Cathedral News

St Angela Merici (1474-1540), founder of the Ursulines. Her feast day is on 27 January.

St Nicholas of Myra (270-343) Feast day: 6 December

Christmas is one of the most joyful seasons of the church year, and is celebrated in the Cathedral with appropriate solemnity. Here are details of the various events taking place at this time. Here also are details of confessions in the days before Christmas.

Solemn Vespers (evening prayer) for the feast of St Nicho

Saint Elizabeth Feast day: 5 November All the information we have about St Elizabeth, Mary’s kinswoman, is contained in the first chapter of St Luke's gospel. Her husband Zechariah was a priest. We are told that the couple was "righteous before God." They exemplified what was best in Israel, leading good lives and obeying the commandments faithfully. However they were childless: "Elizabeth was barren and both getting on in years."  This must have been a source of great unhappiness for them. When Elizabeth did conceive, she described her previous situation poignantly, as "the disgrace I have endured among my people." How sad for such a woman, to have felt disgrace for something she could do nothing about.

Saint Ursula Feast day: 21 October

St Raphael the Archangel: healer and travelling companion.

The Esker Festival Orchestra gives a concert in the Cathedral on Thursday 28 August 2014 at 20:00. The programme includes Beethoven's Eroica symphony, Sibelius' violin concerto in D minor and a new work by young Irish composer Breffni O'Byrne. Tickets are €5.00 at the door.

St Louis IX of France (1214-1270): king of France from 1226 until his death in 1270, husband to Marguerite of Provence and father of eleven children.

St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Jesuit order and author of the Spiritual Exercises.