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Irish Research Council Supporting Irish Dominican HistoryFebruary 14, 2023 - 5:14 pm
New YouTube Series LaunchedDecember 20, 2022 - 10:15 am
Br Ruaidhri Grieve OP Ordained to the DiaconateDecember 4, 2022 - 12:02 pm
Three Dominican Novices Make Simple ProfessionSeptember 20, 2022 - 9:19 am
Three Men Enter the Dominican NovitiateSeptember 19, 2022 - 8:19 pm
Our Lady of Graces, Cork
/in Rosary Letter/by Luuk Dominiek Jansen OPOur Lady of Graces is a three-inch ivory plaque that depicts the seated Madonna and Christ child dating from the 14th century.
The Statue was brought from Europe to Ireland in 1304 by the Archbishop of Cashel, Maurice O’Carroll. When he died in 1316, the image, for which he had a special veneration, was buried with him in the Dominican Church in Youghal, Co. Cork. The Dominicans first came to Youghal in 1268 and dedicated their church and priory to Our Lady. For over one hundred years the statue lay buried and forgotten. Then, at a time when religion had fallen to a very low level, Our Lady herself intervened. She appeared in a dream to one of the Dominican friars of Youghal and asked that the statue be removed from the tomb. The little statue was miraculously unearthed. Our Lady of Graces obviously did not want to stay buried. It was a miracle! The revival of fervour and the growth of devotion which followed the recovery is indicated by the changing of the title of the Dominican Church in Youghal to that of “Our Lady of Graces”. The statue became a focus a fervour, a centre of pilgrimage, an occasion of many graces. According to tradition a blind man recovered his sight, and all those who came to the shrine and venerated the statue found their prayers being answered. Youghal became a place of pilgrimage as people flocked in their hundreds to see the miraculous statue. Youghal was also close to the Shrine of St. Declan of Ardmore and so pilgrims would first visit the saint’s relics and then continue their journey to Youghal. Also from the town of Youghal, pilgrims would leave for Santiago and Rome.
With the persecution of the faith under Henry VIII in the 1500s, Sir Walter Raleigh ordered that the Abbey of Our Lady of Graces and the shrine be demolished. The demolition was dogged with bad luck where one workman fell off the roof, while another died mysteriously just after the work started.
One of the Fitzgerald family, Honoria Fitzgerald, took the statue to safety before the church was demolished. She kept it for many years and even had a special silver case made for it in 1617. In time the statue was handed over to the Dominicans in Cork, where in 1895 Our Lady of Graces found a permanent home in St Mary’s Church, Popes Quay and was placed appropriately on the Rosary altar beside the sanctuary of the church.
Today Our Lady of Graces is loved by the people of Cork and Mass is said in honour of Our Lady of Graces each Saturday in the Dominican Church which houses the shrine.
Prayer to Our Lady of Graces.
O Mary of Graces and mother of Christ, O may you direct me and guide me a right. O may you protect me from Satan’s control, and may you protect me in body and soul. O may you protect me by land and by sea, and may you protect me from sorrows to be; A strong guard of angels above me provide; May God be before me and God at my side. Three Hail Mary’s and the Memorare.
Our Lady of Galway
/in Rosary Letter/by Luuk Dominiek Jansen OPThe statue of Our Lady of Galway is in the Dominican Church in the Claddagh know as St Mary’s on the Hill. The Dominicans came to Galway city from Athenry in 1492 and restored an old ruined building once owned by Premonstratensian Canons dating from 1235. With similar religious houses, Cromwellian forces destroyed St. Mary’s in 1651. In thanksgiving for the first catholic mayor of Galway City in thirty years a silver crown was made for the statue of the Virgin and Child much loved by the local people in the Claddagh and was presented to the Dominicans of Galway to celebrate the opening of their new thatched church in 1669. The crown was engraved, ‘Pray for the souls of John Kirwan and his wife Mary, 1683.’ Oliver Plunkett, the Archbishop of Armagh described the new Dominican church in 1674 as “the best and most ornamented church in the Kingdom.”
After many years of poverty and hardship, the old thatched chapel was in need of serious attention and Fr. James Thomas French, O.P. built a new priory in 1792 and a new church in 1800 to replace the thatched chapel. The Fr. French’s church survived until 1891 when the new St. Mary’s was built, and Our Lady of Galway was enthroned on her own altar to the left of the high altar.
Each year in August around the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, crowds come to the Claddagh Pier opposite the Church for the annual Blessing of the Bay ceremony. The blessing has been an expression of the faith of the people of what was once a fishing village just outside the walls of Galway city but during the past few decades the ‘villagers’ have been joined by the crews of fishing trawlers based nearby in Galway docks.
The fishermen come seeking God’s blessing on their work as generations of fishermen have came to the Dominicans for over 500 years seeking a blessing in bringing their light hookers and currachs safely home after each voyage. Today, only a few boats remain of the once famous Claddagh fishing fleet. These boats are now joined in mid-August by the trawlers that have replaced them, and with an escort of yachts and smaller craft they sail out into Galway Bay after the blessing of nets on the quayside. In the bay, the ringing of a bell is the signal for the boats to form a wide circle around the brown-sailed hooker, or in more recent years, the fishing trawler, that carries the Dominican Priest, the altar boys and choir from the Church of St Mary on the Hill.
