Diocesan News
Special Friends’ Service and talk to mark St Macartan’s Day in Clogher Diocese
Two important events will be taking place in St. Macartan’s Cathedral, Clogher to mark St. Macartan’s Day on Tuesday, 24th March.
St. Macartan travelled with St. Patrick and was known as his strongman. Macartan was consequently ordained as the first Bishop of Clogher. He died on 24th March, now the Feast Day of St. Macartan in the year 506 A.D. and buried at Clogher, in a burial place south–west of the present Cathedral.
On Sunday, 22nd March at 3pm, the Friends of Clogher Cathedral will host their 64th Friends’ Service and Annual Reunion in the Cathedral. The guest preacher is the Revd Dr. Maurice Elliott, Director of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.
On Tuesday, 24th March, the Feast Day of St. Macartan’s, the Bishop of Clogher, the Right Revd John McDowell, will give a talk on Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in the Cathedral at 7.30pm hosted by the Dean and Chapter.
The site of the current St. Macartan’ s Cathedral has been a place of worship dating back to the 5th Century.
The present Cathedral was built between 1740 and 1744 and re–ordered in the classical style between 1816 – 1818 during which stalls were provided for the Chapter and three galleries were erected. Two of these galleries were removed in 1865 and the remaining West gallery accommodates the organ and choir.
The Cathedral is filled with history and artefacts including the stone standing in the porch known as the Clogh–Oir or Golden Stone from which the name Clogher is derived.
The main Cathedral has many stained–glass windows including the magnificent East Window dating from 1862.
The churchyard contains around 600 tombstones with over 500 having readable inscriptions and around 28 date from the 17th Century.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Clogher
07708 869823
Mr Brian Donaldson
clogherdco@btinternet.com