St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association

Sodality Pilgrimage to Rome, Sept 2011, Day VI - Six and seven churches - done!

2012-01-28T11:11:00.002Z

What a day! Starting out outside St. Maria Maggiore (picture 1) looking for another Vatican post box - an unsuccessful quest - we continued into the Basilica. This is an impressive church (picture 2) with lots of little chapels, one of them open for adoration. Building started in 432

A.D. after God had spoken to the Pope in a dream - in the dream it was snowing on one of the hills of Rome and God told him to build a church there and the city would be rid of the plague that had ravaged it. For this reason the church is also known as Mary of the Snows.

This, the last of the main basilicas, is also one of the seven pilgrim churches. For nearly 700 years this was the seat of the latin patriarch of Antioch - up until 1953 when the last one died and no new one was appointed.

Moving on outside the walls - to San Paolo fuori le Mura (St. Paul's Without the Walls) - the last of the Pilgrimage Churches - we prayed for the Pope's intentions and then went on looking around. This church (picture 3) is absolutely huge and built on the location where St. Paul was buried, his sarcophagus partially displayed in the crypt (picture 4 - and yes, that is a bit of yours truly in the bottom left hand corner there). The church was first built in 386 A.D. but burnt down in 1823 A.D. and has hence been reconstructed and only parts of the antique basilica remain.

In connections to this church is also a monastery which is, I'm sure, lovely to visit - despite repeated visits to the church I still haven't managed it - there is so much to see here! So after praying, visiting the crypt, carefully examining the wall with the Pope portraits and discussing which ones were sodalists and photographing a group of nuns when they were looking the other way we took a break in the cafeteria - a very good one, by the way, a great place to relax before going on to the next stop. In St. Paul's there's also a very nice gift shop where they sell, apart from the usual rosary beads and little statuettes, soaps, candy and oils (oh - and liqueur, too!) made by the monks.

After this visit it was time for what would end up being my

favourite part of the pilgrimage (even though San Sebastiano comes close, too). The church of St. Agnes without the walls (OK, I might be slightly biased my own name being Agnes...). Yes, it is a bit away from the city center - and a bit of a walk from the nearest bus stop - but just opening the doors to this masterpiece of a church made it all feel worth it. After entering the doors you need to the descend a long flight of stairs with beautifully ornamented walls and ceilings (picture 5).

The church that's on the site today was built in the 7th century but there's been a church here longer than that. It is in this church that two lambs are blessed by the Pope on St. Agnes' Feast Day (Jan 21 for those of you who don't keep track), their wool later woven into pallia - the ceremonial white neck-stoles sent to newly elevated Metropolitan archbishops, the church is also another place where you can visit the catacombs of Rome.

After this visit we could go home happy.

Black Scapular of Saint Benedict

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000Z

The Scapular of St. Benedict is the emblem of the confraternity of that saint, founded in the latter half of the 19th century with the object of associating the faithful with the Benedictine Order. The Confraternity was granted indulgences in 1882 and 1883, and members wear a small black cloth scapular in two segments, one of which usually has a picture of Saint Benedict, although not strictly required.

St. Benedict, pray for us!

Father Gregory Winterton RIP

2012-01-24T13:03:00.002Z

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Father Gregory Winterton, Cong. Orat., of the Birmingham Oratory, who died on Wednesday 18th January 2012 and whose funeral took place today, 24th January. An account of the reception of his body into the Oratory can be found here. The funeral itself was very well attended, not a single seat remained in the church and in excess of a hundred people were also gathered around its edges during the Mass. There were also in excess of 50 priests including representatives from other Oratories.

Father Gregory was the Provost of the Birmingham Oratory from 1971 until 1992 except for six months in 1977. He is well remembered for the work he did in the pursuit of the Canonisation of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, being the Actor for the cause for some years.

The Oratory website has a lovely tribute to Father Gregory which provides many further details of his life and it is not my plan to reproduce those here. From it though most poignant for me is the following quote:

"The moment when Fr Gregory was presented to Pope Benedict XVI and, later that same day, when they met at the Oratory House, provided unforgettable pictures: two men in their eighties—one (the Pope) a devoted student of Newman, the other (Fr Gregory) the tireless advocate of Newman’s holiness. It was the culmination of half a life-time’s hard work for Fr Gregory."

I vividly remember that moment at Cofton Park, pictured above. In the months that followed I heard so many others who knew Father Gregory comment on it, recalling it with pleasure. At the time I knew relatively little of Father Gregory's role in the work that lead to us all being there that day for the beatification. When he later visited Ireland and we spent some time talking together I began to understand a little more of the efforts that he personally made but his modesty obscured just how much he had done. Friday when I opened The Times I must admit I was surprised to discover that they had run a full page obituary for Father Gregory instead of the usual few short paragraphs that I had expected. It was only on reading this piece, much of the content of which is also covered in the Oratory's own piece, that I learnt just how significant a role he had played

Father Gregory's trip to Ireland in May 2011 was to deliver a series of conferences during the Sodality of Our Lady Retreat in Mount Melleray Abbey, O.C.S.O., Cappoquin, Co. Waterford. The theme of these was Newman and Our Lady, a subject close to the hearts of the Sodality, a group not only dedicated to Our Lady but one which meets regularly in Newman's University Church in Dublin. Those who attended found much interest in and benefit from his talks and we all felt privileged at Father Gregory's presence, appreciating the tremendous effort he, then 88 and frail, had made to be with us. Subsequently his talks were published in the Sodality Journal and a copy has been placed here for free download so that others have the opportunity to benefit from his wisdom.

There are so many people who knew Father Gregory far better than I did but I hope readers will understand that it seems strange to me to write a piece like this without sharing some of my own personal recollections. In particular I remember sitting with him at breakfast in the dining room at Mount Melleray whilst we ate porridge, a favourite of his, and he told me about how he came to join the Oratory and how he used to cycle from there right across the city to attend lectures at Oscott College. However, most of all I think I will remember his joy, how at the simplest things a smile would come across his face and it would light up, as he would start to chuckle at some piece of humour which caught his fancy.

Father Gregory, rest in peace, you will be missed by so many.

Mass in St. Abban's Church, Doonane, Co. Laois

2012-01-22T06:00:00.001Z

Holy Mass in the Gregorian Rite will be celebrated in St. Abban's Church, Doonane, Co. Laois, at 12 noon, on Saturday, 25th February, 2012.

St. Abban of Doonane, pray for us!

Mass for Christian Unity

2012-01-21T16:49:00.000Z

This afternoon in St. Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin 7, our annual Mass for Christian Unity (ad tollendam schisma) was celebrated in the Gregorian Rite.

St. Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles, pray for us!

Blessing of Lambs for the Pallium

2012-01-21T11:39:00.001Z

With exams around the corner, I rarely have time to blog, but I wanted to do this small post for St. Agnes day. St. Agnes incidentally is one of the few Memoriae in the calendar with an almost fully Proper Office for Lauds and Vespers and the privilege of the Sunday/Common psalms.

On the feast of St. Agnes, yearly, the lambs supplying wool for the pallium are blessed. But since I'm pressed for time, I'm not writing about that....

This is the pre-conciliar text for the blessing (anyone want to try their hand at translating it before next year?)

¶ Finita Missa statim Vicarius assistens vadit ad deponendum super credentiam Pluviale, Abbas vero accepta mitra, et facta cum ea debita Cruci reverentia, simul cum Diacono et Subdiacono accedit ad faldistorium, ubi sedit, depositis prius manipulis a Ministris, suumque dimittit, iterum Clerici ponunt super Altare duos Agnos, floribus in capite coronatos, cum pelvino in cornu Evangelii et Epistolæ: Cantores cantant antiphonam sequentem ( Stans, etc.) : In eodem tempore Abbas cum mitra imponit ter incensum in thuribulo de more illud benedicens ; expleta Antiphona mitratus accedit ad altare cum Ministris, et ante ipsum, mitra deposita, facta reverentia Cruci in medium ascendit, ubi manibus iunctis in tono feriali, sive cantu, has præces et orationes dicit.

¶ Postea accipit a Diacono aspersorium, et cum eo ter aspersit Agnum in cornu Evangelii in medio, a dextris, et a sinistris, et alterum in cornu Epistolæ pariter ter eodem modo, ac ter adolet incenso, quo aspersit. Deinde accepta mitra, et facta reverentia Cruci revertitur ad faldistorium ad deponenda paramenta.

Ant. Stans a dextris eius Agnus: nive candidior Christus sibi sponsam et martyrem consecravit.

V. Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.
R. Qui fecit coelum et terram.
V. Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.

OREMUS. Omnipotens et misericors Deus qui per Moysen famulum tuum Pontificibus tabernaculos servientibus, indumenta instituisti: et per sanctos Apostolos tuos Sacerdotibus et Pontificibus Evangelicis vestimenta sacra providisti: effunde tuam sanctam Benedictionem super hos Agnos, de quorum vellere sacra Pallia pro Summis Pontificibus, Patriarchis, et Archiepiscopis conficienda sunt: ut qui eis utuntur una cum plebe sibi commissa per intercessionem B. V. et M. Agnetis (super cuius tumbam oramus) ad æternam benedictionem perducantur: Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

OREMUS. Deus qui infirma mundi eligis ut fortia quæque confundas; concede propitius ut qui Beatæ Agnetis Virginis et Martyris tuæ solemnia colimus eius apud te patrocinia sentiamus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

First published in January, 2008

Strawberry Hill in Kildare and Leighlin - Ballyroan

2012-01-21T09:21:00.001Z

This Church almost made it into 'The ones that got away' because, as you can see from the shot of the plans below, it was recently proposed to 're-arrange' the Church but, despite having been happily held up by the planning authorities, the re-ordering went ahead. If this Church could run it should have run faster!

When I visited the Church there was a mesh over the ceiling but there is a fine plasterwork ceiling there somewhere, probably a worthy match of the eastern wall, which is in a fine 'Strawberry Hill Gothic'. Once I have completed the series on the ones that got away, I intend to look at the ones that didn't, beginning with those that have 'Strawberry Hill' features.

By Strawberry Hill Gothic I understand a style of decoration established by Horace Walpole at his London residence of that name. Walpole wrote in 1794 that "every true Goth must perceive more the works of fancy than imitation" about his house, for which Walpole coigned the word 'gloomth' (as in warmth) that typifies 'the gothic' as a literary genre, which he also pioneered through his novel The Castle of Otranto, that established 'the gothic novel' as a primary prose form for a generation and which continues to resonate in our own day.

As an architectural form, Strawberry Hill Gothic (often spelled with a 'k' to distinguish it from the other forms of neo-gothic architecture) is a flamboyant and decorative gothic in the architectural sense of those words, broadly based upon the English perpendicular, even to the extent that the triforium is completely absent.

Without denigrating the form, it strikes me as more superficial and decorative in the romantic sense of picturesque, in contrast to the more archaeological methods of Ruskin and Pugin the elder, and the total immersion of the Arts and Crafts and pre-Raphaelite movements. Strawberry Hill Gothic aims for sensual effect rather than the material and social change that the Gothic Revival would later espouse. There is no clear transition from the Palladian to the Gothick, in that classicists such as Robert Adam and Charles Barry were equally comfortable providing decoration in either for a demanding patron and can be seen as a form of the roccoco.

The decorative effect of the spandrel, the thinner mullion, the ogee and the pendent are used to maximum effect. As an easier medium for delicate and complicated decoration and, I think, as typical of the style, wood is more common in this 'gothick' than in other forms of gothic. Thus we see on the eastern wall at Ballyroan a riot of wooden decoration and also in the nave windows. The form of the wooden mullions here can also be in Churches in various parts of the Diocese where those windows have been retained. For example, they can still be seen in the Church of the Assumption in nearby Vicarstown and older images of St. Conleth's in Newbridge show the same form in the windows of the nave, well into the 20th cent.

It was our Catholic heritage. Why couldn't they leave it alone?

White Scapular of the Holy Face

2012-01-21T06:00:00.001Z

The Scapular of the Holy Face, of white cloth has a copy of the famous Roman picture associated with Saint Veronica. Members of the Arch-confraternity have the option of wearing the picture on a medal or cross instead of the scapular, but no indulgence attaches to the practice of wearing the picture, since it is merely one of the acts of piety practiced by them.

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

Mass for Christian Unity - St. Paul's, Arran Quay

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000Z

Mass in the Gregorian Rite will be offered for Christian Unity, during the Octave for Christian Unity, at 12 noon on Saturday, 21st January, 2012, in St. Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin 7.

St. Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles, pray for us!

Sodality Pilgrimage to Rome, Sept 2011, Day V - Fifteen minutes under ground

2012-01-14T09:43:00.001Z

Once we got this far in the pilgrimaging some of us had actually had to go back home. The rest of us kept going though - today out to San Sebastiano (picture 1), Pilgrim church no 5, located about half an hour out on the Via Appia Antica. Since burials weren't allowed inside the city most of the old martyrs and Popes were buried outside the walls, and the martyr we're visiting today is St Sebastian (picture 3), buried in the church that bears his name.

Born in the 3rd century he was a soldier in Emperor Diocletian's army and a Christian. When he refused to deny his faith he was tied to a tree and shot by archers but miraculously survived and confronted the Emperor who then had him stoned.

The church in itself is beautiful, like churches are, and situated just over the tomb of St Sebastian and the catacombs built up around it. The catacombs contain both pagan roman and Christian tombs, some of the older ones, family vaults, with incredibly well preserved frescos and urns with the ashes of dead romans. Walking through the catacombs' sometimes narrow and labyrinth like passages was, at times, quite uncomfortable, but a quick prayer to Our Lady took care of that.

Leaving San Sebastiano and walking back in the direction of the city we passed a field with cute, lovely and jumpy lambs (picture 4) before coming to the church of Domine Quo Vadis. Built on the spot where St. Peter was suddenly stopped from fleeing persecution in Rome by Our Lord asking "Lord, where are you going?" Peter answering: "I am going to Rome to be crucified again". The church was built in the 17th century and is, certainly when you compare it to the basilicas in the city, very small. On the floor, in the middle of the church, is a copy of the foot prints (picture 5) left in the ground by Jesus on the occasion described above. The original (picture 2) is now kept in San Sebastiano. So how cool is that - Jesus' feet!!!? Coming back to the hotel that afternoon my own feet felt like stone as well - lovely long walk, underground excursions, sheep and then by far the most aweinspiring footprints - I too would stop in my tracks and go back to Rome!

White Scapular of Saint Dominic

2012-01-14T06:00:00.002Z

Pope Pius X again in 1903 granted an indulgence to wearers of the Scapular of Saint Dominic. The Scapular is of white wool, and while no image is necessary yet the scapular given in the house of the Dominican General in Rome bears a picture of Saint Dominic kneeling before the crucifix, on one side, and of Blessed Reginald receiving the habit from Our Blessed Lady, on the other.

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us!
Saint Dominic, pray for us!
Blessed Reginald, pray for us!

Black and Blue Scapular of St. Michael

2012-01-07T06:00:00.000Z

When, in 1880, Leo XIII raised the Confraternity in honour of St. Michael the Archangel, to the rank of an Arch-confraternity, he conferred a signal honour on the Confraternity founded in 1878 in Rome, and Pisheria. And in 1883, the Congregation of Rites by Decree aproved the summary of indulgences, later to be approved forever by the Congregation in 1903.

The scapular is in two segments, and takes the form of a shield. One segment is of blue cloth; the other black with one cord of blue and one of black. St. Michael the Archangel is shown slaying the dragon, and it is inscribed "Quis ut Deus."

St. Michael Archangel, pray for us!

