Relics of St Kilian visit, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth – Article by Jacob Roantree 9th Class

On Wednesday 2^nd October, for the first time since they left Cavan in the 7^th century, the remains of St. Kilian and his companions, Saints Colonat and Totnan, have returned to Ireland. The jewel-embedded skulls of these three Catholic saints were here for only a week, yet they gathered an audience of over 400 people for their welcoming back to the country.

Being a student of St. Kilian’s School, and interested in the story of St. Kilian, I decided to go along to St. Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth for the homecoming of the relics. Immediately after arriving, I noticed just how many Germans there were. It seemed a huge amount of people from the Würzburg diocese (where St. Kilian travelled to, and where his remains have been for over 1300 years) had come over with the relics. Once we were all in the square, the ceremony began with hymns, a prayer to St. Kilian, and a procession into the College Chapel. The procession was led by a group of Irish seminarians and German trainee priests carrying the reliquary (see the image below), then Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin and Bishop Franz Jung of Würzburg, along with the other priests, and finally the other lay people including myself who had gone along.

Once we got into the Chapel, the reliquary was placed in front of the altar, and we began the Vespers (Roman Catholic evening prayer). This consisted largely of beautiful singing by the choir of hymns in German, English, and even Old Irish, the language that would have been spoken by Saints Kilian, Colonat, and Totnan. After the homily given by Bishop Jung, the event finished with veneration of the holy relics in the chapel.

I found this to be a very interesting and important event. It was great to be able to go as a member of the school community, as St. Kilian’s, being a German-Irish school named after Kilian running a vibrant Würzburg exchange programme, could be one of the most connected groups to the relics. Overall, it was a brilliant experience and an amazing way to learn about the 7^th century monk from Cavan in honour of whom our school is named.