A group has launched a campaign to have Celtic legend Tommy Burns canonised by the Catholic Church.

Chris McLaughlin, Philip Church and Robert Docherty have been working to build a case for sainthood to present to the Bishop of Paisley, Bishop John Keenan, and appeal for the canonisation process to officially move forward.

Their efforts have already had the blessing of the Burns family, prior to Tommy’s wife Rosemary unexpectedly passing away last year.

If put forward by the diocese, the case would then progress to the Vatican. If successful, the former Celtic player and manager would become just the second Scottish saint since the Reformation, following the martyr, St John Ogilvie. He would also become the first footballer in the world to be canonised.

The idea to build and present a case came from a direct appeal from a friend of Burns, Father Robert Farrell. The priest has consistently said that he should be a saint since his passing from cancer in 2008.

Tommy Burns (Image: SNS)Canon Law means five years must pass following the death of a person before a cause for canonisation can begin. The group are keen to get it moving as quickly as possible.

Mr McLaughlin presented the case on the Diocese of Paisley podcast, which tells stories of the Catholic Church in the area.

“He signed for Celtic at the age of 17 in 1973 and debuted in the first team a couple of years later and had a successful career in football and then in coaching and management," he said.

“None of that, in itself, makes you a saint. What he’s also known for is a life of extraordinary sanctity and holiness which basically anybody who knew him seems to be able to talk about at some length. He was a daily mass goer, he prayed a great deal, his religion meant a great deal to him and he put it into action in a concrete way.

“He went out of his way to help many people and do extraordinary acts of kindness all through his life. One of the reasons this got started was myself and two friends knew a priest who was very close to him and right from the minute Tommy died he had been talking about how this man is a saint and how people had to seriously think about taking it forward.

“Long story short, he managed to convince one of my friends who convinced me and now we’re working on it.

“Tommy knew a great many priests. There were two in particular I also know and there was a priest called Fr Robert Farrell, and right from the early days insisted Tommy was a saint. There is a moratorium on opening causes for sainthood for five years after someone dies. For the immediate five years it generally isn’t dealt with.

READ MORE

• Celtic great Tommy Burns, the Iranian refugee and Scotland's untapped talent pool

• 'I fell in love with Scotland', a Nigerian priest on hope and breaking cycles of hate

“The Pope has the power to dispense with that in certain circumstances but generally five years is the minimum period of time. Once that period elapsed, Fr Robert had been leaning on anyone who would listen that someone had to take it on and really look into it.

“Because Tommy died at home in Newton Mearns and because it is in the diocese of Paisley, what canon law says is the bishop of the diocese where the deceased person died is the person who has jurisdiction so in this instance it was the bishop of Paisley, which is currently Bishop John Keenan.

“We approached him with our thoughts and he gave us some advice about exactly what to do next and what it amounts to is in the first case, Bishop John will have to make a decision on whether a cause for canonisation is officially opened and that’s what we are currently working on.

“At this moment in time we don’t have to prove Tommy was a saint but we firmly believe he was. We have to show there is good reason to believe he might be a saint and if Bishop John is convinced of that he would formally open the cause and then there’s a dicastery in Rome which become the officiating party.

“There’s a prescription set out in Canon Law about what we need to demonstrate to the bishop to get the cause open and essentially it boils down to two things in the main. The first is we have to show the person had a reputation for holiness and sanctity. Everyone who knew Tommy can speak to that point.

"The second is we have to show there is a cult of Tommy which essentially means people have been asking for his intercession. People who have been asking for favours from heaven. Very early on we have met people who have been doing precisely that. Once we gather the evidence we will put the case to the bishop and he will decide if the cause is officially opened.”

The group are now asking people to help them gather evidence of Mr Burns’ good deeds and religious beliefs because a lot of what he did, he did without publicity.

In a direct appeal Mr McLaughlin told the podcast: “One of the things we are keen to have people help us with is that we are very aware that many of the things Tommy did in life he kept quiet, he didn’t seek publicity for them.

“We know he would come home quite late in the evening and when asked where he was, he would say it was nothing important and later it would be discovered he had spend several hours visiting the sick children’s hospital or something like that.

"We know Tommy did some extraordinary things quietly and the nature of that is we don’t know everything he did do. We’re confident there are thousands of people who have stories of Tommy and we’d like to hear them because they will be very important as the case progresses.”