Art & Architecture
The Reformation Parliament of 1560 outlawed Catholicism in Scotland and it was precisely three centuries before this church was constructed – only the second Catholic church to be built in the city.
Opened in 1860, the church was designed by Fr Richard Vaughan sj, took just a year to construct and cost £5,300 (£½ million today). Originally intended as a temporary church which could later be turned into a public assembly hall, much of the decoration was added in the 1860s in neoclassical style. The apse creating the sanctuary area around the altar was added in 1884. The church measures 169 by 46-feet (51m by 14m) and 52-feet (16m) to base of the four lanterns which flood daylight into the nave.
The church and parish are in the care of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), a religious order founded in 1540 by St Ignatius Loyola and nine companions. On a papal mission to Ireland, Paschase Broët sj and Alfonso Salmerón sj were the first Jesuits to visit Scotland in 1541 where they gave the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius to the Queen. St John Ogilvie was a Scots Jesuit priest during penal times, imprisoned at Edinburgh and martyred for his faith at Glasgow Cross in 1615. His statue by Serbian artist Zeljko Kujundzic (1920-2003) is to be seen on the left-hand side of the church.
Within the boundaries of this parish lies St Margaret’s Chapel (c.1130) at Edinburgh Castle – the oldest pre-Reformation church in Scotland.
The Altar
The altar is the centre and focus of every Catholic church – it is the table at which the eucharist is celebrated and the symbol of Jesus Christ – priest, altar and sacrifice.
Designed by Edinburgh architect Archibald MacPherson (1851-1927), this altar was made in 1885 of white Italian Carrara marble and was originally part of a much larger and more ornate altar set against the west wall of the church (unusually the church is oriented west-east). Three panels on the front of the altar show ancient Christian symbols representing Jesus Christ amid decorative bas-relief:
[left panel] Pelican – in the ancient world, it was believed that the pelican fed its young on its own blood by piercing its breast with its beak. So it is understandable how the pelican was adopted by Christians as a symbol for Jesus Christ – who, in the bread and wine of the eucharist, feeds us with his body and blood.
[centre] IHS monogram – these letters in Greek (IHΣ) are the first three letters of the sacred name JESUS. Surrounded by the imperial Roman sun-symbol Sol Invictus, and the cross and nails of Jesus’ crucifixion, this image was first popularized by St Bernadine of Siena (1380-1444) and later adopted by St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) as the badge of the Society of Jesus. The same symbol above the main entrance to the church identifies it as a Jesuit church.
[right] Lamb and seals – the image of the Lamb is found in the Book of Revelation (chapter 5), a symbol of Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain at his crucifixion but who is alive in his resurrection and so “bought men and women for God from every race, language, people and nation and made them a line of kings and priests to serve our God”. The scroll with the seven seals represents a vision of the end of the world – the only person worthy of opening the seals is Jesus Christ.
Sacred Heart Statue
Given by parishioners in 1882 and costing £50 (£4,100 today), this remarkable statue represents the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom this church is dedicated – a Catholic devotion which emphasises the love God shows for us in Jesus: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)
Cor Iesu - Heart of Jesus
Domus Dei - House of God
Porta Caeli - Gate of Heaven
These words on the plinth are from the Litany of the Sacred Heart (1891) echoing the words of Jacob after his vision of a ladder connecting heaven and earth: ‘Truly, God is in this place and I never knew it! This is nothing less than a house of God. This is the gate of heaven.’ (Genesis 28:16-17)
Devotion to the Sacred Heart dates back to medieval times but was widely popularized by St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90). In the years 1673-75, she had four mystical revelations about the love of Christ for humankind and the need for reparation for sin.
This statue was made by the Institute for Christian Art founded in 1847 at Munich in Bavaria by Joseph Gabriel Mayer (1808-83). Mayer was part of a movement to revitalize the skills of medieval religious craft through “a combination of fine arts, architecture, sculpture and painting.” The Mayer studio was awarded the status of Royal Bavarian Art Establishment in 1882 by King Ludwig II (1864-86), the ‘Swan King’, which led to worldwide renown. In 1892, Pope Leo XIII named the studio a Pontifical Institute of Christian Art. The studio closed in 1925.
The statue in the St Joseph Chapel [front left] is also by the Mayer Studio and dates from 1885.
