John Geddes (bishop)

John Geddes (9 September 1735 – 11 February 1799) was a Scottish Catholic prelate who served as Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of the Lowland District from 1779 to 1797. He was also rector of the Royal Scots College, Valladolid, from 1771 to 1780.^[1][2][3]

Life

Born at Mains of Corridoun, Enzie,

Following his consecration, Geddes became a very well-known figure during the Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh where he was in charge of the mission. Even Scottish national poet Robert Burns met and befriended Geddes during the winter of 1786–1787 at the Edinburgh home of Lord Monboddo. The poet later gave the Bishop the volume now known as The Geddes Burns and, when he wrote to a correspondent that "the first [that is, finest] cleric character I ever saw was a Catholick", Burns was referring to Bishop John Geddes.^[8]

Declining in health and unable to celebrate Mass, Geddes resigned the coadjutorship of the Lowland District on 26 October 1797,^[2][3] and died at Aberdeen on 11 February 1799, aged 63.^[2][3][4] He is buried in the same grave with Bishop James Grant in the ruins of the Snow Kirk in Old Aberdeen.^[9]

Writings

• The Life of Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland with Some Account of Her Husband, Malcom III surnamed Kean More, and of Their Children (1794)

References

Further reading