Renata Steffens and Renata Milán Morales St. Patrick’s Purgatory, also known as ‘Station Island’ or ‘Lough Derg’, is a pilgrimage site located in Co. Donegal, Ireland. Known for its rich tradition of penitence and prayer, it offers pilgrims a unique opportunity to step away from the chaos of daily life and immerse themselves in a…

Knock Shrine is one of those places where you do not need to be very religious to feel that there is a holy presence around. As the story goes, in the late 1870s the figures of Our Lady, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist were seen standing out from the church gable. “They stood…

Hungary’s current Ambassador to the Holy See is a descendant of the Catholic European Royal House the Habsburgs. Eduard Karl Joseph Michael Marcus Koloman Volkhold Maria Habsburg-Lothringen or Eduard Habsburg for short recently released a new book entitled The Habsburg Way in which he provides seven principles, or what he calls rules for turbulent times,…

The Pope issued a letter in eight languages saying that reading novels and poems is valuable and should be encouraged in the training of priests, and he reveals his own love of tragic stories I had originally chosen to give this Letter a title referring to priestly formation. On further reflection, however, this subject also…

When he was in Kenya recently, the Tánaiste Micheál Martin stepped into a Nairobi hotel lift and instantly recognised the man who happened to step into the lift at the same time.  Fr Sean Barry, an outstanding hurler from Cork and member of the 1966 All Ireland winning team. Mr Martin also met with another…

Matt Letourneau “Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart,” the first line of St Benedict’s Rule commands. Listening can be virtuous, but how can you hear God’s soft melody over modern life’s constant clamour? For Cistercian monks, the answer is straightforward: build a colossal…

Emmanuel House of Providence, located in Clonfert, Co. Galway, is expecting a large crowd of pilgrims when it hosts a day of Prayer centered around the veneration of a first-class relic of St Philomena on August 7. This event, which last year drew over 1,500 faithful to Clonfert, is expected to be a day of…

Fr Benedict McGlinchey “Do you judge them to be worthy?” is a question that the ordaining Bishop asks during the Rite of Ordination to the priesthood. It is unlikely that any newly ordained priest really feels himself worthy of the gift of priesthood that he has received. But that sense of unworthiness sits alongside a…

Nine new members have joined the ranks of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, whose aim is to support the Christians of the Holy Land. The ceremony for the investiture took place at St Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth, running from July 19-20. The event occurs annually. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM, Latin Patriarch…

All Hallows College was filled with excitement as alumni gathered for the annual Jubilee Day, one of the most anticipated events on the All Hallows calendar. Held typically in the third week of July, Jubilee Day brings together ordained and non-ordained All Hallows past men to celebrate significant anniversaries. Fr Aidan Galvin, reflecting on the significance…