The community of Benedictine Nuns in Admiralty House, which overlooks Cork’s picturesque Cobh Harbour, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the death of its Foundress this year, whose cause for canonisation is underway.
Marking this significant milestone Mother Catherine, Prioress of the Saint Benedict’s Priory, said, “The holy French nun, Mother Marie Adele Garnier (pictured), who founded the Order of Saint Benedictine in Montmartre, Paris, is still largely unknown. However her popularity is increasing among friends of the community in Cobh and across Ireland, who describe her as ‘very present’ to them in their daily needs and times of suffering, and find her spiritual writings inspiring. Her charism is rooted in the call to Adoration and Reparation which led to the building of the famous Sacré-Cœur Basilica on the Hill of Montmartre, and it was by an interior locution given to Marie Adele, while still a laywoman, that the Sacred Heart made known His desire for perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, which has continued there day and night for about 150 years.”
Mother Catherine continued, “In 1898, after decades of personal suffering and spiritual growth Marie Adele founded the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of Montmartre, but due to anti-clerical legislation she had to leave France with her young community and re-establish it at Tyburn Convent, London; the English Montmartre ‘Mount of Martyrs’ and site of the martyrdom of Saint Oliver Plunkett. From there her Eucharistic and Benedictine Charism has spread to Latin America and Oceania as well as Europe.
“Blessed Dom Columba Marmion, native priest of Dublin and now beatified, whose centenary was celebrated last year, was the foundress’ spiritual director in the last ten years of her life. It is also on record that the generosity of Irish Catholics helped her found a novitiate house in Royston, England, in 1918, Saint Benedict’s Priory. In a touch of Divine Gratitude, this Priory was later transferred to Cobh, in 1993, where it is a place of prayer and welcome for the local community and Catholics further afield as well as international visitors.
Mother Catherine concluded, “To date, six nuns of four nationalities currently reside at the Priory, and a Day of Recollection is held each month guided by the spirituality of the Mother Marie Adele.”
For more information about the Servant of God Mother Marie Adele Garnier, and the centenary celebrations, please contact Mother Catherine, Saint Benedict’s Priory, in Cobh at [email protected]
ENDS
