Bishop Fintan Monahan, Bishop of Killaloe, will lead the annual pilgrimage to Canons’ Island, Co Clare, this Sunday 9 July. The island is the site of a medieval monastery and is a traditional pilgrimage site for people from the Diocese of Killaloe. During the Pilgrimage, Bishop Monahan will celebrate Mass in the ruins of the old monastery.
Canons’ Island in the Shannon estuary is the largest in a cluster of over twenty small islands that occupy the confluence of the Shannon and Fergus river estuaries. The island features the remains of an abbey lived in by the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, who provided pastoral care for the nearby parishes until the dissolution of the abbey by Henry VIII. The island has continued to serve as a place of burial up to the present.
The annual pilgrimage to Canons’ island was revived in 1990 by the late Father Michael Hillery, Parish Priest of Kildysart, where the island is located. Each year a large number of pilgrims travel to the island for the pilgrimage Mass.
The pilgrimage will depart from from Crovraghan Pier at 4.30pm on Sunday. Spaces on the pilgrimage will be limited however as each pilgrim must wear a life jacket while traveling to the island.
For more information please see www.kildysartparish.org.
