Traditional Easter Ceremonies

The Easter Ceremonies in the Gregorian Rite:

Holy Thursday

4 p.m. - Holy Mass: Silverstream Priory, Stamullen, Co. Meath
6 p.m. - Holy Mass: Sacred Heart Church, The Crescent, Limerick City
6 p.m. - Holy Mass: Ss. Peter and Paul's Church, Paul Street, Cork City
7 p.m. - Holy Mass: St. Kevin's Church, Harrington Street, Dublin 8.
7.30 p.m. - Tenebrae: Silverstream Priory, Stamullen, Co. Meath

Good Friday

12 noon - Stations of the Cross: Ss. Peter and Paul's Church, Paul Street, Cork City
3 p.m. - Liturgy of the Passion: Sacred Heart Church, The Crescent, Limerick City
3 p.m. - Liturgy of the Passion: Silverstream Priory, Stamullen, Co. Meath
5 p.m. - Liturgy of the Passion: St. Kevin's Church, Harrington Street, Dublin 8.
6 p.m. - Liturgy of the Passion: Ss. Peter and Paul's Church, Paul Street, Cork City
7 p.m. - Stations of the Cross: St. Kevin's Church, Harrington Street, Dublin 8.
7.30 p.m. - Tenebrae: Silverstream Priory, Stamullen, Co. Meath

Holy Saturday

12.30 p.m. - Tenebrae: Ss. Peter and Paul's Church, Paul Street, Cork City
8 p.m. - Easter Vigil: Silverstream Priory, Stamullen, Co. Meath
8.30 p.m. - Easter Vigil: Ss. Peter and Paul's Church, Paul Street, Cork City
9 p.m. - Easter Vigil: Sacred Heart Church, The Crescent, Limerick City
9 p.m. - Easter Vigil: St. Kevin's Church, Harrington Street, Dublin 8.

Easter Sunday

9 a.m. - Holy Mass: St. Mary's Church, Ballyhea, Co. Cork
9 a.m. - Holy Mass: St. Mary's Church, Chapel Street, Newry, Co. Down
10 a.m. - Holy Mass: St. Patrick's Church, Drumkeen, Co. Donegal
10 a.m. - Holy Mass: Silverstream Priory, Stamullen, Co. Meath
10.30 a.m. - Holy Mass: Sacred Heart Church, The Crescent, Limerick City
10.30 a.m. - Holy Mass: St. Kevin's Church, Harrington Street, Dublin 8.
12 noon - Holy Mass: Ss. Peter and Paul's Church, Paul Street, Cork City
1.30 p.m. - Holy Mass: Holy Cross Church (O.P.), Tralee, Co. Kerry
2 p.m. - Holy Mass: St. Columba's Church, Longtower, Derry City
4 p.m. - Holy Mass: St. Therese's Church, Somerton Road, Belfast City
5 p.m. - Holy Mass: St. Patrick's Church, College Road, Kilkenny City
5.30 p.m. - Holy Mass: Blessed Sacrament Chapel, Our Lady's Shrine, Knock, Co. Mayo

Beannachtaí na Cásca oraibh go léir!
A happy and holy Easter to one and all!

Grace Dieu (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. 430.

Grace Dieu in the barony of Balruddery and three miles north of Swords.

About the year 1190 John Comyn archbishop of Dublin removed thither the nunnery of Lusk and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary. He filled it with regular canonesses of St. Augustine and granted it an endowment. Henry de Loundres, Archbishop of Dublin, added to it the parish church of Ballymaddon with the chapel thereunto belonging instead of the parish church of St. Audeon, given by Archbishop Comyn.

Felicia anchoritess of Ballymaddon claimed an annual rent charge payable by the prioress of Grace Dieu.

AD 1531 this nunnery paid 3 6s 8d proxies to the archbishop of Dublin.

The extensive possessions of this nunnery were granted forever to Patrick Barnwell, Esq. at the annual rent of 4 8 6d Irish money. The grant was renewed on the 8th of January the first of Edward VI.

In October 1577 the prioress was seized of a messuage and eighteen acres of land with divers buildings. Towards the south of said buildings the prioress and nuns with the chaplain had a small dwelling and celebrated the divine offices in the parish church of Portrane, all of which were held by Isabella Walsh by a demise from the prioress before the dissolution. Many Catholics obtained grants of property belonging to the monasteries which they religiously reserved for the use of their inmates.

Come and Pray to Save the 8th

Monthly Latin Mass in University Church February 2018

The Archiepiscopal See of Dublin (1528-1669)(Walsh)

Saint Michan's Church, Dublin

From Walsh's History of the Irish Hierarchy, 1854, c. xvi, p. 123 ff:

Eugene Mathews succeeded in 1611, was parish priest of Clogher and in August 1609 became bishop of the church of that see from which he was translated to the archdiocese of Dublin in May 1611. The period of his translation was one of imminent danger as Andrew Knox, the bishop of Orkney, was removed to Raphoe in Ireland with the avowed object of annihilating the Catholic faith of the Irish church. This blood thirsty wretch who pretended to be the guardian and successor of the apostolic commission of feeding and teaching the lambs and sheep of the fold was the immediate adviser of those cruel and savage edicts requiring the clergy of the ancient faith to quit the kingdom under pain of death.

