Scotus College was a seminary in Bearsden, Glasgow. It was founded in 1985 under the name of Chesters College and in 1993 was reconstituted as Scotus College. It was then the only remaining Roman Catholic seminary in Scotland.
Its closure was announced in April 2009. [1]
In February 1980, the Archdiocese of Glasgow transferred its seminary from St Peter's Seminary, Cardross, because of maintenance difficulties, to the site of a former convent of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Newlands, Glasgow. It was also the site of the St Mungo centre, an ecumenical organisation. [2] St Peter's College, Newlands remained there for four years, until November 1984 when it was closed and the students transferred to Bearsden. [3] [4] The old convent was renamed Merrylee House and later demolished to make space for a housing development. [5]
The college site was purchased by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1984 and opened in 1985 under the name of Chesters College. With the closure of Blairs College in 1986, it was to train men for the priesthood from all of the Scottish dioceses, except the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
On 4 October 1993 it reopened as a seminary, or training college for the priesthood for all the dioceses, [4] under the patronage of the Blessed John Duns Scotus, a philosopher-theologian of the High Middle Ages. [6] In that role it replaced Gillis College, the seminary of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, which closed as Scotus College was opening, making the college at Bearsden the National Seminary for Scotland. [7] Thanks to its dedication, the college took the new name of "Scotus College". [8] Scotus College was affiliated to Maynooth Pontifical University who accredited Diplomas and Degrees for Scotus College. [9]
In November 2002, a provisional decision was made to close the seminary by the Bishops' Conference of Scotland, but this was reversed shortly afterwards. [10] In April 2009, it was announced that the college, the last Roman Catholic seminary in Scotland, would close because of a lack of students studying for the priesthood. The remaining nine students were transferred to The Pontifical Scots College in Rome. [11]
The college site was put up for sale in 2009. In 2012, applications to demolish the buildings and build 28 homes on the site failed because it is in a conservation area. [12] In August 2013, Westpoint Homes, a Glasgow building company, finished converting the site into housing. The chapel was demolished and replaced with apartments. [13]
St Patrick's College, Maynooth, is the "National Seminary for Ireland", and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, 24 km (15 mi) from Dublin, Ireland.
A pontifical university is an ecclesiastical university established or approved directly by the Holy See, composed of three main ecclesiastical faculties and at least one other faculty. These academic institutes deal specifically with Christian revelation and related disciplines, and the Church's mission of spreading the Gospel, as proclaimed in the apostolic constitution Sapientiachristiana. As of 2018, they are governed by the apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium issued by Pope Francis on 8 December 2017.
The Scots College in Rome is the main seminary for the training of men for the priesthood from the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland.
Thomas Joseph Winning DCL LLD was a Scottish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Glasgow from 1974 and President of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland from 1985 until his death. Winning was elevated to the cardinalate in 1994.
Partickhill is a district of the city of Glasgow. Located to the north of Partick, south of Hyndland and west of Dowanhill, it contains mixed housing stock of tenemental type property and villa style houses, as well as some terraced homes.
Martin Drennan is the former Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Kilfenora. Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 29 July 2016.
Gordon Joseph Gray was a Scottish cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh from 1951 to 1985, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969. He was the first resident Scottish cardinal since the Restoration of the Scottish hierarchy in 1878 and the first since the Reformation.
St. Peter's Seminary is a former Roman Catholic seminary near Cardross, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Designed by the firm of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, it has been described by the international architecture conservation organisation DOCOMOMO as a modern "building of world significance". It is one of only 42 post-war buildings in Scotland to be listed at Category A, the highest level of protection for a building of "special architectural or historic interest". It has been abandoned since 1987, and is currently in a ruinous state. In July 2020, the site was gifted to the Kilmahew Education Trust Ltd who plan to reinstate the educational elements of the Seminary Complex after a process of conservation and restoration. The wider Kilmahew Estate is to be brought back to its former glory with new landscaping and features but is currently closed to the public due to safety concerns.
The Archdiocese of Glasgow is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Glasgow first became an archbishopric in 1492; the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia has "On 9 January 1492, Innocent VIII raised the see to metropolitan rank, attaching to it the suffragan dioceses of Argyle, Dunblane, Dunkeld, and Galloway." Currently, the Archdiocese has the dioceses of Motherwell and Paisley as suffragans.
Bearsden Academy is a non-denominational, state secondary school in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The school is rated as one of the best state schools in the country.
Filippo "Philip" Tartaglia was a Scottish prelate who served as a bishop of the Catholic Church. He served as Metropolitan Archbishop of Glasgow from 2012 until 2021. He previously served as Bishop of Paisley. Prior to his appointment as bishop, he was a professor at seminaries, as well as an assistant pastor and parish priest in the Archdiocese of Glasgow.
The Right Reverend James Black was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley in Scotland.
Robert Fraser was a Scottish Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Bishop of Dunkeld from 1913 to 1914.
Edward Wilson Douglas was a Scottish Roman Catholic clergyman who served as the first Bishop of Motherwell from 1948 to 1954.
Gillis Centre, formerly Gillis College and founded as St Margaret's Convent and School, is a complex of buildings situated close to the city centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. The history of the site can be traced back to the 15th century. The original building housed many literary figures of the eighteenth century, from 1834 it served as a convent and from 1986 to 1993 it was Gillis College, the seminary for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. It currently provides offices for the Curia of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
Brendan Leahy is an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been the Bishop of Limerick since his appointment on 10 January 2013 by Pope Benedict XVI.
St Andrew's College, Drygrange, located near Melrose, Scotland, was a Roman Catholic seminary founded in 1953 and closed in 1986.
John Keenan is the bishop of the Diocese of Paisley in Scotland. His appointment by Pope Francis was announced on 8 February 2014. He is the fifth Bishop of Paisley.
Daniel Henry Mueggenborg is an American bishop of the Catholic Church and serves as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Seattle.
Coordinates: 55°55′08″N4°20′45″W / 55.918839°N 4.345740°W
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| Vicariate Apostolic of the Lowland District |
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| National Junior Seminary |
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| Archdiocese of Glasgow |
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| Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh |
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| National Seminary |
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