Quiz Lay OF CaizalqanA HISTORY and Mem=

Seamus Cunnane

Our Lady of Cardigan

A History and Memoir

Our Lady of Cardigan

A History and Memoir

Seamus Cunnane

This work is copyright and is the intellectual property of Canon Seamus Cunnane

The illustration on the cover is Mother Concordia's statue of Our Lady of Cardigan in itsShrine Chapel Behind it is Trudie Forbes' tapestry.

In the background is Harry Comley's casket containing the candle blessed by Pope John Paul IIin 1986 for the inauguration of Cardigan

as National Shrine of Our Lady for Catholics in Wales.Beneath the casket is a stone from the sanctuary of the mediaeval Benedictine Abbey

of Chertsey whose Priory of St. Mary's in Cardigan cared for the ancient shrine.

Argraffwyd gan E. L. Jones a'i Fab, Aberteifi2006

PrefaceThis is the story of the Catholic parish of Cardigan and its mediaeval shrine.

It is, inevitably, in part a personal memoir, for by my retirement in 1999 I hadbeen parish priest for over half its history. I dedicate it to the souls whom it hasbeen my joy to serve as a priest and to the warm-hearted people of Cardigan.

CONTENTS

Preface .......................................................................................... 51. Our Lady of Cardigan ............................................................ 9

2. The Breton monks ............................................................... 103. The Carmelite nuns ............................................................ 124. Parish life ........................................................................... 145. Bishop Petit restores the Shrine ........................................... 156. The parish in 1962 .............................................................. 207. Pilgrimages ......................................................................... 238. Raising funds ....................................................................... 25

9. Planning the church ............................................................ 2610. Building the church ............................................................. 2911. Bishop Petit ........................................................................ 3312. Development ....................................................................... 3513. Father John Dermody is ordained ........................................ 3814. The Carmelites leave ........................................................... 3915. More pilgrimage .................................................................. 4016. Our own pilgrimage ............................................................. 43

The Nazareth PlaqueThe stone from Calvary

17. Restoring a connection with the monks ............................... 4718. National Shrine and a new statue ........................................ 48Conclusion ................................................................................... 54Appendix A .................................................................................. 55Appendix B ................................................................................... 56

Our Lady of Cardigan

The full story of Our Lady of Cardigan awaits a separate booklet. This is asimple outline of its background.

The shrine dates from about 1160. A legend says it appeared miraculously bythe banks of the Teifi. Taken to the parish church, it kept returning of its ownaccord to where it had appeared. There Benedictine monks from Chertsey Abbeyfounded a priory and built a church, naming it St. Mary's after the statue.Pilgrims flocked there, and in 1512 the Pope granted them the same spiritualprivileges as those who visited the churches of Rome in person.

It is likely that Our Lady of Cardigan owes its origin to Flemish colonists inCardigan who exported wool to Flanders through the port, and returned toCardigan with the statue.

It is unusual. Mary is seated with her Son on her lap and holding a taper in herhand. Seated statues of Our Lady were customary until the late middle ages.They may derive from a mural in the Roman catacombs where a seated Mary isdepicted showing Jesus to the Wise Men (four of them, as it happens). When laterartists painted the scene the Wise Men were left out, because those veneratingthe image were meant to take their place and do as they had done.

A practice arose of placing a symbol in Mary's hand referring to her Son. Itmight be a sceptre to say he was King, or a lily. In Cardigan her taper declares heis Light of the World. Mary is testifying to her Son and inviting us to accept himas our Light.

That theme, essential to the shrine, is rare in Christian iconography. Therewas a similar shrine, though of lesser repute, in Haverfordwest. The notoriousBishop William Barlow of St. David's destroyed it in 1538 before arriving inCardigan and bringing Our Lady of Cardigan and her pilgrimages to an end. Astatue in Arras, which was once part of Flanders, may have been of the same type.The only other example in Europe is in Sardinia. In 1370 a ship from Barcelonafoundered off Cagliari and a statue retrieved from it was set up in the city andnamed Santa Maria di Bonaria. There is a possible connection with Cardigan butit cannot be proved; the most one can say is that for a quarter of a century before1340 there was a spurt in trade with Catalonia, whose ships thronged the watersall around the south and west of Britain at a time when Cardigan was a majorport. They may have seen its statue and copied it.

The Cagliari statue is a development from Cardigan in that it shows Marystanding, not seated, and the socket for her taper is shaped like a ship. Ransomerpriests cared for Santa Maria di Bonaria and spread the devotion. Tenerife has ashrine named La Candelaria. As chaplains to the Spanish Navy the Ransomerssailed with Columbus in 1492. Soon Cuba had a shrine. La Candelaria exists inGuatemala and even within Portuguese territories such as Rio de Janeiro. SantaMaria di Bonaria translated into Spanish gives us Santa Maria de los BuenosAires, the name of the capital of the Argentine.

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The Breton monksOur Lady of Cardigan had long disappeared from memory when in 1904

exiled Breton Benedictines founded a monastery at Noyaddwilym in Llechryd.They named it Caermaria after the Breton Kermaria (meaning 'Mary'sStronghold'). Their story is dramatic. A viciously anti-clerical Frenchgovernment had expelled them. During their exile they encountered drama andtragedy, and in Wales met with a reception ranging from warm welcome to bitterbigotry fomented by the local Member of Parliament and fostered by hissupporters. Their story will be told separately.