Sodality Pilgrimage to Rome, Sept 2011, Day IV - Four extraordinary Roman treats

2011-12-31T09:38:00.001Z

Time for the fourth day - full of rare and special treats for experience-hungry Catholic pilgrims.

Our first stop is the church San Ignazio, (Picture 1) built to give honour to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuit order - whose main church is Il Gesu, also in Rome, but we'll get to that later. St. Ignatius was born late in the 15th century, he was a noble man and an officer who, while recovering from wounds of battle, studied the life of Jesus and the saints and realised that his life was better spent in the service of Our Lord. The church San Ignazio in connected with the Roman College; where the church dome should be is instead an observatory and so the church ceiling has the inside of a cupola painted. Since our guide, had arranged it beforehand a special guide provided by the Church authorities met us in the church and took us up across the roof and into the rooms of Saints Aloysius Gonzaga and John Berchmans (Picture 2) - both of whom are buried in the church and both of whom, together with St. Stanislaus Kostka, are Jesuit Patron Saints of students.

After stopping to say the little office in the private chapel of the students we were then taken to the Prima Primaria chapel (picture 3). The Prima Primaria was the first sodality, the one that not only inspired but also approved all the other ones. Stopping for lunch - more tasty Italian pasta - and then on to the next stop;

Il Gesu (Picture 4), the main church for the Jesuit order. This church has been the model for churches all around the world - the architecture is swishy, the decor even swishier with frescoes actually escaping from their frames and jumping out at you. But more of the main church later; our stunning guide had arranged for us to visit the chapel of the Sodality of the Nobles (picture 5). The Sodality of the Nobles is one of the few sodalities still active, devoted to the Assumption of Our Lady, the walls of their chapel's adorned with pictures of her and scenes from her life, assumption and coronation. Another bit of the little office prayed and we headed back into the main basilica for the Revelation of Saint Ignatius. Every evening at 5.30 a dazzling spectacle takes place that sends shivers down your spine. Unable to describe it I can only recommend everyone to stop by when visiting Roma.

Every Saint- A Prayer for the End of the Year

2011-12-31T09:00:00.002Z

To close the year, below is the epilogue to the Martyrology of Gorman, a beautiful prayer to all the saints, asking for their intercession and protection. The Martyrology of Gorman is a metrical calendar of the saints compiled in the late 12th century by the abbot of an Augustinian friary in Louth, Mael-Muire or Marianus O'Gorman. This prayer appears as the epilogue to the work, following the final entry on December 31.

Epilogue.

I. Let every saint who hath been, who shall be, in the greentopped mournful world, let all the dear and gracious host forgive me.

5. The noble, beloved army—little of their sea is this number—to protect me from battle, from bane, (and) from demons.

9. In their hosts, in their hundreds, let them ask for me pardon, repentance before death, and protection of me from every hardship.

13. May they guard me from the Devil, for he is always doing evil—the noble sages with knowledge, every saint who hath been, who shall be!

Every saint.

The End.

Keep Christ in Christmas Campaign

2011-12-31T06:00:00.001Z

Please spread the word and keep Christ at the heart of Christmas by asking for Christian cards, Christian stamps, and Christian gifts.

"When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. Saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to adore him." Matt. ii, 1-2

White Scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000Z

Originated with the Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1877, and sanctioned by Pius IX on 11th May, 1877, the Scapular of the Immaculate heart of Mary was approved by the Congregation of Rites in 1907 when its form was more precisely set down. It is of white wollen cloth, the poriton hanging before the breast representing the Heart of Mary out of which grows a lily. The Heart, pierced with a sword, is surrounded by a wreath of roses.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death!

2012 Calendar - Free download

2011-12-29T13:35:00.002Z

Our free 2012 calendar is now available online, it includes the dates of principal feasts and Irish bank holidays. Members of the Association should already have received their copy by mail but non-members can download a .pdf copy from this link.

Urbi et Orbi Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T21:00:00.003Z

Christmas Holiday

2011-12-24T21:45:00.002Z

Of the films of Deanna Durbin, this is not the most tasteful, even if you look hard for the moral thread. However, the scenes from Midnight Mass for Christmas at the very beginning of this clip are worth showing.

Happy Christmas!

Sodality Pilgrimage to Rome, Sept 2011, Day III - Uno, due, tres important churches

2011-12-24T11:51:00.000Z

With the arrival of day three we begin to seriously take on our mission of visiting the seven main churches of Rome to get the plenary indulgence - having visited St. Peter's the day before we head of to do three churches in one day; St. John Lateran (picture 1), Holy Cross and St. Lawrence. Starting at St. John parts of the group chose to climb the Holy Stairs while the rest of us went in. Il Laterano is, just like many of the other famous and popular Roman churches, full of tourists and has not one but two gift shops (I write this as if it's a bad thing but, truth be told, I'm usually the first one in there). A grand church with apse mosaics and huge statues of the disciples, still one of the nicest (and cutest) decoration details is how the little sculpture angels that adorn the ceiling all have different facial characteristics and expressions. After remembering to post our Vatican-stamped postcards (the Lateran counts as Vatican territory despite being on the opposite side of the city) we all went on to the museums. Surprisingly empty of visitors this magnificent collection of papal possessions on display in the richly decorated rooms (picture 2) where the popes were once meant to live.

Next on the list was the church Santa Croce in Gerusalemme but that being closed for lunch we instead went on to San Lorenzo (a few stops further on the tram). Construction of this church began in 6th century in honour of St. Lawrence who was executed on the site, over the centuries since parts have been added. Interred in the church are, except for St. Lawrence also St. Stephen the protomartyr and Pope Pius IX (picture 3), in front of whom we gathered and prayed. Looking around the church we found, behind glass, the stone upon which St. Lawrence was put after having been roasted for his beliefs.

Now going back to Santa Croce we had better luck and got in to see the relics of the true cross; a nail, a few splinter of wood, a piece of the elogium (the panel hung on the cross) and two thorns from the crown placed on Jesus' head. In an adjoining room there is also a life-size copy of the shroud of Turin on display. Parts of this building, that holds such precious artifacts, have been turned into a hotel which, I must say, felt strange.

With now only three Pilgrim Churches remaining we went back to the convent for Vespers, Benediction, supper and then bed after a very long and eventful day.

Violet and Yellow Scapular of Saint Joseph

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000Z

In 1880 Leo XIII approved yet another scapular so familiar and widespread in the present day. In 1898 the Pope saw fit to grant to the General of the Capuchins the faculty of blessing and investing with the scapular of Saint Joseph. The scapular was approved by the Congregation of Rites on 18th April 1893 and indulgences were granted on 8th June of the same year by the Congregation of Indulgences.

The beautiful scapular is of two segments of violet coloured cloth, joined by two white cords to which are sewn two pieces of yellow-coloured material equal in size. There is a representation of St. Joseph with the Child Jesus on his right arm, and in his left a staff of lilies. Underneath is the invocation "Saint Joseph, patron of the Church, pray for us." On the other gold-coloured material is the Papal Crown (tiara), the Dove symbolising the Holy Ghost and underneath the Cross and Keys of Peter and the words "Spiritus Domini, tutor eius."

Saint Joseph, patron of the Church, pray for us!

Christmas in Medieval Wales

2011-12-18T09:00:00.003Z

The article below was published last year in a Welsh newspaper and highlights the very different perspective people in the Middle Ages had on the celebration of Christmas. Perhaps there is a challenge here to all of us to recover the true spirit of Advent and to regain that more theologically subtle understanding of the feast held by our forefathers?

More religion and less sentiment at Christmas in medieval Wales

Dec 24 2010 by Steffan Rhys, Western Mail

Our assumptions about the celebration of Christmas are shattered when we turn back the clock to medieval Wales, argues Dr Madeleine Gray , reader in history at the University of Wales, Newport

YOU would expect a traditional medieval Welsh Christmas to be all about Jesus’ birth.

Whatever our feelings about religion, we do think we have a picture of the first Christmas – the stable, the baby in the manger, the shepherds coming down from the cold hills. But strangely enough, there were very few pictures of this scene in medieval Wales.

There is one lovely little painting in a manuscript in the National Library in Aberystwyth. Mary is lying under a good Welsh tapestry blanket, with the baby on her lap. She has clearly just finished feeding him. At the foot of the bed, Joseph is having the traditional post-birth nap!

There is also a very battered stone carving in St David’s Cathedral, some very faded painted wooden panels in Llanelian near Colwyn Bay and the remains of a stained glass window at Gresford – and that’s it.

Our “ignorant” peasant ancestors had a much more theologically subtle understanding of the whole story. For them, it began nine months earlier when the Angel Gabriel told Mary she was expecting God’s child. There were pictures of this event, called the Annunciation, in illuminated manuscripts and in churches all over Wales. It is carved in alabaster on a tomb at Abergavenny and there is even a little wooden carving under one of the choir stalls at Gresford. Sometimes a picture of the Annunciation survives in fragments of stained glass when everything else has been lost, suggesting that this picture was the one people wanted to save above all others.

There were also lots of pictures of the Virgin and Child, including the famous statues at Cardigan and Penrhys. There were even pictures and carvings of Jesus’s earthly family tree. This was shown literally as a tree growing out of the body of his ancestor Jesse. The kings of Israel stood in the branches and Mary and Jesus were at the top. There is a massive stained glass window of this Tree of Jesse at Llanrhaiadr in the Vale of Clwyd. In Abergavenny it was carved in wood, the size of a real tree. All that is left of that carving now is the figure of Jesse, at least twice life-size. Painted and gilded, the whole thing would have been awesome.

But in virtually all of these paintings and carvings, Jesus isn’t a baby. He is a well-grown toddler, reaching out to his mother or to the audience. Welsh people of the middle ages didn’t want to get sentimental over a little baby. They believed in a God who was human, one they could engage with and relate to.

Christmas nowadays seems to start before the leaves have fallen from the trees. Pubs and restaurants are advertising Christmas specials by the end of August – Cardiff’s lights are turned on at the beginning of November – by the time we get to the great day we’ve all eaten and drunk too much already and if we’re honest it can be a bit of an anticlimax. But it’s traditional, isn’t it?

Well, maybe. But if you went back far enough in time, you would find that the run-up to Christmas was very different. For our medieval ancestors, Advent (the month before Christmas) was a time of fasting and penitence. No chocolate-filled Advent calendars then! You prepared to celebrate Christ’s first coming to earth by thinking about his second coming as a judge. Every church had a terrifying painting of the Last Judgement with souls being pitchforked down into Hell. Jesus was shown not as a sweet little baby but as a judge, in red robes.

Celebration didn’t start until Christmas Day. Mind you, once they started, they did know how to party. Elizabeth de Burgh had a Christmas party in Usk Castle in 1326 that went on for the full 12 days. There were two boars’ heads, venison, beef and pork for all comers in her new Great Hall. The tradition was that if you turned up looking reasonably respectable, you could stay for three days before anyone even asked who you were. And for those who couldn’t scrub up, there would have been a generous distribution of leftovers outside the castle gates. There would have been music, dancing, poetry and entertainers. For the great and the good, three swans were cooked, two herons, two bitterns and a holocaust of smaller birds. The kitchen got through 800 eggs on Christmas Day alone.

This was not just conspicuous consumption. Elizabeth was a shrewd politician. What she was doing was what the American political theorist Joseph Nye called “soft power”. She had only just reclaimed her estates from Edward II’s favourite Hugh le Despencer. If local people wanted to be invited to her feasts and entertainment, they were more likely to be prepared to support her against the king.

Medieval Welsh landowners also entertained in style. Snowed up in Merionethshire, the old poet Llywelyn Goch spoke of:

Listening after Christmas
To the cooks slicing the meat;
Quick fiddle and bagpipe,
Blending of voices nightly,
Sanctus bells and laughter
And hailing men to have wine. (translated by Joseph Clancy)

But this was after Christmas – and all the more enjoyable because you had to wait for it.

Back on the Rails IV - The Bandon Line

2011-12-17T21:20:00.000Z

After the Chetwynd Viaduct, the line of the Cork, Bandon and South Coast railway continues westwards to the townland of Waterfall or Tobar an Iarla in Irish, literally Well of the Earl. The Earl in question could have been one of the McCarthy, Eóganacht Lords of Muskerry. Donal MacCarthaigh Mór was created Earl of Glencar by Elizabeth Tudor in 1565 but the title was extinguished with him. Donough MacCarthaigh Mór, Viscount Muskerry, was created Earl of Clancarthy by Charles II. I have posted before about the Catholic zeal of the family in founding Kilcrea Abbey, in defending the Catholic Confederacy at Carrigadroichead, and supporting the Catholic King James II at Bandon.

A large number of physical remnants of the railway line remain. I took photos of an embankment and a railway bridge South of Waterfall. The next station is Ballinhassig or Béal Átha an Chasaigh in Irish, literally the mouth of the ford of the turn. The turn in question being the reverse of a small English force by a force led by Florence MacCarthaigh in 1610. Nine years earlier the Lord Deputy Mountjoy camped here with his forces before the Battle of Kinsale. Between Ballinhassig and Innishannon there is a branch line junction for Kinsale.

Beyond Ballinhassig at Gogginshill the railway enters a long hilltop tunnell, now disused. I wasn't able to get near the tunnel, which is now on private land, but pictures are available here. I did visit the Church of the Most Holy Heart of Mary at Gogginshill.

An excellent example of the elevated and picturesque line that the railway now follows is the Halfway Viaduct that stands above the small village that sat half-way between Cork and Bandon (before the City extended to the South and West).

I want to end this stage of my survey with the Upton/Innishannon Station. It is the fourth station from Albert Quay on the main line of the railway. It is an excellent example of such stations. At the entrance to the property containing the station is the monument to the three men of the IRA who died in the Upton Train Ambush, which happened on 15th February, 1921, as part of the Irish War of Independence. The monument reads:

Fuaireadar bás ar son
Phoblacht na hÉireann
SÉAN Ó FAOLÁIN
Captaen 22 bl
PARTHOLAN Ó TÁILBHE
Saor Óglach 22 bl
PÁDRAIG Ó SUILLEABHÁIN
Leas-Chaptaen 35 bl
Ba leis an gCuigú Chath
Treas Bhriogáid Chorcaí I.R.A. iad
Maraíodh iad san troid ar an 15.2.1921
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anamacha

That is in English:

There died for
The Irish Republic
SÉAN Ó FAOLÁIN
Captain aged 22 years
PARTHOLAN Ó TÁILBHE
Free Volunteer aged 22 years
PÁDRAIG Ó SUILLEABHÁIN
Vice-Captain aged 35 years
Of the Fifth Battalion
Of the Third Cork Brigade
They died in action on 15.2.1921
May their souls be at the right hand of God

On the hill overlooking the station is the Brothers of Charity premises at Upton, a place that has its share of infamy. One claim to fame is that the eldest brother of Little Nellie of Holy God (her picture below) was placed here in 1907 when their mother died. Their father, a soldier on Spike Island in Cork Harbour, was unable to take care of them and all four children were placed in Industrial Schools. Her eldest brother Thomas was sent to Upton, her brother David went to the Sisters of Mercy at Passage West, while Nellie and her elder sister Mary were sent to St. Finbarr's Industrial School of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd at Sunday's Well, Cork City. Little Nellie is rightly revered by the people of Cork and beyond but I often wonder what happened to her siblings. They seem to have slipped quickly into the shadows of obscurity that surrounded so many of the unfortunate children who were sent to these institutions.

