By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — One of the biggest outpourings of religious fervor since the papal visit is expected when the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux arrive here next month for an 11-week tour of 77 cathedrals and churches throughout Ireland.
"They have taken America by storm and we expect the same to happen here," said Fr. Joseph Linus Ryan, a Carmelite priest who is national coordinator for the visit.
St. Therese is one of the most revered of Catholic saints. Tens of thousands of people are expected to turn out for the visit of the remains. A huge number of followers are also expected from abroad and Bord Failte and the church receiving inquiries since last year.
"She had gone to 23 countries and there has been a huge outpouring of devotion," said Ryan, who has been making arrangements for two years. "The organizers in other countries have advised us to think big and all our expectations will be surpassed."
Ryan said he hopes the foot-and-mouth crisis will not affect the tour.
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"We have placed the foot-and-mouth problem in Therese’s hands and we have asked her, if she can, to deliver on that," Ryan said.
Also known as the "little flower," the Carmelite nun died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. Her relics have been on a world tour since the centenary of her death in 1997.
They have stopped traffic in New York, attracted huge crowds in Moscow, where they were greeted by the elite Kremlin guard, and led to scenes of mass devotion in the Philippines.
The remains are currently in Mexico and will arrive here from France by ferry to Rosslare in a special casket on April 15, Easter Sunday. They will be venerated in all of Ireland’s 26 diocesan cathedrals and all the Carmelite houses during the tour, which ends on June 28.
Six people are needed to lift the 400-pound reliquary. With a large casket of scented jacaranda wood is a gilded casket. It is all secured with three locks.
Ryan said to ensure security, one key was held by the Bishop of Lisieux, another by the prioress of the local Carmelite convent, and the third by the pope.
"I can only be opened when all three or their representatives are present simultaneously," he said.
It will be transported around the country in a converted silver Mercedes van with glass sides. It was donated by an anonymous benefactor and has been christened the "Theresemobile."
It will be met by the bishop of Ferns, Brendan Comiskey, and brought to Rosslare Church before it is formally welcomed to the country in Enniscorthy Cathedral in the afternoon.
"The reliquary will be in each place virtually for an entire day. We hope in that in most places there will be an all-night vigil," Ryan said.
It will go to Knock shrine in County Mayo and last-minute arrangements have been made to bring it by helicopter from Waterford to the famous Lough Derg pilgrimage island in Donegal.
Ryan said no relics like this had ever been brought to Ireland on such an extensive devotional tour before. In the past, the arm of St Francis Xavier and the tongue of St Anthony of Padua had made limited tours.
St. Therese’s book, "The Story of A Soul", recounting her search for spiritual innocence, is one of the most widely read Catholic works.
She was one of five sisters who became nuns. She 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.