Family and friends of Dr Bernard Colvin K.S.G. attended a Requiem Mass for the Repose of his Soul at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Dundee, on Monday 3rd March, 2025. The Mass was celebrated by Canon Kevin Golden together with Mgr Aldo Angelosanto, Mgr Ken McCaffrey, Mgr Neil Gallagher, Canon Steven Mulholland, Fr Gregory Murphy, Rev. Michael Ngobili, Fr Ninian Doohan and Bishop Emeritus Stephen Robson.
During his homily, Canon Kevin Golden said:
“My friends, isn’t true that when you meet someone who lives out the beatitudes of Jesus, they leave a lasting impression on you. It was like that with the Lord himself who lived out the beatitudes that he put before his disciples. He made a lasting impression on them.”
“It’s because of our sharing and values with a person like Bernard that we are here today. `because of our communal adherence to the teaching of Jesus that we saw in him a man who quietly yet purposefully lived out the beatitudes. A man who made the word of the Lord, the very measure of his own life, his values, his speech, his behaviour, his success, his beauty, all of that.”
“Today we call over and over again blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. There was much richness in Bernard’s life, but he knew himself to be poor in spirit. He knew himself to strive after humility and meekness and that only endeared him to us even more.”
“We know that as a man of Christ and a man of the church, he hungered and thirsted after righteousness and justice and in that he saw some satisfaction. He was a man of understanding of mercy and compassion – and blessed are they. He was indeed pure of heart – and blessed are they. He was a peacemaker – and indeed blessed are they – but also blessed are we. Blessed are those who see the beatitudes at work in others and who learn from the good example of others.”
“So we are blessed not only that we knew Bernard, that we loved him, that we respected him greatly, but it’s because also we saw in him a good example that we could follow ourselves, that we could take something of our encounters with him and make real in our own lives.”
“He was also a man of welcome and hospitality. He and Anne together ever having an open door to us when we wanted to call on them and share the chat with them – but also at times seek their counsel and advice. They were never with a closed door but always with open hearts and an open door and thankfully that has been instilled too in their beautiful family in all its generations, for they too have experienced most of all from their parents and from Bernard especially whom we honour today.”
“The values of the beatitudes, the beautiful values of blessedness that Jesus gives as a great gift to those who follow him. The beatitudes are an opportunity to live in the kingdom of God in the here and now and Bernard sought to do that. There’s that line in the gospel where Jesus says that the Lord will say, well done, good and faithful servant and we can hear the Lord give those words as he welcomes Bernard at the gates of the kingdom of heaven.”
“When we received his body last night for a celebration of beautiful celebration of Vespers, my first action was to recall the moment of his baptism, blessing him again with that water with which he was christened in his infancy, joined to the great big family of God and given the promise that however long or short his life would be its destiny would be the kingdom of heaven and the communion of the saints.”
“His life has been long and it has been rich indeed and now it’s crowned with the gift of those who receive the beatitudes and take them to heart – a place at the table of the Lord.”
“We place the word of God in the lectionary on Bernard’s coffin because he did indeed cherish the word of God in his life and he took it to heart and sought to live it out. We celebrated his own spirituality by placing his St Benedict’s prayer book on the coffin, and we celebrated his service as a man of the church by placing on his coffin also his Papal Award – the knight of St. Gregory and his Lourdes medal for the sterling service. He and indeed other members of the family have given in Lourdes over decades – all that to celebrate him.”
Family eulogy
“It’s a beautiful photograph on the back of our order for the liturgy today. Please do take it home. Bernard looks serene and peaceful and the words there of St. Thomas Moore, pray for me as I will for thee that we will merely meet in heaven. What a sentiment from him.“
“It was in February, 1924 that Bernard was born to John and Elfreda, the youngest of three boys growing up in Glasgow. He attended Holyrood Secondary before following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps to qualify as a doctor at Glasgow University. After serving in the RAF as a wireless mechanic during World War II, he took on a number of positions across Scotland as well as a brief time in the United States and was the first registrar in plastic surgery for Dundee and Perth.”
“However, his first love was orthopedics and so to get his fellowship, Bernard spent a year at Edinburgh University as a lecturer in anatomy and physiology. Unusually Bernard sat two fellowship exams concurrently getting fellowships from both the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and in Glasgow. It was during that time that Bernard met Anne in 1963 and they married in 1964 going on to have eight children, four boys and four girls. In 1971, Bernard and Anne settled in Dundee with the family. What a blessing that has been for our city and for our church in this diocese of Dunkeld.”
“Two years later he became a consultant orthopedic surgeon in the Dundee Royal Infirmary. Outside of his career, Bernard was heavily involved in the Catenian Association. He was ever of sociable man with a great sense of humour. He had a year as president of the local circle of the Catenians and having had a long connection with Lourdes since his time at Glasgow University, it was in 1974 that Bishop Hart invited him to make his first pilgrimage with the diocese of Dunkeld and many of you here will remember the sight of the Colvins in their mini bus being driven by Bernard. The family also took a number of camping holidays in that mini bus to France, but invariably at some point ending up in Lourdes, Bernard’s desire for knowledge continued throughout his life, gaining qualifications in English Literature and Art History from the Open University.”