Little Nellie of Holy God (1903-1908)
Little Violet of the Holy Eucharist

Black Scapular of Our Lady, Help of the Sick

2011-12-17T06:00:00.000Z

The Scapular of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title "Help of the Sick", is a black wollen cloth, having on the portion other the breast a copy of the picture in the Church of Saint Magdalen at Rome of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Help of the Sick, which inspired Ferdinand Vicari, a brother of the Order of Saint Camillus to found a confraternity for the poor sick under the patronage of Our Blessed Lady. The picture represents the Mother of God and at her feet Saints Joseph and Camillus, who are the other two patrons of the sick and the Confraternity. The Scapular was granted its indulgences by Pope Pius IX in 1866.

Health of the sick, pray for us!

CHRISTVS REGNAT - December, 2011

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000Z

The December, 2011, issue of the twice-yearly journal of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association is now available. You can subscribe to CHRISTVS REGNAT by e-mailing here. CHRISTVS REGNAT is also available for download here.

The following articles are found in the Fifth Volume, Number Two, for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 2011:

Report on XXth General Assembly of the FIUV

Father Paul Murphy and the building of St Mary’s Church, Edenderry 1912-1918
A thorough history of one of the finest Churches in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin and its outstanding founder.

The Carthusian Rite
An examination of one of the least well-known Uses of the Roman Rite.

On the Honour of the World
Extracted from a sermon by Msgr. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, giant of the golden age of French pulpit oratory.

Kenelm Henry Digby
The life and works of one of the first beams of the dawn of the Victorian medieval revival and the great flood of 19th Century converts.

The Development of Tradition in Culture
An essay on the structure of tradition and its significance for todays traditional Catholics.

153 Big Fish! – The Johannine Catch of Fish and the Marian Rosary
An insightful and illuminating speculation upon the significance of the traditional structure of the Holy Rosary, with reference to Sacred Scripture and modern Marian apparitions.

“O Lord, You are my portion and cup”
A current Seminarian's insights into Seminary life and the significance of Seminary routine for the formation of Priestly identity.

Reports on Masses during the second half of 2011

Saint Brigid and Saint Lucy

2011-12-13T09:00:00.002Z

December 13 is the feast of Saint Lucy of Syracuse, an early virgin martyr, and I was very much interested by the 2008 post by Anka on the celebration of Saint Lucy's Day in Sweden. According to a modern scholar of Irish folklore, the cult of Saint Lucy may have directly influenced the cult of our own Saint Brigid, both in the use of the hagiographical motif of the plucking out of the eyes and in some of the ways in which Saint Brigid's day was celebrated in popular culture. Dr Dáithí Ó hÓgain writes:

Narratives of Brighid were developed through medieval times by further additions from Continental hagiography. A ninth-century text describes how a man comes to woo the young, and as yet unprofessed, Brighid. Her stepbrothers try to compel her to accept the marriage, but she knocks out one of her eyes so as not to be attractive to the suitor. When the family allow her to remain a virgin she miraculously restores sight to herself. The story is repeated in later sources, and it survived in the recent folklore of north Leinster and south Ulster. The name of the suitor, Dubhthach mac Lughair, is borrowed from the early Patrician texts, and it is obvious that the story cannot be older than the eighth century. It was, in fact, taken from the lore of the continental saint Lucy and was suggested by the symbolism of light associated with both of these holy virgins. It is apparent that the cult of Lucy influenced that of Brighid in other ways also in medieval times. Lucy's feastday, December 13, coincided with the winter solstice in the old calendar and was thus seen to usher in the lengthening of daylight. In Irish the saying which refers to Brighid's feastday, February 1, is that 'from Brighid's feastday onwards the day gets longer and the night shorter', although in fact that change occurs from the winter solstice, and the presumption must be that this saying was in origin a rather inaccurate borrowing from the Lucy lore. It could well be, also, that some of the paraphernalia associated with the feast of Brighid in Irish folk life - such as processions of young girls with the leader dressed up as the saint - shows the influence of the Lucy cult, which was very popular in western European countries in the Middle Ages.

Dáithí Ó hÓgain, Myth, Legend and Romance: An Encyclopaedia of the Irish Folk Tradition (Ryan, 1990), 62-63.

Something else which struck me as I looked at the picture above of a celebration of Saint Lucy's Day in Sweden in 1943, was that the round headdress of candles worn by the young girl representing the saint has echoes of another tradition associated with Saint Brigid - her connection with the feast of Candlemas. I have previously recorded this version of the Brigid and Candlemas story here:

Ireland: Folklore

108. A Legend of St. Brigid

In further reference to the spring feature of Saint Brigid I am indebted to Miss Delap for a curious legend from Valentia Island which, with fine disregard of chronology, makes Saint Brigid a friend of the Virgin Mary. It is said that when the Virgin was shy about facing the congregation in the Temple, Saint Brigid procured a harrow, took out the spikes and putting a candle in every hole, placed it on her head, walked up before the Virgin and escorted her down again. According to another version, which it is believed came from the north of Ireland, it was a hoop with lighted candles which the Saint wore as she danced up the aisle before the Virgin and down again. For this service Saint Brigid’s Day is the eve of Candlemas or the Purification of the Virgin.

Elizabeth Andrews, Man, Vol. 22 (December 1922), 187.

I don't know if the 'hoop with lighted candles' is also borrowed from the Saint Lucy tradition, but in view of what Dr Ó hÓgain has said, it seems to me an interesting coincidence.

Gaudete Sunday in Kildare

2011-12-11T20:35:00.005Z

The fortnightly Masses in Athy, Co. Kildare, blossomed this evening with Mass for Gaudete Sunday celebrated by the excellent Canon Wulfran Lebocq, ICR, at 5 p.m. in the Parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel.

Gaudete in Domino semper!

White Scapular of Our Lady, Mother of Good Counsel

2011-12-10T06:00:00.001Z

Granting the petition of the Augustinians Leo XIII by Decree approved the scapular of the Mother of Good Counsel, and granted indulgences to wearers of the scapular. The representations of the scapular will have a special interest since, on oe of the two segments is shown the image of the Mother of Good Counsel from the picture in the Augustinian church in Genazzano. On the other segment are the papal arms and the words "Son, follow Her Counsel, Leo XIII."

O Virgin Mother, Lady of Good Counsel, Sweetest picture artist ever drew, In all doubts I fly to thee for guidance, Mother tell me what am I to do!

The Immaculate Conception II - Grave Nimis

2011-12-08T11:02:00.001Z

Continuing from the last post on the Immaculate Conception, the next in line was the bull Grave Nimis. The contention over the Immaculate Conception was very high - the Dominicans particularly, felt obligated to defend the common opinion that St. Thomas Aquinas had pronounced against it, and consequently, vigorously opposed it (something that continued persistently- even when introduced into their calendar, it was under the name "The Sanctification of the Blessed Virgin Mary". But that'll be covered later) Sixtus IV imposed one of the first of a series of "gag orders" by this bull:

WE bear a burden too onerous and painful, when unfavourable reports are brought to us regarding certain ecclesiastical persons. But in the excesses committed in preaching by those who are deputed to announce the word of God, we are the more provoked at it, in proportion as they remain with greater danger uncorrected, when the errors, which are impressed on the hearts of many by thus preaching publicly in a more diffused and damnable manner, cannot easily be done away with.

And truly, when the holy Roman Church solemnly publicly celebrates a festival concerning the conception of the undefiled and ever-Virgin Mary, and has ordained regarding this a special and peculiar office, some preachers of different orders, as we have heard, in their discourses to the people publicly have hitherto not blushed to affirm, through different states and lands, and cease not daily to preach, that all those who hold or assert, that the same glorious and immaculate mother of God was conceived without the stain of original sin, commit deadly sin, or that they are heretics; that those celebrating the office of the same immaculate conception, and hearing the discourses of those who affirm that she was conceived without such stain, sin grievously.

But not content with the aforesaid preachings, they have published books got up about these their assertions,from whose assertions and preachings no inconsiderable scandals have arisen in the minds of the faithful, and still greater are dreaded to arise every day.

We then, desiring to obviate such rash daring and perverse and scandalous assertions, which may thence arise in the Church of God, as far as is permitted us from on high, of our own proper motion, not at the instance of any petition presented to us on the point, but from our own mere deliberation and certain knowledge, reprobate and condemn by apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, such assertions of the same preachers, and of any other persons soever, who presume to affirm that those who believe or hold that the same mother of God was at her conception preserved from the stain of original sin, are for this reason polluted with the stain of any heresy, or committed mortal sin; or that when celebrating such office of the conception, or listening to such discourses, that they incur the guilt of any sin, as being false and erroneous, and utterly foreign from the truth;

And, moreover, in this respect, the aforesaid published books containing such assertion, and by the aforesaid motion, knowledge, and authority, we determine and ordain, that the preachers of the word of God, and any other persons soever, of what state, grade, order, or condition soever they may be, who in future shall presume, by rash daring, to affirm to the people, or in any other way soever, that such assertions, so disapproved and condemned by us, are true, or to read as true the aforesaid books, to hold or to keep them, after they have obtained the knowledge of these presents, incur by the very fact sentence of excommunication, from which they cannot obtain the benefit of absolution from any other person save from the Roman Pontiff, except at the very point of death.

Likewise, by a similar motion, knowledge, and authority, subjecting to the same penalty and censure those who shall presume to assert, holding a contrary opinion, viz. that the glorious Virgin Mary was conceived with original sin, incur the guilt of heresy, or deadly sin, when it was not yet decided by the Roman Church and the Apostolic See; any apostolic constitutions and ordinances soever to the contrary notwithstanding, to which, whether in common or separately, there may exist an indult from the Apostolic See, that they cannot be interdicted, suspended, or excommunicated by apostolic letters, not making full, express, and word for word mention of such indult.

And lest at any time they may be able to allege ignorance with regard to the foregoing, we desire that the requisite ordinaries of the places would deliver, in their discourses to the people, and cause to be published the present letters in the churches situate in their states, and in remarkable places of their dioceses, when a considerable multitude of the people has assembled for divine service. Moreover, because it would be difficult to convey the present letters to the individual places, wherein it might be expedient, we also will and decree, by the aforesaid authority, that a copy of the same letter, drawn up by the hand of a notary-public, and confirmed with the authentic seal of some ecclesiastical prelate, be observed everywhere, as the same original letter would be observed, if it were exhibited or shown.

Be it lawful, therefore, for no person soever to infringe this page of our reprobation, condemnation, statute, ordinance, will, and decree, or by rash attempt to contravene it. But if any one shall presume to attempt it, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 1483, the day before the nones of September, in the thirteenth year of our pontificate.

Saint Gobban of Old Leighlin

2011-12-06T09:00:00.002Z

Tradition records that Saint Gobban was the founder of the monastery of Leighlin, and in the post below, first made in 2009 on my own blog, I examine the evidence that the Saint Gobban commemorated on December 6 was Leighlin's founder. We start with the recording of the saint's feast in the Martyrology of Oengus and the accompanying scholiasts' notes:

6. The feast of Gobban,
shout of thousands! with a
train of great martyrdom, the
angelic rampart, the virginal
abbot, lucid descendant of
Lan.

Notes

6. of Gobban i.e. of Cell Lamraide in Hui Cathrenn in the west of Ossory, i.e. a thousand monks it had, as experts say.
angelic wall, i.e. angels founded the wall of his church for him.
Lane, i.e. an old tribe, which was once in the south of Ireland, and of them was Gobban.

Is this holy abbot the founder of the monastery at Old Leighlin? The problem is that there are a number of saintly Gobbans listed in the Irish calendars, including one 'Goibhenn, of Tigh Scuithin', who is commemorated on 23 May. He too has been identified with the founder of Old Leighlin. The classic work on Irish monastic foundations, the Monasticon Hibernicum, (following the authority of Colgan) believes, however, that the Saint Gobban commemorated on December 6 is the founder of the monastery at Old Leighlin:

St. Gobban was the founder of the monastery of Leighlin. There are several saints of that name in the Irish Calendars, but Colgan judged that most probably our saint was the "St. Gobban of Kill-Lamraidhe, in the west of Ossory," who is honoured on the 6th of December: "Hunc Gobanum existimo fuisse ilium celebrem mille monachorum patrem qui postea Ecclesiam de Kill-Lamhraighe rexit" (Acta SS. p. 750). The "Martyrology of Donegal" styles him " Gobban Fionne, of Kill-Lamhraidhe, in Ui-Cathrenn, in the west of Ossory. . . A thousand monks was the number of his convent, and it is at Clonenagh his relics are preserved. He was of the race of Eoghan Mor, son of Oilioll Olum" (p. 327). St. Laserian having visited the monastery about the year 600, St. Gobban, struck with his many virtues, placed it entirely under his charge, and went himself to found another religious house at Kill-Lamhraige, in a western district of Ossory.

Monasticon Hibernicum or A Short Account of the Ancient Monasteries of Ireland in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol 6 (1869), 198-99.

This identification was also accepted by a 19th-century priest who published a three-volume history of the dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin:

Annals of Clonenagh

A.D. 639. St. Gobban, who founded the monastery of Old Leighlin, and afterwards resigned it to St. Laserian, retiring in 632 to Killamery in Ossory, died this year and was interred at Clonenagh. His feast was observed on the 6th of December.

"Gobban's feast, a shout of thousands, with a train of great martyrdom, angelic wall, abbot of virginity, lucid descendant of Lane." (Feil. Aeng.)

The Gloss in Leab. Br. and entry in Mart. Donegal state that “in Clonenagh are Gobban's relics."

Rev M Comerford" Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin" Vol. 3(1886)

All the sources relating to Saint Gobban preserve the tradition that after founding an important monastery at Old Leighlin, he later committed it to the care of Saint Laisren (Molaise, feastday April 18) and retired to another foundation in Ossory. The Life of Saint Laisren, as preserved in the Salamanca MS, describes how this transfer of leadership took place:

(S.8 continued.) The holy abbot Gobanus and his followers served God there. When he heard of the arrival of the man of God [Laisren] he went to meet him and after greeting him led him reverently to the monastery. As they came to the door of the monastery, a certain woman then carrying the body of her son who had been beheaded by robbers, earnestly begged St Lasrianus in the name of God that he might restore her son to life. His feelings of pity were stirred by the lamentations of the mother and he turned to his usual help of prayer, and having placed the head beside its body he restored the dead man to life and gave him back to his mother. Then blessed Gobanus made a treaty of spiritual brotherhood with him, giving him the place and everything in it and setting up a monastery for himself in another place.

Colum Kenny, Molaise – Abbot of Leighlin and Hermit of Holy Island, (Morrigan Press, 1998), 47-48.

So, whilst we cannot say with complete confidence that it is the founder of the monastery of Old Leighlin who is commemorated on December 6, the Martyrology of Oengus makes it clear that an important monastic figure is honoured on this date, a man who is said to have had one thousand monks in his charge and whose relics had been preserved. Thus we can say 'Holy Father, Gobban, pray to God for us!'.

Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

2011-12-03T06:00:00.001Z

The most widely favoured of all scapulars, and the most familiar, is that of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the 16th of July is the feast day of scapular.

The Scapular was presented by Our Lady herself to Saint Simon Stock on 16th July 1251 at Cambridge, who appeared to him with the scapular in her hand in answer to his fervent prayers for help for his Order. The Blessed Virgin spoke to Saint Simon Stock in these words:

"Take, beloved son, this scapular of thy Order as a badge of my confraternity and for thee and all Carmelites a special sign of grace. Whoever dies in this garment will not suffer everlasting fire. It is a sign of salvation, a safeguard in all dangers, a pledge of peace and of the covenant."

The familiar small scapular may possibly have been worn in the latter half of the 13th century, but the weight of available evidence indicates that it did not come into existence until much later. At any rate at the beginning of the seventeenth century it was most extensively worn in all European countries.

