James McKay

(Eastern District) Born at Nether Clashnore, Glenlivet, 25th March 1802/03, the son of Peter McKay and Elizabeth Tam; arrived in Valladolid from Aquhorties; ordained a priest in Zamora and left for Scotland, 11th May 1829; after nearly forty years on the Scottish mission, went, 1863, to St. Bernard’s Abbey, Leicester, where he died, 19th April 1884.

Obituary of James McKay from the Scottish Catholic Directory of 1886.

Pray for the soul of the Rev. James Mackay, who died at Mount St. Bernard’s Abbey, near Leicester, on the 19th April, 1884, in the 83rd year of his age and the 55th (or 56th) of his priesthood.

Intimation of the death of this venerable missionary was received too late to admit of more than the mere mention of it last year. Mr. Mackay was born at Nether Clashnore, Glenlivat, on the 25th March, 1802. He entered the Seminary of the Lowland District at Aquhorties in December, 1821, and thence passed to the Scots College in Valladolid in July, 1826, with a very high reputation for virtue. He was ordained priest in April, 1829, and presently after returned to Scotland and served for three months in the Braes of Glenlivat. After this, he was recalled to the Eastern District and stationed in Edinburgh, where he laboured nearly three years with extraordinary zeal and success. In June, 1832, he received charge of the mission of Perth. His predecessor, the Rev. John Geddes, had made great progress in the erection of a church there, but since his death in the preceding January, the work had been discontinued for want of funds to carry it on. Mr. Mackay immediately set about completing it, and the church was opened in November of the same year. He next turned his attention to the education of the children; and as he had not sufficient means either to build a school or pay a teacher, he assembled them in the church and taught them for four hours daily. In 1834, he built an excellent presbytery, of a size that enabled him to take in some pupil-boarders, whose education he superintended, and thus added to the scanty resources of the mission. Three years later, the mission of Crieff became vacant by the death of the Rev. Alex. Macdonald; and as no priest could be spared to fill it, the charge devolved on Mr. Mackay. For the next nine years, his ministrations extended to the whole of Perthshire, with the exception of some few localities, and he acquired great reputation for the zealous and efficient manner in which he discharged his duty towards his scattered flock. Blairgowrie and Crieff, where the Catholics were most numerous, were attended at stated times on a Sunday; the rest of the county was traversed at frequent intervals in every direction; the people were sought out and instructed, and Mass was said and the Sacraments administered in their poor cottages. In 1837, he secured a feu in Blairgowrie, on which he built two houses, and fitted up the upper floor of one of them as a chapel. When Sir William Drummond-Stewart, Bart., returned to Murthly Castle, in 1840, from America, where he had been received into the Church, he conceived so great an esteem for Mr. Mackay, that he named him one of the commissioners for the management of his estate during his subsequent protracted absence on the Continent, gave him a considerable farm in the neighbourhood of the Castle, and at last obtained the Bishop’s consent to retain him near himself as chaplain. Mr. Mackay left Perth for Murthly at Whit­Sunday, 1846, but he still continued in charge of Blairgowrie, and passed much of his time there, till the appointment of a resident priest three years later. When the Eastern District was divided into provostries, in 1852, he was named first praepositus of Perth. He opened stations successively at Grandtully, Tullymet, and Woodhill, and made his residence at the two last in the years 1856-58, during which his connection with Murthly was temporarily interrupted. From the middle of 1862 he ceased to have any fixed charge as an active missionary priest; but for several years after this, during his occasional stay in Scotland, he acted as chaplain or gave his assistance otherwise in various places. The rest can be best told in the words of the Abbot of Mount St. Bernard’s, who writes as follows:— “He first came to the Abbey on the 21st April, 1863. He led always a very exemplary life. He appears to have chosen our Abbey as a place to prepare himself for his last end. His charity, notwithstanding his age, made him ready on all occasions, as long as he was able, to assist the neighbouring missions. He was humble, retired, kind to everyone, given to prayer, and never omitted his Mass till his infirmities for the last six months prevented him from standing at the altar. He made a Retreat every year during the whole of Holy Week, when he observed a very strict fast in spite of his great age. He was very scrupulous in business matters. He died on the 19th April, 1884, after having received the last Sacraments in a very edifying manner, and was buried in the Abbey Cemetery.”