More than 150,000 people are set to descend on Knock for their annual Novena, with this year said to have special features as it celebrates 140 years since the Apparition. The novena began this week on Wednesday and featured a talk from former Taoiseach John Bruton.
It runs from August 14-21 and includes speakers such as Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin, Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian and Msgr John Armitage, the Rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Coming from the Vatican is Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation who speaks on Thursday, August 15.
Seminar
Olive Foley, ambassador for the Children’s Grief Centre in Limerick and wife of the late former Munster Rugby coach Anthony Foley will take the Friday, August 16, seminar.
Celebrations on August 21, the anniversary of the Apparition, includes the unveiling of a new processional statue at the 3pm Mass and a model of Knock village as it was in 1879. The novena takes places every day at 3pm and 8pm with anointing of the sick at 2.30pm daily.
Although 1-1.5 million people visit the shrine each year from all over the world, there’s a concerted effort to increase that number. This was helped by the papal visit for the World Meeting of Families last August.