St. Mahew

Introduction

Saint Mahew in Cardross is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Archdiocese of Glasgow, restored by Ian Lindsay and Partners from 1953 to 1955. The church was dedicated in 1467 to St Mahew. The Roman Catholic parish of St Mahews was formed in 1978.

History

In 1640 Robert Napier of Kilmahew offered the chapel as a parochial school, giving the use of the nave only and retaining the chancel as the family burial-place. The village school remained in Kirkton Chapel from 1640 to 1846, when the school was transferred to a new building and the chapel was abandoned. The chapel was initially served by the priests of St Peter's Seminary in Cardross until its transfer to Glasgow in 1978. In November 1978, the first parish priest of the newly established parish of St Mahew's, Cardross, was appointed. The property was acquired as part of the Kilmahew Estate by the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1948.

Architecture and furnishings

The present walls of the nave were built in 1955 on the foundations of and in the style of the 1467 building. The Porch was built in 1955 as an addition to the old building. A tombstone inscribed 'Dorothy Buchanan, died July 21 1746' is embedded in the floor.

A statue of St Margaret, donated by the parishioners of Our Lady and St Margaret's, Glasgow, was carved and signed by Zelko Kujunzdic. The original medieval Sacrament House, still in use as the tabernacle, is one of the best specimens to have survived in the SW of Scotland. The chancel arch is the original stone arch, embellished with monograms of Jesus and Mary. The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess over the tomb of Duncan Napier, founder of the mediaeval church.

The church is one of only four pre-Reformation religious buildings in Scotland restored and used for their original purpose. The church is a plain, harled building with crow-stepped gables and square-headed windows and doors. The chancel is wholly original, but only the lower walls of the nave were intact when the building was acquired by the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1948. A small vestry has been added on the north side, and the nave extended by a few feet at the west end, where a small belfry crowns the gable.

The church is a rectangular-plan chapel aligned east to west with a lean-to vestry against the north wall, painted harl with red sandstone crowstepped gables. The south elevation has a 4-bay nave with a higher chancel at the east end, crowstepped gables, a door to the outer left and three windows symmetrically disposed to the right.

The restored east window, designed and made by stained glass artist Nina Davidson of Eaglesham, shows Mary as Queen and Mother holding the child Jesus, with the prayer 'O Mater Dei, Memento Mei'. The graveyard contains a number of plain grave slabs probably dating from the seventeenth century. The boundary wall is a rubble boundary wall with boulder coping. The chancel has a red sandstone chancel arch, rubble, round-arched sedilia, and a glazed aumbry.

Parish life

During Advent and between Ascension and Pentecost, St Mahew's maintains a prayer link with members of the local Church of Scotland. The SCIAF group at St Mahew's, formed in 1992, has focused on a wide variety of projects. The Easter Sepulchre serves as the Altar of Repose on Holy Thursday evening.