A Relic of St Columbanus for Carlow
Supreme Council
24 September 2026
Bishop Denis Nulty receives the relic of St Columbanus from the Supreme Knight, Bro. John Murphy, and the Deputy Supreme Knight, Bro. PJ Finn.
On 24 September 2026 the Supreme Knight, Bro. John Murphy, and the Deputy Supreme Knight, Bro. PJ Finn, presented a first-class relic of St Columbanus, the patron of the Order, to Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin. The relic is intended, in due course, for the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow.
The relic
It is a fragment of bone, set on red cloth in a small cross-shaped reliquary. The label behind the glass reads Ex oss. S. Columbani Ab.: from the bones of St Columbanus, Abbot. A relic of the saint's own body is a first-class relic.
A Leinster saint
Columbanus was born in Leinster about the year 543. The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, following Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, holds his birthplace to be Myshall, at the foot of Mount Leinster in County Carlow.
He was formed as a monk at Bangor under St Comgall, and in or about 590 he took ship for Gaul with twelve companions. He founded Anegray, Luxeuil and Fontaines, and at the last Bobbio in the Apennines, where he died on 21 November 615.
His remains lie in the crypt of the abbey at Bobbio. His feast is kept on 23 November.
The cathedral
The Cathedral of the Assumption is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Bishop James Doyle laid its foundation stone in 1828, and it was dedicated in 1833.
On 13 July 2025 it was the setting for the Mass of the twenty-sixth International Columbanus Day, the first time the Day had been kept in the Republic of Ireland.
