By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — With the largest ever outpouring of religious fervor in Ireland now surrounding the nationwide tour of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, the organizers have been granted a five-day extension of the visit to allow for special send-off celebrations in Wexford.
"We are conservatively estimating that, at the very least, seven out of 10 of the entire population have already visited the relics, which is unbelievable," said Fr. Joseph Linus Ryan, the Carmelite priest who is national coordinator for the visit, which will now last 79 days.
"There are thousands visiting right throughout the night and that is being repeated everywhere; we had no idea it would be fantastic like this," he said.
"It has to be regarded now as the biggest national event ever. It would far exceed even the numbers for the papal visit in 1979, though the pope was here only for a couple of days."
The reliquary is visiting 78 cathedrals and churches throughout the country but often arrives late as it is making unofficial stops en route in many small villages where people have built shrines and sprinkled rose petals, a symbol of St. Therese.
Follow us on social media
Keep up to date with the latest news with The Irish Echo
"We won’t pass anybody by and that has slowed us down," Ryan said. "It has been a victim of its own success. People are visiting the relics at an average of 4,000 an hour and the queues at midnight stretch back six deep."
He has dismissed suggestions that the impact of the visit since Easter Sunday would be a short-lived wonder in a situation of increasing secularization and falling attendances at Mass.
"Even in biblical times, people who were materially well-off were inclined to be less conscious about things of the spirit, but there are a lot of people searching for meaning, as we don’t live on bread alone," Ryan said.
and self-sacrifice."
Also known as the "little flower," the Carmelite nun died of tuberculosis at 24. Since the centenary of her death in 1997, her relics have visited 23 countries.
She was one of five sisters who became nuns and was canonized in 1925. The pope proclaimed her a doctor of the church on the centenary of her death, the youngest of the 33 saints to hold that title.
The relics had been due to leave from Rosslare for France after a helicopter visit to the Lough Derg pilgrimage island in Donegal on June 27. But now there will be the extra sendoff ceremony on July 1 in Wexford Gaelic Park.
The Lisieux authorities were able to grant the visit extension because a planned tour of the Lebanon for later this year is now not scheduled until next year when the relics will also go to Syria and Egypt.