October 1906 Bishop Francis Mostyn of Meneviaafter ordaining three monks to the priesthood at Caermaria.

That very year Emily Pritchard published "Cardigan Priory in the OldenDays". Though turgid and full of error, it captured the imagination of the monks,for it told how throughout the Middle Ages pilgrims had come to visit Our Ladyof Cardigan. In 1912 Emily became a Catholic and gave the monks two terracedhouses which they turned into a church. They opened it for their tiny flock on 27October 1912 and dedicated it to Our Lady of Cardigan. Within it they placed astatue of the Blessed Virgin with her Son. Thus they restored the shrine.

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Our Lady of Cardigan, opened 27 October 1912at 2-3 Pontycleifion, Cardigan.

The original statue showed Maryseated with her Son on her lap and alighted candle in her hand. The newimage was incorrect for she wasstanding and without a candle. Yet itbrought back memories of what oncehad been.

It did not last. France conscriptedmost of the monks in 1914. Theremainder, unable to spare a priestfor Cardigan, closed the church andin 1917 left the monastery. Nothingfurther is known of the statue.

So ended an attempt to re-establish a Catholic parish inCardigan. Priests from Carmarthenvisited occasionally to care for asmall group, but the Church nolonger had a formal presence. Thatwould soon change.The shrine statue as restored by themonks.

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The Carmelite NunsOn 16 July 1930 Carmelite nuns, in the presence of Cardinal Francis Bourne,

opened a monastery three miles from Cardigan in Plas-y-Bridell.

16 July 1930.Carmelite nuns take possession of their new monastery at Plas-y-Bridell

Bishop Francis Vaughan sent Father Joseph Higgins as their chaplain. FatherHiggins lived nearby in Penybryn in a house named Carmel. He converted an olddwelling – some say a former doss-house – by the riverside at Arthur's Court inThe Strand, Cardigan, and on 4 March 1931 Bishop Francis Vaughan opened itas the parish church. Its title, Our Lady of Sorrows, indicated that the mediaevalshrine had once again passed from memory. Father Higgins moved to a simplehouse attached to the church, and each day went to Bridell to offer 8am Mass forthe nuns.

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4 March 1931.Bishop Francis Vaughan opens Our Lady of Sorrows at The Strand, Cardigan.

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were scarce, the parish was impoverished and the priests couiu nut. navc, J U1 v iv y uwithout the nuns' chaplaincy fee. During the Second World War numbers rosedue to evacuees and civil servants who were billeted locally. When war was overPolish soldiers, most of them officers, lived at a resettlement camp inBlaenannerch. Betrayed by the West in the infamous Yalta agreement, theyknew that to return home would mean slavery in a Siberian concentration camp,even if they avoided the fate of the 15,000 Stalin had murdered at Katyn. Manywere reunited with their families in Blaenannerch and settled into local houses.Italian prisoners from Henllan and Eglwyswrw found work and brought theirfamilies over; a few German prisoners stayed on, local farms hired Irish workers,English families moved in to farm and the Royal Aircraft Establishment atParcllyn drew builders, airmen, technicians and civil servants. Amidst thosenewcomers a few native Welsh Catholics remembered the centuries when thewhole of the land shared their faith.

In the thirty-one years that followed no fewer than sixteen priests served inthe parish. Father Higgins died on 5 October 1932 and his successors did not staylong. Father Basil Rowlands, who remained three years, told me that whenpreparing to receive his mother into the Church he discovered she had neverbeen baptised, so he had the unique experience of baptising his mother. Father J.B. O'Connell was best known. A renowned liturgist, income from his bookshelped support him. The rest were poor. They were also lonely, for the nearestpriest was twenty miles away and their flock was tiny. Contact with locals wasslight. Inter-church contact was non-existent mostly because of residualantipathy towards Catholics. Father Albin Kaltenbach (1948-1951) was the onlypriest to mix widely; he played golf, cricket and table tennis. Father GeorgeAnwyll's eight-year term (1951-1959) was longest; as a natural recluse he wasperhaps best suited to the life.

From 1951 Father Raymond Joyce was curate to Father Anwyll and chaplainto Miss Allen's Catholic boarding school at Pentre Manor near Boncath. Hesought out new families, many of them Italian, around Newcastle Emlyn. Anactive man, ordained in middle age, his highly individual approach to pastoralwork is recalled in many tales.

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Bishop Petit restores the ShrineDuring Father Anwyll 's time there came a dramatic change. Martin Gillett

wrote an article in the Catholic Herald in 1954 on English and Welsh shrines ofOur Lady. A convert to the Faith, Martin had played a major part in restoring theCatholic shrine at Walsingham, where his ashes were eventually interred. Hedevoted his life to researching shrines of Our Lady before eventually founding theimmensely influential Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Heillustrated his article with a map using the symbol of a lighted candle to indicateancient shrines that had been restored, and an extinct candle for those that nolonger existed. Our Lady of Cardigan, once famed for its lighted taper, wasshown, ironically, by an extinct candle.

