The church is only open for mass on Tuesday and Friday at 7.45 a.m. Mass is said in Italian.
Notes
1 According to The Scots Peerage, edited by James Balfour Paul (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1905), II, 299, this John Stewart was born at Rothesay September 6, 1700, and died at Rome, January 11, 1738 (N.S.). Like the members of many Scottish noble families, the Butes took opposing sides in the political conflicts of their time. In 1703 John's father, Sir James Stewart, Bt., received the title of "Earl of Bute" from Princess Anne of Denmark; his descendants by his first wife are the current de facto Marquesses of Bute. Sir James' son by his first wife (half-brother of John Stewart) succeeded his father as second "Earl of Bute" and fought for the Elector of Hannover in the 1715 Rising. Sir James' brother Dougal Stewart was imprisoned in 1708 on suspicion of favouring a Jacobite invasion - but the following year was appointed a Lord of Session by Princess Anne of Denmark. In 1716 Sir James' second wife, Christian (John Stewart's mother), wrote several letters to King James III and VIII, to his mother Queen Mary, and to the Duke of Mar, professing her loyalty and asking for the confirmation of her title as "Countess of Bute". The Duke of Mar replied, "I doubt not of your educating your son [i.e. John Stewart] in the same loyal way". Cf. Calendar of the Stuart Papers, Historical Manuscripts Commission (London: 1904), II, 357-358, 392, 427, 456, 473.
2 The inscription is odd in that each of the letters u is spelt as a V, and each of the letters v is spelt as a U.
Image 1 (Interior): © Noel S. McFerran 2001.
Image 2 (Royal tribune): © Noel S. McFerran 2001.
Image 3 (Monument to John Stuart): © Noel S. McFerran 2001.
