The Diocese of Clogher Annual Pilgrimage to Lourdes will take place from the 5th to the 10th of July 2019. This year’s pilgrimage will be led by our new bishop, Most Reverend Lawrence (Larry) Duffy.
Bookings now being taken by John Hueston, Gave, Macknagh, Crom Road, Lisnaskea, Co Fernmanagh Tel (048) 67724329 (south) or (028) 67724329 (north). Email: john.cdp@btconnect.com. Forms also available at www.clogherlourdes.com . Price of €770 (or sterling equivalent) includes air travel Belfast/Lourdes return; coach transfer from/to designated points in the diocese; 5 nights accommodation based on sharing twin bedded rooms; all meals during the course of the pilgrimage in Lourdes and complimentary comprehensive insurance and airport tax. Single room supplement extra, on request. Minimum deposit €300. Please book early. Please click on the poster below for further details.
2019 marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of St Bernadette, to whom Our Lady appeared in 1858. It also marks the 140th anniversary of her death in 1879.
Another saint who is being recalled at Lourdes this year is St Benedict Joseph Labre (1748-83), the French-born beggar saint, a pilgrim-hermit, who walked and died on the streets of Rome and who is the patron saint of pilgrims, the homeless and the hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes.
St Benedict Labre has a special connection with the Diocese of Clogher and, particularly, with St Macartan’s Cathedral, Monaghan, where he is honoured with a large statue near the Chapter Room and a beautiful stained-glass window in one of the side-chapels of the Cathedral itself. When St Macartan’s was being constructed during the second half of the 19th century, the then Bishop of Clogher, Dr James Donnelly (1865-93) entrusted the project to the intercession of the then Blessed Benedict Labre. When Dr Donnelly first visited Rome as bishop in 1867, he celebrated Mass at his tomb in the Church of Santa Maria ai Monti, near the Colosseum. He promised to honour Benedict Labre in the new Cathedral if he himself lived to see the project completed and the pilgrim-hermit canonised. And so, in the boundless providence of God, it all came to be. Benedict Joseph Labre was canonised by Pope Leo XIII in 1881 and the Cathedral was completed and dedicated to the service of God in August 1892, before Bishop Donnelly’s death just over a year later.
Fittingly, the theme of Lourdes pilgrimages in 2019 is: ‘Blessed are the poor, for the kingdom of God is theirs.’ (Luke 6:20).
For further information on Lourdes 2019 visit https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/theme-2019/
