Anniversary of the election of the Sovereign Pontiff

This day is the fourth anniversary of the election of the Sovereign Pontiff. Let us rejoice in Divine Providence which has given us Our Most Holy Lord Pope Benedict XVI!

THOU ART PETER!

Let us pray for our Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XVI. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Forthcoming Masses

The next pilgrimage in honour of the Holy Year of St. Paul will be to the Church of the Assumption, Vicarstown, Co. Laois, Ireland, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, 25th April, 2009.


On Saturday, 23rd May, 2009, at 12 noon, St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association is organising a Requiem Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Skeoghvosteen, Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, for the 40th Anniversary of the death of Bishop Thomas Keogh of Kildare and Leighlin, b. 1884, consec. 1936, d. 1969.

Blessed be the Most Holy Name of Jesus!

The Name of Jesus is the glory of preachers, because the shining splendor of that Name causes His word to be proclaimed and heard. And how do you think such an immense, sudden and dazzling light of faith came into the world, if not because Jesus was preached? Was it not through the brilliance and sweet savor of this Name that God called us into his marvelous light? When we have been enlightened, and in that same light behold the light of heaven, rightly may the apostle Paul say to us: "Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light." So this Name must be proclaimed, that It may shine out and never be suppressed. St. Bernardino of Siena (Sermo 49, De Glorioso Nomine Iesu Christi)

Happy Birthday Holy Father!

On the occasion of his eighty-second birthday, Saint Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association offers best filial good wishes and fervant prayers to Pope Benedict XVI!

Ad multos annos, Holy Father!

Urbi et Orbi Easter 2009

Easter Saturday in Sweden

Like most holidays, Swedes prefer to celebrate Easter on the eve, known as Påskafton in Swedish, rather than on the day, Easter Sunday, Påskdagen in Swedish.

In certain parts of Sweden the custom of äggapickning was observed. People gathered on Easter morning with hardboiled eggs in their pockets. Two players stood opposite each other, one holding his egg still and the other using his for attack. There were strict rules - end to end, never the sides. The winner was the one whose egg remained unbroken after the assault.

People decorate their houses with the Easter colors; yellow, green and white. They put yellow chickens with feathers of different colors all over their houses.

Eggs and herring, sometimes lamb, are the characteristic traditional Swedish meal for Easter eve and they very nearly represent Påsk all by themselves. They are part of the very traditional Swedish feast smörgåsbordet. Another popular dish on the smörgåsbord is Jansson's frestelse - Jansson's temptation - a potato gratin that has anchovies in it.

Bonfires are lit in some regions of Sweden in the afternoon. Some say they are to scare off the evil influences of the Easter witches on their Blåkulla journey. Others take the opportunity to clear gardens for the coming spring. For some regions, including the Stockholm area, the bonfires will happen instead on Valborgsmässafton or Walpurgis Night at the end of April.

Easter Friday in Sweden

Easter Friday, in Sweden is called Long Friday or Långfredagen, and is not at all a pleasant affair. The most notable feature of popular customs for Long Friday is the påskris or Easter twigs. Birch twigs are brought indoors and decorated with coloured feathers.

Traditionally, the birch twigs were used to scourge children and servants to remind them of the sufferings of Christ.

The tradition of eating the Easter Salmon today is also still much observed, preserving the Catholic law of abstinence from red meat on this day.

Easter Thursday in Sweden

The names for the days of Easter are very evocative of their meaning in Swedish. The name for the Thursday of Easter is Skärtordagen. Skär means 'pink', so the day is called 'Pink Thursday'. However, the real meaning is buried deeper. Skär is also an ancient word for 'clean', which is a reference to the washing of the feet done by Christ at the Supper.

On 'Pink' Thursday Swedish children dress up as Easter witches or påskkärringar. This is a kind of Swedish Hallowe'en. It is certainly superstitious but it is a little silly to regard it as pagan, since it is simply a remnant of the customs and beliefs that were converted by the Christian Missionaries. Although these customs of Hallowe'en or of Skärtorsdagen appear to be pagan, they keep the Christian feasts alive in popular culture.

