Renata Steffens
Saint Columbanus The International Columbanus Day will be hosted for the first time in the Republic of Ireland in July 2025. On November 22, The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin officially launched the event with a lecture by Dr Damien Bracken, UCC.
The XXVI Columbanus Day will be taking place on July 11-13, 2025 in Co. Carlow, where St Columbanus was born in 543AD. Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty said at the launch that the fact the saint was born in Myshall, “gives us in Carlow our rightful claim on him and the reason we have been invited to host the International Columbanus Weekend next July.”
“When Carlow was chosen to host the XXVI Columbanus Celebrations, there was one man elated at the choice of Carlow and the opportunities it offered, opportunities to reintroduce St Columbanus to Carlow and Irelan,” Bishop Nulty said.
“I speak of the late Archbishop Noel Treanor who died on August 11 last, barely seven weeks after our Piacenza gathering. There he stressed to me how we in Carlow must make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity, tonight has been a super start, thanks to the wonderful lecture from Damien, and so with great joy I launch our programme for the weekend of July 11-13 next year.
“A programme that will welcome Columbanus communities from all over Europe and all over the island to the place of his birth, where his life-journey began and which has left an indelible mark on the history of Europe today. Our three-day festival comes in the middle of Pope Francis’s Jubilee Year of Hope and that hope filled theme permeates all aspects of the programme,” the bishop concluded.