The formula of the blessing o the scapular was published in the 'Giardino Carmeliatano' at Palermo in 1600, and it is of interest to note that the formula for the Sisters contains no reference to teh scapular, whereas there is a special blessing in the case of the Brothers. The privileges and graces promised so unequivocally by Our Blessed Mother, and espeically the Sabbatine Privilege that Mary's help will continue after death, and will be espeically effective on Saturday are indeed a precious gift, and a depthless spring of hope and consolation for the members of the confraternity, who fulfil the conditions imposed in order to earn them.

The scapular is in two segments of brown willen cloth, but black may also be used. On one side is the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, although strictly this is not required.

Queen and flower of Carmel, pray for us!

The Month of the Holy Souls (6)

2011-11-30T12:00:00.005Z

It is an annual tradition of this blog that on the last day of the Month of the Holy Souls we invite you to remember to pray for deceased Popes, Cardinals, Bishops and Priests, especially those who have nobody to pray for them. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis!

"We must empty Purgatory." St. Pius of Petraclina, O.F.M.Cap.

Pilgrimage to Rome 2011, Day II - the Pope is on Holidays

2011-11-28T11:12:00.001Z

Day two starts at dawn, sore footed from the long walk the day before we all made our way down to breakfast and then Mass in the convent chapel. Like every day of our pilgrimage Fr. Jim Larkin said Mass and members of the Sodality acted as servers.

The plan for our second day was to go to the general audience with the Pope and then carefully examine St. Peter's looking for old sodalists - but with the Pope away in Germany we got the morning off and it consisted mainly of coffee drinking and chatting. The afternoon, however, was spent as planned fine combing St. Peter's Church for sodalists. Unrelated to the sodality, but since I myself am Swedish always my number one stop when in St. Peter's, is the tomb of Queen Christina of Sweden (picture 2); the daughter of the protestant warfaring King Gustavus II Adolphus, took over the Swedish throne after him when he was killed in battle (by two sodalists, by the way) in Lützen in 1632. Christina abdicated the Swedish throne in 1654 in order to become a catholic and move to Rome. Moving on from there to the altar of Blessed John Paul II, also a sodalist, and then on to several of the Benedicts, Clements, Innocents and Pii.

Another thing to do in Rome is, of course, shopping. While some tourists may be primarily interested in walking down the shopping streets like il Corso the pilgrim looking to throw some cash around has, apart from the millions of little souvenir shops that sell rosary beads, medallions, icons and little bottles of Holy Water, there are other shops that sell vestments, monstrances and beautiful candle holders.

Requiem Mass for Deceased Members 2011

2011-11-27T11:40:00.000Z

A Requiem Mass for deceased members of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association was celebrated yesterday morning in St. Coca's Church, Kilcock, Co. Kildare, Ireland. We would like to thank all those who travelled to Kilcock to attend the Mass. We apologize for the errors in the publicity material. We hope you'll keep in contact and attend our forthcoming Latin Masses.

Reports on previous Latin Masses in Kilcock can be found here (2009) and here (2010).

Pro Multis

2011-11-27T06:04:00.000Z

I was rereading a particular portion of The Canon of the Mass and Liturgical Reform by Dom Vagaggini, published in 1966. Normally, I don't look at the English translation provided unless I need to know a technical word, because I find it a bit loose and I'm a stickler for accuracy in this regard. Anyhow, I was reading the proposal and my eyes drifted to the English, and I got a small shock. This is what the Latin says in Dom Vagaggini's proprosal C for another Eucharistic Prayer

"Hic est enim calix Novi Testamenti in Sanguine Meo qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur..."

And this is translated as

"This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood which shall be poured out for you and for everyone..."

Quite surprised, I flipped to proposal B which had the same thing.

Then I flipped still further back to the critiques of revised versions of the Canon drawn up by other scholars. Amon's Latin reads

"Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei, novi et aeterni testamenti: mysterium fidei: qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum"

but the English reads

"For this is the cup of my blood, of the new, everlasting covenant; for you and for all men it will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins."

And note two things (1) the translation for "pro multis" (2) the omission of Mysterium Fidei. Brings to mind, actually, the warning of the Holy Office on how these were being left out of vernacular translations.

Kung's version has the same English mistranslation except his Latin does not include "mysterium fidei"

Amazing what can escape one's attention!

The funny thing is that all the Eastern anaphorae in the book are translated correctly in this regard. Or maybe not so funny.......

First published in February, 2008

St. Pius X - Part IX

2011-11-27T06:00:00.007Z

On this day one hundred years ago, at a Public Consistory, Pope St. Pius X created Cardinals their Eminences:

António Mendes, Cardinal Bello, Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Marcellino e Pietro in pecore, Patriarch of Lisbon;

José María Justo, Cardinal Cos y Macho, Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria del Popolo, Archbishop of Valladolid;

Diomede, Cardinal Falconio, O.F.M., Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria in Ara Coeli, then Apostolic Delegate to the United States of America and later Prefect of the S. Cong. of Religious;

Antonio, Cardinal Vico, then Apostolic Nuncio of Spain, later Prefect of the S. Cong. of Rites; Gennaro, Cardinal Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte, Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria degli Angeli, then Apostolic Nuncio of Austria and later Prefect of the S. Cong. of Ceremonies;

John Murphy, Cardinal Farley, Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria sopra Minerva, Archbishop of New York;

Francis Aphonsus, Cardinal Bourne, Cardinal-Priest of S. Pudenziana, Archbishop of Westminster;

František Salesky, Cardinal Bauer, Cardinal-Priest of S. Girolamo dei Croati, Archbishop of Olomouc;

Léon-Adolphe, Cardinal Amette, Cardinal-Priest of S. Sabina, Archbishop of Paris;

William Henry, Cardinal O'Connell, Cardinal-Priest of S. Clemente, Archbishop of Boston;

Enrique, Cardinal Almaraz y Santos, Cardinal-Priest of S. Pietro in Montorio, Archbishop of Toledo;

François-Virgile, Cardinal llard, Cardinal-Priest of S. Susanna, Archbishop of Chambéry;

Franz Xaver, Cardinal Nagl, Cardinal-Priest of S. Marco, Archbishop of Vienna;

François-Marie-Anatole, Cardinal de Rovérié de Cabrières, Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria della Vittoria, Bishop of Montpellier;

Gaetano, Cardinal Bisleti, Cardinal-Deacon of S. Agata de’ Goti, later Prefect of the S. Cong. for Seminaries and Universities and President of the Pont. Biblical Commission;

Giovanni Battista, Cardinal Lugari, Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria in Portico;

Basilio, Cardinal Pompilj, Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria in Domnica, then Secretary of the S. Cong. of the Council, later Vicar General for the Vicariate of Rome and President of the Pont. Commission for Sacred Archaeology;

Louis, Cardinal Billot, S.J. Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata;

Wilhelmus Marinus, Cardinal van Rossum, C.SS.R., Cardinal-Deacon of S. Cesareo in Palatio, later President of Pont. Biblical Commission, Major Penitentiary Apostolic, and Prefect of the S. Cong. for the Propagation of the Faith.

Sancte Pie Decime, Gloriose Patrone, ora pro nobis!

The Month of the Holy Souls (5)

2011-11-26T18:00:00.001Z

In fact, she does not start with the afterlife in order to recount the torments of purgatory — as was the custom in her time and perhaps still is today — and then to point out the way to purification or conversion. Rather our Saint begins with the inner experience of her own life on the way to Eternity.

“The soul”, Catherine says, “presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God”. Catherine asserts that God is so pure and holy that a soul stained by sin cannot be in the presence of the divine majesty (cf. Vita Mirabile, 177r).

We too feel how distant we are, how full we are of so many things that we cannot see God. The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love; and love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin.

Pope Benedict XVI on St. Catherine of Genoa
General Audience, 12th January, 2011

"We must empty Purgatory." St. Pius of Petraclina, O.F.M.Cap.

Mass in Kilcock

2011-11-23T09:00:00.001Z

Mass in Kilcock, Co. Kildare

A Requiem Mass in the Gregorian Rite will be celebrated according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII (1962) in the Church of St. Coca, Kilcock, Co. Kildare, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, 26th November, 2011, with the kind permission of the Very Reverend Parish Priest of Kilcock. The Mass will be offered for the deceased members of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association.

St. Coca of Kilcock, pray for us!

The launch of Pushkin the Pontifical Puss: Tails of an Oratory Cat

2011-11-21T20:50:00.004Z

Real honours are rare and few and so I was most delighted to receive an invitation from Pushkin, the cat in residence at the Birmingham Oratory, to the launch of his first book. 'Pushkin the Pontifical Puss: Tails of an Oratory Cat', chronicles his life and gives an insight into the hidden private thoughts of this famous feline. Prominent amongst this is an account of his meeting with the Pope or in cat, 'He-who-wears-white', which so captured the world's press.

Readers may remember that earlier this year I was privileged to be granted an exclusive interview with Pushkin for CHRISTVS REGNAT. Our encounter was an experience I enjoyed immensely and so I have been eagerly awaiting the chance to read his new work since a few months ago he confided in me about his intentions to write a book.

The exclusive launch took place this evening at the Birmingham Oratory for a select group of around a hundred guests. Guest of honour was Pushkin's close friend 'she-who-wears-diamonds', better known to the rest of us as HRH Princess Michael of Kent, who wrote the foreward. Other guests included close friends from both the clergy and laity, some local and others who had travelled some considerable distance to attend this very special event.

Under the watchful eyes of his human, Father Anton Guziel, who was always ready to leap into action to respond to his needs, Pushkin surveyed the guests, amber eyes taking in everything. Like any gracious host he found the time to bestow a few moments attention here and there, offering the opportunity to briefly pay homage with a stroke of his sleek black form for the most worthy.

Guests were entertained by the Children from the Oratory School who sang numbers specially prepared for the evening, "Oh I want to sing about Pushkin" and "Pontifical Puss" and members of St Paul's Girls' School who performed Rossini's "Buffo per due Gatti". We heard an extract read by Peter, one of the co-stars of the book and speeches from Her Royal Highness and Father Anton. We also had a delicious buffet the star of which was a wonderful Pushkin cake.

The launch proved to be a most enjoyable evening and the book is already flying off the shelves. A special copy is even on its way to the Holy Father tied up in a piece of the ribbon that Pushkin was wearing at their meeting. I think there is a strong possibility that Pushkin may soon add 'best selling author' to his list of accolades. But despite all the attention of the launch and indeed as a result of his rise to fame as a result of his meeting with the Holy Father last year this stylish black Persian maintains a quiet dignity appropriate to his status as cat in residence at the Birmingham Oratory.

Proceeds from the book will go to fund much needed restoration work at the Oratory and to the Carmelite Nuns in Wolverhampton, who have beautifully illustrated it. It will make a lovely Christmas present and I snapped up a number of the first copies this evening so if you are on my Christmas gift list you may be lucky enough to get one! If not copies are available from St Paul's Publishing priced £6.50.

We don't know much about Blessed John Henry Newman's relationship with Pushkin's ancestors. However, I like to think that he would approve of this new author who stalks with such style in his footsteps through his elegant and hallowed halls and who, in his own inimitable way, is trying both to spread the word and to preserve Newman's legacy of the Oratory.

On that note I must end but to slightly misquote the last line of the book 'Pushkin', she said, I'll be back.'

Pilgrimage to Rome 2011, Day I - Let's start the walking!

2011-11-21T09:36:00.002Z

For the fourth pilgrimage with the Sodality of Our Lady in Ireland we went back to the Eternal City. Our tour guide, Mr. Thomas Murphy, had arranged for us to stay the week in a convent just next to St. Peter's Church - Instituto Sanctissima Bambina Maria - which, apart from conventient access to 7 o'clock morning Mass, a fact of which many of us took advantage, offered the most incredible view from the roof top terrace (picture 1); warm summer evenings, dusk, with a well lit St. Peter's at our feet - clearly divinely inspired.

Day one was planned as a walk through the streets of Rome along the Via Papale, the route of the popes, although we did it backwards; starting at St. Peter's Square (picture 5), just after morning Mass with Fr. Larkin, our route went down to the Tiber, past the Church Santo Spirito in Sassia and Ospedale Santo Spirito, and then towards Castel Sant'Angelo (picture 2) which was originally built as the Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum. Since the 6th century AD connected with St. Michael the Archangel after Pope Gregory the Great, during a plague epidemic in 590 AD, saw a vision of the Archangel on top of the building and took it as a sign that the plague was over.

From here we went across the Tiber on the Ponte Sant'Angelo (picture 3) and strolled through the narrow streets of the inner city of Rome and made our way to the Chiesa Nuova - Filippo Neri's oratory, designed by Borromini - passing Banco Santo Spirito and the Piazza del' Horologico. From the Chiesa Nuova we walked back onto the old Papal Way, once the main street of Rome but very narrow by today's standards.

We stopped at the church Santa Maria della Pace, a beautiful white classical church that stands out among the sandstone buildings of old Rome. It was begun by Pope Sixtus IV and Bramante (who lived just down the road) but it was finished by the Sodality Pope Alexander VII and de Cortona. It is one of the very earliest renaissance streetskape 'theatres' of Rome. Around a few corners we visited the tomb of Pope Hadrian VI in the German church Santa Maria dell'Anima and then on to Piazza Navona and the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, a 17th century baroque church located on the site where St. Agnes was martyred in 304 AD. It's a beautiful little church but the unfortunate location, on one of Rome's more tourist-ridden piazzas, apparently necessitates signs and loud speaker announcements which, at least for this pilgrim, takes away that "good ol' churchy feeling".

After a quick lunch and the compulsory post-lunch-gelato we went on to the Collegio Capranica (picture 4) where our guide had arranged for us the special privilege to be allowed in to look at the chapel and to pray. The chapel was a very special place for the Sodality because it is where at least two popes (Benedict XV and Pius XII) joined.

From there we sauntered the few steps to the Pantheon, one of the most impressive buildnings in Roma - from the outside. Inside the Pantheon is actually a church but this is a fa

ct to which very few people pay the least bit of attention and upon entering you find yourself in a big hall, with excellent acoustics, where a couple of hundred people do their best to talk as loudly as possible and where tour guides happily stomp about with twenty or so photo-hungry tourists following. Here our tour ended and we made our way back to the convent for Benediction, Vespers, supper and bed. My advice after this first day; when in Rome - avoid the touristy places.

Ad Multos Annos, Your Eminence!

2011-11-20T06:00:00.001Z

Today is the first anniversary of the elevation of H.E. Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke's elevation 'to the purple' by Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.

Gaudeamus Omnes!

