CHAPTER 4 Polish diasporic Catholicism in Scotland MICHAL ADAM PALACZ INTRODUCTION The global Polish diaspora has continued to keep their national identity alongside Roman Catholic faith since the 1830s (Alvis 2016: 150). In contemporary Scotland, where Poles constitute the largest foreign-born population (National Records of Scotland 2018: 4), many Polish Catholic immigrants attend religious services in their native language, venerate the Virgin Mary as Queen of Poland and enjoy singing the religious-cum-patriotic hymn ‘God, Save Poland’ on Polish national holidays. The origins of the Polish Catholic diaspora in Scotland can be traced back to the 1940s, when thousands of Polish soldiers and civilian refugees arrived in the country. Poles mainly settled around Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the number of Polish Catholics in post-war Scotland was estimated at 17,000 (Zubrzycki 1956: 70; SCA DE 68/8/4). The wartime refugees established a network of autonomous parishes, which was organized under the umbrella of the Polish Catholic Mission in Scotland (hereafter PCM). They created religious narratives of displacement and invented rituals that connected them spiritually with their lost homeland. Many of these institutions and practices have been adopted by Polish Catholic immigrants who came to Scotland after Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004. The existing literature on the topic tends to view Polish parishes as inhibitors of traditionally understood assimilation. This chapter suggests instead that BLO_04_BLMI_C004_docbook_new_indd.indd 55 26-11-2021 19:51:33