Page 24 - LOTN Autumn Issue 48 2021

FAITH AND CULTURE

Churches of the

Diocese of Aberdeen

The Church of St

Peter, Aberdeen

Under the aegis of Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti we
continue our series celebrating the rich variety of church
buildings in the Diocese. The Church of St Peter's, Aberdeen,
featured in this issue, was completed in 1804 to serve
the increasing Catholic population of the City and it is Line drawing of St Peter's by John R Hume
interesting to note that the first High Mass in Scotland since
the Reformation was solemnised during the opening of the establishment occupied by the Knights Templars, a fact
Church. The following article is based on the scale drawings presently marked by a plaque on the wall which surrounds
and text of architect Oliver R. Humphries FRIAS and the line the garden related to the Church and house.
drawings of Professor John R. Hume, a talented illustrator, With the increase of the Catholic population in Aberdeen,
historian and architectural expert. a more commodious meeting place was required and so on
the 15th of April 1803 the foundation stone of the church
BY OLIVER R HUMPHRIES FRIAS AND was laid. It was completed in 1804 and was inaugurated
PROFESSOR JOHN R HUME on the 17th of August of that year by the Right Reverend
Bishop Cameron. It is interesting to note that the first High
The Burgh and the Church Mass in Scotland since the Reformation was solemnised
during the opening of the Church.
The site in which the buildings were erected was
No permanent place of Catholic worship existed in discreetly back off Justice Street and is presently sheltered
Aberdeen after the Reformation and for some considerable from the thoroughfare by a large tenemental building.
time services were held by officiating priests discreetly in Access to house and Church is through a pend formed in
private houses and elsewhere throughout the city. this building which fronts the street.
Emboldened by a less rigorous application of the penal In the mediaeval city, the site was a few steps away from
laws, the Catholics of Aberdeen acquired a piece of land the Justice Port, the “Fittie” Port, the Castle and St Ninian’s
at the entrance to Justice Street to the north side of Castle Chapel, all of which have now gone.
Street. Here they built a house as a residence and as a place When originally built in the early nineteenth Century, the
of worship. group of buildings was bounded on the west by Peacocks
The ground floor of the house was arranged as a Close and on the east by Justice Lane and Gardeners Lane.
church and the upper floors became the residential Peacocks Close still exists but Justice Lane and Gardeners
accommodation. The house was to become the residence Lane have been swept away and now form a market stance
of the Vicars Apostolic and the principal centre of the and public car parking area.
Catholic Faith in the north.
Bishop Grant, the Vicar Apostolic for the Lowland District The Church
of Scotland took up residence here in 1774. Coincidentally, As mentioned, access to the group of buildings which
the land acquired was the site of an earlier religious
comprises the Church of St Peter, is through a pend from
Page 24