Clonmel’s Franciscan Friary church is reopening not just for the celebration of a weekly Mass but as a place of worship you can visit daily to pray and light a candle.
The much loved Friary Church will reopen as the Abbey House of Prayer next Tuesday, June 13 – six months after its closure due to the Franciscan Friars’ departure from Clonmel ending the order’s 750 years association with the town.
Fr John Treacy, PP of SS Peter & Paul Parish, will be the first priest to celebrate 10am Mass at the reopened church next week.
The Mass will include the St Anthony Novena and the Ceremony of Blessing of the Lilies.
The Abbey House of Prayer Group of local people involved in securing the Friary Church’s reopening, stressed that after Mass next Tuesday the church will remain open daily for prayer and visitation to the shrines.
The church’s beautiful shrine to St Anthony, the patron saint for the recovery of lost items, is a particularly popular place of veneration.
People will once again be able to drop in and pray at the shrine, light a candle and drop a petition into the box.
While it will not be possible to offer Mass daily at the Friary Church, it is hoped Mass will be celebrated there at least once a week.
Priests based in the greater Clonmel area have volunteered to celebrate the weekly Tuesday Mass at the Friary Church on a rota basis.
Bishop of Waterford & Lismore Most Rev. Alphonsus Cullinan has confirmed he will celebrate the second weekly Mass at the Friary Church on Tuesday, June 20. He has been very supportive of the efforts to reopen the church.
The reopening of the church originated with the formation of a group of Clonmel people who were interested in the Friary Church continuing to play an active part in the community.
The Abbey House of Prayer Group said meetings were held and it was clear there was a sufficient body of interested people who would wish the Abbey to continue as a place of prayer and occasional Masses, having regard to the current shortage of clergy.
“In conjunction with the Bishop of Waterford & Lismore and SS Peter and Paul’s Parish, it was agreed to explore ways of keeping the church open as a house of prayer and for Mass, whenever this would be possible.”
“Following discussions between this local group of citizens and the Franciscan community, it has been agreed to reopen the Church as the Abbey House of Prayer,” the Group added.
The Group pointed out that the Franciscans’ departure from Clonmel, due to lack of vocations, was greeted with great sadness in Clonmel as the Friary had been a part of the fabric of the local community for centuries. It said nowhere else in Ireland was the history of the local Friary more intimately interwoven with the history of the town.
All who loved attending Mass at the Friary or just visiting the church to pray, are delighted it’s reopening for worship once again.
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