Abstract
The popularity of the cult of St Thérèse and the founding of the Carfin Grotto were only two of the major developments in Scottish inter-war devotion. Scottish Catholics also adopted and adapted further the growing number of Marian cults by helping to popularise the Legion of Mary, a Catholic Action society founded in Ireland in the 1920s. The Legion would prosper in Scotland, the first enclave of the organisation outside of the Free State, providing an innovative means to venerate the Virgin but also to advance a new devotional culture especially for women in the public sphere in a manner unprecedented to that date. It would be an organisation perfectly suited to inter-war Catholic social teaching in that it was direct challenge to the growth of communism. This chapter has four parts to it. The first part looks at the influence of Marianism on Catholic spirituality. The second part examines the founding of the Legion, first in Ireland in 1922 and then its expansion to Scotland in 1928. As pointed out, Scotland was the first country outside Ireland where the Legion was taken up, and the Archdiocese of Glasgow was the first place in Scotland to have Legion branches or Praesidia. The third part looks at the structure of the Legion and sets out the local, national and international organisation of the Legion of Mary with particular reference to Scotland. The final section examines the fields of activity of the Legion.
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Notes
- 1.
Neuner. J and Dupuis. J The Chrisitian Faith pp. 199–200.
- 2.
The term ‘theotokos’ was established by Pope John II in a letter to the senate of Constantinople in 534. Ibid., p. 201.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Leo XIII, Octobri Mense (1891), in The Christian Faith (Neuner and Dupuis, eds), p. 205.
- 5.
Pius X, Ad Diem Illum (1904), ibid., p. 206.
- 6.
Ibid., p. 206.
- 7.
Ubi Primum, 2 February 1849.
- 8.
Ineffabilis Deus, 8 December 1854.
- 9.
Coppa, The Modern Papacy since 1789, p. 104.
- 10.
Blackbourn, Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Bismarckian Germany, p. 17.
- 11.
Ibid., p. 18.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 17.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 39.
- 15.
The apparition of the Virgin Mary took place at Fatima in Portugal on 3 May 1917. One of the children who witnessed the vision related an alleged warning from Mary to the church and the world of the consequences of the atheism triumphing in Russia. See Davies, Europe: A New History, p. 917.
- 16.
Blackbourn, Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Bismarckian Germany, p. 18.
- 17.
For a comprehensive assessment of Lourdes and it development see Harris, Lourdes.
- 18.
Taylor, ‘The Very Reverend Monsignor Octavius Francis Claeys’, p. 140.
- 19.
See M. Warner, Alone of All Her Sex (London, 1976).
- 20.
McRoberts, ‘Scotland and Our Lady’, pp. 104–17.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 104.
- 22.
The Clunaic Reformation was the basis of the reorganisation of monastic life in Europe. The model of the Benedictine monastery at Cluny in Burgundy inspired it. The Reformation created new communities of monks united under the authority of an abbot rather than single monks living in isolation. See Davies, Europe: A New History, p. 315.
- 23.
McRoberts, ‘Scotland and Our Lady’, p. 104.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Ibid., p. 105.
- 26.
Ibid., p. 107.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Ibid., p. 114.
- 29.
Ibid., pp. 106, 115.
- 30.
James Darragh, ‘David McRoberts, 1912–1979’, The Innes Review30.1 (1979), p. 9.
- 31.
McRoberts, ‘Scotland and Our Lady’, p. 117.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
Blackbourn, Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Bismarckian Germany, p. 16.
- 35.
The Glasgow Observer, 12 October 1937, p. 12.
- 36.
Rev. F. J. Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’, in The Legion in Scotland (Glasgow, 1964, various authors), p. 1.
- 37.
A. McGurnaghan, ‘The Origin and Development of the Legion of Mary in Scotland’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 17.
- 38.
See The Christian Faith (Neuner and Dupuis, eds), p. 358.
- 39.
Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’, pp. 1–2.
- 40.
The Society of Jesus used the same martial iconography and terminology.
- 41.
The Glasgow Observer, 31 December 1935, p. 14.
- 42.
The Glasgow Observer, 27 March 1937, p. 3.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Frank Duff, Miracles on Tap (Dublin, 1961), p. 100.