The Dominican friar stands at the mast of the hooker in the centre of that circle of ships, and prays: ‘Magnify, we beseech you, O Lord God, your mercy towards us and even as you multiplied five loaves and two fish to satisfy the hunger of five thousand, so now please multiply for the use of men the fish that are generated in these waters, that we, experiencing your goodness, may give you thanks and praise your holy name’. At the end of the blessing he calls on Mary, Star of the Sea, to plead for her children, and those familiar with the writings of St Bernard recall his words: ‘When you are tossed about among the storms and tempests of life, look to the star, call upon Mary’. The Magnificat is sung and the sea is sprinkled with holy water. The last action of the dramatic ceremony is a Sign of the Cross over the fishing fields, an appeal to God to bless them and the men who fish in them, their boats, their tackle and all their labours. The Rosary is recited as the boats return to the harbour. Up to the mid eighteenth century the sails for the boats were made on the floor of the Claddagh church, the only large space available to the fishermen. In the house of God these sails were sown together under the watchful eyes of Our Lady of Galway. For centuries, this annual blessing has been an expression of faith and of the need to pray, by a sea-going community. It has also been a symbol of the close friendship built up, in rough as well as in happier times, between their local Church and the people of the Claddagh and Galway.
The Blessing of the Bay has been for centuries an expression of local faith. This faith is colourfully symbolised today at the altar of Our Lady of Galway in the Claddagh church. In the centre is the ancient statue of Our Lady of Galway. The background is a sparkling mosaic showing a Claddagh hooker in full sail and with fishermen visible on board, tossed in very turbulent waters. On a cliff in the distance, as if on guard over them, is the Church of St Mary on the Hill. On their knees in prayer at the bottom corners of the mosaic are two Claddagh youths, a girl and a boy, apparently asking Mary to look after the boats at sea and bring them safely home. The mosaic and the statue of Our Lady of Galway symbolise a faith in prayer, and in Our Lady, evident for centuries, a faith that comes to special life each year in mid-August at the Blessing of the Bay.
Prayer to Our Lady of Galway.
Fisherman’s Prayer
Star of the Sea, Light Our Way, Star of the Sea so radiant in the glory of God’s Love, your crown outshining all the stars of heaven up above, O, lovely Queen of Peace, gowned in azure’s of the sea, help us find the way to Jesus, in your wise serenity. We ask you Pearl of Grace to grant us vision, courage, will, so ‘peace on earth,’ that miracle, at last might be fulfilled! Dear Mother of the Church, blessed beacon of God’s Light, may you always guide your children on the stormy seas of life. Make our hearts into safe harbours, where dear Jesus is received, Hear our prayer, O, Spiritual Vessel, Mother of God, Star of the Sea.
Our Lady of Waterford
/in Rosary Letter/by Luuk Dominiek Jansen OPThe Statue of Our Lady of Waterford is believed to have once held a place of honour in the ancient Dominican Abbey founded in Waterford in 1226. When the last Prior, Fr. William Martin, O.P. surrendered the Abbey of St Saviour’s to Henry VIII in 1541 special mention is made of the Lady Chapel which housed a miraculous and much loved image of the Blessed Virgin. Marian devotion was strong among the people of Waterford despite persecution, to such an extent that in 1580 the Anglican bishop of the city complained about “public wearing of beads and praying upon the same- worshipping images and setting them openly in their house doors with ornaments and decking.”
During these years of persecution and the destruction of many Catholic shrines the statue of Our Lady of Waterford survived. In 1932 three layers of paint were removed from the image, revealing a coating of wax and cement which probably hid the statue from public view during the years of persecution.
In 1815 following the death of Fr. Anthony Duane, O.P. the last Dominican friar in the city, the statue was removed for safe keeping and brought to Kilkenny and from there to Limerick City.
In 1865 the Bishop of Waterford invited the Dominican Friars to return to the City and on the 31st of March 1867 the friars opened a small oratory on Bridge Street. In 1876 the beautiful St. Saviours Church was opened and the statue of the Virgin was returned from Limerick and enthroned alongside the Rosary Altar.
In 1934 the people of Waterford in gratitude and thanksgiving for so many favours received through the intercession of Our Lady of Waterford, commissioned Messrs Egan of Cork to make two golden crowns with jewels and a sceptre for the Statue. The older crowns of silver which dated from the 1700s were replaced and are preserved in the Dominican archives.
In 2016 the Statue and its silver shrine were again restored by the National Gallery and Museum in Dublin, to commemorate the 8th Centenary of the Dominican Order. The veneration of the statue of Our Lady of Waterford continues to this day as the love of the Virgin continues for the faithful and devout children of the City of Waterford.
Prayer to Our Lady of Waterford.
O’ God who has brought us out of the dark days of persecution, from you we hope for every good gift through the intercession of Mary, our Mother, whom we venerate under the title of Our Lady of Waterford. Grant to us all through her maternal prayers, the grace to be always faithful to the teaching of her Son, and die blessing his holy will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.