.
56.
Forbes, ‘Omen Novum’, p. 143.
57.
The Holy Bible Revised Standard Version, Gospel of Saint Matthew 18:1–4.
58.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, L’Histoire d’une Ame, p. 257.
59.
Ibid., p. 392.
60.
Taylor, ‘StThérèse and Scotland’, p. 61.
61.
Coppa, The Modern Papacy since 1789, p. 118.
62.
See Chap. 7 on the Newman Association.
63.
See Chap. 8 on Scottish historicism.
64.
The term Ghetto Catholicism has two meanings. In its specifically Scottish context it refers to the creation of a Catholic community separated from the mainstream society by Protestant culture. The second meaning refers to a form of organisation promoted by Catholics to separate themselves from contemporary society and its values in the pursuit of a community defined by its religious culture. The first definition is an externally imposed separation, the second an internally defined structure. For a more comprehensive discussion of the concept of the ‘Catholic Ghetto’ see McLeod, ‘Building the “Catholic Ghetto”’.
65.
The celebration of Catholic culture could be in some respects very political, a direct challenge to liberal culture which sought to relegate religion to the private sphere.
66.
McGhee, ‘Carfin and the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1926’, p. 58.
67.
Ibid., p. 57.
68.
Ibid., p. 56.
69.
Ibid., p. 58.
70.
Taylor, ‘The Very Reverend Monsignor Octavius Francis Claeys’, p. 138.
71.
Ibid.
72.
Ibid.
73.
Ibid., p. 139.
74.
Ibid.
75.
Ibid.
76.
Ibid.
77.
McGhee, ‘Carfin and the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1926’, p. 59.
78.
Taylor, ‘The Very Reverend Monsignor Octavius Francis Claeys’, p. 141.
79.
Susan McGhee, Mgr Taylor’s biographer, makes little reference to this incident in her biography. See McGhee, Monsignor Taylor of Carfin, p. 106.
80.
Taylor, ‘The Very Reverend Monsignor Octavius Francis Claeys’, p. 138.
81.
See M. Conway, ‘Belgium’, in Political Catholicism in Europe (Buchanan and Conway, eds), pp. 187–218.
82.
Taylor, ‘The Very Reverend Monsignor Octavius Francis Claeys’, p. 142.
83.
Ibid.
84.
Ibid., p. 143.

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Clifford Williamson

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Williamson, C. (2016). Carfin and the Little Flower. In: The History of Catholic Intellectual Life in Scotland, 1918–1965. Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-33347-6_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-33347-6_5
Published: 11 June 2016
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-33346-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-33347-6
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