Angus MacDonald (bishop)

Angus MacDonald (18 September 1844 – 29 April 1900) was a Scottish Roman Catholic priest, who later served as the first Bishop of Argyll and the Isles from 1878 to 1892 and as the third Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh from 1892 to 1900. In addition to his role in building new church buildings, parochial schools, and other institutions after almost three centuries of religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Archbishop MacDonald is most notable for his leadership role in the Highland Land League agitation as Bishop of Argyll and the Isles. The Bishop embraced this role in order to end the absolute power of the Anglo-Scottish landlord class to profit through rackrenting and the Highland Clearances on their estates, and to improve the living standards of the laity during a time when he led "the most impoverished Diocese in Britain."