As is often the case with major holy days in Sweden, certain superstitions have become associated with Easter. People believed that witches were especially active and their black magic especially powerful during this week. Even in modern times people believed that women who practise black magic ("Easter hags") were out and about practising their witchcraft. On Maundy Thursday they were thought to fly off on brooms to consort with the devil at a place called "Blåkulla", returning the following Saturday.

In a Swedish church in Uppland, there is a painting from 1480 portraying three Easter witches holding out their drinking horns to be filled by the Devil with a magic potion. It was believed that on Maundy Thursday, witches (häxor) flew off for a rendez-vous with the devil himself. They feasted and danced to the singing of magpies, flying back just in time for church services on Sunday morning, where they might accidentally reveal their identities by saying their prayers backwards.

On the Easter Sunday morning people were a bit hesitant when starting of a fire in the fireplace. This as the one who first got smoke up the chimney was believed to be one of the Easter Hags. The idea was common that the Easter Hags got caught in the chimneys on their way home from Blåkulla.

Before the Easter Hags could fly off on their brooms they had to smear the broom or the object with which they intended to fly with a special mixture of secret origin. On their way to Blåkulla they often gathered in some nearby churchtower to get company for the long voyage. At the same time they could an oportunity to scrape off some metall from the church bells. According to some theories the metal was used as one of the ingredients to the mixture they used, but other theories states that they droped the filings in lakes on their way. This they did because they wanted to show that they were as far from God as the filings were from their bell.

Easter Wednesday in Sweden

The week of Easter is called 'Stilla veckan' or 'the Quiet Week' in Sweden. The Wednesday before Easter is called Dymmelonsdag, dymmel being the wooden clapper you but in the bell in exchange for the metal one, to get the duller, more mournful, tone.

A common practice associated with this day is to fasten something on the back of some poor unsuspecting victim, often a silly note. This may be a continuation of the idea of betrayal that is found in calling the day 'Spy Wednesday' in other Countries. The notes are called dymmelonsdagspass - Spy Wednesday passports - and are thought to have originally been passports that the witches, who in Sweden were thought to have been particularly active at Easter, needed to get into Blåkulla. There they would feast with the devil and his kind. It can only be reached by air, so leaving brooms or agricultural tools out might mean loosing them to a passing whitch, who thought them suitable for flying.

One of the great traditions of Easter - and not just in Sweden - and in Sweden not just at Easter - is the performance of Bach, particularly his Passion Oratorios.

Powerhouse of Prayer

A few members of St. Conleth's accepted the kind invitation to join the Sodality of Our Lady retreat party from Dublin this year. The Rules of the Sodality say: "There shall be a Retreat every year for some days... Certainly the most fruitful retreat is the kind called closed." The retreat was housed in the venerable Trappist Abbey of Mount Melleray in the Knockmealdown Mountains of Waterford.

The hexameter couplet certainly rings true there:

Bernardus colles, valles Benedictus amabat,
oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes;

Bernard loved hills, Benedict the valleys,
Francis, towns; Ignatius, great cities;

The retreat was given by Fr. David Jones, D.D., who lives an eremitical life at The Hermitage, Duleek, County Meath, and is a published poet of note.

The Retreat House of Mount Melleray is open to anyone who wishes to make an organised or a private retreat there through the year. It offers the opportunity to pray and reflect in close proximity to the Trappist Community, whose balanced life is based upon Prayer, Study and Manual Labour, which is a spiritual privilege of great value. For us, the Retreat House provided not only sustainence and shelter but also a fine chapel to house the Liturgies and exercises of the retreat too.

