On Sunday, 21st September 2025, Bishop Andrew McKenzie celebrated Mass with the Sacrament of Confirmation at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Auchterarder.
At the conclusion of the Mass, the Bishop blessed the church’s stained-glass windows which are the work Huntly-based artist Shona McInnes.
Parish Priest, Mgr Basil O’Sullivan, reports:
“Now that our bishop has blessed our windows, we can take this opportunity to reflect on them. We got the idea of installing the windows because we inherited our little country church from a very small ,poor congregation. A beautiful church, they kept it going in good times and bad , usually bad. In recent years the congregation shared in the general affluence, and we thought we would enhance our little church for the benefit of those who come after us. Hence the stained glass windows. The medieval purpose of stained glass windows was to turn the natural light of the sun into a proclamation of the wonderful works of God.”
“Of necessity, there was no over-all plan for them –we don’t know how long we are going to get in this world. Our decisions developed organically as the money came in from the parishioners –the first windows inside the door depict the flora and fauna of the countryside around Auchterarder, with suitable biblical texts. The second window, on one side, Advent and Christmas; on the other side, Holy Week and Easter. The next window , Our Lady’s ,represents the Rosary, and commemorates the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland in 2010 and the beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman with his motto—cor ad cor loquitur—heart speaks to heart.”
“Opposite, there are scenes from Scottish church history, including St. Ninian, St Columba, St Brigid and St. Margaret –it also depicts the reformation and the persecution of the Mass. At the bottom of the window there is reference to the decree of Pope Leo XIII ‘Ex Supremo Apice’ restoring the Scottish hierarchy in March , 1878, one of the first acts of his Pontificate.”
“In the sanctuary we have a parish family at prayer “Bring flowers of the fairest” one of our hymns, and next to it the parish congregation at Sunday Mass. On the opposite side, the Holy See is represented by the promise of the keys to Peter and St Peter’s Basilica, while below we have the prayer of St Andrew as he welcomes the cross on which he is to be crucified.”
“Our final windrow represents Auchterarder with its High Street , some of its buildings and its motto; ‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden’, a quotation from the Sermon on the Mount.
“Bring flowers of the fairest“
“It is very unusual for the same artist to be given the opportunity of creating all the windows of a church—simply because of the brevity of our lives. We were blessed insofar as our artist Shona was given this opportunity , and the parishioners were given the time to donate the money in the same period. As the money came in, we were able to go on to the next window.”
“Thanks to the generosity of the parishioners, and the skill of our artist, we will be able to hand over our little rustic church to those who come after us in an even more beautiful state than when we received it.”
“Praised be the Lord and His Blessed Mother, our Patron.”
This small Catholic church in Auchterarder — built soon after Catholic emancipation allowed public worship again in Scotland — was dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at a time when the devotion was just beginning to spread beyond Rome.
It reflected the enthusiasm of early Scottish Catholics, possibly inspired by local Redemptorists or clergy who had studied in Rome or were influenced by that new Marian devotion.
This made it the first parish church to be formally dedicated under that title anywhere in the world.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Mitchell