To the great Bishop John E. Petit (1947-1972) this was both a provocationand spur. Determined to restore the shrine, he asked Martin Gillett tocommission a statue and urged the Catholic Parents and Electors Associationwhich he had founded when battling for Catholic schools to support the project.

Martin's contacts were legion. He assigned the task of making the statue to aBenedictine monk who was at Farnborough Abbey at that time: Dom VincentDapre, O. S.B., a skilled woodcarver and son of the famous Anton. No drawing orengraving, not even a seal, survived to show how the original had looked. All theyhad was the derogatory and abusive description by Bishop William Barlow whodestroyed it, and an eight-page leaflet, "Our Lady of Cardigan" published by afine Anglican historian, the Reverend Silas M. Harris, in 1952. This recounted

the story of the shrine and defended itagainst Barlow's slanders. It is invaluablealthough by now it needs minor updating.

In drawing up a brief for DomVincent, Martin's expert knowledge ofmediaeval religious art helped himinterpret Barlow's description. Hedecided upon a painted softwood statue,with Jesus on his Mother's lap, facingforward, and a lighted candle in her righthand. Rather than paint it "Our Lady'sblue" Martin insisted upon moreauthentic mediaeval colours: red andturquoise, with yellow for the Infant.

1955. Dom Vincent Dapreof Farnborough Abbeycarves the shrine statue.

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When the statue was ready Farnborough Abbey held a ceremony to mark itsdeparture. It left for Westminster Cathedral escorted by a cavalcade of cars.Martin broke the journey at Wimbledon to call upon Lord Hore-Belisha,Minister for Transport. He had a purpose in mind. Hore-Belisha's ministry wasabout to destroy the ruins of Chertsey Abbey to make way for what eventuallybecame the M3. The site surveyor knew that Chertsey had owned CardiganPriory from 1158 to 1538, and to commemorate the historical link he offeredMartin a stone from its chancel for the restored Cardigan shrine. Martin askedHore-Belisha might he accept it. Hore-Belisha readily agreed and, referring to thestatue, added: "This is quite biblical. Her first time out (from the monastery) thisJewish girl goes to a party in a Jew's house.!"

8 April 1956.Cardinal Bernard Griffin blesses the statue at Westminster Cathedral.

Cardinal Griffin blessed Our Lady of Cardigan in Westminster Cathedral onLow Sunday, 8 April 1956, where it remained for three days before leaving forOur Lady of Sorrows, Wrexham, at that time the Cathedral Church of Menevia.After three more days it left for a grand tour of 26 parishes in the eleven countiesof the vast diocese, arriving at the Carmelite monastery at Bridell the day beforeits installation in Cardigan. That night the nuns held a vigil of prayer before it intheir chapel and next day, 27 May 1956, it was taken Cardigan to be solemnlyenthroned in the town from which Henry VIII had banished it.

Cardigan was awash with visitors. Special trains brought pilgrims toCarmarthen from as far away as Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and coaches carriedthem the final 30 miles of their journey. Faced with an enormous task, Father

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Anwyll performed wonders of organisation, aided by a multitude of volunteersfrom the parish and beyond, including especially the Knights of St. Columba.

27 May 1956. Thousands gather at the King George V Playing Fields,Cardigan, to restore the shrine.

They assembled at the King George V Playing Fields at 3 o'clock, and after aglorious service of praise, with a sermon by Bishop Petit, Carmelite friars borethe statue through the town, while pilgrims reciting the Rosary formed a greatprocession. The tiny church at the Strand could hold only 70, so the throng stoodoutside while within the church the moving ceremony was brought to itsconclusion.

The shrine was named Our Lady of the Taper. This affectionate title, MartinGillett's invention, has since been given to the new church. Yet throughout theMiddle Ages it was known as Our Lady of Cardigan, and it would not be right tolet its original name fade from memory.

Father Anwyll worked hard, setting up the Society of Our Lady of the Taper toencourage pilgrims. But his health had long been indifferent, and by 1959 it wasclear he did not have the energy to cope with a growing parish and develop theshrine.

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27 May 1956.Bishop John Petit speaks outside Our Lady of Sorrows, The Strand, Cardigan.

Our Lady of Sorrows.

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Father John McHugh took his place and quickly decided that his pastoralmethods and those of Raymond Joyce did not blend. Bishop Petit actedimmediately and in short order divided the parish between the two, Raymondbecoming parish priest of Newcastle Emlyn. What was left of Cardigan parishstill covered 200 square miles. People lived in remote places, with only onequarter within 2 miles of the church. Meeting only once a week they scarcelyknew one another. Yet from that scattered congregation John created a vibrantcommunity. He set up a strong committee, added a prefabricated annexe to thechurch, bought a minibus to bring people to Mass and hired a coach to collectthose in Aberporth; and all of that at a time when the Sunday collection was onlyX13.

The Diocese looked for a site to build a new church. Bishop Petit set aside alegacy of £20,000 for the work. John McHugh tried to raise money, but the strainof everything was too great, and after two years he suffered a breakdown,resigning in September 1961. Father Arthur Davies arrived to hold the fort.