Some of the retreatants made a visit to the sister house of Trappistine Nuns at St. Mary's Abbey, Glencairn, County Waterford, high above the River Blackwater. There, they were received by the Abbess with several of the sisters and several novices, following which, they joined the whole Community for the Office of None.

Back in Mount Melleray, one of the Monks spoke to some retreatants about the path that led from the original Abbey of Cistercium to Mount Melleray Abbey.

He also told us his own journey to Mount Melleray that took place more than 50 years before.

We heard about the privations that the Irish Trappist Monks faced when they were expelled from France in 1830, arriving in Mount Melleray in 1832. He spoke of the grain bin that had been provisioned by the first Abbot, Dom Vincent Ryan, before an extended absence, with orders to refuse nobody in need.

Upon his return, despite their having fed nearly a hundred local people during a severe famine, he found the quantity to have remained the same. Also, he spoke of the local people, delighted to see the return of the Monks to Ireland after an absence of three centuries, who marched, led by pipers, to help them reclaim the land. "We owe the people a great deal," he said, "and we should never forget it."

The challenges facing the Monks of Mount Melleray today are hardly new. We heard about a visiting Abbot who was concerned about the number of Monks at Mount Melleray. He is said to have commented that “This is an age of activity rather than penance and contemplation and there are few now contented with the blessed lot of Mary, sitting at the Lord’s feet in silence and detachment.” When he visited, there were 54 Monks at Mount Melleray. That was in 1855.

Over the course of the three days the atmosphere of prayer in this place was suffused with the melodies of traditional gregorian chant once again.

Every day, Mass was celebrated according to the Gregorian Rite. Within Mass, full propers of the Masses of the last feriae of Passion Week were accompanied by Mass IV Cunctipotens and a range of seasonal Latin hymnody - Ave Regina Coelorum, Vexilla Regis, and Crux Fidelis among them - as well as Prime and Vespers of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary chanted throughout the course of the retreat.

On the second evening we made a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, concluding with Sung Vespers of the Little Office and Benediction.

On the third day, the Sodality of Our Lady had its monthly General Communion. It is a custom of that Sodality to have a different patron for each month. The patron for April is St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, who was a member of their Sodality.

Throughout the retreat we had the opportunity to attend the Choral Office of the Monks, beginning each day with the Office of Vigils beginning at 4 a.m.

After the Office of Vigils, one of the Monks celebrates Mass (Ordinary Form) Versus Deum in the Retreat House Chapel.

Fr. Jones' Conferences were given in the Epistle-side Aisle of the Retreat House Chapel. He focussed throughout upon the practical impact that a retreat should have upon our lives - and upon our eternities. In particular, he stressed that the devil isn't worried about our general intentions made at a retreat but is very worried about a practical resolutions made on retreat that we begin to practice in our lives.

St. Tighernach of Clones and Clogher - god-son of St. Brigid

Dr. Lanigan, in his work, An ecclesiastical history of Ireland, Chapter IX, relates of St. Tigernach, as follows:

"St. Maccarthen of Clogher, whose history I have been obliged to anticipate, died, as already stated, in the year 506; and, as some say, on the 24th of March. He was succeeded by St. Tigernach, who fixed his see or residence at Cluaneois (Clunes or Clones) in the county of Monaghan, still retaining government of the church of Clogher, for which reason he was surnamed Ferdachrioch, or the man of two districts. He is said to have been of a princely family, grandson, by his mother, of a king Echodius, and to have had St. Brigid for godmother, through whose recommendation he was raised to the episcopal dignity. He had received his clerical education, as we are told, in the monastery of Rosnat in Great Britain under the holy abbot Monennus, and, it seems founded that of Clones before he was appointed bishop."

