Cathedral News

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.

The annual series of international summer concerts in the Cathedral begins on Thursday 3 July, and continues with a concert every Thursday evening at 20:00 until 7 August.

Mass in the Cathedral will be celebrated at 11:00am ONLY between Monday 5 May and Thursday 8 May 2014 inclusive; the priests of the diocese are on retreat on those dates.

The week between Passion Sunday and Easter Sunday is the most sacred of the church year, and will be celebrated in solemn fashion in Galway Cathedral.

Franciscan Friar Alessandro Brustenghi, from Assisi, will give a concert of his favourite songs in the Cathedral on Friday 21 March 2014, as part of a European tour. His album The Voice of Assisi reached number one in the UK charts.