Scottish Catholic Observer

The Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project (AGAP) is once again combining faith and the arts in this year’s Lentfest festival—and 2015’s highlight will be a nationally touring play about St John Ogilvie.

Celebrated annually, Lentfest brings music, plays, workshops and other creative events to Glasgow in a festival that entertains and deepens the faith of participants and audience members alike. AGAP’s play The Martyrdom of St John Ogilvie will take the archdiocese’s project to the rest of Scotland, with performances in Dunkeld, Motherwell and Paisley Dioceses.

2015 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of the Jesuit saint, a martyr who was born in Scotland in 1579. After his ordination in Paris in 1610, St John Ogilvie returned to Scotland where he celebrated Mass in secret and was eventually arrested and tortured in an effort to get him to reveal names of other Catholics. He was convicted of high treason and hanged in Glasgow on March 10 1615, the date that is now his feast day.

Written by AGAP creative director Stephen Callaghan, The Martyrdom of St John Ogilvie was first performed in 2012 with a closing night held in front of 200 people in St Aloysius Church, Garnethill. It will be among a number of other events in the archdiocese and the country to mark the saint’s 400th anniversary this year.

Lentfest 2015 taks place between February 20 and Easter Sunday on April 5.

—Tickets for The Martyrdom of St John Ogilvie costs £5—£2 for under-16s. For more information phone 0141 554 1333, or email [email protected], or visit www.facebook.com/agapglasgow

Pic: The Peter Howson painting of St John Ogilvie which is displayed at the Scared Heart altar in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow

—[email protected]