Dr. Lanigan comments on the association of St. Brigid with St. Tigernach:

"If this narrative deserves credit, we must suppose that St. Brigid's standing as godmother for Tigernach was in her younger days, and, at least 30 years before A.D. 506. On this occasion it is observed that whoever was recommended for the episcopacy by St. Brigid, was immediately approved of and chosen by the clergy and people. (Compare with what has been said about Conlaeth of Kildare Chap. VIII, No. 10)"

Dr. Lanigan, in a passage that is a model of his scholarship and his prose, speculates upon the location of Rosnat Abbey:

"Where was that monastery of Rosnat? Neither the Monasticon Anglicanum, Stevens, Tanner, Nasmith, nor Camden have, as far as I could discover, a word about it, although it is often mentioned in the Acts of some Irish saints. In those of Tigernach, quoted by Colgan (ib.) it is observed that it was otherwise called Alba, or white. Colgan hence concludes that it was no other than the famous monastery of Bangor or Banchor near the river Dee a few miles from Chester, which must be carefully distinguished from the present episcopal town Bangor, which lies far to the West of where the monastery stood. (See Usher, p. 183.) His chief argument is that Ban, in Irish, signifies white, and so Ban-chor was the same as white choir. But, waving certain doubts concerning the said monastery having existed at that early period, it is to be recollected that Ban has not that signification in the British language, which is that to be looked to in this inquiry. I suspect that Rosnat or Alba was the celebrated see called Candida casa or White house, now Whitethorn. (See Not. 149, to Chap. 1.) The illustrious Ninia or Ninian had founded that see in the 5th century, and there can be no doubt of an ecclesiastical school having been established there. (See Usher, p. 661. seqq.) When we read of Nennio being the bishop, to whom some Irish students were sent, this, I believe, must be understood as originally meaning that they were sent to the school held in the see or Nennio or Ninia, who was dead before Tigernach or Finnian could have repaired thither. And in fact Finnian's master is called Mugentius, and what is very remarkable, the place Candida (AA. SS. p. 634). The master of Endeus of Arran, who is also said to have been at that school, is called not Nennio but Mansenus. Let me add that Candida casa lay very convenient for students from the North of Ireland; and it is worth observing, that of those, who are spoken of as having studied at Rosnat or Alba, scarcely one is to be found that was not a native of Ulster. There is a village and parish in Dumbartonshire, called Roseneath, anciently Rossnachioch, (Stat. Acct. of Scotland, Vol. IV. p. 71.) But there is no mention of a monastery having been there."

He goes on to quote from the Four Masters regarding the death of the Saint:

"An. 548 (549) St. Tigernac, bishop of Cluaineois, died on the 4th of April."

The Martyrology of Donegal gives his death as 4th April, 548, and gives something of his descent as follows:

"Bishop of Cluaoi-eois in Fera-Manach, or it is between Fera-Manach and Oirghialla Cluain-eois is. Tighernach is of the race of Cathaoir Mór, Monarch of Erinn, of the Leinstermen. Dearfraoich, daughter of Eochaidh, son of Criomhthann, king of Oirchiall, was his mother."

In the Life of St. Tighernach, quoted in Butler's Lives of the Irish Saints, it is stated that, while passing through Kildare, city of St. Brigid, with his foster-father, Cormac, who may well have been his maternal grandfather, the future saint was baptised by St. Conleth. Butler continues:

"From the foregoing narrative, Bollandus infers, that as Conlaid had been a bishop, when he baptized St. Tighernach, his elevation to the episcopal rank must have been accomplished previous to A.D. 480. For, St. Maccarthen died in the year 506; and, he was immediately succeeded in the See of Clogher by St. Tighernach. Supposing correctness in the foregoing account, it is conjectured, his baptism must have taken place, at least thirty years before the latter date, and during the younger days of his godmother, St. Brigid."

St. Tigernach of Clones and Clogher, pray for us!

The Feast of Our Lady in Spring

Today is known in the Irish Language as Lá Fhéile Muire san Earrach (the Feast Day of Our Lady in Spring) or Lá Theachtaireacht an Aingil (the Day of the Coming of the Angel).

