The president, Mary McAleese, and the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, will lead an Irish delegation at the canonisation of Passionist priest Blessed Charles of Mount Argus, Harold's Cross, Dublin, in Rome next Sunday. The canonisation ceremony will be conducted by Pope Benedict.
A novena in preparation for the canonisation began at Mount Argus on Saturday and continues until this day week.
Born John Andrew Houben, at Munstergeleen, Holland, in December 1821, Blessed Charles, a Passionist priest, came to Ireland 150 years ago in 1857 and served at Mount Argus in Harold's Cross. While a layman in military service from 1840 to 1845 he had heard of the Passionists and joined them in 1845, entering the novitiate at Ere, near Tournai, in Belgium.
Ordained in December 1850 he was sent to England in November 1852 and there came into contact with the Irish who were emigrating from the Famine. He came to Ireland five years later. In Dublin he excelled in the confessional and in comforting the sick. Soon he was very popular, with as many as 300 people a day coming to be blessed by him.
He was transferred back to England in 1866 but returned to Ireland in 1874, remaining at Mount Argus for the rest of his life. He died on January 5th, 1893.
His body was brought to the church at Mount Argus and lay in state for five days. Thousands filed past his coffin, with his funeral reported to have been bigger than Parnell's, two years previously.
His remains were laid to rest in the cemetery beside Mount Argus Church and his grave became a place of pilgrimage. In 1949 his remains were moved inside the church.
A portrait of the saint by James Hanley will feature on a stamp being launched by An Post to mark the canonisation, while a song written by Fr Liam Lawton is being performed by him tonight as part of the novena at Mount Argus.