1959. Our Lady of the Taperwithin the church of Our Lady of Sorrows, Cardigan.

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The Parish in 1962

On 16 January 1962 I arrived as parish priest. From the outset it was plainthat on our own we could never raise enough to build the church. A public appealwas the only option.

For fourteen months I did nothing, for in the sight of God to tend my flockwas more important than building a church. While travelling the lanes to findthe practising and lapsed I came across 146 Catholics who had previouslyescaped notice.

I continued to visit homes but it was not easy. The Second Vatican Councilmeant that meetings proliferated within the Church and with other churches asinter-church relations improved. Visiting involved enormous mileage and muchtime. During our parish mission in 1985 we travelled 700 miles to visit bothpractising and lapsed, starting methodically at one end of the parish until wereached the other, something that was not feasible in the ordinary circumstancesof parish life. Even apart from distances travelled visiting a rural parish is harderthan a town. Townspeople live by the clock and neither expect nor welcomelengthy visits. One can cover a housing estate in a day, whereas when calling at aremote cottage people expect one to stay longer – anything less than half an hourseems almost a slight. One farm was so inaccessible that only a tractor couldreach it. Once I drove 17 miles there and walked the final three quarters of a mileonly to find no-one at home.

Catholics including the lapsed amounted to only 2% of the population. Eachyear I searched the register of electors to find names that sounded Catholic beforecalling to see them. Most were glad to see me, but to those who were not thankfulat being discovered I offered a quiet apology. Yet some of those initial failureseventually had a good outcome.

There were three Masses each Sunday; one in the Carmelite monastery andtwo in the church. The Travelling Missioners offered Mass in the Memorial Hallat New Quay. A priest from Lampeter replaced them in the seventies, and whenthat ceased in 1982 I took over. It was a rewarding part of pastoral work. Butunfortunately shortage of priests has now brought the New Quay Mass to anend.

Men tramped the roads in those days. Many a story could be told of them.Like the rest of us they had their faults, ranging as they did from confidencetricksters to the dangerously psychotic, alcoholics, or those simply unable tocome to terms with their lives. Others were the salt of the earth, such as DanielStone, a miner from the valleys who took to the road when he lost his wife. Hewas not Catholic. He arrived in 1963 and offered to do a little gardening. I had notools and gave him money to go to the hardware shop to buy them. He looked atthe money, then at me, and said: "Father, you might not see me again". I said: "Ishall" He came back with the tools and the change and said: "Thank you fortrusting me" Over the years we saw one another many times. One autumn I told

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him: "You don't look well. Go into Stormy Down /near Porthcawl) for the winterand don't spend it on the road." He answered: "I'll give it another winter butnext year 1711 give up the road. "Six weeks later he died of cold asleep in the standof Haverfordwest Football Club. I wrote the obituary of my dear friend for theWestern Telegraph.

Mass attendance was volatile. Ceredigion was poor and jobs were scarce, andthe consequences of economic crises hit harder than elsewhere, so people oftenmoved in and out of the district, as did the servicemen's families at the RoyalAircraft Establishment and the contractors who worked there. To begin with 184attended Mass but it swiftly dropped to 133 before climbing back to the old figureand once again going down. So it continued throughout the years. Some were sotaken by the beauty of Ceredigion when they came on holiday that they thoughtthat by moving here their troubles would come to an end. But problems do notvanish with a change of location and most did not stay long.

There were many young families, but so dispersed that starting a Catholicschool was out of the question. We relied instead upon catechism classes.Non-Catholic friends were intrigued that Catholic "Sunday School" took placeon any day but Sunday, for on that day we could not ask parents living at adistance to travel twice to church. I taught the seniors, often three times a week.Collecting primary school children for Wednesday catechism meant driving 40miles. On Thursdays we collected up to 23 others to teach them in Aberporth.

Our helpers made all this possible. Apart from members of the parish SisterKatherine, an extern nun at the monastery, helped with catechism until theCarmelites left in 1976. Sisters Catherine and Adrian took her place, arrivingeach Wednesday from the Sisters of Mercy Convents in Fishguard andHaverfordwest. Much later, Bishop Mullins mentioned in 1989 that the IrishUrsuline Union had offered to send sisters to help in a parish. He had scarcelyended his sentence before I claimed them for Cardigan. On 10 December 1989we welcomed Sisters Cecelia, Mary and Kathleen in a great celebration. Theyswiftly won a place in our hearts, entering into our activities and turning theirpresence into a blessing.

I called upon local ministers and clergy on 11 October 1962, the day theSecond Vatican Council opened, to tell them what it was about. Most receivedme kindly though two were argumentative. It was difficult not to join in, but aquiet answer helped, and one of those soon became a friend. Cardigan has donelittle for ecumenism, but over the years inter-church relationships havedeveloped from initial reserve into the warm mutual regard that now exists. Thefact that Catholics had never been part of general life in Cardigan lay behind oneor two initial difficulties. It was 1970, for example, before anyone thought ofinviting me to the Remembrance Day Service. A hostile headmaster withoutreligious belief refused to allow Catholic children to claim their legal right toattend Mass on holydays, and resented my making an issue of it. I said that

To help understand the Vatican Council we listened to tapes on theology,liturgy and scripture. When someone wanted to raise a point we halted the tapeand resumed it when the discussion was over. That, along with the gradualintroduction of liturgical changes, achieved an outcome that was enormouslygratifying: Mass attendance, which at the time stood at 150, increased over 40%to 215, its highest ever. In consequence people welcomed the Council, and weheard with surprise of parishes elsewhere that resented the changes, oftenbecause they had been introduced all at once and without explanation. Bydegrees Mass attendance reverted to its previous level as some people left andothers who had not been similarly taught moved in.

