Masses for St Patrick's Day

To enlarge, click on photo

Lá Fhéile Pádraig / St Patrick's Day

From the monument to  St Patrick, Westport, Co. Mayo

I thought I heard in my mind the voice of those who were beside the wood of Foclut, near the western sea, calling out “We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk again among us” . This touched my heart deeply. (Confession, Par. 23)

Rogamus te (abbreviated to RGMS TE in photo, top left - click on photo to enlarge it) sancte puer ut venias et adhuc ambules inter nos. To read this sentence in the original manuscript now in TCD and dating all the way back to c.807, click here.  Use button top left to get full-screen view, and then use zoom in/out buttons as desired. Our sentence is at lines 23-4, second column.  How wonderful to be able to see this early Irish manuscript up close on your very own desktop, laptop or even smartphone!  

In the panel the 'wood of Foclut' is represented by the branch in the top-left corner. Children, what has the child (bottom left) in his hand and who is he stretching it out to?  The panels are the work of Ken Thompson who also did the statue of St Patrick the Pilgrim in Lough Derg.

'I thought I heard the voice of the Irish' (St Patrick's Confession)

Panel from monument to St Patrick, Westport, Co. Mayo

I thought I heard in my mind the voice of those who were beside the wood of Foclut, near the western sea, calling out “We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk again among us” . This touched my heart deeply. (Confession, Par. 23)

Rogamus te (abbreviated in photo, top left - click on photo to enlarge it) sancte puer ut venias et adhuc ambules inter nos. To read this sentence in the original manuscript now in TCD and dating all the way back to c.807, click here.  Use button top left to get full-screen view, and then use zoom in/out buttons as desired. Our sentence is at lines 23-4, second column.  How wonderful to be able to see this early Irish manuscript up close on your very own desktop, laptop or even smartphone!  (To select another page, press ‘Escape’ on your keyboard to return to the small-screen version with the page-selector on top.)

For a description of the scenes depicted on the other panels, see here.  For the life of Ken Thompson who designed this monument, see here, and here for an article on the Stations of the Cross which he designed for the recently restored cathedral of St Mel's, Longford.

For Mass times and more readings for St Patrick's Day, see the Newsletter (right sidebar).