Scottish Catholic Observer

“The Celtic story is hugely romantic—a club founded by a Marist brother to alleviate the poverty of his people in the East End of Glasgow, which went on to become the premier football team in Europe less than a century later,” Archbishop Tartaglia (above), who has been know to grace the terraces at Parkhead, said.

“It is good that on the anniversary date of that foundation, many of those most closely identified with the club gather where the whole thing started—St Mary’s Church in Abercromby Street—to remember the origins and to raise funds for the poor of our own day, through Mary’s Meals.”

The special commemorative Mass at St Mary’s will be celebrated 5.30pm tonight.

It was on November 6, 1887 that Brother Walfrid gathered a group of men together in the church hall of St Mary’s Parish, Calton, Glasgow to form Celtic Football Club. The Celtic Graves Society has been in interrgral in helping to arrange Mass tonight at St Mary’s to mark the occasion.

Archbishop Tartaglia’s Episcopal installation for Glasgow took place in September and this week he was named president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland. Archbishop Charles Eyre of Glasgow was the first patron of Celtic Football Club back in 1888.

Speakers at the tonight’s celebrations, which will continue at Parkhead after the Mass, will include the Celtic Chairman Ian Bankier, the Rev Ian Miller, a Church of Scotland Minister from Bonhill Church, and Terry Dick, a historian whose father, Glen Daly, wrote The Celtic Song, according to the club’s website.

There will also a dramatic re-enactment of that first meeting of November 1887.