07 June 2021

Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin
Group parish notes in
‘Newslink’ June 2021

A work party clears away ivy and growth in the old church ruins and around graves in Askeaton

Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes

Rathkeale, Askeaton, Castletown and Kilnaughtin

Priest-in-Charge: Revd Canon Patrick Comerford,
The Rectory, Askeaton, Co Limerick.

Parish Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RathkealeGroup/

The aftermath of vandalism in Askeaton:

Since the attack on Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, in the early hours of Easter Day, when extensive damage was caused to the panels of the window at the south-east end of the church, the window has been repaired, and the church was looking particularly well when it opened again on Ascension Day, 13 May.

The messages of support from the community, including clergy and politicians, have been deeply encouraging for the parish.

Once again, many thanks are due to the dedicated parishioners who spent time cleaning up the church, securing the windows and clearing away the shattered glass strewn around the church.

Work party:

The repairs to the window were followed by a weekend work party, clearing away ivy and growth in the old church ruins and around some graves in Askeaton.

Among the gravestone now visible is one marking the grave of the Revd William Henry Durell Lodge (1841-1883), a curate in Askeaton for 15 years until he died in 1883.

The late Joseph ‘Joe’ Smyth:

Joseph (Joe) Smyth of Deegerty, Askeaton, died on 9 May 2021, just three months after the death of his wife Linda. He is survived by his sons Kenneth and Victor, Gillian and Caroline, his sisters Susan, Dorothy and Evelyn, and a large, extended family. Late of IVETA Vintage Club.

His funeral took place in Castletown Church, Kilcornan, on Ascension Day, 13 May, and he was buried in Saint Mary’s Churchyard, Askeaton.

Darkness into Light:

Pieta House is making on enormous impact in its work with people in crisis and those impacted by suicide. A number of parishioners supported the ‘Darkness into Light’ walk at sunrise on 8 May, helping to spread light and give the gift of hope.

Ballingarry churchyard:

The Heritage Council has awarded €14,880 to Ballingarry Development Association to carry out conservation works on the McCarthy vault in the churchyard in Ballingarry. Additional funding of €2,000 has come from Councillor John O’Donoghoue in match funding from his GMA allowance.

Although the church closed in 1978, Ballingarry remains a cherished part of this group of parishes, and it is encouraging to see community groups continuing to take an interest in the graves in the churchyard.

Planning ahead:

6 June (Trinity I): 11 a.m., Parish Eucharist, Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert, followed by Easter Vestry.

13 June (Trinity II): 9.30, Castletown (HC); 11.30, Rathkeale (MP).

20 June (Trinity III): 9.30, Askeaton (MP); 11.30, Tarbert (HC).

Thursday 24 June: Birth of Saint the Baptist, 11 a.m., Askeaton, HC.

27 June (Trinity IV): 9.30, Castletown (MP); 11.30, Rathkeale (HC).

Supporting the ‘Darkness into Light’ walk at sunrise on 8 May

This is an edited version of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes parish notes in the June 2021 edition of Newslink, the Limerick and Killaloe Diocesan Magazine (pp 19-20)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021:
9, Saint Martin’s Cathedral, Bratislava

Saint Martin’s Cathedral was built into the walled fortifications of the old town of Bratislava (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week my photographs are of cathedrals in European capitals or former capitals. This morning (7 June 2021), my photographs are from Saint Martin’s Cathedral, Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

Saint Martin’s Cathedral was consecrated in 1452 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Martin’s Cathedral stands at the western edge of the old city centre, beneath the slopes of Bratislava Castle, and its 85 metre spire dominates the skyline of the old town. This is the largest and one of the oldest churches in Bratislava, and it was used as the coronation church of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1563 to 1830.

Long before the cathedral was built, the site had been the crossroads in the old town centre, with a market and perhaps also a chapel.

At the time, the main centre of worship was a chapel in Bratislava Castle that was used by the provost and chapter of Bratislava. An earlier Moravian church built in the eight century was replaced by a second church dedicated to the Saviour, whose site is still marked out on the castle hill.

King Emeric of Hungary received permission from Pope Innocent II in 1204 to relocate the chapel and the church was built in 1221 in the Romanesque style and dedicated to the Holy Saviour.

As Bratislava grew, the church became insufficient for its needs, and the building of a new, three-nave, Gothic cathedral began in 1311 on the site of an earlier church and cemetery. The church was built as part of the city walls, and its tower served as a defensive bastion in the mediaeval city fortifications.

