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St. Patrick’s Day fell on our deadline day for this issue. We had to hustle pretty good to include the story from the venerable New York City parade and the Mass, which Cardinal Dolan, the grand marshal, celebrated in the cathedral named for the patron saint of Ireland
and our own Archdiocese of New York.
I’m writing this column a day earlier because the St. Patrick’s Day story I’ll tell stems from the Auld Sod of Ireland.
There, four Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal who are serving at St. Colette’s Convent in Drogheda, County Louth, had a very good idea for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration of their own this year.
You may remember a couple of years ago when Cardinal Dolan requested the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal send some of their own from New York to serve in Drogheda. This happened after his beloved Sisters of Mercy, who had come from Ireland to serve in his home parish in Missouri, were forced to close their convent there due to declining numbers.
The Renewal Sisters did so, and things have worked out exceedingly well, according to Sister Jacinta Pollard, C.F.R., the local servant, or superior, of St. Colette’s, which is within St. Mary’s parish in Drogheda. She and the other sisters—Sister Monica Ward, C.F.R.; Sister Veronica Cowan, C.F.R.; and Sister Kelly Francis Oslin, C.F.R.—have fit right in with their work of evangelization and service to the poor and needy, as well as with youth retreats, children’s Eucharistic Adoration and visits to the 1,000-student Catholic school and the local nursing home.
It might sound like there would not be time for much else but the sisters worked up a special St. Patrick’s Day project this year. Their convent is about 15 minutes from the Hill of Slane, which was visited by St. Patrick himself. He famously lit the fire for the Easter Vigil on that outdoor hilltop to the dismay of the nearby pagan king. (If you want to hear a great reconstruction of the entire story, go to Cardinal Dolan’s website, cardinaldolan.org, and click on his homily from the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 15.)
“We felt called to go there on St. Patrick’s Day,” Sister Jacinta told me last Friday, noting that the sisters had a simple celebration there last year.
“We wanted to be close to him on his feast day.”
She reached out to Sister Lucille Cutrone, C.F.R., the religious community’s superior in New York, who didn’t hesitate at all. “That sounds like it’s of God, go for it,” was how Sister Lucille put it.
Also coming quickly on board was the local ordinary, Bishop Michael Smith of Meath, who agreed to celebrate an outdoor Mass for the feast.
As Sister Jacinta explained, getting permission from the local civic authorities took some time and doing. Since the Hill of Slane and its ruins are a heritage site, all sorts of forms had to be filled out to take care of potential liabilities.
On the afternoon of St. Patrick’s Day, after the local parades have taken place, parishioners from the area and beyond were to be welcomed and told a short history of the Hill of Slane, also once home to a Franciscan monastery. Then to follow was Mass celebrated by Bishop Smith, with Father Joseph Deegan, pastor of St. Mary’s, serving as a concelebrant.
Outdoor Masses are not uncommon in Ireland, Sister Jacinta noted, and people have generously helped out by providing a portable generator and lights, which will be necessary by the time Eucharistic Adoration begins. Brother John Bosco, C.F.R., will be bringing his piano to accompany the prayers with praise and worship music.
It sounds like a great big, holy scene that would have made St. Patrick proud, with the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal right in the middle of it all. They’re calling it “C.F.R Sisters—‘Light the Fire’ on the Hill of Slane.” Wish I could have been there.
