Abbé ''Abbé'' (from Latin , in turn from Greek , , from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is also the title used for lower-ranki ...

Paul MacPherson (4 March 1756 – 24 November 1846), was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

clergyman who became the first Scottish secular priest appointed rector of the

Scots College, Rome The Pontifical Scots College (Italian: ''Il Pontificio Collegio Scozzese'') in Rome is the main seminary for the training of men for the priesthood from the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. It was established, in response to the ...

Life

He was born in

Scalan The Scalan was a Scottish Catholic seminary and one of the few places where underground education by the Catholic Church in Scotland was kept alive during the anti-Catholic persecutions of the 16th-19th century. History The island in Loch Mo ...

, Aberdeenshire on 4 March 1756 to Paul MacPherson and Jean Cumming. At the age of thirteen, he travelled to the Scots College in Rome to study for the priesthood. Owing to illness he was sent to

Royal Scots College The Royal Scots College (Spanish: ''Real Colegio de Escoceses'') is a major seminary in Salamanca, Spain, for the Catholic Church in Scotland. It was located originally at Madrid, then Valladolid, and has been in Salamanca since 1988. History Th ...

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

in Spain where he was ordained on Easter Monday 1779. In 1793, he was nominated as agent of the Scottish mission to Rome and in August he left Scotland to take up his duties. His work was interrupted by the French invasion in 1798, and he fled home taking the students with him. He returned in 1800 to recover the College properties. In 1801, a Papal Decree recognised the right of the British colleges to appoint national superiors, McPherson became the first rector of the Scots College Rome from the ranks of the Scottish secular clergy. In 1820, he was finally able to welcome the first students to the College since it had been abandoned in 1798. McPherson wished to return to Scotland but it was not until 1827 after his replacement, Angus Macdonald, the new Rector, arrived that he was able to leave Rome. Around 1834, the vicars apostolic of Scotland sent the seventy-eight year old McPherson to Rome to deliver a report on the state of religion in Scotland. The bishops stated that due to poverty, most of the priests did not have their own house, but were obliged to live in the cabin of a parishioner. Cardinal

Henry Benedict Stuart Henry Benedict Thomas Edward Maria Clement Francis Xavier Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York (6 March 1725 – 13 July 1807) was a Roman Catholic Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal, and was the third and final Jacobitism, Jacobite heir to pub ...

had bequeathed a portion of his property to the Scottish Church, but it appears not to have been paid. MacPherson found that his successor as rector, Macdonald, had died suddenly, and the college had been closed. Alexander Grant arrived in 1841 to assist him as Vice-Rector being Rector in all but name. In total he had been in charge of the college for 38 years. He remained in Rome and died on 24 November 1846. Having nursed the college through the difficulties of the Napoleonic period he has been called the saviour of the college. He was buried in the college chapel,

Sant'Andrea degli Scozzesi Sant' Andrea degli Scozzesi (English: St Andrew of the Scots) is a 17th century former Catholic church in Rome, near Piazza Barberini on Via delle Quattro Fontane. Once a haven for Scottish Catholics in Rome and chapel of the Pontifical Scots ...

(Church of St Andrews of the Scots), on the via Quattro Fontane.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macpherson, Paul 1756 births 1846 deaths Scottish educators 18th-century Scottish Roman Catholic priests 19th-century Scottish Roman Catholic priests Alumni of the Scots College, Rome