The Month of the Holy Souls (4)

2011-11-19T12:00:00.002Z

Do you see, my dear brethren, do you hear that tender mother, that devoted father, and all those relatives who helped and tended you? "My friends," they cry, "free us from these pains; you can do it." Consider then, my dear brethren: (a) the magnitude of these sufferings which the souls in Purgatory endure; and (b) the means which we have of mitigating them: our prayers, our good works, and, above all, the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I do not wish to stop at this stage to prove to you the existence of Purgatory. That would be a waste of time. No one among you has the slightest doubt on that score. The Church, to which Jesus Christ promised the guidance of the Holy Ghost and which, consequently, can neither be mistaken herself nor mislead us, teaches us about Purgatory in a very clear and positive manner. It is certain, very certain, that there is a place where the souls of the just complete the expiation of their sins before being admitted to the glory of Paradise, which is assured them. Yes, my dear brethren, and it is an article of faith: if we have not done penance proportionate to the greatness and enormity of our sins, even though forgiven in the holy tribunal of Penance, we shall be compelled to expiate them.... In Holy Scripture there are many texts which show clearly that although our sins may be forgiven, God still imposes on us the obligation to suffer in this world by temporal hardships or in the next by the flames of Purgatory. Look at what happened to Adam. Because he was repentant after committing his sin, God assured him that He had pardoned him, and yet He condemned him to do penance for nine hundred years, penance which surpasses anything that we can imagine. See again: David ordered, contrary to the wish of God, the census of his subjects, but, stricken with remorse of conscience, he saw his sin and, throwing himself upon the ground, begged the Lord to pardon him. God, touched by his repentance, forgave him indeed. But despite that, He sent Gad to tell David that he would have to choose between three scourges which He had prepared for him as punishment for his iniquity: the plague, war, or famine. David said: "It is better that I should fall into the hands of the Lord (for his mercies are many) than into the hands of men." He chose the pestilence, which lasted three days and killed seventy thousand of his subjects. If the Lord had not stayed the hand of the Angel, which was stretched out over the city, all Jerusalem would have been depopulated! David, seeing so many evils caused by his sin, begged the grace of God to punish him alone and to spare his people, who were innocent. See, too, the penance of Saint Mary Magdalen; perhaps that will soften your hearts a little. Alas, my dear brethren, what, then, will be the number of years which we shall have to suffer in Purgatory, we who have so many sins, we who, under the pretext that we have confessed them, do no penance and shed no tears?

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, Sermon on Purgatory

"We must empty Purgatory." St. Pius of Petraclina, O.F.M.Cap.

St Elizabeth of Hungary and the Blue Church

2011-11-19T10:06:00.004Z

Today, 19th November, is the feast day of St Elizabeth of Hungary. She is best known for her charitable work, caring for and giving alms to the poor.

St Elizabeth grew up in the castle in Bratislava (formerly Hungary). The daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, the neice of St Hedwig, the great aunt of another St Elizabeth (Isabel) of Portugal she married to Ludwig IV of Thuringia. During her marriage she regularly distributed alms to the poor and built a hospital the patients of which she visited daily. Widowed young she devoted herself to good works dying at just 24. She had a great devotion to St Francis.

St Elizabeth is the patron saint of bakers, countesses, deaths of children, the falsely accused, the homeless, nursing services, tertiaries, widows and young brides. She is often depicted with alms, flowers, bread, a pitcher and the poor.

I recently visited the Church of St Elizabeth in Bratislava and was captivated by its unusual Hungarian Art Nouveau architecture. Situated a little out of the city's bustling centre in the old town, it is more generally referred to as the Blue Church.

It was built between 1906 and 1908 and designed by Odon Lechner, the most important art nouveau architect in Hungary. He was influenced by a wide range of styles in particular Magyar and Turkic folk art and these influences are responsible the eastern like appearance of much of his work.

Whilst originally decorated in pastel colours, its distinctive blue came later. It is decorated with mosaics, majolicas and has a blue glazed roof. Over the door is a mosaic of St Elizabeth. The Church has a single nave.

Whilst it certainly is an interesting and unusual design when seen from a distance as one approaches one really begins to appreciate the attention to detail that has gone into this unusual building, one quite unlike any church I had seen before. For me it brought to mind the phrase, God is in the detail. The pictures really cannot do it justice.

St Elizabeth pray for us.

2011-11-15T21:00:00.000Z

Communiqué following the XXth General Assembly of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce. Rome, 5th/6th November 2011.

The Month of the Holy Souls (3)

2011-11-12T12:00:00.003Z

8. “But I know not whither he has gone,” say you. Wherefore do you not know, tell me? For according as he lived well or otherwise, it is evident whither he will go. “Nay, on this very account I lament,” say you, “because he departed being a sinner. ”This is a mere pretext and excuse. For if this were the reason of your mourning for the departed, you ought to have formed and corrected him, when he was alive. The fact is thou dost every where look to what concerns yourself, not him.

But grant that he departed with sin upon him, even on this account one ought to rejoice, that he was stopped short in his sins and added not to his iniquity; and help him as far as possible, not by tears, but by prayers and supplications and alms and offerings. For not unmeaningly have these things been devised, nor do we in vain make mention of the departed in the course of the divine mysteries, and approach God in their behalf, beseeching the Lamb Who is before us, Who takes away the sin of the world—not in vain, but that some refreshment may thereby ensue to them. Not in vain does he that stands by the altar cry out when the tremendous mysteries are celebrated, “For all that have fallen asleep in Christ, and for those who perform commemorations in their behalf. ”For if there were no commemorations for them, these things would not have been spoken: since our service is not a mere stage show, God forbid! Yea, it is by the ordinance of the Spirit that these things are done.

Let us then give them aid and perform commemoration for them. For if the children of Job were purged by the sacrifice of their father, why do you doubt that when we too offer for the departed, some consolation arises to them? Since God is wont to grant the petitions of those who ask for others. And this Paul signified saying, “that in a manifold Person your gift towards us bestowed by many may be acknowledged with thanksgiving on your behalf.” 2 Corinthians 1:11 Let us not then be weary in giving aid to the departed, both by offering on their behalf and obtaining prayers for them: for the common Expiation of the world is even before us. Therefore with boldness do we then intreat for the whole world, and name their names with those of martyrs, of confessors, of priests. For in truth one body are we all, though some members are more glorious than others; and it is possible from every source to gather pardon for them, from our prayers, from our gifts in their behalf, from those whose names are named with theirs. Why therefore do you grieve? Why mourn, when it is in your power to gather so much pardon for the departed?

St. John Chrysostom, Sermon XLI on 1 Corinthians (xv, 46)

"We must empty Purgatory." St. Pius of Petraclina, O.F.M.Cap.

Annual General Meeting & Mass 2011

2011-11-11T22:40:00.000Z

The Annual General Meeting of Saint Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association took place this evening preceded by a Votive Mass of the Holy Ghost celebrated in Cill Mhuire, Ballymany, Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

The Irish Constitution

2011-11-11T11:00:00.001Z

In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,

We, the people of Éire,

Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,

Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation,

And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations,

Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution.

Preamble to the Constitution of Ireland

Dochum Glóire Dé agus Onóra na hÉireann

FIUV 2011 Sunday Session

2011-11-08T12:03:00.000Z

On Sunday the FIUV General Assembly held an open forum at which a number of outstanding speakers gave papers. The first was Fr. Joseph Valluari, FDP, who read a paper on the “private prayers” that the Priest says during Mass. He was followed by Don Stefano Carusi, IBP, who told the delegates about the spirit and progress of the Institute of the Good Shepherd. Dr. Helmut Ruckriegel, who was a founder member, gave a brief history of the UNA VOCE Federation. Then Right Rev. Dr. José-Apeles Santolaria de Puey y Cruells, JCD (ABD), HistL, SMOM, gave a very detailled paper on the value of Romanity in the Traditional movement and the Roman Rite as a factor of Civilization in the Western World. At this point Right Rev. Monsignor Valentín Miserachs, President of the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music arrived and addressed the General Assembly on Sacred Music and the Centenary of the Pontifical Institute which was founded by St. Pius X in 1911. Fr. Kramer, FSSP, was followed by the concluding speaker, Canon Luzuy of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, who told the delegates about the progress of the Institute in Italy, UK and Ireland and also about the Sisters Adorers.

FIUV 2011 - Mass in Gesu e Maria

2011-11-08T09:16:00.001Z

While most of the delegates attended Mass in the Church of Ssma. Trinita dei Pellegrini, some of the delegates attended the Latin Mass in the Church of Gesu e Maria on the Via del Corso near the Piazza del Populo, which is celebrated every Sunday at 10 a.m. under the auspices of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a Traditional Institute that have just acquired their first Church in the UK.

FIUV 2011 Saturday Session

2011-11-06T22:17:00.000Z

The Saturday Session of the XXth General Assembly of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce was given over to internal matters such as the Presidential Address and the presentation of the 17 new Member Associations to the delegates. The new Council for 2011-2013 was also deemed elected. Leo Darroch was returned for a further turn by the acclaim of the meeting.

FIUV 2011 Lunch with Cardinal Burke

2011-11-06T07:15:00.002Z

On Saturday just after the Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of St. Peter's Basilica, and just before the Saturday Session of the General Assembly, Cardinal Burke joined the delegates for lunch. Unfortunately, due to his imminent departure for Amsterdam to celebrate Mass there, he was unable to attend the afternoon Session.

FIUV 2011 - Three Traditional Masses in St. Peter's Basilica

2011-11-05T21:23:00.004Z

On Friday and Saturday we had the privilege to attend three Traditional Latin Masses in St. Peter's Basilica. They were a private Mass at the Altar of St. Gregory Nazianzen celebrated at 7 am on Friday, another private Mass celebrated this time at the Altar of St. Gregory the Great across the body of the great Basilica, at 7 am on Saturday, and the third was the historic Pontifical Low Mass celebrated by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos for the delegates of the XXth FIUV General Assembly in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Monsignore Pablo Collino, Maestro Emeritus of the Julian Chapel Choir was in choir. In his sermon His Eminence paid tribute to the important work of the FIUV but said that our primary work was in trying to make the voice of the Holy Father heard on the question of the true value and liberty of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Low Mass (Friday)

Low Mass (Saturday)

Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel (Saturday)

The Month of the Holy Souls (2)

2011-11-05T12:00:00.002Z

Whether there be any fire of purgatory in the next world.

GREGORY. Our Lord saith in the Gospel: Walk whiles you have the light:61 and by his Prophet he saith: In time accepted have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I holpen thee: which the Apostle St. Paul expounding, saith: Behold, now is the time acceptable; behold, now the day of salvation. Solomon, likewise, saith: Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, work it instantly: for neither work, nor reason, nor knowledge, nor wisdom shall be in hell, whither thou dost hasten. David also saith: Because his mercy is for ever. By which sayings it is plain, that in such state as a man departeth out of this life, in the same he is presented in judgment before God. But yet we must believe that before the day of judgment there is a Purgatory fire for certain small sins: because our Saviour saith, that he which speaketh blasphemy against the holy Ghost, that it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.66 Out of which sentence we learn, that some sins are forgiven in this world, and some other may be pardoned in the next: for that which is denied concerning one sin, is consequently understood to be granted touching some other. But yet this, as I said, we have not to believe but only concerning little and very small sins, as, for example, daily idle talk, immoderate laughter, negligence in the care of our family (which kind of offences scarce can they avoid, that know in what sort sin is to be shunned), ignorant errors in matters of no great weight: all which sins be punished after death, if men procured not pardon and remission for them in their lifetime: for when St. Paul saith, that Christ is the foundation: and by and by addeth: And if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: the work of every one, of what kind it is, the fire shall try. If any man's work abide which he built thereupon, he shall receive reward; if any mans work burn, he shall suffer detriment, but himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. For although these words may be understood of the fire of tribulation, which men suffer in this world: yet if any will interpret them of the fire of Purgatory, which |234 shall be in the next life: then must he carefully consider, that the Apostle said not that he may be saved by fire, that buildeth upon this foundation iron, brass, or lead, that is, the greater sort of sins, and therefore more hard, and consequently not remissible in that place: but wood, hay, stubble, that is, little and very light sins, which the fire doth easily consume. Yet we have here further to consider, that none can be there purged, no, not for the least sins that be, unless in his lifetime he deserved by virtuous works to find such favour in that place.

St. Gregory the Great
Dialogues, Book IV, Chapter xxxix

"We must empty Purgatory." St. Pius of Petraclina, O.F.M.Cap.

The Month of the Holy Souls (1)

2011-11-02T12:00:00.003Z

"We must empty Purgatory." St. Pius of Petraclina, O.F.M.Cap.

St. Pius X - Part VIII

2011-11-01T06:00:00.003Z

On this day one hundred years ago, St. Pius X issued his Apostolic Constitution Divino Afflatu on the reform of the Roman Breviary.

Sancte Pie Decime, Gloriose Patrone, ora pro nobis!

Saint Brigid and Saint Erc

2011-10-30T09:00:00.000Z

2 November is the feast of Saint Erc of Slane, a saint who features in the hagiography of Saint Patrick. He also features in the hagiography of Ireland's patroness and below is an account of some of the miracles worked by Saint Brigid which include Bishop Erc, taken from Volume II of The Lives of the Irish Saints by John, Canon O'Hanlon. The stories testify to the friendship of the two saints as well as to the mutual respect which existed between them:

One of the holy men, who had been distinguished owing to his virtues in St. Brigid's time, was Bishop Erc or Ercus of Slane. He was an early convert and a disciple of St. Patrick. This Bishop Erc's immediate progenitors and family lived in Munster; although, he descended from Fergus Rogius, and the royal line of Ulster kings. His hermitage was at Slane, on the banks of the Boyne, and it stood in a most charming locality. Here too, at the present time, may be seen some most interesting relics of our ancestors' piety. Beside that romantically situated cell of the holy man, yet visited by so many pilgrims of taste, who delight to wander along the winding waters of the Boyne, some towering and extensive abbey ruins crown a magnificent height, which presents a vast view over one of the most lovely landscapes in Ireland.

With blessed Erc, the great St. Brigid was specially intimate and bound by ties of holy friendship. This appears from her Acts, and it is supposed, that about the year 484, she was his travelling companion to his native province. Such tour of the holy abbess possibly preceded one she made to Connaught although, indeed, this matter has not been very clearly established. St. Brigid entertained a great inclination to see certain consecrated places and holy persons in Munster; but, according to another account, her visit there was induced, through a desire to accompany St. Erc on a visit towards that country, where his relatives lived. One day, while prosecuting their journey, St. Brigid said to the bishop, "O venerable father, point out to me the quarter of Munster, in which your family resides." When the bishop had complied with her request, the holy virgin exclaimed in continuation, "At present, a war is there waging, between your tribe and another clan." The bishop replied to her: "O holy mother, I believe what thou hast told me is true, for when I last left them to see you, they were in a state of discord." Then Brigid cried out, "O Father, your people are now routed." One of St. Erc's disciples, hereupon, thoughtlessly remarked to the holy abbess, "How are you able to see the fight at such a distance?" The bishop reproved this incredulity for his not recognising the Holy Spirit's illuminating gifts conferred on a virgin, who was blessed both in soul and body. Then said Erc to our saint: "O servant of God, sign our eyes that we may witness those things thou seest." The spouse of Christ immediately complied with this request, so that they clearly observed the battle's progress. Looking on, in great grief, his disciple cried out to Bishop Erc: "Alas! also, my Lord, at this moment, my eyes behold the decapitation of two brothers." The result of enquiry established the reality this vision detailed.

Afterwards, in a certain place, and near a mountain, the holy Bishop Erc and the sanctified virgin Brigid sat down, with their attendants. These were greatly fatigued after their journey, and they experienced great hunger. A youth in their company thereupon remarked, that whoever gave them food should confer a great charity on them. St. Brigid then said, "I predict, that if food and drink be required, you must wait awhile in expectation of assistance from on high; because, I behold a house, in which they are to-day preparing alms for a certain church. Within an hour it shall come here, and even now it is put up for us in packages." While our saint was speaking, refreshment carriers arrived, and when they had learned the illustrious Brigid and holy Bishop Erc, with their disciples, were there, those bearers greatly rejoiced to relieve their wants. Alms were presented to the famished travellers, with such words: "Receive those refreshments, which God Himself hath intended for you, as your wants and merits should be taken into consideration, before those of any other congregation." Giving God thanks, our travellers partook of this food presented; yet, as they only received edibles, some drink was required, likewise, to allay their thirst. Then Brigid told them to dig the earth near this spot. On obeying her order, a spring of clear water issued from the ground. Afterwards, it bore the name of St. Brigid's well, and it might be seen at the time our virgin's Third and Fourth Lives had been written.

