Capital ‘Camino’ highlights city’s religious landmarks
IT’S 3.30pm and the doors burst open to the busiest church in Ireland, admitting identical twin toddler boys. Head to toe in matching regalia, including baseball hats embellished with turtles and T-shirts decorated with flamingos, they discuss candles in stage whispers before shushing one another dramatically.
It’s a small moment that seems to add to the unique atmosphere at St Teresa’s Carmelite Church on Clarendon Street in Dublin.
It is one of the seven city-centre places of worship chosen as a Pilgrim Walk ahead of the Pope’s visit.
Each is a beautiful landmark in its own right, some are full of life while others appear to be waiting patiently for their congregations to return.
Nobody knows as yet how many pilgrims will take part in this ‘Camino’, which takes some four hours to complete at a pace. Pilgrims will see the homelessness in the capital, addiction issues and poverty. This inner-city walk cannot be sanitised.
We start our trail at St Michan’s on Halston Street, where we get our special pilgrim’s ‘passport’ stamped officially by Paddy Pender, the parish secretary.
She throws the doors open to reveal an airy hidden gem which hosts the ‘Red Mass’ for the legal community on the first Monday in October and which featured on ‘Strumpet City’.
Paddy says she thinks the pilgrims will enjoy this place with its quiet beauty.
“It’s about letting people know that we’re here and we are active,” she says.
From there, it’s on to the Anglican twin, St Michan’s on Church Street, included on the trail for ecumenical reasons. Here, the parish administrator Patricia Parfrey admits us to the dark and peaceful gloom, stark in its simplicity but no less beautiful for that.
The church was originally founded in 1095, with the present building dating from 1685. Its crypt holds the famous Dublin mummies.
“It is lovely to be included on the trail,” said Patricia, who said that while the mummies will not be open during the pilgrimage, visitors with the passport can come back later and see them at a discount.
The church is also looking for volunteers to help out.
At St Saviour’s Church on Dominick Street – a far grander affair, Michael Burnham, visiting from Canada, is awestruck.
“We have nothing like this back home,” he says.
At St Francis Xavier’s Church on Gardiner Street Upper, we meet Jesuit priest Richard O’Dwyer who has done the pilgrim walk himself.
“We stopped for a coffee,” he confesses with a smile.
The church is based on the church of Gesu in Rome and has five beautiful stained glass windows by Evie Hone in the peaceful chapel.
Over the river, we start with St Audeon’s on High Street, of which Daniel O’Connell was a founder donor, and go on to St Teresa’s Carmelite church, the busiest church in the country, off Grafton Street. The shift to affluence is palpable.
Fr Jim Noonan said they will have the relics of St Therese of Lisieux and her parents in the church for the pilgrims.
They attracted a huge crowd when last here in 2001. But Ireland has changed and he does not expect this again.
Rose Hennessy from Kildare says she comes here to light a candle often because it is so peaceful.
We finish up at Whitefriars, another thriving city landmark, also known as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Carmelite friary.
Here, churchgoer Barbara Freeman from Crumlin is filling bottles of St Albert’s Water at the shrine.
She takes a sip every morning, she says.
This water is for her godmother who has been diagnosed with cancer, she says.
The Pilgrim Walk takes place from August 18-25, 9.30am to 7pm.