Astonishing scenes at the Scottish Lourdes: masculinity, the miraculous, and sectarian strife at Carfin, 1922–1945

Abstract

This article examines the little-known history and, for a time, notoriety of Carfin, a ‘Scottish Lourdes’, re-created in 1921 in rural Lanarkshire. It explores the ways in which gendered, ethnic, sectarian and nationalist identities were negotiated and re-inscribed at this shrine commemorating the Virgin Mary and a pantheon of saints, in the context of interwar institutional insecurities about socialism, secularisation and the feminisation of religion. As a site for the materialisation and mobilisation of a robust Catholic masculinity, Carfin provided a space – outside of paid employment and beyond the labour movement – for channelling male piety, pride and self-esteem.

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