The holy travellers subsequently visited Magh-Femyn, at a time when a great Synod of Saints was there assembled. They were obliged to remain at that synod. The holy Bishop Erc gave an account of those miracles wrought by our saint, while he was assisting at this council. The neighbouring inhabitants, hearing that Brigid was there, brought many infirm persons to her, that she might heal them. Among these were included some lame, leprous, and demented persons. Such fortunate patients were released from their several afflictions, through Divine assistance, and the prayers of our merciful saint.

Back on the Rails III - The Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway

2011-10-29T16:42:00.002+01:00

Having looked at the Albert Quay Terminus in the last post, I want to look at the sites and sights of the Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway in this. In fact, part of this line was one of Ireland's first railways, befitting the 'real' capital and, at the time, Ireland's most populous County. It is also the longest of the lines that I'm exploring, so I'm going to cover it in stages. Firstly, the line runs through the suburbs of the city.

From the Albert Quay Terminus the railway travelled along the line of what has now become the South City Link Road. Termus and line begin in the South Parish, one of the two Catholic Parishes of Cork in the early modern period. In fact, the South Chapel is the oldest Church in the City and a rare survival from the period of the Penal Laws when Catholic Church building was technically illegal. The poverty of the construction can be seen from the way that limestone and sandstone are used almost indifferently as they came to hand.

In 1808, the Bishop of Cork, Dr. Moylan was able to open a second Church to the North of the River Lee (already featured on this blog for the Corpus Christi Procession), only the second in the city, giving to the two chapels, as Catholic houses were diminutively and dismissively known by the Anglican ruling class, the titles of 'South Chapel' and 'North Chapel' respectively. Later ages would christen them the 'South Parish Church' and the 'North Cathedral' but they were always known to me by their earlier titles.

Standing on Dunbar Street outside the South Chapel you can see three monuments to our Catholic heritage. Looking North you see the Capuchin Friary, home of the great Father Mathew. To the West is the tower of the Red Abbey of the Augustinian Canons, the last medieval building in Cork.

To the South are the buildings of the South Presentation Convent (there is also a North Presentation Convent across the road from the North Chapel), the first foundation of Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters, one of the largest of the Irish Orders of Nuns, another gift of Bishop Moylan to the City. Nano Nagle is buried in the grounds of the Convent that is still, thank God, occupied by the Nuns.

As the City expanded the South Parish became so large that it was necessary to divide it in two by creating the new Parish of Turner's Cross. Continuing south along the line of the old Cork, Bandon and South Coast railway, now the line of the South City Link Road, we pass the famous modernist Church of Christ the King at Turner's Cross, dedicated just a few years after Pope Pius XI created the feast of Christ the King. The Church is stunningly modern and abstract in style and construction but it should also be said that in its modernity it retains the traditional liturgical forms - Sanctuary/Nave - High Altar/Side Altars - Sanctuary Rails/Devotional Shrines - more perfectly than many traditional churches wreckovated since Vatican II. It's an interesting idea to imagine the steam locomotives puffing past Turner's Cross for more than 30 years.

The line next passes through the Parish of Ballyphehane. The Parish Church of the Assumption was one of the 'Rosary' Churches of the City that I looked at this time last year. Ballyphehane Parish includes Cork Airport, which is another reason why the destruction of the railway line wasn't just useless but also a waste of a great potential resource.

Between the City and the Airport the line turns West towards Chetwynd, where is climbs majestically towards Spur Hill. The last two images in this post are the small road bridge crossing the line at Chetwynd, just before the famous Chetwynd Viaduct that carries the line over the Bandon Road, and the viaduct itself, which is occasionally used for a variant of road bowl playing, the unique Cork sport. Mick Barry, still remembered in UCC in my time, was the first to pitch the iron bowl over the viaduct.

White Scapular of Our Lady of Ransom of Prisoners

2011-10-29T06:00:00.005+01:00

A little-known scapular is that of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom of Prisoners, founded by Saint Peter Nolasco, carrying with it indulgences approved on 30th July, 1868 by the Congregation of Indulgences. The scapular is a simple one of white cloth, and the faculty of blessing and investing with it is communicated by the General of the Mercedarians.

Our Lady of Ransom, pray for us!

Two Masses in November

2011-10-29T06:00:00.004+01:00

Mass in Newbridge, Co. Kildare

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Gregorian Rite will be celebrated according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII (1962) in Cill Mhuire (not shown above), Newbridge, Co. Kildare, at 6 p.m., on Friday, 11th November, 2010, with the kind permission of the Very Reverend Parish Priest of Newbridge. The Mass will be followed at 8 p.m. by the Annual General Meeting of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association in St. Anne's Parish Centre, Station Road, Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

St. Conleth of Kildare, pray for us!

Mass in Kilcock, Co. Kildare

A Requiem Mass in the Gregorian Rite will be celebrated according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII (1962) in the Church of St. Coca, Kilcock, Co. Kildare, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, 26th November, 2011, with the kind permission of the Very Reverend Parish Priest of Kilcock. The Mass will be offered for the deceased members of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association.

St. Coca of Kilcock, pray for us!

White Scapular of the Passion

2011-10-22T06:00:00.003+01:00

In 1900 also, acceding to the representations of the Archbishop of Marseilles, the Scapular of the Passion was approved. Again this scapular is in two segments of white material. On one segment appears an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the emblems of the Passion; on the other a small cross of red material. Pope Pius X granted indulgences to wearers of the Scapular in 1901, and again in 1906.

May the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints and also whatever good we do or evil we endure merit for us the remission of our sins, the increase of grace and the reward of everlasting life. Amen!

Memorial of Blessed Karl of Austria

2011-10-21T06:00:00.003+01:00

Blessed Karl,
Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary,
Head of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen,
1887 -- 1922
Knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem

Born the grand nephew of Emperor Franz-Josef, he was far down the line of succession to the throne. Due to a series of tragedies, in 1916 in the middle of the The Great War (World War I), he succeeded to the imperial and royal crowns. He very strongly opposed the war and attempted through secret negotiations to bring about a fair and lasting peace. As a result he was known as "The Peace Emperor".

In 1919 the socialist government forced him into exile where he and his family lived a quite, humble, deeply religious Catholic life. His attempt in 1921 to return to Hungary failed. Emperor Karl and his family were exiled to the island of Madeira where they lived in poverty, and where he bore a serious illness with great trust in God. He died in Funchal on 1 April 1922.

The date for his memorial was set as 21 October, the day on which he had married Zita, Princess of the House of Bourbon-Parma.

Blessed Karl, at great danger to yourself and your family, you worked diligently to end the incredible destruction and bloodshed of The Great War. In spite of losing your crowns, your power, your country, your wealth, and your health, you never lost your profound trust in God. Pray for us and for peace in our world torn by war, strive and terrorism.

Collect
O God, through the diversities of this world you led Blessed Karl from this earthly realm to the crown reserved for him in heaven. Grant through his intercession that we may so serve your Son and our brothers and sisters that we may become worthy of eternal life. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessed Karl of Austria, pray for us!

Holy Year of Faith

2011-10-17T18:00:00.000+01:00

VATICAN CITY, 16 OCT 2011 (VIS) - During Mass this morning in the Vatican Basilica, celebrated to mark the end of an international meeting on new evangelisation organised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, Benedict XVI announced that he was calling a forthcoming "Year of Faith". the Vatican Information Service (VIS) report continues here.

VATICAN CITY, 17 OCT 2011 (VIS) - Made public today was "Porta fidei", the Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio data" with which Benedict XVI proclaims a "Year of Faith", to begin on 11 October 2012, fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and due to end on 24 November 2013, Feast of Christ the King. Extracts from the English-language version of the Letter are given here.

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto!

Dominus conservet eum,

et vivificet eum,

et beatum faciat eum in terra,

et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius. (Ps. xl:3)

The ones that got away - Mayo

2011-10-15T07:50:00.008+01:00

Green Scapular of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

2011-10-15T06:00:00.001+01:00

Another scapular widely adopted and reverenced is that of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. It has its origins in the little emblem consisting of a picture of the Sacred Heart sewn on white wollen cloth, which Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque so fervently advocated shoudl be constantly carried on the person. This humble emblem was eagerly sought and worn during the French Revolution, and fervently cherished by the miserable victims of the plague at Marseilles. Pope Pius IX granted indulgences to wearers of this badge in 1872, but it was not until 1900 that the real scapular of the Sacred Heart was approved by the Congregation of Rites.

It is made up of two segments of white cloth, one having an image of the Sacred Heart, the other that of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of Mercy. Numerous indulgences are the privilege of those who wear it.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee!

Gloria

2011-10-11T06:00:00.003+01:00

Our good friend Tim Thurston, presenter of Lyric FM's excellent Sunday morning programme of Sacred Music Gloria, is launching a book entitled Gloria An Introduction to 1,000 Years of Sacred Music.

With a special Christmas theme it tells the story of European Sacred Music from earliest times to the present day, interspersed with 20 pen portraits of the key composers. It also incorporates a CD featuring the best of their Christmas music from the renowned Hyperion catalogue and is sumptuously illustrated with Sacred Art for Christmas from Irish collections, some published for the first time.

Pre-order online now from:
www.rte.ie/lyricfm/gloria or
www.associatededitions.ie

Back on the Rails II - All Rails Lead To Cork

2011-10-08T10:31:00.005+01:00

1832 Map of Cork City

1852 Map of Cork City

1872 Map of Cork City

1893 Map of Cork City

When work began on Dargan's Great Southern and Western Railway line from Dublin to Cork in 1844 Cork was the most populous as well as the largest County in Ireland. By the time it arrived in 1849, the devastation of the Great Famine had reduced it to second most populous after Dublin. Cork's first train ran from Ballinhassig to Bandon a few months earlier.

Over the next 20 years the Cork, Bandon and South West Railway (1845), the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway (1850), the Cork, Youghal and Queenstown Railway (1854), and the Cork and Macroom Direct Railway (1861) started to throw out routes from Cork City across the County. Lines from Mallow to Kerry and Limerick to the west and to Tipperary and Waterford to the east and the Cork and Muskerry Railway (1883) complete the network, which is slowly reasserting itself through the redevelopment of closed lines and the reopening of closed stations.

Dublin City was circled by railway termini, Broadstone near St. Mary of the Angels, Amiens Street near the Pro-Cathedral, Westland Row near St. Andrew's, Harcourt Street near Whitefriar Street, and Kingsbridge near St. Paul's.

Likewise, as you can see on the above maps, Cork City was gradually circled by up to six railway termini. The first, at Glanmire Road, near St. Patrick's, for the Cork, Youghal and Queenstown Railway, and later also for the Great Southern and Western Railway, Albert Quay near Holy Trinity for the Cork, Bandon and Southern Coast Railway, nearby Albert Street for the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway, Capwell the South Chapel for the Cork Macroom Direct Railway, and Western Road near the Franciscans in Liberty Street for the Cork and Muskerry Light Railway. In this post I'll look briefly at Albert Quay, Albert Road and Holy Trinity.

Albert Quay Terminus

Albert Quay was re-named in 1849 in honour of the Consort of Queen Victoria of England on the occasion of the same visit when Cobh was re-named Queenstown. Now known as MacSweeney Quay in honour of the Republican Lord Mayor of Cork, the Quay contains the City Hall re-built after the Burning of Cork by British Crown Forces in 1921, and the terminus of the Cork, Bandon and Southern Coast Railway, opened in 1861. The station was linked to the Glanmire Road terminus by trams that ran over the iron bridge that you can see in the pictures. Trains stopped running into Albert Quay in 1961.

Albert Road Terminus

Just around the corner from the Albert Quay terminus is the Albert Road terminus of the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway, which was formerly a little further to the East, as you can see in the 1852, 1872 and 1893 maps. The Albert Road terminus opened in 1873 but closed to trains in 1932. While the Albert Quay building looks to me very like Broadstone Station in Dublin, the Albert Road building looks like a mix between the building that is now the Railway History Society at Heuston Station and some of the 'blind' platform walls on St. John's Road at Heuston Station.

Holy Trinity Church

A few minutes walk down the river from Albert (MacSweeney) Quay is the Capuchin House in Cork where the famous Fr. Theobald Mathew (1790–1856), the Apostle of Temperance, lived and laboured. The Church, which you can see from in front of the Albert Quay terminus, in a very un-Capuchin flamboyant Gothic, is the memorial to Fr. Mathew. The original church was more simple and the soaring facade was added in 1899. Hogan's great statue to Fr. Mathew at the start of Patrick's Street was unveiled in his honour in 1864. Interestingly, the Cork statue portrays him in the kind of street clothes that he would have worn but the statue in Dublin's O'Connell Street has him in his Capuchin habit.

White Scapular of the Most Blessed Trinity

2011-10-08T06:00:00.000+01:00

An angel clad in white with a cross on its breast, is believed to have appeared to Innocent III who scantioned the foundation of the Order of the Trinitarians on 28th January, 1198. The scapular of the Confraternity of the Most Blessed Trinity, enjoying indulgences approved by decree of the Congregation of Indulgences on 12th August, 1899, is white with blue and red cross on its front protion, the longditudinal shaft of which is in red, and is ow wollen cloth. In order to obtain the indulgences of the scapular must be worn consistently. It may be blessed and invested by priests who have received the faculty from the General of the Trinitarians.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us!

The Child of Prague

2011-10-02T06:00:00.008+01:00

Its replicas found in many Irish homes, the Child or Infant of Prague is an essential part of Irish Catholic Heritage and part of varied local customs for years, but more of that later. I recently joined the many pilgrims from all over the world and paid my first visit to the Child of Prague, in the Church of Our Lady of Victory. The Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victory and St. Anthony of Padua and is the keeping of the Discalced Carmelites who returned to Church in 1993 after an absence of two hundred years.

The statue of the Infant Jesus originates in Spain and various legends surround it origins. It arrived in 1556 in Bohemia with Duchess Maria Manrique de Lara. It was gifted to her at the time of her marriage to a local noble. It was subsequently presented to the Discalced Carmelites in 1628 by her daughter.

In 1637, having suffered from the vagaries of war the Child was discovered in a corner of the Church minus his hands by Father Cyril of the Mother of God. He is reputed to have heard the Child saying to him:

"Have mercy on me and I will have mercy on you. Give me hands and I will give you peace. The more you honour me, the more I will bless you."

New hands were made for the statue and the Church and people of Prague began to benefit from its blessings.

The statue represents Our Lord when a few years old. It has a wooden core with the surface made of modelled wax. One hand is raised in blessing whilst the other holds an orb with a cross. Its gold crown is a later addition. It has an extensive wardrobe of beautiful clothes and is dressed for the liturgical season by Carmelite Sisters of the Child Jesus. A coronation feast is held on the first Sunday of May each year.

Every souvenir store in Prague offers a plethora of copies of the statue but if you do visit please wait and support the the shop in the Church which offers a range of statues, medals, prayer cards and other goods. There is also a small museum in which you can see some of the stunning costumes with their amazing workmanship.

Irish Customs
The first copy of the statue was brought to Ireland in 1890 to St Joseph’s Monastery at Mount Carmel, Loughrea in County Galway and there are a number of Irish customs relating to the Child of Prague.

One custom was to keep a coin under a replica of the statue to ensure that the house was never without money. The second relates to the weather. Burying a statue or putting it under a hedge was considered to bring good weather and so was often done by brides the night before their wedding. In some areas custom said that the statue had to have lost its head before it would become effective in ensuring good weather, however, the decapitation had to happen by accident!