The unequalled love of the Gaelic Race for the Mother of God is woven into the very words of everyday language. Even as the Anglophone will speak of Mary-down-the-street and Mary-the-Ever-Virgin-Mother-of-God by means of the same word, the Gael will call his neighbour Máire and the Immaculate Queen of Heaven Muire.

The Mother of God was a practical part of everyday life, as shown in the traditional Gaelic Milking Song or Cronan Bleoghan:

Thig, a Mhuire, ’s bligh a bhó,
Thig, a Bhride, ’s comraig í,
Thig, a Choluim-chille chaoimh,
’S iadh do dhá laimh mo m’ bhóin.

Thig, a Mhuire, dh’ fhios mo bhó,
Thig, a Bhride, mhór na loin,
Thig, a bhanachaig Íosa Críost,
’S cur do lámh a níos fo m’ bhóin.

This roughly translates as:

Come, O Mary, and milk my cow,
Come, St. Brigid, and attend her,
Come, St. Columba, the kind one,
And in thy two hands cradle my cow.

Come, O Mary, to meet my cow,
Come, St. Brigid, great of beauty,
Come, O milking woman of Jesus Christ,
And put thy hand beneath my cow.

*The image of the Annunciation on this post is the Cestello Annunciation on tempera by Sandro Botticelli c. 1490 in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Pilgrimage to Kilcock

A spring mist still clung to the village of Kilcock as 39 members and friends of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association came together for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in the Gregorian Rite in honour of the Holy Year of Saint Paul by Revd. Fr. David Jones, D.D. They received the warmest of welcomes from the Parish Priest and his staff.


St. Coca (orse Ercnait), foundress of Kilcock, whose feast is 6th June, was the sister of St. Kevin of Glendalough. The Beautiful Church of St. Coca was built in 1867. Its 131 feet of length beheld, for the first time in 40 years, the Rite of Mass for which it was constructed. Sensitive 'reordering' permitted the Gregorian Rite to be celebrated again on the main Altar of the Church.


The next pilgrimage in honour of the Holy Year of St. Paul will be to the Church of the Assumption, Vicarstown, Co. Laois, Ireland, on Saturday, 25th April, 2009.
The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin has announced that the next Latin Mass in Newbridge will take place on 19th April and not on the second Sunday, which is usual.

St. Coca of Kilcock, pray for us!

Son of Saint Louis...

As reported, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg has refused to give his assent to a law legalising euthanasia in the predominantly Catholic Grand Duchy, which now has the dubious distinction of being the third European Country, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to do so.

However, the 'Christian' 'Democrat' Government has decided not to permit the Grand Duke's conscience to prevent the legalised murder of the old.

Rather than adhere to the Constitution of the Grand Duchy, which required the Grand Duke to assent to laws passed by parliament before they came into force, they have decided to change Article 34 of that Constitution, stripping His Royal Highness of that function. His Royal Highness will now be required to promulgate laws, even if they are repugnant to his own conscience .

His Royal Highness' paternal Grand Aunt, the Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde was forced to abdicate in 1919 for having defended the rights of the Church in education, after which she entered a Convent for the remainder of her life. His Royal Highness' maternal Uncle, Baudoin, King of the Belgians, was forced to abdicate in 1990 rather than sign a law legalising abortion in Belgium.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Dying, pray for Luxembourg and its Grand Duke!

Saint Patrick's Day

Most glorious Saint Patrick, Bishop and Confessor, chosen by the Almighty to be the Apostle of Ireland, we, the children of those to whom you preached the Faith of Christ, never to be renounced, hail you as the wonderful instrument of God’s mercy for the obtaining of our eternal salvation. Most glorious Apostle and Patron of our island, submit to the Almighty our every temporal and spiritual want, that through your intercession, we may be relieved, in all our necessities through life, and when called from this world to the glory of God, we may, to your honour, be found worthy of the Faith that is within us, and of eternal salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Let us, once again, pray for copyright holders!)

