The Catholic Directory for Scotland

The Scottish Catholic Directory is a year-book which has been published without interruption since 1829 and is the oldest ecclesiastical year-book published in Britain or Ireland and possibly it can lay claim to being the ecclesiastical year-book with the longest uninterrupted existence published anywhere in the Catholic Church. It even predates the Vatican’s own Annuario Pontificio.

The first edition was mainly a liturgical calendar in Latin with guidance for the Priests celebrating the Liturgy in Scotland. Very quickly, it became a complete guide to the presence of the Church in every place in Scotland, sometimes with comments on the state of certain ‘Missions’.

The first 43 issues were compiled by one of the staff at the seminary (at Aquhorthies and then Blairs) with the first two printed on site in Latin, before being switched into English and printed professionally in Edinburgh, with production later shifting to Dundee and to Aberdeen. There have only been 12 editors in its entire history. Latterly it has been a cause for pride among the Burns family in Glasgow that they have managed to produce it every year since 1937.

Occasionally the Directory published supplementary articles but the careful routine gathering of details of Parochial life, of information concerning Societies and Institutions, and of Biographical data (in Ordination and Obituary notices) has undoubtedly made it an essential reference work for any historian of the Catholic Church in Scotland.

The Directories that where digitised belonged to Fr Bernard Canon Canning (1932-2020), Parish Priest, Archivist, Author, and Historian, from the Diocese of Paisley.  All advertisements were kept as these detail the social history when the Directory was published.

Directories of note - Historical Obituary List

Within some of the Directories there are list of Historical Obituaries. Detailing the Priests Name, Diocese, Place and Date of Death and Age, for each Cleric who served in the Missions and Parishes of Scotland.

For the list (of clergies deceased between...) see :

· Deceased pre-1800, see Catholic Directory 1921

· 1800-1899, see Catholic Directory 1942

· 1900-1924, see Catholic Directory 1948

· 1926-1950, see Catholic Directory 1971

· 1951-1965, see Catholic Directory 1984

· 1966-1975, see Catholic Directory 1991 

· 1976-1985, see Catholic Directory 1996 

· 1986-to present, see present Catholic Directory (most recent publication)