Press Association
Saturday 11th February 2012
A tartan created in honour of the Pope's visit to Scotland will be unveiled on Thursday.
Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien will present the St Ninian's Day Tartan to the country's political leaders at the Scottish Parliament.
He also intends to gift the tartan to Pope Benedict XVI when he visits Scotland next Thursday, which is St Ninian's Day.
The limited edition tartan was designed by Matthew Newsome, who travelled to Scotland for the event from North Carolina in the US where he works.
He drew on Roman Catholic and Scottish history to create the blue, white, green, red and yellow design.
Mr Newsome, director of the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin, North Carolina, said: "As a Catholic, I'm just thrilled that my design was chosen as the official papal visit tartan. I obviously witnessed the visit of Pope Benedict to the USA in 2008 and can assure the people of Scotland that the events of next Thursday will live long in the memory. The white line on blue field draws upon Scotland's national colours while the green reflects the lichens growing on the stones of Whithorn in Galloway. It was there that Ninian first brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to Scottish shores over 1600 years ago.
"The white lines are also accompanied by a pair of red lines, reflecting the colours of Cardinal Newman's crest. And finally, the thin yellow lines in the tartan, together with the white, reflect the colours of the Vatican."
Each white line on the green contains exactly eight threads, one for each Catholic diocese in Scotland.
There are 452 threads in the design from pivot to pivot, representing the number of Catholic parishes.
The Pope is due to begin his visit on Thursday September 16 in Edinburgh where he will be received by the Queen before celebrating Mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.