The Traditional Irish Wedding book gives three customs in connection with the Child of Prague. Firstly to place the statue under a bush and if when taken it out its head is missing the next day will bring good weather. The second is for it to be placed in the hallway of the bride's house with paper money underneath and finally to place it to one side of the door of the Church on the wedding morning.

It would be interesting to hear if readers are aware of other customs relating to the Child of Prague.

Mass for the Month of the Holy Rosary

2011-10-01T22:07:00.001+01:00

The magnificent Church of the Most Holy Rosary, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois, was the scene of Mass in the Gregorian Rite this morning, the first day of the Month of the Holy Rosary. Last year, the Gregorian Rite was celebrated for the first time in the Church since the promulgation of the Missal of Pope Paul VI. A report of that Mass is available here.

The Parish Church of Abbeyleix is set on a hill above the village over-looking the old main Cork-Dublin road. Its architectural merit is remarkable, especially in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, although that part of Laois is particularly blessed with fine Churches. The most striking features of the Church are the Altars and rails; a series of stained glass windows representing the Joyful Mysteries (south transept), Sorrowful Mysteries (apse), and the Second Glorious Mystery (geographical eastern gable); and a cycle of frescos including decorative elements and lettering 'Hoc Est Corpus Meum' in the apse and most notably the figure of Christ in Glory surrounded by His Evangelists recumbent upon the Sanctuary arch and the apparition of the Sacred Heart over the Sacred Heart Altar and the apparition of Our Lady to St. Dominic to give him the Holy Rosary over Our Lady's Altar. Notably, over each of the Altars cherubs are painted by the artist, Peter Rogers, supposedly using his children as models.

The Church also contains one of the most remarkable items of ecclesiastical furnishing in the Diocese, a set of curved Sanctuary rails in carrara marble installed in the 1990s to facilitate passage around the new Altar. They are certainly the only set of Sanctuary rails in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, probably the only set in Ireland that have been installed since the publication of the Missal of Pope Paul VI.

Red Scapular of the Most Precious Blood

2011-10-01T06:00:00.001+01:00

No special indulgences attach to the wearing of the Scapular of the Most Precious Blood, and in fact, members of the Confraternity may dispense with the wearing of it if they wish. The Scapular is red, one segment portraying the adoration of the Precious Blood by angels; the other portion, at the back, is merely a smaller piece of red cloth.

Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honour, save us!

Red Scapular of the Holy Passion

2011-09-24T06:00:00.001+01:00

Another scapular which indicated the direct wishes of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the red Scapular of the Passion. In 1846 Jesus Christ appeared to a sister of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and showing her a scapular, promised a great increase of faith, hope, and charity to all who would wear it on every Friday. Pope Pius IX by Rescript of 25th June 1847 gave his sanction to the scapular, and bestowed on the Lazarists the faculty of blessing and investing with it.

The Scapular is of red wollen material, on one segment of which is an image of Jesus Christ on the Cross. At the foot of the Cross are the implements of the Passion and the inscription: "Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, save us." On the other segment are shown the hearts of Jesus and Mary surmounted by a cross with the words: "Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary protect us".

Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, save us!
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary protect us!

The ones that got away - Doonane

2011-09-17T09:00:00.000+01:00

The Parish Church in Doonane, as the sign says, was founded in 1712, making it the second oldest Church in the Diocese (after Rathcoffey in the Parish of Clane). St. Abban's, together with the Chapel of Ease at Mayo, represent the best examples of a very typical style of Church in the Diocese - T-shaped with three galleries, a shallow Sanctuary with lancets squeezed into the side walls, and a sacristy behind that forms the rest of the cruciform footprint. They also retain the earlier style of dark wooden Altars and rails that has almost everywhere been replaced by marble or by modern re-orderings. The plasterwork is also worth noting.

Dr. Comerford, in the Third Series of his Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, give the following short entry for the Parish of Doonane:

"The name of this parish is derived from Dun-an, "the little fort." Dun was anciently, and still is, frequently applied to the great forts, with a high central mound, flat at top, and surrounded by several - very usually three - earthen curcumvallations; these fortified duns, so many of which remain all over the country, were the residences of the kings and chiefs; they are constantly mentioned as such in the Irish authorities... the diminutive in an is not common, but it gives name to some places, such as... Doonane in Queen's County. - (Joyce.)

"Dr. Doyle describes this parish as consisting of a portion of the Abbacy of St. Abban, and of the parish of Rathaspick. Its formation into a distinct cure appears to be an arrangement of comparatively recent date. It is not referred to by name in the Registry of 1704, in the Returns of 1731 and 1766, or in Dean Skelton's list of parishes. The ancient parish of Rathaspick, as has been already stated, extended into not only this and the adjoining modern parish of Ballyadams, but also into that of Clough, in the diocese of Ossory..."

"Killgorey. This is the Cill-gabhra with which one, if not more than one, of our earliest Irish Saints was identified. The Martyrologies of Donegal and Tallaght, at June 24th, have 'Lon of Cill Gabhra.' In the List of the Bishops of Kildare, as given in the Red Book of the Earl of Kildare, two bishops are named as having preceded St. Conlaeth in that See, the first of whom was called Lony. As Cill Gabhra was in the immediate vicinity of Sletty, the learned author of Loca Patriciana considers that Lon or Lonius may be identified with Lonan, the son of Dubhtach the Druid, who, like his brother, was associated for a time with their cousin St. Fiacc. He thus would be one of the Four true Druids supposed to be referred to in the famous Bilingual Inscription at Killeen Cormac - (See Loca Patr. Pt. IV.) Again, at September the 3rd, the Mart. of Donegal records St. Lonn or Loman Coisfin, i.e. of the white leg, of Cill Gaghra, Mairghe. There is a curious story related of his refusal to lend his books to St. Columba; this is referred to in the scholium in the Martyrology: "It is said that the book-satchels of Erinn and the Gospels, and the Lesson Books of the students fell from their racks on the night of Lon-Garadh's death, so that no person should understand them as Longaradh used to understand them. A very ancient vellum book states that Lon-garadh, in his habits and life, was like to Augustine, who was very wise." The Feilire of Aengus, at 3rd Sept., has: "Longarad, a delightful sun." Upon which the gloss in the Leaghar Breac comments: i.e. in Sleib Mairghe, or in Mag Tuathat in Offaly. Longarad the Whitelegged, in Mag Tuathat in the north of Ossory, i.e. in Ui-Foirchellain, i.e. in Mag Garad in Disart Garad especially, and in Cell Gabra in Sliab Mairge in Les Longarad. Whitelegged, i.e. a great white hair through his legs. Or bright-white were his legs.

A sage of learning, and history, and jurisprudence, and poetry was he. To Comumbcille chanced to come as a guest, and he hid his books from Columb, and Columbcille left his curse on Longarad's books, to wit: "May that," quoth he, "as to which thou has shown niggardliness be of no profit after thee." And this was fulfilled. For the books still remain, and no man reads them. Now when Longarad was dead, men of lore say this, that the book-satchels of Ireland fell down on that night. Or it is the satchels wherein were books of every science in the cell where Columbcille was, that fell down then, and Columbcille and every one in the house marvel, and all are silent at the noisy shaking of the books. "So then," said Columbcille, "Lon-garad in Ossory," quoth he, "a sage in every science, has now died." "May it be long till that comes true," quoth Baithin. "Unfaith on the man in thy place," says Columbcille, et dixit Columbcille:

"Dead is Lon
Of Cell-garad - great the evil!
To Erin with her many homesteads
It is ruin of learning and schools.
Died hat Lon
In Cell Garad - great the evil!
It is ruin of the learning and schools
Of Erin's island over her border."

As St. Columbcille was not born till the year 520, the year after the death of St. Conlaeth, this story of the meeting between St. Lonn of Cill-gabhra and St. Columbcille would militate against the supposition of the former having preceded St. Conlaeth in the See of Kildare. It may, however, have been, - and the fact of different days being assigned to them in the Calendar of Donegal tends to prove it, - that there were two Saints Lonn connected wtih killgorey. An ancient grave-yard, still extensively used, occupies the probable site of St. Lony's cell and oratory, the latter, no doubt, replaced in subsequent times by a public church. The trunk of a venerable tree remains, from an aperture in which, six feet from the ground, people still living state that they recollect to have seen water flow in a copious stream. Every available portion of the withered trunk is decorated with ex voto rags. The Saint's Well is immediately outside the burial-ground. A Patron used to be held here on the 24th of June; very old natives tell of crowds of people flocking to it, and of fields of tents set up for their accommodation. As has so frequently been the case, abuses resulting from these assemblages, caused the Patron to be discontinued; but even still, the well is resorted to by pilgrims, especially on festivals of the Blessed Virgin."

"Within the Chapel of Doonane two marble tablets have been raised to the memory of two former pastors of the parish. The following are the inscriptions:- 'Beneath are deposited the mortal remains of the Rev. Eugene Kelly, who laboured well in the sacred ministry for 44 years, during the last 31 of which he was the vigilant and zealous pastor of Doonane and Mayo. Having by word and example taught his flock the blessedness of walking blamelessly in the way of the Lord, this good priest, upon Easter Sunday, 1859, closed his earthly career in the precious peace procured by the bright hope which sustains the faithful Christian. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.-Apoc. xiv."

"+ Here lie the remains of Rev. James Kavanagh, P.P., who departed this life January 6th, 1876, aged 67 years. In your charity pray for the repose of his soul."

"Succession of Pastors. This district appears to have been formed into a separate parish towards the close of the last century. Gerald Byrne, P.P. of Stradbally from 1709 to 1724, had in charge, at the same time, Ballyadams and Doonane.

Rev. Patrick Wall was P.P. during the last quarter of the century; he lies interred at Arles, in the same grave with his brother, the Rev. James Wall, who died on the 27th of April, 1771, aged 49. The Right Rev. Francis Haly, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, and himself, a native of the parish of Doonane, was nephew to these priests. On the death of Fr. Wall. On the death of Fr. Wall, in 1815, Rev. Thomas Tyrrell was appointed; he was translated to Tinryland in 1823.

Rev. Cornelius Dowling succeeded; in 1826 he became P.P. of Stradbally, and had for his successor, Rev. Eugene Kelly; he dying in 1859, was succeeded by Rev. James Kavanagh, on whose death, which took place in 1876, Rev. Patrick Donohoe, the present Parish Priest, was appointed."

Blue Scapular of the Immaculate Conception

2011-09-17T06:00:00.003+01:00

The blue scapular of the Immaculate Conception is worn by members of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God, which was made an Arch-Confraternity in the year 1894. Indulgences were granted by the Pope Clement X who by the Brief of 30th January, 1671 also granted the faculty to bless and invest with this Scapular. The emblem is of blue wollen cloth, bearing on one portion a symbolization of the Immaculate Conception and on the other the name of Mary. Members of this Confraternity have their names registered on entolment, and they are forwarded to Rome or some other canonically erected confraternity. It is of interest to note that the foundress of the Order was privileged to have revealed to her in a vision the habit which was to be chosen.

Queen, conceived without original sin, pray for us!

Black Scapular of the Seven Dolours of Our Lady

2011-09-10T06:00:00.001+01:00

Members of the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Seven Dolours honour the Seven Dolours of Mary, and wear the black scapular of the Order of Servites, sanctioned in 1255 by Alexander IV. The scapular is in black cloth like the habit of the Order, bearing an image on the front of it of the Mother of Sorrows. It bears the indulgences of the Confraternity if worn constantly, and one must go back to 9th March, 1888, for a summary of these indulgences approved by the Congregation of Indulgences.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

The Blessed Scapulars of the Church

2011-09-03T06:00:00.001+01:00

The Kildare and Leighlin Year Book for 1956 contained a colour supplement entitled The Blessed Scapulars of the Church. The following series will contain the accounts of those scapulars from that colour supplement (except where otherwise stated). It begins with an introduction that is of its time but unfortunately may not be of ours:

A Brief History of the More Widely Known Scapulars

Ireland amongst the foremost Catholic nations of the world places implicit faith in the efficacy of the Scapular, and in no other country is there to be found an greater variety of this religious emblem, worn constantly by devout Catholics of all ranks and grades of society. There is a most interesting history attaching to each of these Scapulars.

The supplement ends with the following, incidentally, the only part of a Kildare and Leighlin Year Book that appears to carry an 'Imprimatur' or anything of the like:

Rules for the wearing of scapulars

The regulartions concerning the scapulars in general are as follows:-
1. The scapular may be given to any Catholic - even to an infant; and after he has come to the age of reasn he does not need any renewal of the investing.
2. It may be given in any place; the sick may receive it in their beds.
3. It must be worn so that one part hangs on the breast, the other on the back, with a band on each shoulder. If worn or carried otherwise, no indulgences are gained. It may be worn under all the clothing, or between the under and outer clothing.
4. After investment, it is never necessary to have the scapular blessed. When one is worn out or lost, the wearer simply puts on a new one.
5. The scapular should be worn constantly. It gives the wearer a share in certain spiritual benefits; laying it aside for a short time (an hour or a day) does not deprive him of these, but if it be not worn for a long time he loses all benefits during that time.

Nihil Obstat:

Joseph P. Newth, C.C.
Censor Theol. Deput.

Imprimi Protest:

JOANNES CAROLUS
Archiep. Dublinen., Hiberniae Primas
Dublini, die 31 Augusti anno 1955

Saint Seanan of Laithrech-Briuin

2011-09-02T09:00:00.005+01:00

September 2 is the feastday of a County Kildare saint, Seanan of Laithrech-Briuin. Canon O'Hanlon begins his account with a lament that he is one of the many Irish saints of whom we know little, but he must have been a figure of some standing as he is named as an attendee at the Synod of Dromceat in 580. For this re-post I have added the details of the entry for the day from the Martyrology of Aengus which appear in the footnotes in the original volume. I have also added the details and accompanying illustration of the church ruins as this may be of interest to people living in the local area.

ST. SEANAN, OF LAITHRECH-BRIUIN, NOW LARAGHBRINE, COUNTY OF KILDARE. [SIXTH CENTURY.]

WE have frequently to lament the loss of records, which might preserve the particular virtues and actions of individuals for the edification and emulation of all true Christians. As noticeable throughout all the previous volumes of this work, with the most earnest desire to render its several articles, more complete, documentary or traditional materials are not accessible, to rescue from obscurity the earthly career of so many among the children of light. Merely to learn their names—sometimes also those of their old places—and to know that they had lived, are all that can now be ascertained.

According to the Feilire-Aenguis, the Feast of St. Senan was celebrated in Lathrach Briuin, or Laraghbrine, in Ui-Foelain, on the 2nd of September. In conjunction with two other holy persons, Molotha and Theodota, the saint is praised for his noble qualities, and for their reward through Christ. In the Leabhar Breac copy of the Feilire of Oengus, is the following stanza, at this date thus rendered into English :—"

Molotha, Theodota (Theotimus?) with Senan
they are noble:
with fair Christ is their guerdon:
to his train they are dear."

The commentator identifies the present saint as connected with a well-known place. ..a gloss on the Feilire has " i. e. lathrach briuin inúib foelain." It is thus translated, "'with Senan,' i.e. of Lathrach Briuin in Ui-Foelain."