We elected a parish council on a new basis in 1964. There were 15 adults anda teenager to speak for the young. Everyone could vote. No one was to put himselfforward as a candidate but when the votes were counted I persuaded those at thetop to accept the task. Not many declined. To avoid jealousy I kept the votingfigures secret. The council saw to ordinary parish activities, holding socials tobring people together, welcoming newcomers and visiting those on their own.Each month we held an event to raise funds. We did better at some tasks thanothers, but on the whole it worked well. Holidaymakers picked up leaflets aboutour council at the back of church, and in 1965 "The Universe" featured a radicalnew parish council in Essex whose system imitated ours down to the lastparticular, thus telling us that some of their people had been here on holiday theyear before ... Later I came to rely more on open meetings, and now believe weneed something different. We should discern in prayer the gifts we receive inBaptism and invite those who have them to use them for God. Once, afterexplaining that those gifts are a kind of vocation, a mother who was movinghouse wrote regretting that she had to resign from the ministry of cleaning thechurch porch ...

Most people in Cardigan speak Welsh as their first language. TheReformation and its aftermath almost wiped out Catholicism in Wales, and asmost of our people had come here to live we had to use English at Mass. We heldour St. David's Day Mass in Welsh and tried to include a little Welsh from timeto time in other Masses, but English was the common language of thecongregation, and it was essential to be understood by the Italians, Poles,Germans, Spanish and Turks, to name but some of the nationalities it included.I encouraged our people to learn Welsh, since goodwill towards the language wasnot enough, as by our very presence we were diluting the Welsh cultural ethosand thereby reducing its chances of survival. It is good to see how many havelearned the language over the years.

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PilgrimagesOrdinarily our big pilgrimage took place on the third Sunday in May unless

there was a reason to choose a different date. 2000 people came here in 1964,meeting in the field where our church was to be built. We celebrated Mass withthe altar under a marquee, and when it was over walked through town to theshrine in the old church. The Abbot of Caldey led us in 1965.

2 May 1965. The Abbot of Caldey addresses pilgrimswhere the new church was to be built.

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2 May 1965.The procession in Priory Streeton its way to the shrine.

In 1966 the weather was atrocious but 700 still came. A downpourthreatened and, concerned over Bishop Petit's heart trouble, I asked: "What dowe do if it rains?" He said: "We get wet". And so we did, marching through adownpour as the rain hopped off the streets and arriving drenched at the shrine.The Bishop was in his element, relishing every moment.

In 1967 a group of young people from Llanelli walked here with FatherMichael Tomkins, taking three days for the 45-mile journey.

Other groups chose special dates to come, as did a stream of people who hadread of the shrine and were making a private visit.

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Raising FundsWe could not ask others to help build the church unless we ourselves worked

hard. This we did, paying our way in the parish (a difficult task because of theheavy cost of transport) and raising S.,5,000 towards the church by the time it wasbuilt. That amounted to almost 10% of the contract price, a fine achievement inview of our poverty.

Summer visitors helped. Cardigan was becoming a holiday centre. Familiesin their hundreds stayed in chalets and caravans, relaxing on the quiet beaches orwalking the hills and lanes. Even with its annexe the old church could scarcelycope. At one Mass 350 people were packed so tightly that someone suggestedthat instead of leading the singing the organist should conduct the breathing ...The influx peaked by 1972, just after the new church was built, when on oneSunday there were 675 at Mass. But as soon as the travel companies opened upSpain the numbers swiftly dropped.

Visitors enjoyed a touch of humour when asked to help us build our newchurch; for example: "There isn't one of you who hasn't put a spare tenner inyour wallet for emergencies. This is the emergency!"

By 1962 the parish had already collected £912, of which £100 was a gift tobuy a good used tabernacle. The vestments were threadbare, and I ordered a seton approval before saying: "Please help pay for them. When a priest dies he isburied in a set of vestments, and I don't intend to be seen dead in any of these!"Joking aside, this was important, for unless we treasure the Mass and offer itwith dignity there is little point in building a new church.

I placed the appeal under the patronage of St. Joseph and launched it on hisFeast, 19 March 1963. It was his vocation to provide for Jesus and Mary, and wewere doing likewise: planning a home for Jesus and a shrine for his Mother. Iplaced notices each week in the Catholic press and in Irish local papers. Peopleresponded well, and within two years the Society of Our Lady of the Taper had2,200 members. Joan Pemberton kept the card index until her sight failed. Theaverage gift was five shillings, a good sum in those days. Maintaining contactwith donors while still caring for the parish made for long working hours. Onecould not always send a brief reply, for many donors sought advice on theirpersonal problems. I sent a newsletter at Christmas to thank them, and to mysurprise it yielded another £1,000. I continued with this each year untilretirement. It was a heavy task. Having worked a 20 hour day — once it was 22hours — for three weeks one December I was still 600 letters in arrears atChristmas. Some donors gave large amounts, one dear lady contributing £5,000.Before the church was paid for I had sent out 25,000 acknowledgments.

