FEASTS OF THE WEEK
Easter Time
The celebration of Easter is prolonged throughout the Easter season.
The fifty days from Easter Sunday (5th April 2026) to Pentecost Sunday (24th May 2026) are celebrated as one feast day, the "great Sunday".
CHRIST IS RISEN, ALLELUIA!
Friday 15th May : St. Carthage (or Mochuta)
Hailed from a rich family in Kerry. As he loved the chanting of the psalms, the local king arranged for him to become a priest. Having spent a year possibly at Bangor he founded his own monastery at Rahan in 595. It grew rapidly. However, opposition made him move southwards around 637. Along with hundreds of monks and their patients from the leper colony, he finally arrived at Lismore, where he made a foundation. He died in the year 638.
Saturday 16th May : St. Brendan
Born in Kerry in the year 486. He studied at Clonard under Finnian. His name is connected with many places in Kerry such as Ardfert and Mount Brandon. He visited Scotland and reached the Hebrides and possibly areas beyond. He founded a monastery on Clonfert in 568 and died there in 578.
Sunday 17th May : Ascension of the Lord
World Communications Day
"The Ascension of Christ means our own salvation as well; where the glorious Head has gone before, the body is called to follow in hope. Let us therefore exult, beloved, as is fitting, and let us rejoice in devout thanksgiving. For on this day not only have we been confirmed in our possession of paradise, but we have even entered heaven in the person of Christ; through his grace we have regained far more than we had lost through the devil's hatred".
(St. Leo the Great, Sermon 73:4)
Monday 18th May : St. John I
He was the first Bishop of Rome to visit Constantinople. He was involved in Arian controversies and imprisoned at Ravenna in Italy, where he died in the year 526.
18th May is the anniversary of the inauguration in 2025 of the Petrine ministry of Pope Leo XIV, Bishop of Rome.
Wednesday 20th May : St. Bernardine
Born in Siena in 1380. As a young man he took charge of a hospital in Siena during a plague. Then he became a Franciscan, travelled through Italy, preaching with great success. He promoted devotion to the Holy Name and to St. Joseph. He died in 1444.
Thursday 21st May : Ss Christopher Magallánes and Companions
These twenty-five priests and laymen were executed in Mexico in 1927.
Friday 21st May : St. Rita of Cascia
Her husband, an ill-tempered and abusive man, was murdered. Later Rita entered the Augustinian convent in Cascia, in the diocese of Spoleto, Italy, and spent forty years in prayer and charity, and working for peace in the region.