Fr Ninian Arbuckle OFM
On Friday 27th February 2026, in the Gorbals parish of Blessed John Duns Scotus, Glasgow, in the presence of parishioners, friends, family and friars, the Funeral Liturgy was offered for Father Ninian who had died in the city - and parish - in which he was born and grew up.
Father Patrick Lonsdale OFM from Woodford Friary, London, representing the Minister Provincial, presided at the Funeral Mass and Father Caoimhín Ó Laoide OFM, the parish priest, preached. Father Ninian’s remains were laid to rest in the friars’ plot at St Peter’s Cemetery, Dalbeth.
Ninian Arbuckle (baptised: Francis) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 5th February 1933, the third in a Catholic family of five children. Baptised at the friary church of St Francis of Assisi, Glasgow, his early schooling was in Scotland, including wartime evacuation from 1939 until 1942. In 1949, after four years at the OFM Seraphic College, Buckingham, England, he entered the Noviciate of the Friars Minor in Chilworth, Surrey, and made profession in the English Province on 22nd September 1950.
Formation was at the OFM House of Studies, East Bergholt, Suffolk, culminating in ordination to the priesthood on 17th March 1956. From 1956 until 1962 he pursued further studies in Sacred Scripture at Cambridge (St John’s College), Rome (Collegio Sant Antonio and the Biblicum) and Jerusalem (Flagellation College). He was lector in Scripture at East Bergholt (1963-1973) and at the Franciscan Study Centre, Canterbury (1973-1981). Among his many Provincial appointments he was Guardian in various communities, Definitor, Secretary of the Province, Archivist and, from 1987 to 1996, Vicar Provincial.
In 1982 he gained a Diploma in Adult Education from Nottingham University and went on to develop adult learning groups in Scripture and Franciscan Spirituality; and from 1998 to 2009 he led the Franciscan Spiritual Direction Programme at the Franciscan International Study Centre, Canterbury. He was also involved in giving Franciscan Directed Retreats and preached Retreats. As Archivist he digitalised much of the historical records including translating all of the Minutes of the English Province from 1625 to 1976.
In 2015 he retired to his home parish in Glasgow, and to the Duns Scotus fraternity, until November 2025 when terminal illness necessitated his move to St Margaret’s Hospice, where he died on 13th February 2026 at the age of 93.
May he rest in peace.