“In 2016, Bernard followed in his grandfather’s footsteps once again being awarded a Papal knighthood, the Knight of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Francis for his work as diocesan doctor in charge of the Dunkeld diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes.”
“As we know, he leaves behind a large family, a beautiful family who have been shaped by Bernard and Anne, by their values, by their spirituality, by their love, and by their faithfulness. Eight children and their husbands and wives, 20 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, Lily who’s with us today.”
“For each one here of course there is a particular memory of Bernard to cherish, to hold dear today, but in our Catholic tradition we have this wonderful way of bringing all those memories together and making them not just recollections of the past but making them in the present moment a fusing together of earth in heaven for in the Mass heaven meets earth here in eating and drinking at the Lord’s table and in being nourished on the word of his wisdom, we continue to grow in the ways of the beatitudes. We continue to live in the kingdom of God in the here and now as Bernard Colvin did.”
“So as we say farewell, we do so yes with some grief but with an inner joy that he, his was a witness and a legacy of goodness and love that will endure thankfully in the hearts and lives of his family, but beyond his family, surely in all of us.”
“And so we pray for him in the ancient formula of the church, he eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him, may he rest in peace. Amen. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God, Rest in Peace, Amen.”
Bernard and Lourdes
Dr. Angela Campbell, Medical Director of the Glasgow Archdiocese Lourdes Pilgrimage, and also a member of the Lourdes Medical Association and the Lourdes International Medical Committee added this tribute.
“Anne had asked me to say a few words about Bernard’s Association with Lourdes, particularly from a medical perspective.”
“I first met Bernard and his wife Anne more than 25 years ago at an Annual Conference of the British Lourdes Medical Association. I was honoured when Bernard nominated me as his successor representing Scotland on the International Medical Committee when he became an honorary member of this committee at the age of 75.”
“As we’ve already heard, after Bernard completed medical training, he took up a post as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and Dundee and joined the joined Diocesan Lourdes pilgrimages and was appointed pilgrimage medical director by Bishop Hart in 1974 that year as a pilgrimage doctor in Lourdes.”
“He registered at the medical bureau and met Dr. Theodore Mangiapan, who was the resident doctor there. Recognizing that it would be helpful for doctors with the various British Lourdes pilgrimages to share their experiences Bernard arranged to meet with a group of such doctors, including Felicity Knight, Patricia Crosby and Bernard Schmitz, and founded the British Lourdes Medical Association, which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Bernard continued to support this association and participated actively at the age of 96 in the annual conference when it was held in Dundee in 2019.”
“The other role that I want to highlight was that Bernard was as an act active member of the Lourdes International Medical Committee, a group of around 25 medical specialists of various nationalities who scrutinize exceptional cures reported to the Lourdes Medical Bureau. An investigation of these cures is meticulous and a very protracted process and includes consultation with independent medical experts.”
“The Lambertini criteria are applied and those few cures deemed to be inexplicable in the light of contemporary medical knowledge are forwarded for evaluation by the church and may be recognized as miraculous.”
“Bernard was the lead investigator into the cure of Delizia Cicolli and co-authored the published medical report was Professor André Trifod, who was professor of orthopaedic Surgery in Marseilles.”
“Delizia was a Sicilian girl diagnosed at the age of 12 with a malignant bone tumour affecting her right leg. She visited Lourdes with her mother in 1976 and the following year presented to the Lourdes Medical Bureau with evidence that the tumour had completely disappeared without any treatment.”
“The Lourdes International Medical Committee informed by a detailed medical report, written by Bernard and André voted this cure to be medically inexplicable in 1982 and the Archbishop Catania declared this cure to be miraculous in 1989.”
“This was the 65th of only 71 Lourdes miraculous cures officially recognized to date.
“I had the privilege of spending a day with Bernard and Anne at the home last summer. On a personal level, I would remember Bernard for his warm personality, sharp intellect, quick wit, deep faith, humility, kindness, and compassion.:
“I spoke to Bernard on the phone the day before he died and his last words to me were, God bless you.”
“It is fitting given his lifelong devotion to our Lady of Lourdes that Bernard died at the age of hundred on the Vigil of the Feastday of our Lady of Lourdes.May God bless him and may he rest in peace.”
Thank you
At the conclusion of the Mass, Bernard’s son John spoke warmly of the qualities that Bernard had imbued to the family and took a moment to thank everyone for their support: thanks to the medical staff at the Western General, Ninewells and the Royal Victoria Hospital – and those working in community care.
He thanked the staff at Ashton’s Funeral Directors and Canon Kevin Golden, the priests and the cathedral staff.
He added, “This Requiem Mass here isn’t the only Mass being offered in Thanksgiving for the life of Bernard to today. There are Masses being said in Nunraw, Pluscarden in the Dominican priorities of Edinburgh and London, in Brentwood Cathedral and in the US by our cousin.”
Before Bishop Stephen Robson led the Final Commendation, John said, “Dad, each and every one of us whose lives and hearts you’ve touched, thank you for everything.”