Monastery of St Francis (Walsh)

From Fr. Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy With the Monasteries of Each County, Biographical Notices of the Irish Saints, Prelates, and Religious, 1854,c. xliv p. 427.

Monastery of St. Francis was erected in the year 1235, Ralph le Porter having given the site in that part of the city now called Francis street and King Henry III patronizing the building.

AD 1293 King Edward I granted a pension of thirty five marcs yearly to the Franciscans of Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Drogheda.

AD 1308 John le Decer mayor of Dublin built a chapel in this monastery in honor of the Virgin Mary.

AD 1309 Roger de Heton guardian of the order in Dublin and Walter de Prendergast lecturer of the same were witnesses against the knights Templar. A provincial chapter was held in this year in the monastery of St. Francis.

AD 1332 died their generous benefactor John le Decer and was interred in this monastery.

In the twenty fourth of Henry VIII the convent with its appurtenances, four houses in Francis street and six acres of meadow near Clondalkin, was granted to Thomas Stephens to be held in capite forever at the annual rent of 2s Irish.

The Franciscans are again established in Dublin and have erected a splendid church on Merchant's quay.

Monastery of Witeschan

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy With the Monasteries of Each County, Biographical Notices of the Irish Saints, Prelates, and Religious, 1854, c. xliv p. 421

Monastery of Witeschan of which there is but slight mention made. It was situate in the west part of Dublin passing from the cathedral of St. Patrick through the Coombe to the pool of the house of St. Thomas the Martyr. There was an order of friars de penitentia who were also called the sac friars. Their origin was in the year 1245 and their arrival in Ireland took place in 1268. The order did not long survive it was condemned in England in 1307 and its houses passed into other hands and in 1311 the council of Vienne condemned the Order everywhere. This monastery of Witeschan may have been of that Order.

Radio Maria Broadcast

The Catholic Heritage Hour on Radio Maria Ireland has been broadcast for almost a year at 3.20 p.m. on Fridays, with speech programmes and a Holy Mass in the Gregorian Rite alternating from week to week.  This week, the Holy Mass was a Requiem for deceased members and friends of the Catholic Heritage Association.  At least one Mass organised by the Association each year is offered for deceased members, generally many more than that, and at least one Mass organised by the Association each quarter is offered for living members, generally more, with the rest offered for various intentions, the Pope, the Holy Souls, deceased Priests, the intentions of an individual.  Our Association is a family of prayer.

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (6) - Mass for All Saints

To celebrate the Feast of All Saints one couldn't do better than to be in Rome, surrounded by so many of the relics of the Saints, and upon the ground which so many of them have trod... except perhaps to be in the Roman Church dedicated to All the Saints (or almost so), the Pantheon, which was dedicated to Santa Maria ad Martyres. We had visited the Pantheon on Day 1 of our Pilgrimage, on the eve of All Saints, but include the pictures here.

Mass for the Feast of All Saints in the Basilica of Sant'Eustachio in Campo Marzio On the Feast of All Saints itself, we came to the Basilica of Sant'Eustachio, only feet away from the Pantheon, for the celebration of Holy Mass and to explore our Catholic heritage in Rome a little further. Although called Sant'Eustachio in Campo Marzio, it is actually in the Rione or District of Sant'Eustachio. Saint Eustachio himself was one of those brave Roman Soldier converts and martyrs. His symbol, the stag with a cross in its antlers, is to be seen all over the Basilica. He is also one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, to which there was much devotion in the Middle Ages, and well worth recalling on the Feast of All Saints. The Church was founded, perhaps during the reign of Pope St. Gregory the Great, and is certainly mentioned in the reign of Pope Gregory II as a Diaconia, a Deacon's Church or center for Corporal Works of Mercy, and that work continues today with the poor of the area dining in the loggia of the Church each day. The only obvious remnant of the Medieval structure is the impressive campanile. The interior is decorated in a gentle French baroque style.

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (5) - Day 1 concluded

The Church of the Gesù
We concluded the first day of our Pilgrimage with our now customary visit to the Church of the Holy Name, The Gesù.  Having visited the Church of Sant'Ignazio it is only a few minutes walk down through the Piazza del Collegio Romano and down the famous Via della Gatta to the other main Jesuit Church in the City, where St. Ignatius lived in the attached House of the Professed, and where he is buried in the beautiful side Altar that is the focus, each evening at 5.30 p.m., of the ceremony of light and music and Scripture and Prayer, the Macchina barocca.  We made it in good time to enjoy the prayerful atmosphere of the Church in fading autumn light, to pray before the High Altar of the Holy Name, at the Chapel of the Madonna della Strada and the Chapel of the Sacred Heart where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved.  There are many echoes between Sant'Ignazio and the Gesù, particularly in the mirroring of the two main transept Altars, St. Ignatius in the Gospel-side and the arm of St. Francis Xavier in the Epistle-side.  Once again, the nave ceiling is a riot of baroque decoration but, in the case of the Gesù, it is more unconventional.  We are not only seeing the Heavens, as it were, through the frame of an open ceiling, but now the celestial (and infernal!) figures are in three dimensions and falling out of the frame and into our dimension.

After experiencing the Macchina barocca we returned to the Istituto Maria Santissima Bambina for Vespers of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.