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St Patrick and Saints


INTRODUCTION

There are two statues, one on each side of the great entrance door to St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral, Armagh. On the left is St Patrick, apostle of Ireland and Armagh's first bishop. The other statue is St Malachy, native of Armagh city and the Irish Church's zealous twelfth century reformer. In the cathedral a stained glass window depicts the third saint who inspired the diocese, St Oliver Plunkett, martyred at Tyburn in 1681. At the re-dedication of the cathedral on 13 June 1982 an historic feature of the ceremony was the placing of a portion of St Malachy's relics from France together with a relic of St Oliver Plunkett in the new altar.

All three are the patrons of the archdiocese.

St Patrick

St Malachy

St Oliver Plunkett
 




Welcome to the website of the Archdiocese of Armagh.

Our diocese of sixty-one parishes, from four counties, North and South of the Border, is knitted together closely to form the historic local Church of Armagh. As a diocese we seek not only to be faithful to the message of Jesus Christ himself, but also to embrace the challenges of the present and to look forward with confidence to the opportunities of the future. We strive to do this primarily by reflecting the healing love of Christ and the Truth of his Gospel through the ministry of his Church in the various parishes and pastoral agencies you will find outlined in this website.

I pray that visitors to this site may find the information it contains, the aspirations and resources it promotes, useful in helping to understand the mission of the Archdiocese of Armagh in building up the Kingdom of God in the twenty-first century.

We place it under the protection of Mary, Mother of the Church, who advised us to do whatever her son, Jesus, tells us. We invoke the help of the Patron Saints of the diocese, Patrick  and  Brigid, Malachy and Moninne  and the martyrs, Oliver Plunkett and Patrick O'Loughran,  that this website may prove to be of great help to all who strive to follow Christ faithfully.
 
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