- 45.
Ibid., p. 95.
- 46.
Ibid., p. 100.
- 47.
Ibid., p. 102.
- 48.
Ibid., pp. 103–21.
- 49.
Ibid., p. 103.
- 50.
See Linda Mahood, The Magdalenes: Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1990).
- 51.
Duff, Miracles on Tap, p. 81.
- 52.
McGurnaghan, ‘The Origin and Development of the Legion of Mary in Scotland’, p. 14.
- 53.
Ibid.
- 54.
Ibid., p. 15.
- 55.
Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’, p. 10.
- 56.
Duff, Miracles on Tap, pp. 283–6.
- 57.
Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’, p. 10.
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Ibid., p. 11.
- 61.
McGurnaghan, ‘The Origin and Development of the Legion of Mary in Scotland’, p. 16.
- 62.
Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’, p. 11.
- 63.
McGurnaghan, ‘The Origin and Development of the Legion of Mary in Scotland’, p. 17.
- 64.
The Glasgow Observer, 15 May 1937, p. 3.
- 65.
McGurnaghan, ‘The Origin and Development of the Legion of Mary in Scotland’, p. 17.
- 66.
The Glasgow Observer, 16 November 1937, p. 3.
- 67.
The Glasgow Observer, 23 December 1937, p. 12.
- 68.
McGurnaghan, ‘The Origin and Development of the Legion of Mary in Scotland’, p. 17.
- 69.
The Glasgow Observer, 15 May 1937, p. 11.
- 70.
Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’,p. 11.
- 71.
Ibid.
- 72.
Ibid.
- 73.
Ibid.
- 74.
Ibid., p. 6.
- 75.
McGurnaghan, ‘The Origin and Development of the Legion of Mary in Scotland’, p. 17.
- 76.
Ibid.
- 77.
Ibid., p. 16.
- 78.
Ibid.
- 79.
Ibid., p. 17.
- 80.
Ibid.
- 81.
Ibid.
- 82.
Ibid.
- 83.
Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’, p. 5.
- 84.
The Glasgow Observer, 27 March 1937, p. 3.
- 85.
Ibid.
- 86.
Seamus O’Sullivan, ‘Home Visitation’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 21.
- 87.
Ibid., p. 18.
- 88.
Ripley, ‘Summary of Addresses and Discussions’, p. 6.
- 89.
O’Sullivan, ‘Home Visitation’, p. 19.
- 90.
Ibid., p. 20.
- 91.
Ibid.
- 92.
S. Gallagher, ‘The Legion Hostel’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 36.
- 93.
Ibid., p. 37.
- 94.
Ibid., p. 33.
- 95.
Ibid., p. 34.
- 96.
The Glasgow Observer, 20 February 1937, p. 9.
- 97.
Ibid.
- 98.
V. Buchanan, ‘Lodging House Visitation’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 40.
- 99.
Ibid., p. 42.
- 100.
Ibid., p. 41.
- 101.
Ibid., p. 42.
- 102.
Ibid.
- 103.
Ibid., p. 43.
- 104.
Ibid., p. 44.
- 105.
The Glasgow Observer, 6 March 1937, p. 3.
- 106.
W. Donachy, ‘The Junior Legion’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 22.
- 107.
Ibid., p. 23.
- 108.
Ibid., p. 24.
- 109.
Ibid., p. 25.
- 110.
Ibid., p. 26.
- 111.
M. Tipping, ‘Peregrinatio Pro Christo: “Adventuring for Christ”’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 48.
- 112.
Ibid., p. 52.
- 113.
Ibid.
- 114.
Ibid.
- 115.
Rev. J. McMahon, ‘A Praesidium in a Seminary’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 30.
- 116.
Rev. Brother Noel, ‘A Praesidium in a Scholasticate’, in The Legion in Scotland, p. 28.
- 117.
Borstals were the precursors of the modern young offenders’ institutions.
- 118.
Noel, ‘A Praesidium in a Scholasticate’, p. 29.
- 119.
Reports from the St Peter’s Praesidia can be found in the SPCM.
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Williamson, C. (2016). Inter-War Marianism and the Legion of Mary. 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_6
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