LONDON—Glasgow, Scotland, is a city famous for many things, but it’s also infamous for a sectarianism that has marred its history for many decades. Nowhere is this more evident than in the city’s footballing divide — those of a Protestant background traditionally support Rangers, while Catholics align with their bitter rivals, Celtic. Yet, from this intense soccer rivalry, something even more surprising has emerged.
Tommy Burns played for Celtic from 1975 to 1989. During that time, he won six Scottish league championships, five Scottish Cups and one Scottish League Cup. He also played for the Scottish national side, appearing eight times between 1981 and 1988. He returned to Celtic as manager in 1994 and proceeded to win the Scottish Cup in 1995. After being sacked in 1997, he returned to Celtic in 2000 to work as assistant manager, head of youth development and first-team coach.
His involvement in the game ended abruptly, however, when Burns passed away from melanoma on May 15, 2008, at just 51 years old.
Tributes poured in on his untimely passing. It seemed that no one — even those from the Rangers side of Glasgow — had a bad word to say about Burns.
And that should have been that: a footballing career cruelly cut short by illness, leaving a family to mourn.
But it was not to be the end.
You see, in Glasgow, there are some who say that Tommy Burns, a devout Catholic, was not just a good man, loved by his family and colleagues, but something more.
“If you ever came in early to Mass and Tommy was there too, he would be near the front and his focus was on the tabernacle — like, eyes fixed on it, really in the presence of God.” So says Philip Church, a Glasgow businessman who knew Burns personally. He and many other Catholics — and even some non-Catholics — are convinced of the sanctity of the former footballer.
Born in 1956, Tommy Burns grew up within sight of Celtic Park, the home of the team that would so shape his life. Baptized at the nearby St. Mary’s Church, he was educated at the local parochial school. In his 1989 autobiography, Twists and Turns, he recalled that Celtic Park was to become the focus of his boyhood prayers: “I am not ashamed or embarrassed to say that I would pray every night as a youngster for the chance to join the club that felt like a part of my very being.”
Perhaps it was then that the young Tommy understood the efficacy of prayer, as he would go on to play 16 seasons with Celtic, making 503 appearances and scoring 84 goals, to say nothing of his years there managing and coaching. He once said in a press interview, “When you put on the Celtic jersey, you’re not playing for a football team, you’re playing for a community and a cause.”
Celtic Football Club itself has an unusual origin story. In 1887, an Irish Marist Brother founded the club. It was meant to boost morale for the Catholic population of Glasgow, most of whom were recent immigrants from Ireland, some having arrived on account of the Great Famine. Importantly, it was also conceived as a way of providing funds for a soup kitchen to serve the local poor.
In time, the club would go on to dominate Scottish football and then become the first British side to conquer Europe’s premier competition by winning the European Cup in 1967, with that team of players all born — like Burns — within miles of Celtic Park. When Burns signed professionally for Celtic in 1973, he was not so much joining a football team but an organization with a cultural resonance far beyond the sports pitch.
Father Robert Farrell, a priest in Manchester, England, knew something of Tommy Burns’ inner life. Father Farrell, like the footballer, is originally from Glasgow; and it was there, as a priest of Opus Dei, that he came across Burns, who was attracted to and helped by the spirituality of The Work.
When asked about Burn’s reputation for holiness, Father Farrell gets straight to the point: “I agree.” He says he got to know Burns through the spiritual guidance he afforded him and was deeply impressed by the faith and goodness the man displayed.
He tells of how, as Burns was dying, the footballer heard of a woman he knew who had recently lost her husband. He arranged for flowers to be sent to her, even though Burns would himself be dead in a matter of hours.
The priest smiles as he remembers the way that Burns viewed his life following the mantra: “Faith, family and football — and in that order!” Father Farrell is quite open in his admiration of Burns — an admiration, it seems, that has little to do with football. Perhaps the greatest testament to this is that the priest, in his prayers, regularly asks for Burns’ heavenly help.
Glasgow’s Monsignor Tom Monaghan spoke of Burns’ Catholic faith at his May 20, 2008, funeral. Present were the dead man’s grieving wife and four children, as well as many others besides.
“He was almost universally recognized as a man of faith,” noted the priest while also noting that the footballer’s autobiography, Twists and Turns, is dedicated to his wife, Rosemary, but also to Our Blessed Lady — noteworthy, to say the least, in the world of professional sports.
Monsignor Monaghan pointed out that Burns died on the feast of St. Isidore the Farmer.
“Why do I mention that?” he asks, “Well, Isidore worked faithfully on his chosen occupation for the whole of his life. So too did Tommy, right up to the day he went into hospital and beyond via the telephone. Like Isidore, he had deep religious instincts. He rose in the morning to go to Mass. … A man who didn’t just ‘say’ prayers … a man who prayed.”
The priest recounted something of the last days of the footballer as he prepared for death. “On one day after receiving Holy Communion at home, his prayer and thanksgiving were so deep that I wondered for a time if I should just slip quietly away from his bedside.”
Monsignor Monaghan also quoted Burns from a 1999 press interview, which could have been the footballer’s epitaph: “Anytime you get worries or things like that you always know that ultimately, this life is just something we’re living through and the best is yet to come. Underneath and all around are the everlasting arms of Jesus Christ. It’s a lovely thought to know that they are there taking care of you, and loving you.”
For this man, it seems, the motto was true: Faith, family and football — and in that order.