The building project was delayed due to the location of the site and a lack of funding in the early 15th century, and it came to a halt during the Hussite Wars. The cathedral was finally completed and consecrated in 1452, although work continued into the 15th century.

Saint Martin’s was the coronation church for Hungarian kings and their consorts from 1563 to 1830.

The cathedral became the coronation church in succession to the Church of the Virgin Mary in Székesfehérvár, after that city was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The Crown of Saint Stephen was placed on the head of Maximilian II, son of Emperor Ferdinand I of Habsburg, on 8 September 1563.

In all, 11 kings and queens and eight of their consorts from the Habsburg dynasty were crowned here between 1563 and 1830, including Maria Theresa of Austria. This role is marked to this day by the 300 kg gilded replica of the Hungarian royal crown perched on top of the 85-metre-tall neo-Gothic tower.

The first monumental work of central-European sculpture made from lead can be found inside the cathedral. It depicts Saint Martin as a typical Hungarian hussar mounted on his horse, bending to a beggar and cutting his coat to share it with a poor beggar to protect him from the cold. It was created by Georg Rafael Donner for the main altar in 1734, but this now stands in a side nave as a free-standing statue.

Donner also designed the Baroque Chapel of Saint John the Merciful, built at the price of 2,000 pieces of gold and at the expense of Cardinal Péter Pázmány.

The top of the Gothic tower was struck by lightning in 1760 and later replaced by a Baroque tower. This was later destroyed by fire in 1835 and rebuilt, with some modifications, in 1847 and topped with a gold-plated replica of the crown of Saint Stephen. It weighs 150 kg, is over 1 m in diameter, and rests on a 1.2 m × 1.2 m gold-plated pillow and stands 1.64 m high. The pillow and crown contain a total of 8 kg of gold.

The cathedral was given its present-day appearance in 1869-1877, when it was re-Gothicised after suffering damage by fire, war, earthquake and other disasters.

Since the cathedral was built over a cemetery, it contains catacombs of unknown length and crypts holding the sepulchres of many significant historical figures, up to 6 metres below the church.

Over the centuries, many significant church and political figures have been buried in the cathedral sepulchres, including Jozef Ignác Bajza, author of the first Slovak novel, as well as dozens of bishops, canons, and French priests fleeing the French revolution.

There are least three crypts under the cathedral: the archbishops’ crypt, the Jesuit crypt and the Pálffy family crypt.

The Archbishops’ crypt is accessible from the Saint Anna Chapel and is the only crypt open to the public. It branches into four hallways under the nave in the direction of Kapitulská Street and contains over 90 graves.

The Jesuit crypt is accessible from the Saint Anna Chapel and is located under the road between the cathedral and the adjacent seminary.

The Pálffy crypt under the main altar is accessed from the north side of the cathedral. The Pálffy family were the hereditary owners of the Bratislava Castle.

The cathedral serves the Archdiocese of Bratislava, first formed as the Apostolic Administration of Trnava in 1922, when it was subordinate to the Archdiocese of Esztergom, the primatial see of Hungary. Pope Paul VI made it a diocese and renamed it the Archdiocese of Trnava in 1977, and it was renamed the Archdiocese of Bratislava-Trnava in 1995. The Archdiocese of Bratislava was formed in 2008, and its seat was moved from Trnava to Bratislava, which became the seat of the Slovak church.

The cathedral and the neighbouring diocesan seminary are surrounded by cobbled side-streets, courtyards and steep steps. But the structure is threatened by the vibrations caused by heavy traffic on the access ramp to the nearby Nový Most bridge.

Restoration work began in 1997 and the cathedral was declared a national cultural monument since in 2002.

Since 2003, the cathedral’s former role as the coronation church of Hungarian monarchs has been celebrated in style and with fun at the beginning of September each year, when the pomp and circumstance of the coronation procession returns to Bratislava in a reconstruction of the ceremony.

The cathedral nave has three aisles divided by two rows of eight columns (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 5: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

The Archbishops’ crypt beneath the cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (7 June 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us give thanks for the life of Ini Kopuria (founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood in 1925, the largest religious community in the Anglican Communion). May we devote our lives to spreading the Gospel, as he did.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The spire of Saint Martin’s Cathedral (right) seen from Bratislava Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org