Notwithstanding this denunciation against ecclesiastics, the archbishop Eugene presided at a conference held at Kilkenny in October 1614 and on this occasion decrees were enacted:

first for the reception of the canons of the council of Trent as circumstances would permit;
secondly for the establishment of vicars and the appointment of deans to preside over the priesthood;
thirdly for the due qualifications of the clergy before appointment;
fourthly the administration of baptism by aspersion on the head instead of immersion, the registry of the names of parents, children and sponsors, the exaction of dues from the known poor prohibited under pain of suspension;
fifthly to provide for the decorous celebration of the Divine mysteries, directing the celebrant, as he was obliged, to offer up the sacrifice in the open air and in unconsecrated spots, to select a clean place sheltered from wind and rain.
The sixth provides for the publicity and registering of marriages, the qualifications of the contracting parties, and the prevention of clandestine contracts.
The seventh for the maintenance of the clergy by collections from their flocks.
Eighth provides for the character of the clergy prohibits mercantile pursuits farming and especially interference in matters of state or politics.
Ninth restrains preaching on articles of faith by any but those who were approved.
Tenth prevents disputations on matters of faith or discussions on religious subjects during convivial hours.
Eleventh consults for the due observance of fasts and abstinence

In 1615, on the occasion of the regal visitation, the commissioners reported that Eugene Mathews, titular archbishop of Dublin, was secretly harbored therein and on the 13th of October 1617 a proclamation issued from the castle of Dublin for the expulsion of all the regular clergy and a certain individual John Boyton was commissioned to discover them, nor was Boyton remiss in performing his duty, as he detected many of them and also some of the nobles who sheltered them, all of whom were thrown into prison, while the judges on circuit were instructed to enforce the penalties and fines against recusants who did not attend the Protestant service.

Eugene Mathews was obliged at length to yield to the storm. He retired to the Netherlands, where he died in 1623.

Thomas Fleming, a Franciscan friar of the family of the barons of Slane and sometime professor of theology in Louvain was on the 23d of October 1623 and in the 30th year of his age appointed archbishop of Dublin by Pope Urban VIII. Immediately on his promotion to the archdiocese Paul Harris a secular priest began to inveigh bitterly against the selection of prelates from the class of regulars, he also attacked the friars. But at length Cardinal Barberini, prefect of the Propaganda, felt compelled to interfere and accordingly directed the bishop of Meath to banish him from the diocese of Dublin but the bishop of Meath, dreading the civil power, did not wish to act and this turbulent priest at once declared that he would not retire unless compelled by the authority of King Charles. The ensuing years of Archbishop Fleming appear to have passed in the silent and unobtrusive exercise of his ecclesiastical functions.

In 1642, he appeared at Kilkenny through his proxy, the Rev. Joseph Everard, but when the designs of the government became more apparent and that the extinction of the Catholics and their faith was the object, the archbishop of Dublin felt himself obliged to participate in person in the counsels of the confederates at Kilkenny and thereupon appointed Doctor Edmond O'Reilly to fill the station of vicar general in his absence. As one of the members for Leinster, the Archbishop Fleming sat in the council and on the 20th of June, 1643, together with the archbishop of Tuam, the only two among the prelates who did so, authorized Nicholas Viscount Gormanstown, Sir Lucas Dillon, Sir Robert Talbot and others to treat with the Marquis of Ormond, who was obliged to temporise for the cessation of arms. In the ensuing month, Father Peter Scarampa, an Oratorian and a man of consummate prudence and learning, arrived with supplies of money and ammunition from Rome on the part of the supreme pontiff Urban VIII, to whom the celebrated Luke Wadding made known the sufferings of the Irish Catholics and their efforts to preserve themselves and their faith from utter extinction.

In 1644, the archbishop of Dublin was present at the general assembly of Kilkenny in which it was agreed and confirmed by an oath of association that every confederate should bear true faith and allegiance to the king and his heirs to maintain the Roman Catholic faith and religion and to obey the orders and decrees of the supreme council. Father Scarampa remained in the discharge of his commission at Kilkenny until November, 1645, when John Baptist Rinuccini, archbishop and prince of Fermo, arrived in the character of apostolic nuncio extraordinary. In the year 1648, Edmond O'Reilly was removed from the station of vicar general as it appears he had neither prudence or ability to sustain it, and the Rev. Lawrence Archbold was appointed in his stead. During the greater part of the year 1649 the prelate resided in his own diocese and at last he sunk into the grave in the midst of those persecutions by which the keen eyed vigilance of the persecutors drove the Catholic laity into the country. The priests and monks scarcely dare sleep even in the houses of their own people.  Their life was an earthly warfare and a martyrdom they breathed as by stealth among the hills and the woods and frequently in the abyss of bogs or marshes which the persecutors could not penetrate. Yet thither flocked congregations of poor Catholics to receive the doctrine of salvation and the bread of life. Yet the heretics in their hatred to the dogmas of the ancient creed of their fathers hurried through the mountains and woods exploring ploring the retreats of the clergy who were more hotly pursued than the wild beasts of the chase.  It became almost impossible that the Catholic hierarchy of Ireland could be kept up in its integrity. At the close of the year 1660 there were but three prelates of the Catholic church in the kingdom, the archbishop of Armagh, the bishops of Meath and Kilmore. The see of Dublin and the care of the province were placed under the jurisdiction and control of James Dempsey, vicar apostolic and capitular of Kildare.

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.