The annual pilgrimage programme at Our Lady's Island, Co Wexford gets under way this year on August 15th and will run to September 8th.As many as 50,000 people are expected to visit the island during the period to avail of the extensive programme of Masses, vigils, processions and special pilgrimages.
The opening ceremony will take place at 3:00pm on August 15th and will be followed by a Procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Masses will continue to be celebrated daily at the holy island at 3p.m. and 8.00p.m., for the duration of the pilgrimage season.
On a number of days, special events are planned, including a Mass of Anointing on August 16th, a Pro- Life Mass on August 23rd, a Youth Pilgrimage on August 29th and 30th and a Pioneer pilgrimage, also on August 30th.
On September 8th, the close of this year’s pilgrimage season will be marked by a Mass at 7:00pm followed by a torchlight procession.
Our Lady's Island is on the site of one of Ireland’s earliest monasteries, founded by St. Abban in the sixth century. The Augustinian settlement became distinguished by its special devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
The monastery was sacked in Cromwellian times when the monks refused to bear arms against their country; the church was desecrated and their castle burned.
Tradition holds that a young boy rushed into the nearby church, snatched the crucifix from the altar and tried to escape across the lake. He was shot, and the crucifix was lost until 1887 when it was found in the lake and taken to the parish priest.
In the eighteenth century, Pope Benedict XIV banned several Irish pilgrimage practices after receiving reports of abuse but he specifically exempted Lough Derg and Our Lady's Island.In 1867, during a parish mission, the then bishop of Ferns led a procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the island and thirty years later, a parish priest started the practice of running a public pilgrimage procession on August 15th, which has persisted to this day. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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