Most Rev Philip Tartaglia
Ph.B., S.T.D.
Archbishop of Glasgow
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia was born at Glasgow on the 11th January, 1951. He is the eldest son of Guido and Annita Tartaglia and has three brothers and five sisters. After his primary schooling at St. Thomas’, Riddrie, he began his secondary education at St. Mungo’s Academy, Glasgow, before moving to the national junior seminary at St. Vincent’s College, Langbank and, later, St. Mary’s College, Blairs, Aberdeen. His ecclesiastical studies were completed at the Pontifical Scots College, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
He was ordained Priest by Archbishop Thomas Winning in the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Dennistoun on the 30th June 1975. He then returned to Rome where he completed his ordinary course of studies in 1976 before beginning his research for his Doctorate in Sacred Theology. In 1978 he was additionally appointed as Dean of Studies at the College in Rome, and was also acting Vice-Rector at that time.
On completing his Doctorate in 1980, on the Council of Trent’s teaching on the Eucharist, he was appointed assistant priest at Our Lady of Lourdes, Cardonald, while at the same time becoming visiting lecturer at St. Peter’s College, Newlands, Glasgow.
A year later, he was appointed Lecturer at St. Peter’s College, Newlands, becoming Director of Studies in 1983. When Chesters College, Bearsden, opened in 1985 he was made Vice-Rector. In 1987 he was appointed Rector.
He served as Rector until 1993 when he was sent to St. Patrick’s, Dumbarton, as Assistant Priest before being appointed Parish Priest of St. Mary’s, Duntocher in 1995. In 2004, the Bishops’ Conference asked him to return to seminary as Rector of the Pontifical Scots College, Rome.
On 13th September 2005, it was announced that Father Philip Tartaglia had been nominated by the Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of Paisley. On 20 November 2005, the Solemnity of Christ the King, he was ordained bishop in St Mirin’s Cahedral by Archbishop Mario Conti. The co-consecrating bishops were Archbishop Raymond Burke of St Louis, Missouri and Bishop Jone Mone, Emeritus Bishop of Paisley. Archbishop Tartaglia took possession of the see of St Mungo in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow, at 11.30 am on Saturday 8th September 2012, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The new Archbishop’s Episcopal motto is the Latin phrase, “Da robur, fer auxilium”, taken from the traditional Eucharistic hymn “O Salutaris Hostia”, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas. These words serve as an invocation: “Thine aid supply, thy strength bestow.”