Let In Edinburgh

St Mary's is the Cathedral Church of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

The original See of St Andrews was founded before 900; erected into a Metropolitan See by Bull of Sixtus IV on 17th August 1472 and was vacant for 307 years from the execution at Stirling of John Hamilton, eighth Archbishop, on 6th April 1571 until the restoration of the hierarchy in 1878. It is with the ancient primatial See of St Andrews that our present Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh has continuity. However, the story of the Mother Church of the Archdiocese - St Mary's - begins during the days of the Vicars Apostolic prior to the restoration of the hierarchy in 1878. Bishop Hay, Vicar Apostolic for the Lowland District, chose the site of St Mary's in 1801. He had seen his Chapel in Blackfriars' Wynd burnt down by a mob, and hoped that the new site would be a more sheltered spot, protected by the surrounding buildings. But it was Bishop Cameron who actually opened the Chapel of St Mary's - designed by the prominent ecclesiastical architect, James Gillespie Graham - in 1814, with the first Masses being celebrated in August of that year. Under the successors of Bishop Cameron the church was considerably embellished and in 1878 on the restoration of the Scottish hierarchy it became the pro-cathedral of the new Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.