WHEN the Pope decreed John Ogilvie, the 17th century Scots martyr, a saint of the Catholic Church in St Peter's last Sunday, the congregation burst into loud applause.
The ceremony canonising the first Scottish-born saint was attended by Princess Alexandra, present privately in her role as Mrs Angus Ogilvy, and virtually all the Catholic and Protestant leaders of the Ogilvy Clan led by the Earl and Countess of Airlie.
This was the first time since the end of the Stuart dynasty, according to a Vatican prelate, that a major papal ceremony had been attended by a member of the reigning British Royal Family.
Cardinal Gray, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, headed the entire Scottish hierarchy, seven of whom, together with Mgr Michael Fitzpatrick, Vicar Capitular of Aberdeen, and Mgr Sean O'Kelly, Rector of the Scots College in Rome, concelebrated the Canonisation Mass with Pope Paul.
The English Church was represented by Cardinal Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, Archbishop Worlock of Liverpool, Bishop Foley of Lancaster, and his Auxiliary, Bishop Pearson.
The entry procession was headed by candle-bearing seminarians of the Scots College. When Pope Paul, carried on his Gestatorial Chair, passed Princess Alexandra she curtseyed and the Pontiff bowed in return.
As the Canonisation ritual began, Cardinal Corrado Bafile, Prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, read the appeal to the Pope to inscribe Blessed John Ogilvie in the Calendar of Saints.
Pope Paul then knelt for the recital of the Litany of Saints, which included Columba and Margaret of Scotland, and afterwards pronounced the formula of Canonisation.
The Pope, in his homily, outlined the new saint's life and martyrdom in those days. of
"violent spiritual storm," But, he added: "We do not wish to make our praise of John Ogilvie turn into a polemical apologia.
"The saint that we venerate — far from being a symbol of civil or spiritual discord — will soothe the unhappy memory of violence or of the abuse of authority for religion's sake, and will help us all to resolve the differences of our respective beliefs, in proposals of mutural respect, serene searching and faithful adherence to the truth, in order to re-establish that yearned-for unity of faith and love which, Christ taught us, is the supreme expression of his Gospel.
After the ceremony, Princess Alexandra and her husband, the Earl and Countess of Airlie, and Mr John Fagan, the 63 year old Glasgow man whose cure from terminal cancer had been accepted by the Church as the miracle needed for Ogilvie's canonisation, were introduced to the Pope.
Cardinal Gray and the Scottish hierarchy hosted a lunch at the Scots College for Princess Alexandra, members of the Ogilvy Clan and visiting dignitaries. During the lunch Mgr Sean O'Kelly was brought a gift from the Pope: two of the doves and one of the casks of wine. He immediately presented the cask to Princess Alexandra and the doves to Bishop Moncrief, retired Primas of the Scottish Episcopalian Church. Mgr O'Kelly said: "This wine is called 'Lacrima Christi', the tears of Christ. May the tears of Christ, shed in the past, turn to doves of peace."
Several days of ceremonies followed the Canonisation at St Peter's.
On Monday, Scots pipers again played outside the world's top Jesuit church, The Gcsu, before a Mass offered by Cardinal Gray, several foreign cardinals, Cardinal Hume, and Fr Pedro Arrupe, Superior General of the Jesuits, who had also concelebrated with the Pope on Sunday.
As those were leaving, the pipers played a new John Ogilvie March composed by Major John Macdonald, former Pipe Major of the Glasgow Police Pipe Band.