According to the Calendar of the O'Clerys, he belonged to the race of Eochaidh, son of Muireadh, who descended from the seed of Heremon. We are told, likewise, that Deidi, daughter to Trian, son of Dubhthach, was his mother. The pedigree of St. Senan of Laraghbrine is contained in the "Sanctilogic Genealogy." There he is called the son of Fintan, son to Strened, son of Glinder, son to Corc, son of Conned, son to Aengus, son of Fieg, son to Mail, son of Carthage, &c. His genealogy is then carried back to Heremon for fifty generations, or for about 1600 years. Marianus O'Gorman has noted this saint, in his Martyrology, at the present date. St. Senan must have flourished in the sixth century, and been a contemporary of the great St. Columbkille, for he is named as one of those ecclesiastics who attended the great Synod, held at Dromcreat in 580. On the 2nd of September, a festival is entered in the Martyrology of Donegal, to honour Seanan, of Laithrech Briuin, in the territory of Hy-Faelain. This place is also written Lathrach-Briuin. At present it is known as Laraghbrine, or Laraghbryan, where there is an old church and a cemetery, near Maynooth, in the Barony of North Salt, and County of Kildare.

The mediaeval church ruins of Laraghbrien are to be seen embowered with stately lime trees, and within a squarely-formed grave-yard, surrounded by a quadrangular wall. A gravel walk runs parallel with the walls on the interior. The church ruins measure 87 feet in length, exteriorly: they are 19 feet, 8 inches, in breadth. The walls are nearly 3 feet in thickness. There is a square tower, 13 feet by 15 feet, on the outside; and, it is entered by a low, arched door-way from the interior. Several square-headed opes are inside of it, and a ruined spiral stairway occupies one angle. This leads to a broken part of the wall, and showing that it ran much higher. There is a large breach in either side wall. Some ruined windows remain. Two of them have elegantly dressed heading and side stones, and in these formerly were iron bars. The building materials are of excellent limestone and mortar. There was a door in the north side-wall, parallel with the road from Maynooth to Kilcock. Circularly-arched door-ways and windows splayed are still to be seen in the walls. Traces of plaster are inside and outside the building, showing that it had been used for purposes of worship, and at no very remote date.

In his final footnote to the article Canon O'Hanlon comments: 'These observations and measurements were taken on the spot by the writer, in July, 1873. On that occasion, also, a sketch of the ruined church was obtained, which has been drawn, as here represented, on the wood and engraved by Gregor Grey.'

The Feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in Ireland

2011-08-29T09:00:00.157+01:00

August 29 is the feast of the Decollation or Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. This feast had a particular significance for the people of Ireland and was once anticipated with a great deal of trepidation. For it was feared that this country would be subject to a punishment of apocalyptic proportions thanks to the belief of our ancestors that an Irish druid had volunteered to act as Saint John's executioner. This would be just another of those strange but harmless Irish legends if it weren't for the fact that in the year 1096 they really did think that the day of reckoning had arrived. Below I will summarize the main details of the extraordinary traditions surrounding this feast, drawn from a number of posts made in 2009 on my own blog.

The feast of the Beheading of Saint John is marked on the early ninth-century Irish calendar, The Martyrology of Oengus, and begins innocuously enough with this stanza:

29. Announce the suffering of John the Baptist,
a world with piety,
with nine virginal hundreds,
on Elijah's ascension

but the accompanying commentary, added by later anonymous authors, sounds a very different note - one of apocalyptic terror involving something called the Besom (or Broom) of Fanait and an all-consuming fiery dragon:

In vengeance for the killing of John comes the Besom out of Fanait to expurgate Ireland at the end of the world, as Aileran of the Wisdom foretold, and Colum cille, i.e. at terce precisely will come the Besom out of Fanait, ut dixit Colum cille:
" Like the grazing of two horses in a yoke will be the diligence with which it will cleanse Erin."

Of the Besom Aileran said:
"Two alehouses shall be in one garth side by side. He who shall go out of one house into the other will find no one before him alive in the house he will enter, and no one alive in the house from which he will go. Such will be the swiftness with which the Besom shall go out of Fanait."

Riagail said:
"Three days and three nights and a year will this plague be in Ireland. When a boat on Loch Rudraigi shall be clearly seen from the door of the refectory, then comes the Besom out of Fanait."

A Tuesday in spring, now, is the day of the week on which the Besom will come in vengeance for John's passion, as Moling said:

On John's festival will come the onslaught, which will search Ireland from the south-east,
a fierce dragon that will burn every one it can, without communion, without sacrifice, etc.'

Thus we can see that in these prophecies attributed to various Irish saints it appears that some vaguely-defined punishment, likened to a broom sweeping all before it and supposedly originating from the beautiful Fanad peninsula of County Donegal, will cut down its victims with terrifying speed. The nature of the 'Besom of Fanait' is not entirely clear and nor is its relationship to the fiery dragon, originating in the south-west, which will consume people unshriven. I suppose it is possible that the fiery dragon is a metaphor for the types of deadly plague which swept Ireland at various times, indeed one of the quoted prophets, Saint Aileran the Wise, was himself a victim of the plague known as the Buidhe Chonaill which devastated Ireland in the seventh century. On the other hand the image of fire is firmly associated with apocalyptic events. Some of the other prophecies not quoted above also talk about another similarly ill-defined scourge known as the Roth Ramhach, the Rowing, or Oar Wheel.

This tradition was further added to in the 10th-century Irish Life of Saint Adamnan. Although this saint is best known today as the author of the Life of Saint Columba of Iona, after his death his name was associated with an apocalyptic text, Fís Adamnáin, The Vision of Adamnan. He was thus drawn into the list of Irish saints associated with prophecies concerning the feast of Saint John's beheading, as this extract from the copy preserved in the Leabhar Breac and translated by Professor Eugene O'Curry demonstrates:

"The vision which Adamnan—a man filled with the Holy Spirit—saw, that is, the angel of the Lord spoke these His [that is, the Lord's] words to him:
"Woe! woe! woe! to the men of Erinn's Isle who transgress the commands of the Lord. Woe! to the kings and princes who do not direct the truth, and who love both iniquity and rapine. Woe! to the prostitutes and the sinners, who shall be burned like hay and straw, by a fire ignited in the bissextile and intercalary year, and in the end of the cycle. And it is on the [festival of the] beheading of John the Baptist, on the sixth day of the week, that this plague will come, in that year, if [the people] by devout penitence do not prevent it as the people of Nineveh have done".

We can see that the prophecy of Adamnan has raised another aspect to the apocalyptic events on this feastday, first in its mention of 'the bissextile and intercalary year' and secondly in the possibility that disaster could be averted by 'devout penitence'. Both of these factors actually played out in the real world of late 11th-century Ireland in what is known as 'the panic of 1096'. For then it truly seemed that the conditions were in place for the fulfilment of the prophecies on August 29 of that year. Let's start with the calendar requirements of which there seem to have been four:

1. The Feast of Saint John's beheading had to fall on a Friday
2. It had to fall within a bissextile year, that is a leap year
3. It had to fall in a year with an embolism, that is a year with an extra lunar month
4. It had to occur in a year which stood at the end of a chronological cycle

In the year 1096, the first three of these conditions were met, scholar Benjamin Hudson who has studied this particular episode suggests that the fourth may not have been felt to be so important. What undoubtedly would have added to the sense of panic in Ireland in this year was the appearance in late 1095 of a devastating plague which cut down rich and poor alike. Among its victims were various Irish princes and the bishops of Armagh and Dublin. The plague raged from August 1095 to May of 1096 and may have concentrated the mind on the prophecies. The Irish annals support the idea that this year was no ordinary one and was referenced to the traditions surrounding Saint John's feast with the Annals of Tigernach, for example, referring to 1096 as 'the year of the festival of John'. They also record, however, how disaster was averted by recourse to the type of 'devout penitence' advocated in the Vision of Adamnan, itself drawing on the biblical story of the averting of the wrath of God from the city of Nineveh. The Annals of the Four Masters record for the year 1096:

The festival of John fell on Friday this year; the men of Ireland were seized with great fear in consequence, and the resolution adopted by the clergy of Ireland, with the successor of Patrick at their head, to protect them against the pestilence which had been predicted to them at a remote period, was, to command all in general to observe abstinence, from Wednesday till Sunday, every month, and to fast on one meal every day till the end of a year, except on Sundays, solemnities, and great festivals; and they also made alms and many offerings to God; and many lands were granted to churches and clergymen by kings and chieftains; and the men of Ireland were saved for that time from the fire of vengeance.

Having thus seen the very real terror that existed in Ireland around the festival of The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, we may conclude by having a look at where the root cause of all the trouble lay. It may seem incredible now but our ancestors appear to have taken seriously the notion that an Irishman, a druid whom tradition names as Mag Roth or Mog Ruith, travelled with his daughter to the east where he literally became a sorcerer's apprentice under the tutelage of Simon Magus. Although Simon Magus is only briefly mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (8:9-24) he became the focus of an extensive apocryphal tradition in medieval Europe, including Ireland. In our version the pair end up at the court of King Herod on that fateful night when Salome dances and demands her reward, but finding none of his own people willing to execute the Forerunner and Baptist of Our Lord, the Irishman Mag Roth volunteers to wield the sword. And he thus laid Ireland and its people open to the possibility of vengeance on the anniversary of this hateful deed.

It's a curious tale, isn't it? Whilst it illustrates the dangers of apocalyptic speculations there is also a positive message in observing how the Irish people, including the elite, sought to avert disaster in the year 1096 by embracing repentance.

If you are interested in reading further on this topic I have explored some of the sources in more detail in a series of posts on my own blog which will also supply fuller references:

1. The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and the Irish, a general introduction.

2. Decoding the Prophecies of Saint John, an examination of the texts by Professor O'Curry.

3. 1096 and all that, a summary of the work of Benjamin Hudson on the panic of 1096.

4. The Executioner of John the Baptist, a poem on Mag Roth from a Scottish manuscript.

The beautiful bronze pictured above is by iconographer Aleksandras Aleksejevas whose work was featured in an online exhibition in 2009.

Latin Mass in St. Paul's Church, Emo, Co. Laois

2011-08-27T17:13:00.001+01:00

In the section of his Collections relating to the Parish of Emo (Vol. 2, p. 144 ff., Bishop Comerford refers to Coolbanagher, the site of the original Parish Church just a few hundred yards from Emo, where a protestant building now stands:

Coolbanagher is, however, chiefly famous as being the place where St. Aenguis, surnamed Cele De, or servant of God, conceived the idea of his celebrated religious Poem called from him the Felire Aenguis, or Festology of St. Aenguis. In the Introduction to this Poem we are informed that, when retiring from Disert-Enos, the Saint visited Coolbanagher, and that, one day, whilst engaged in prayer there, he noticed a certain grave, and the angels from heaven constantly descenting upon it and ascending from it. Aenguis asked the priest of the Church who it was that lay buried in the grave; the priest replied that it was a poor man who formerly had lived at the place. "What good did he do?" said Aenguis. "I saw no particular good by him," said the priest, "but that his customary practice was to recount and invoke the Saints of the world as far as he could remember them, at his going to bed and getting up, according to the custom of the old devotees." "Ah! my God," said Aenguis, "he who would make a metrical composition in praise of the Saints should doubtless have a high reward, when so much has been vouchsafed to the efforts of this old devotee." And Aenguis then commenced his poem on the spot. He subsequently continued it at Clonenagh and Tallaght. (O'Curry's Lectures, p. 365.)

It was in good company, therefore, that the members and friends of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association made another pilgrimage to Emo, Co. Laois, today and, by the kindness of the Parish Priest, organised Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, which was a votive Mass in honour of Ss. Peter and Paul, in the Parish Church of St. Paul. Reports of the Masses for previous years can be found here, here and here.

Bishop Comerford also records:

The handsome parish church of Emo, the site of which was a gift from Lord Portarlington, was erected during the pastorate of the Very Rev. T. O'Connell, but chiefly through the zealous exertions of the Rev. William Hooney, then resident curate. The bell-tower was completed by the Rev. John Phelan, P.P. Fr. Hooney died, to the great grief of his many friends, on the 3rd of May, 1872, and was interred in his native parish of Suncroft. The Altar of the Sacred Heart at Emo, and another [now destroyed] under the same invocation, at Suncroft, have been erected to his memory.

All ye holy Saints of Ireland, pray for us!

The ones that got away - Goresbridge

2011-08-20T09:55:00.002+01:00

This part of the Country, not uniquely but more than any other that I'm aware, has several examples of the estate town or townland named for the landlord family. Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, Castlebellingham, Co. Louth, and others throughout Ireland have to give way to Archersgrove, Archersleas and Archersrath, Aylwardstown and Ayresfields, Bagenalstown, Blanchfieldsbog, Blanchfieldsland, Blanchvilleskill, Blanchvillespark and Blanchvillestown, Broughillstown, Burtonhall, Castlegrace, Damerstown East and West, Dukespark, Fenniscourt, Goresbridge, and Graigue-cullen, Hacketstown, Maudlinsland, Moorestown, Mountloftus, Mountnugent Upper and Lower, Nashesquarter or Painestown.

Perched on the borders of Carlow and Kilkenny, Goresbridge, as you can imagine, was named for the Gore family who received a grant from Charles II of lands thereabouts forfeited by Catholics. The Gores were replaced in the 19th cent. by the Clifdens as the big people in the place. As is natural, the Church of Ireland building stands prominent and proudly, while the Catholic Church on 'Chapel Lane' is more modest of aspect.

As you can see from the simple style and humble proportions of the Church and even the graveyard in the Church grounds, this is a very early Church built c. 1815, according to Dr. Comerford's Collections during the Pastorate of Fr. Lewis Moore (1805-1818), while Goresbridge was part of Graignamanagh Parish. The three porches, identical to those in the other Church of the Parish at Paulstown, were added in 1933 to mark the Golden Jubilee of Ordination of a Fr. O'Brien.

The Brigidine Convent Building, founded in 1858, was once a fine edifice of two wings complete with pedimented gables but is now creeping towards dereliction. It was the place where the fine hymn to St. Brigid 'Far above enthroned in glory' was composed by Mother Cecilia, CSB. You can see something of past Brigidine glories here.

Aside from the stunning stained glass, what is outstanding about this Church is the retention of a useable traditional High Altar. The predella, the mensa, the tabernacle, even the six candlesticks have been retained - in total contrast with the other Church in the Parish, which is a cubist liturgical nightmare. The High Altar of white marble is surmounted by a pyramidal-domed tabernacle. the mensa is supported by four red marble pillars and centrally by a carved panel of Christ fallen under the weight of the cross. At either side, the reredos has a blue veined marble gothic panel with floreated edges. The view is largely obscured from the pews by the Novus Ordo Altar and ambo but at least there is an attempt to integrate them with the existing elements, without cannibalising them. However, neither the ambo nor new Altar makes any attempt to follow closely the style of the High Altar or even each other.

The Assumption in Kildare

2011-08-15T06:00:00.004+01:00

The Assumption of the Virgin by Rubens c. 1626

The feast of the Assumption was observed in Ireland by great acts of charity, even in the times of persecution. Dr. Comerford, in his Collections Relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin at Volume 2, page 42, tells us:

"Recording the death of Margaret O'Carroll, wife of O'Conor Faly, in 1451, the Four Masters say of her that "she was the best woman of her time in Ireland, for it was she who had given two invitations of hospitality in the one year to those who sought for rewards," (i.e., poets, minstrels, members of the mendicant orders, etc.) These feasts, as we learn from Duald Mac Firbis, took place, one at Killeigh, on the Feast of Da Sinchell, the 26th of March, - at which 2,700 persons were entertained, - and the other at Rathangan; "and she gave the second invitation to everyone that came not to the first, on the feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady in harvest, at or in the Rath-Imayn, and so we have been informed that that second day in Rath-Imayn was nothing inferior to the first day."

A Mhaighdine Muire, tógailte suas ar Neamh, guidh orainn!