Roundels of Jesuit Saints
The eight portraits in the barrel-vault ceiling were added in 1900 and celebrate Jesuit saints, some recently canonized. From the front right-hand side of the church:
St Pierre Favre (1506-46)
University friend of St Ignatius Loyola, the first Jesuit to be ordained priest (in 1534).
St Stanisław Kostka (1550-68)
Son of a Senator of the Kingdom of Poland, joined the Society of Jesus and died at age 17, shown with the lily of purity.
St Jan Berchmans (1599-1621)
Born in low countries, died age 22; patron of the young, shown with the crucifix he was given when he took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
St Jean-François Régis (1597-1640)
Jesuit priest, pastor to the poor in the mountainous Ardèche region of France, represented in the background landscape.
St Alfonso Rodriguez (1532-1617)
Doorkeeper of the Jesuit house in Majorca for 46 years, a man of great piety and humble service.
St Peter Canisius (1521-97)
Scholar, theologian, adviser to the Council of Trent, shown with his red Catechism of the Catholic faith.
St Luigi Gonzaga (1568-91)
Shown with the sword of his noble birth, Aloysius rejected power and wealth for religious life.
St Roberto Bellarmino (1542-1621)
Theologian, shown in his red cardinal’s robes.
These saints are complemented by the statues (1885) of [left] St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) and his university friend and Jesuit companion [right] St Francis Xavier (1506-52) in front of the organ pipes.
Holyrood Madonna
This statue [which you will find behind glass halfway down the left-hand side of the church] was acquired in 1865 by Edmund Waterton, son of the famous naturalist and conservationist Charles Waterton (1782-1865), and Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians and Papal Privy Chamberlain, from a dealer in Peterborough and given, after restoration, to the Sacred Heart Church in 1869 for as long as the Jesuits remained in ministry at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Edinburgh.
The dealer bought the work at auction on the death of George Hamilton-Gordon (1784-1860), 4th Earl of Aberdeen, from the furnishings of his London house. Gordon was a classical scholar, diplomat and UK Prime Minister, and responsible for establishing the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada.
The statue is late 16thC and believed to have been in the chapel of the Palace of Holyrood before the Reformation. It is difficult to confirm this provenance but the Holyrood Madonna has long been a significant point of interest and devotion in this church.
The statue shows the Blessed Virgin Mary, crowned as Queen of Heaven and holding the rod (virga) of authority, standing on the crescent moon and trampling the dragon (a reference to the vision in the Book of Revelation chapter 12). She is the Seat of Wisdom, holding the Christ child – the fingers of his right hand gesture the mystery of his humanity and divinity; and in his left hand he holds the orb of the world to which he brings salvation.
From the earliest times, the Christian church has held Mary in great esteem and created statues and images for her veneration. The chapel on the right-hand side of the church is the Lady Chapel, dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, mother of God.
Stations of the Cross
Painted by Bavarian artist Peter Rauth, these extraordinary panels illustrate the story of the crucifixion and death of Jesus of Nazareth in fourteen episodes or ‘stations’.
Stations of the Cross originated in the 12th century after the conquest of Jerusalem (1187AD) by Saladin when Christians could no longer visit the holy places and walk the traditional Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows) in person. So crosses (see the small simple crosses above each painting) and, later, images were erected in churches so that Christians could continue to follow the way of the cross in their own towns.
Particularly during Lent, the forty days of preparation for Easter, Christians pray the Stations of the Cross – stopping at each station and meditating on the story of Christ’s passion and death as it unfolds before their eyes. Part of the tradition is to view events with the eyes of Mary, Jesus’ mother, who is prominently represented in these paintings (in traditional blue robe with a golden halo).
Peter Rauth (1828-96) painted these large canvases (each some 10x7-feet and possibly the largest stations in Europe) for this church between 1871 and 1874 by He was paid £40 for each painting, the cost being raised by donations from the people of the parish. The paintings were blessed and formally opened in 1875. Restoration work was carried out on between 1999 and 2002.
Peter Rauth was born in 1828 at Rum near Innsbruck and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich from 1852. After completing his studies, he lived in Vienna and later in Heidelberg, where he worked as a portrait painter. Among others, he portrayed the young Emperor Franz Joseph I and the Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary. He also painted altar retables, including for the churches at Karres and Terfens in the Tyrol. Rauth died in 1896 in Heidelberg.