THE ANCHORFriday, Mar. 14,1986
A St. Patrick's Day snatc·h The following note from Father Richard W. Beaulieu, diocesan director of education, arrived just in time for .St. Patrick's Day. Editor "Grace Taylor, who is my secretary here in the education office, will be completing 35 years of service to the office on March 19th. God willing, she'll be around for many more years.
Back to future, Irish style DUBLIN, IRELAND (NC) Bishop Dermot O'Sullivan of Kerry has endorsed a proposal by an anonymous Irish monk to revive an ancient monastery on Skellig Michael, a tiny, sea-battered island eight miles off Ireland's southwest coast. The monk made the proposal to archeolo!list Paddy O'Leary, caretaker on the island for part of the year. The plan has gone before the Irish government and the island's owner, the Commissioners of Lights, which services Irish lighthouses, including one on Skellig Michael. In his proposal, the monk suggested asking monks "to take ~ver the buildings there and live the monastic life in the footsteps of the old Irish monks." "It would not be as severe as the old monk's life, but it would follow in the great tradition. Thus the buildings and the place would be cared for and the automatic lighthouse could get on with its work," he said. The island is the largest of three known as the Skellig Rocks, situated off County Kerry. The monk's plan was endorsed by Bishop O'Sullivan and by Church of Island Archbishop J. W. Armstrong of Armagh, Northern Ireland. Government officials see the idea as a way to keep the ancient monastic buildings maintained after Skellig Michael's lighthouse keepers depart when the light goes automatic in March 1987. The keepers now. live on the island and ar"e unofficial caretakers of the monastic ruins. The Skellig Michael ruins are considered the best-preserved structures of their type in western Europe. The buildings are perched on a rocky ledge 550 feet above sea level. They consist of six cells, an. oratory with an altar. and a ruined church. A series of stone stairways over 1,000 years old give access to an enclosure. One stairway has more than 600 steps. The monastery was raided by Vikings at least four times in the 9th century. During one of these attacks, according to the Annals of Ulster, the abbot was kidnapped and left to die of starvation. SkeIIig Michael, named after the Archangel Michael; patron saint of high places, is 714 feet above sea level at its peak.
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"She has some interesting and amusing anecdotes which could be of general interest.
OUR LADY'S RELIGIOUS STORE
"For example, she tells how she was hired' for the job in the first place. Father Gorman was the superintendent of schools at the time and he worked alone. Discovering he couldn't handle all the secretarial work, he sought permission to hire Grace from Bishop Cassidy. "The Bishop chose to do the hiring himself and walked into Cherry & Webb, where the 18-year-old Grace had just begun working as a clerk and informed her and the management (on St. Patrick's Day, 195 I) that Grace was now working for the I?iocese of Fall River Education Office, effective March 19.
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"Naturally she did what the Bishop said and Cherry & Webb lost a great clerk and secretary. "She has outlasted Father Gorman, Msgr. O'Neill, Father Coleman and will likely outlast me!"
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SHAWOMET GARDENS NC photo
Gaeltacht district gets first church By NC News Service
St. Patrick's Shrine
Tel. 674-4881
March 17is special day in Missouri town
An Iiish-speaking district created by the government of Irelll;nd 50 ST. PATRICK, Mo. (NC) years ago recently opened its first An Irish priest has left his stamp church. A community fundraising effort on a small Missouri town with a made the new Rath Cairn Church shamrock seaI commemoratinglreland's patron saint - and the town's possible. . The community, also called namesake. Father Francis O'Duignan, who Rath Cairn, was created a halfcentury ago by the Irish Land arrived in ·St. Patrick in 1935, had Commission as a Gaeltacht dis- dreams of building a shrine, not trict, one in which the Irish form of only to honor the saint but also to the ancient Gaelic language would make the town of St. Patrick betbe .spoken. The government ter known. brought a group of poor families The small farming community from Irish-speaking areas of Con- couldn't pay for a shrine itself, so nemara in western Ireland to settle the priest began a fund-raising the spot. effort, sending letters all over the Rath Cairn is in northeastern world, each envelope bearing a Ireland's County Meath, a more shamrock. The greening of the envelopes fertile territory than Connemara. blossomed into a major project It has 2,500 residents. . The church, which seats 250, is when parishioner and postmaster near the Hill of Ward where, John Kirchner and Father O'Duig-' according to legend, St. Patrick nan designed a commemorative stopped during a journey through seal, know as a cachet, with a the area. Stones from the ruin of a shamrock and a slogan, reflecting Norman church built on the spot their belief in the uniqueness. of in 1285 have been placed at each their town. It said, "St. Patrick, Mo. - the Only One in the World," side of the new altar. The new church contains a cross . never mind that the I985 Official said to be about 300 years old and Catholic Directory lists two other thought to be a copy of the even St. Patricks in the United States older Cross of Cong, a gold cross -one in Kansas and one in Ohio. All mail passing through St. found buried in an ancient monasPatrick on St. Patrick's Day in tery and now a national treasure. 1936 was stamped with the green Before the Rath Cairn Church was built, Masses were celebrated cach~t, along with the post office in the local community center. cancellation bearing the town Last year, the pastor, Father name. The first year, 500 pieces of Joseph Kelly, launched the cam- mail were stamped. paign which thus far has raised The volume of mail grew and about $150,000 of the $200,000 many of those sending envelopes cost of the church. The building began in May 1985, and was completed in January.
Irish concert CI~sing the annual Lenten con-
cert series following noon Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, Fall River, will be a St. Patrick's day program of Irish music featuring Ruth Saltzman on the harp and Donna Keiken on the flute. All welcome.
102 Shawomet Avenue Somerset,-Mass.
to be stamped and cancelled included donations for the shrine, which Father O'Duignan was able to dedicate on March 17, 1957. The envelope stamping is stilI done by volunteers from the parish. To markthe 50th anniversary of the shamrock ca'chet, this year's envelope carries a likeness of now Msgr. O'Duignan, 79, who is retired and lives in San Diego. Kirchner died in' 1945 at the age of 80. His son, Nick, assistant postmaster at the time the stamp originated, who had a hand in its design, still lives in St. Patrick. At one time between 50,000 and 60,000 envelopes were processed a year by the parish but in recent years the annual number has been just over 7,000. The shrine no longer depends on donations from the stamp although they stilI come in. Not only the envelopes' will be wearing the green on March 17. The town's annual celebration includes a dinner dance and a Mass at the Shrine of St. Patrick.
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