New safety measures have been put in place for up to 7,000 pilgrims who are expected to undertake the arduous “Reek Sunday” pilgrimage to the summit of Croagh Patrick in the west of Ireland, next weekend.
This year, organisers have decided to space out the Mass times from every half hour to every hour and are also introducing alternative arrangements for attending Mass to facilitate those who are not seasoned climbers.
Fr Charlie McDonnell, administrator of Westport parish in County Mayo, told The Tablet organisers were trying to ensure that people don’t push themselves too hard to get to the top of the mountain for Mass. “Sometimes people who climb the mountain start off with the best of intentions and really they shouldn’t go to the top for health reasons. We’re trying to offer alternatives such as being able to attend Mass before climbing so that pilgrims need only go as far up the mountain as they feel able to.”
It usually takes about an hour and a half to reach the top of the 2,507-foot peak, where there is a small chapel. Traditionally the last Sunday in July – Reek Sunday – is when people climbed the mountain to honour St Patrick, who is believed to have spent 40 days and nights at the summit of Ireland’s holiest mountain.
Reek Sunday figures are, according to Fr McDonnell, “holding their own”. Though lower than the numbers who climbed in the 1960s-80s, he said the difference now was that the pilgrimage season is spread over a longer period so more people are climbing the mountain but at different times. “Now there are people climbing 365 days and up to 70 per cent of the 122,000 who do it annually are on pilgrimage.”
The Co Mayo parish priest said that the quality of the confessions of those who came to the sacrament on Reek Sunday showed a “genuine search and sense of pilgrimage” and that the majority of those coming to confession were young men. “It is not a ‘dressed-up’ pilgrimage – it is a tough pilgrimage. It is something that is genuinely very positive; they feel close to God and connected to God without a lot of the formal structures.” Indications of the continued popularity are measured by the demand for the Croagh Patrick prayer card, 10,000 of which were given out in the last two months.
Loading ...
