The Poor Clares in Galway have revamped their website this week with the help of a group of 1st year GMIT Digital Media students. The website met with an unusual amount of interest, getting two million hits in the first two weeks when it was first launched in 2003.
“We felt it was getting out-of-date and we had been thinking about updating the site for some time.” said the Abbess, Sr. Colette.
“It was an amazing stroke of Divine Providence that one day three students just knocked on our door. They are studying Business Computing and Digital Media at GMIT and arrived with their ideas for a redesigned website for us as one of their college projects. We were stunned to say the least and of course we are delighted!”
Originally from Poland, Marek Mazur, Agnieska Wartalska and Justyna Malek have also added a Polish version to the site.
This isn’t the nuns’ first association with Poland. A nun from the Cracow monastery spent several months in the Galway Monastery last year learning English before going on a missionary foundation to Africa.
“We are also looking into the possibility of getting an Irish version of the site up and running in the near future.,” said Sr. Colette.
Speaking ahead of the launch of a fundraising campaign for the repair and updating of the hundred-year–old Extern Convent which is the reception area of the Monastery at Nun’s Island, she said that a page will soon be put up on the website giving information about that.
The website was re-launched on the Thursday, 16th of April to coincide with the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the Franciscan Order, with the url: www.poorclares.ie
The site has a range of features, including video and audio clips, slide presentations showing scenes from the enclosed but evidently very joyful lives of the sisters, some of their life stories, frequently asked questions, and a guide to prayer and discernment.
Currently 17 sisters live at the Poor Clare monastery at Nun’s Island in Galway. They support themselves by producing altar breads for the diocese of Galway and beyond.
Meanwhile Franciscan friars from all over the world converged on Assisi, Italy, this week to celebrate the 800th anniversary of papal approval of the Franciscan rule.
For the first time, representatives from the four main Franciscan branches met in Assisi - the birthplace of their founder, St Francis - to take part in an International Chapter of Mats which began on Wednesday and finishes today.
A Chapter of Mats gets its name from the time in 1221 St Francis called more than 3,000 friars to the Portiuncula chapel in Assisi for a general meeting or chapter.
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(Source: CIN)