\nHE WAS the saintly priest to whom Therese of Lisieux looked for inspiration and who sparked the special Irish devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Now the relics of St Claude La Colombiere are coming to Ireland – a visit of huge significance for members of the Pioneer movement and for many recovering alcoholics who look to the French-born saint for spiritual succour.
The visit may also serve as a barometer of the current strength of the faith in secular, Celtic Tiger Ireland five years after hundreds of thousands venerated the bones of St Therese.
Less than 20 years ago, the picture of the Sacred Heart with the red light adorned almost every home in Ireland.
But the powerful resonance of the Sacred Heart appears to be on the wane.
In newer homes built during the building boom of the last decade, the powerful image of the Sacred Heart pierced with a crown of thorns apparently doesn’t sit easily with neutral, Ikea-inspired contemporary styling.
The Irish Bishops’ Conference accepted the offer of the Jesuit community at Paray-le-Monial, France, to make available the relics of St Claude La Colombiere "for the veneration of the faithful in Ireland".
Fr Bernard McGuckian SJ, who is best known for his involvement with the Pioneer movement, is co-ordinating the event, which will run between June 14 and July 21.
"The visit has special significance for those who venerate the Sacred Heart, members of the Pioneer movement and those who have battled against alcoholism. However, it is also deeply significant for the sick because of the dignity and stoicism with which St Claude dealt with his own illness," he said.
It also marks the sesquicentenary (150 years) of the extension of the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the Universal Church by Blessed Pius IX in 1856.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The webpage that’s been set up with information on the relic tour.<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The kind of thing that interests me: The relics of St. Claude la Colombiere will be touring Ireland during June and July. From an article in the Sunday Independent (not online): HE WAS the saintly priest to whom Therese of Lisieux looked for inspiration and who sparked the special Irish devotion to the Sacred Heart.Now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}