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Raising Funds

We could not ask others to help build the church unless we ourselves workedhard. This we did, paying our way in the parish (a difficult task because of theheavy cost of transport) and raising £5,000 towards the church by the time it wasbuilt. That amounted to almost 10% of the contract price, a fine achievement inview of our poverty.

Summer visitors helped. Cardigan was becoming a holiday centre. Familiesin their hundreds stayed in chalets and caravans, relaxing on the quiet beaches orwalking the hills and lanes. Even with its annexe the old church could scarcelycope. At one Mass 350 people were packed so tightly that someone suggestedthat instead of leading the singing the organist should conduct the breathing ...The influx peaked by 1972, just after the new church was built, when on oneSunday there were 675 at Mass. But as soon as the travel companies opened upSpain the numbers swiftly dropped.

Visitors enjoyed a touch of humour when asked to help us build our newchurch; for example: "There isn't one of you who hasn't put a spare tenner inyour wallet for emergencies. This is the emergency!"

By 1962 the parish had already collected £912, of which £100 was a gift tobuy a good used tabernacle. The vestments were threadbare, and I ordered a seton approval before saying: "Please help pay for them. When a priest dies he isburied in a set of vestments, and I don't intend to be seen dead in any of these!"Joking aside, this was important, for unless we treasure the Mass and offer itwith dignity there is little point in building a new church.

I placed the appeal under the patronage of St. Joseph and launched it on hisFeast, 19 March 1963. It was his vocation to provide for Jesus and Mary, and wewere doing likewise: planning a home for Jesus and a shrine for his Mother. Iplaced notices each week in the Catholic press and in Irish local papers. Peopleresponded well, and within two years the Society of Our Lady of the Taper had2 200 members. Joan Pemberton kept the card index until her sight failed. Theaverage gift was five shillings, a good sum in those days. Maintaining contactwith donors while still caring for the parish made for long working hours. Onecould not always send a brief reply, for many donors sought advice on theirpersonal problems. I sent a newsletter at Christmas to thank them, and to myRuprise it yielded another £1,000. I continued with this each year untilretirement. It was a heavy task. Having worked a 20 hour day - once it was 22hours - for three weeks one December I was still 600 letters in arrears atChristmas. Some donors gave large amounts, one dear lady contributing £5,000.Before the church was paid for I had sent out 25,000 acknowledgments.

Bishop Petit let me plan the church provided he had the final say, directingme to Weightman and Bullen of Liverpool, the diocesan architects. I dealt withfour members of the firm, which suggests I was not the easiest of clients. On theother hand, some architects carry an ideal church in their heads and hope to finda client who will build it for them, whereas I wanted what Cardigan needed.

To understand the mindset of contemporary architects I visited the DesignCentre and the Building Centre in London. More to the point, the Constitutionon the Sacred Liturgy had come from the Vatican Council, and we needed to takeits every nuance on renewing public worship into account.

Well before the Council liturgists said that people gathering spontaneouslywould not form themselves into the long narrow shape of the traditional church;a broader church was a more natural configuration. It would also bring themcloser to the altar, build up a sense of community and make it easier to take anactive part in worship. Building techniques now made this possible and that isthe shape we chose. At the same time we were determined to resist a strangecontemporary fashion for stark and brutalist churches with minimal decoration.Those seemed less than human, for since we are not disembodied spirits butworship with our bodies as well as our minds, a church should appeal to oursenses in helping us bow in adoration before the Creator of all beauty.

Before devising a shape for the church we first planned what was to take placewithin it. Because the Council envisaged movement as part of public worship weneeded to provide for processions. That meant wider aisles. Only when we hadput all our requirements together did we arrive at its shape. As expected, it turnedout to be non-symmetrical. Good interior light was vital, but since the windowsby the main road needed to be small and high to protect us against noise anddistraction we compensated by including roof lights and a rear wall of glass,which would also enable overflow congregations to see what was going onwithin. Diverse sources of light also helped create an atmosphere within thechurch that clinically even lighting would have destroyed. We planned a churchinterior with a feeling of warmth achieved through a careful choice of brick andwood.

As the altar was the focal point we arranged to have the tower window throwsunlight on it at Mass time, which was then loam. It was vital thatornamentation in church did not distract from its focus, as occurs where thesheer size, coloration or, worse, the mawkishness of the Stations of the Cross orstatues draw the eye away from the altar and tabernacle. Instead, statues andcarvings were to be simple, unostentatious and dignified. The architects,unfortunately, did not provide for this in their general plan, but as long as theplan was acceptable we could deal with it later.

The famous Penrhyn quarries of Bethesda made an altar for us in green slate,together with a baptismal font and a ledge to hold the tabernacle. The pedestals

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were heptagonal to recall the seven sacraments. A fine local craftsman from St.Dogmaels, Mervyn James, took delight in installing them. Slate is heavier thangranite; twelve cubic feet weigh a ton. The stone for the altar weighs eleven and ahalf hundredweights. A memory I treasure is the day I helped lift its weight intoplace.

