The relics of Saint Oliver Plunkett will visit the chapel of the Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre, Cullies, Cavan Town, on Tuesday 6 June next. Bishop Leo O’Reilly, Bishop of Kilmore, will be the principal celebrant and homilist at an 8.00pm Mass. The music for this Mass will be provided by the Saint Mary’s Church Choir from Carrigallen, Co. Leitrim.
The first-class relics will arrive at the centre at 10.00am and will be available for veneration until 10.00pm that evening.
As part of the visit, Father Kevin McKay, Chaplain to Loreto and Saint Patrick’s Colleges in Cavan town, will celebrate a special Mass for all doing examinations at 1.15pm. Father Ultan McGoohan, Diocesan Director of Pastoral Services, will celebrate Mass at 5:45pm and deliver the homily.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be offered during the day from 12 noon to 1.00pm, from 4.30pm to 5.30pm, and from 6.30pm to 7.45pm.
Oliver Plunkett was born at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle in Co. Meath on 1 November 1625. Having studied at the Irish College in Rome, he was ordained a priest in 1654 and became Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland in 1657. He maintained his duties in Ireland in the face of English persecution, reorganising the ravaged Irish Church, but was eventually arrested and tried for treason in London. Having being found guilty of high treason on perjured evidence, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1 July 1681, and became the last Roman Catholic martyr to die in England. Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975 by Pope Blessed Paul VI, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.
This is the fourth year that the relics of Saint Oliver Plunkett have visited the Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre. The visit was organised with the assistance of the Knights of Saint Columbanus.
All are welcome to attend. For more information see www.kilmoredpc.ie.
ENDS
