The people of Callan, Co Kilkenny, are not prepared to lose their Augustinian friary without a fight.
A campaign to maintain a link dating back to 1467, when the friars first arrived in the town, is to be mounted by locals who are "devastated" at the order's decision to close the friary next Easter.
The order has decided to amalgamate its communities in Callan and Fethard, Co Tipperary, as part of a rationalisation programme brought on by falling vocations and an ageing membership. Only Fethard would continue to have a full-time Augustinian presence.
Mr Tom Holden, a businessman in Callan, says the town is "hurting". "We are organising a committee which will be followed by a public meeting, and the campaign will start from there," he said.
Opposition to the friary closure is fuelled by both a strong sense of history in the town and the excellent relationship locals have with the current friars. "The Augustinians were educating the people of Ireland before even the Christian Brothers," said Mr Holden.
"The friars we have today - two young men and one retired man - are bringing the people back to the church. Attendances at Mass may be falling off in other places, but the church here is 75 per cent full and it's because of the men we have here."
The prior in Callan, Father Henry MacNamara, says he has done all he can to avert the closure but welcomes the campaign by locals. He believes the friary might be saved if there is a change at the head of the order next year when the fouryear term of the current provincial, Father Des Foley, comes to an end.
Father Foley may be reelected to serve another term or could be replaced. He has ackowledged the pain caused by the decision but said recently changes had to be made and the order was in a "hard place". "A departure from anywhere is going to be very painful because of the depth of loyalty between friars and people in those places where we have been part of the landscape for centuries," he said.
People in Fethard had been equally fearful for the future of the local friary when plans for the amalgamation were announced last October. The Augustinians have been in the town since 1305.