The tabernacle would be placed in its own chapel, as in WestminsterCathedral and St. Peter's, Rome. In some new churches where that had beendone the Blessed Sacrament had unfortunately been hidden out of sight. Ourplan was the precise reverse of that wrong practice, for the whole congregationwould see it and its sanctuary light would be visible even before one reached thechurch door. In a traditional church the tabernacle was behind the altar andtherefore more distant, but ours would enable those making their personaldevotions to approach closer. To encourage this we placed the confessional in theBlessed Sacrament Chapel.

Bishop Petit agreed, but when the church was finished he asked me to leavethe tabernacle in the centre for a time. A year later when staying here he was ableto sample the atmosphere of the church at leisure, and agreed enthusiasticallywith the original plan. Since then the Blessed Sacrament has been in its ownchapel. That same year, having seen for himself the devotion of our daily Mass-goers, he encouraged me to give them Holy Communion from the chalice onweekdays, a practice I continued until retirement. In 1980 David John fashioneda new tabernacle, shaped like a tent (the meaning of the word 'tabernacle') toremind us that when Jesus came on earth it was not to remain here forever;instead, as St. John tells us an 1:14) he came for a time: he "pitched his tentamong us." Behind the tabernacle David carved a scroll containing the words ofChrist's New Covenant of love.

We built a wall connecting the church and Shrine Chapel to shelter themfrom the road and form a courtyard where people could gather to pray, and toencourage them to linger on after Mass and so come to know one another.

Placing the Shrine Chapel outside the church caused most debate. Twopoints decided the issue.

To have it within the church meant its beauty would draw attention awayfrom the altar, diminishing and perhaps dominating it. That would be wrong, forthe centrality of the Eucharist demands that we focus on the altar and tabernacle.Parish churches need a Lady Chapel, but in places of pilgrimage the main shrineis often apart from the church, as in Walsingham, Lourdes and Knock.Czestochowa seems to be an exception, but even there the shrine is not in thebody of the vast church but in a chapel so small that pilgrims have to queue forhours before entering it. Father Stanislaus Potoczny, a marvellous Franciscanwho was Polish chaplain in West Wales, told me that pilgrims in Czestochowarealise that waiting to enter the shrine is part of their pilgrimage. It is in fact partof all pilgrimage, as one may see at the Tomb of Christ or the cave in Bethlehemor, for that matter, when queueing before the grotto at Lourdes.

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Those considerations led us to place the Shrine Chapel in the courtyard. Thestatue would be visible through the windows and pilgrims could gather round itin prayer. Many wish the Shrine Chapel were bigger to allow more people inside.That shows a misunderstanding of the nature of pilgrimage. Accustomed as wenow are to swift transport and instant access, we have lost the concept ofpilgrimage as a symbol of our lives — an arduous journey to arrive at the vision ofGod. Travelling and waiting are part of life and of pilgrimage and thus part of itsprayer. For that reason it was a joy to see young people who, as true pilgrims,made their journey the hard way by walking from Llanelli or Haverfordwest. Theexpectation of immediate access is in danger of turning pilgrims into touristswho seek to be diverted rather than to find; or worse, into trippers who arrive attheir destination, look around, and having once seen what they came for, cross itfrom their list of things to do and never return. Such instant gratification isinimical to true pilgrimage, and we were determined not to pander to it.

The noted liturgist Father James Crichton approved the plans. Canon J. B.O'Connell declared they were excellent. A luminary of Menevia and formerparish priest of Cardigan, he was one of the greatest liturgists in the Church andserved as an expert at the Second Vatican Council. A commendation from himmeant a great deal. Bishop Petit agreed, and we began to prepare for building.

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Building the ChurchNext we looked for a builder. We invited eight firms to tender and accepted a

bid of £51,400 from Isaac Jones of Llanelli. The amount seems small, but anindication of its current value is that in 1999 the church buildings were insuredfor £1,250,000.

On 6 November 1968 we cut the first sod.

6 November 1968. Cutting the first sod for the building of the church.

The usual minor crises occurred during building before we took possession ofOur Lady of the Taper and offered our first Mass there on 28 June 1970. On 23July Bishop John Petit came with his auxiliary Bishop Langton Fox to consecrateit in a magnificent ceremony before an overflow congregation including severalhundred townspeople. Every church celebrates the feast of its dedicationannually. Our date henceforward is 23 July.

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23 July, 1970.Part of the overflow congregation at the consecration of Our Lady of the Taper

There was a problem beforehand. We owed £7,000, and a church in debtcannot be consecrated. Bishop Petit disposed of it in inimitable style by assigningthe debt to the presbytery! That day Canon John Cashman of Fishguard reduceditby

Three days later a large pilgrimage assembled at the old church in thepresence of both Bishops to carry the statue to its new home. Bishop Petitannounced: "In 1956 the Carmelite Fathers carried the statue down the hill tothis church. They can now cany it back up again! "And so they did.