Holy Year for Priests

The Vatican Information Service states that, this morning, in the course of an address the members of the Congregation for the Clergy, the Holy Father announced: "In order to favour this tendency of priests towards spiritual perfection, upon which the effectiveness of their ministry principally depends, I have decided to call a special 'Year for Priests' which will run from 19 June 2009 to 19 June 2010". This year marks "the 150th anniversary of the death of the saintly 'Cure of Ars', St. Jean Marie Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ's flock..."

St. Jean Marie Vianney, pray for our Priests!

Let us pray for our Holy Father the Pope!

"I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics... thought they had to attack me with open hostility." Pope Benedict XVI, today, 12th March, 2009, Feast of St. Gregory the Great.

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)

"Pro cuius amore in eius eloquio nec mihi parco" St. Gregory the Great

Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the Catholic Church

This morning, the Holy See issued a letter from His Holiness the Pope to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre.

Some extracts:

"I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility."

"The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society [of St. Pius X]. But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life."

""Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another." [Galatians 5:13-15] I am always tempted to see these words as another of the rhetorical excesses which we occasionally find in Saint Paul. To some extent that may also be the case. But sad to say, this "biting and devouring" also exists in the Church today, as expression of a poorly understood freedom. Should we be surprised that we too are no better than the Galatians?"

Long live the Shepherd of the Flock! Long live the Pope of Rome!

Saint Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy

Saint Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy, established in 2007, organisers of an excellent International Liturgical Conference last July, have launched a new website.

Their first International Liturgical Conference had the theme: Benedict XVI and The Sacred Liturgy. In their own words: "St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy encourages and promotes among its members full active and conscious participation in Catholic Liturgy in accordance with the authentic tradition of the Church especially as expressed in Sacrosanctum Concilium and subsequent liturgical legislation."

The Felire of St. Aengus names two Sts. Colman on 24th November. He of Cloyne is Colman MacLenine. He is described thus:

Mac Lenine the most excellent
With Colman of Duth-chuilleann.

O'Cleary's Calendar gives the following entry for St. Colman for 24th November: "Colman Mac Lenine of Cluain Uamahd in Ui Leathan in Munster of the race of Oilioll Olum son of Mogha Nuadhat or of the race of Lughaidh Lagha his brother was this Colman."

The great Irish Ecclesiastical historian Colgan cites St. Colman's Latin style in the metrical life of St. Senan: "Hujus vitae fragmentum stylo vetusto et pereleganti Patrie sermone conscriptae habitur in predicto Codice Vitae S Sinani Domini Gulielmi Derodani in Lagenia." A Latin poem on St. Brendan is also attributed to St. Colman.

St. Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy are to be congratulated upon their new website. All Catholics are to be encouraged to take a greater interest in their activities. St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association wishes them the choicest blessings for the future.

St. Colman of Cloyne, pray for us!

Sixth Monthly Mass in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin

Fr. Simon Leworthy, FSSP, returned to Ireland to celebrate the Sixth of their Monthly Masses in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. A congregation that came close to two dozen was also in attendance (even without taking into account the members of the Parish Staff in the Sacristy), an increase of 150% on last month.


Although last month's congregation was the smallest so far and this month's congregation failed to exceed the previous all-time low of December, the average monthly attendance is a creditable 29. While the local attendance remains steady, people travelled in, this month, from as far away as Kilkenny, as well as the usual contingent from Dublin, to increase numbers.

Both in the notices and in his sermon, Fr. Leworthy asked for prayers for a Fr. Brady who is ill.


Fr. Leworthy also announced that there would be no Latin Mass on the second Sunday in April due to his being committed elsewhere on that Sunday, which is Easter Sunday, and he was unable to announce any resheduled dates.

It is worth remarking that both Chalice Veil and Maniple were in evidence at Mass today. The congregation was invited to tea and biscuits after Mass immediately through the glass door just to the left of the Tabernacle.