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Translation of the Relics of Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy
Ireland witnessed a special occasion on September 12 1897 with the translation from Ivrea in Italy to Cork of the relics of the fifteenth-century Bishop, Blessed Thaddeus (Tadhg) McCarthy (1455-92)....
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Irish Saints' Names - October
Time for another instalment of the serieson Irish saints' names as published in the Australian press in 1914. Feasts in the month of October include some of the Irish holy men who laboured in Europe,...
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St Colman's Ducks
October 27 is the feast of Saint Colman of Seanbotha. He is associated with a miraculous flock of ducks and a holy well which fed a lake where the ducks continued to thrive for centuries after his...
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Irish Saints' Names - November
Time for another instalment of the 1914 series on Irish saints' names as suggestions for naming children. The November selection contains some well-known saints, Columbanus, Malachy and Lorcan...
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Irish Missionaries
As we approach the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland on November 6, below is a brief reminder of the part Irish saints played in the evangelization of other countries. These missionary saints were a...
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A Litany of Irish Diocesan Patrons
Below is the first of two litanies of Irish saints which I came across in the digital archives of the New Zealand press. This one was published in 1920, a year before the official text of the Litany...
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A Litany of Irish Family Patrons
Following yesterday's posting on the Litany of the Patron Saints of Irish Dioceses, below is the second short litany of Irish saints, this time in their capacity as patrons of Irish families. One...
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'Lives of Heroic Sanctity' - Feast of All the Saints of Ireland, November 6
.....What could not be destroyed was the memory of the past; above all, the memory of those Irish men and women, whose lives of heroic sanctity won for them a place in the Martyrologies, in the...
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Graves of Irish Exiles
As November is traditionally the month in which we remember the dead, this seems a fitting time to reflect on the many Irish saints and scholars whose graves are to be found far from our shores. Such...
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An Irish School
According to the Martyrology of Gorman, November 13 is one of the days on which the memory of Colman i Maigh Éo is commemorated, his main feast falling on August 8. Saint Colman is also known as...
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Pope Pius XI on Saint Columbanus
November 21 is the feast of Saint Columbanus, one of the greatest of Ireland's missionary saints and the one who first awakened my own interest and pride in the Irish saints as a schoolgirl many...
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The Women Saints of Ireland: A Schoolgirl's View
As November is the month to remember all the saints I cannot allow it to close without an acknowledgment of our Irish women saints. Below is a charming view of them as seen through the eyes of a 1920s...
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Irish Saints' Names - December
A selection of Irish saints'names as suggestions for naming children, this time those whose feasts fall in the month of December. Plenty of good names here for consideration, including a female saint...
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Irish Saints' Names - January
Below is the January listing of Irish saints' names as suggestions for naming children, which began a series of monthly updates in the Australian press in 1914. All of the suggested saints have...
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Ancient Irish Missions on the Continent
In the nineteenth century the rediscovery of the legacy of the early Irish Church promoted a sense of pride among a people who were often driven to leave their homeland out of economic necessity. A...
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St Ita : Second St Bridget of Ireland
Yesterday I was reflecting on the use of Irish saints as a vehicle to promote a sense of national pride and dignity among Irish immigrant communities. I continue this theme today, the feast of Saint...
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Irish Saints Names- February
The February selection of Irish saints' names as suggestions for naming children, published in the Australian press in 1914. We find six female saints as well as two abbots of Iona among them:Irish...
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The Irish Monasteries of Ratisbon
February 9 is the day on which we commemorate an eleventh-century Irish monastic who achieved fame in Germany, Blessed Marianus of Ratisbon. Behind this Latin name lies a Donegal man, Muiredach...
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Irish Saints' Names - March
Time for the final instalment of the 1914 series on Irish saints' names from the Australian press, offered to prospective parents as suggestions for naming children. I have gathered together all of the...
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Women Writers on the Irish Saints
March 8 is International Women's Day and so today I wish to acknowledge some of the women writers on the Irish saints whose work I have encountered during research for this blog. I read a good deal of...
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