4.4

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26 July 1970. Carmelite Friars from Aberystwythbear Our Lady of the Taper to her new home.

26 July 1970. The procession on its way through town.

26 July 1970. The procession about to enter the church grounds.

26 July 1970. Martin Gillett lights the first taper in the new Shrine Chapel.Outside the new church they handed it over to the men of the parish, who

bore Our Lady of the Taper to the church for Mass before carrying her to herchapel. Martin Gillett, who had started it all, lit the first taper there. At long lastthe restoration of the shrine had been brought to its conclusion.

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Bishop PetitBishop Petit retired in 1972 on his silver jubilee as Bishop. In the last year of

his life he stayed four times in Cardigan for a total of six weeks. Once onreturning to the presbytery I found him marvelling at Joan Pemberton's skill indealing with a difficult caller at the door. It had brought him to a newappreciation of housekeepers. "Life in the diplomatic service is only anapprenticeship for the gifts they need", he said. For thirty-seven years Joandevoted herself without stint to the work of the church, and the Bene Merentimedal Bishop Hannigan conferred upon her after twenty-five of those was nomore than she deserved.

We accompanied Bishop Petit to Lourdes in 1972. I recall wheeling his chairas he went to meet his great friend, Cardinal Wright of Pittsburgh.

1972. Lourdes. Bishop Petit in retirement. Win Willis guides his chair.With her: Joan Pemberton and Father Seamus Cunnane.

When I visited Bishop Petit as he lay dying his doctor said: "He told meCardigan is the only place in the diocese where he feels as much at home as in hisown kitchen." During his great episcopate Bishop Petit inspired his priests andcaused a series of churches to be built to ensure that no Catholic was out of touchwith the Faith. For those living in remote places he founded the TravellingMission. In the southern part of Menevia Redemptorist priests based in

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Machynlleth would travel hundreds of miles each weekend to gather people anddrive them to houses or halls for Mass. Bishop Petit overcame bitter oppositionto maintain our right to Catholic schools before initiating a tremendousprogramme of school building. Bishop James Hannigan told me that when heretired Bishop Petit systematically destroyed personal records lest someoneattempt to write the biography he merits.

23 July, 1970. Bishop Petit at the consecration of Our Lady of the Taper.

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DevelopmentVolunteers helped John Davies build a boundary wall. The grounds were full

of builders' rubble and infill, and we brought in topsoil before grassing them.In 1971 David John carved his great outdoor crucifix. Made of teak to ensure

it will resist all weathers, the figure is seven feet high. I asked him to make it likethe image on the Shroud of Turin. This he did, but gave larger feet to the corpus,to recall the long miles Jesus walked around the Holy Land on his savingmission. I asked for a T-shaped cross, but David pointed out it would be unwise,for he needed to protect its joint from deterioration, whereas on Good Friday thejoint needed to last only one day. We also had to compromise with the words overthe cross: criminals crucified in Our Lord's day carried a notice around theirnecks with their name and crime /hence "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews")which was then nailed above them. David printed the words on a cloth but wehad to concede defeat, for the wind tore it to shreds, and a fibreglass replacementdid not last much longer. Eventually we settled for a wooden carving. When firsterected the crucifix caused a stir in a town from which imagery had beenbanished at the Reformation. It still draws much attention.

When we opened a hall on 17 March 1975 as a centre for the parish and forpilgrims there could be only one choice as to its name: The Bishop John PetitMemorial Hall.

As funds grew we ornamented the church. Harry Comley's wood carvingsare outstanding. In 1970 he installed the figures for the Stations of the Cross,and then carved a unique Paschal Candlestick to represent the winding sheet ofChrist, no longer needed after Easter Day. Later he carved the dove above thetabernacle. The consecration candlesticks were initially installed in haste as atemporary expedient. In the 1990's we replaced them with candlesticks instainless steel and bronze which are now valued at over 4,000.

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In 1976 a friend offered .to fund a wall hanging seven feet square andsuggested Lt.-Col. (later Baronet) Berowald Innes as the craftsman. AtBerowald's request David John designed it on the theme of the Shrine: Christ,Light of the World. Symbolic rather than representational, it shows the PaschalCandle dipped into the waters of Baptism (once called the Enlightenment), andalso suggests the Pillar of Fire, while the background hints at the Light that shonein the darkness (John 1:5). Bishop Langton Fox blessed it on 22 May 1977. It waspleasant that when Berowald heard that mediaeval shrine was Flemish heresponded that his family had originated from Flanders in the Middle Ages.

In 1984 Trudi Forbes wove a tapestry for the Shrine Chapel to enhance thesetting of the statue. Its theme was the glow of a candle-flame set against aformalised Welsh countryside including sky, land, the mediaeval pilgrims'coastal path and the sea. Like Berowald Innes she too turned out to be Flemish,though in her case through birth rather than ancestry.

The sanctuary in the 1980's with Berowald Innes' wall hanging.

Amber Hiscott of Swansea created our stained glass. As a young woman in1980 she was only beginning to achieve her present wide reputation. She firstmade beautiful windows at the back of church on the Seven Sacraments. Latershe made glass for the shrine, turning its long slim windows into decoratedcandles with a flame on top with scenes from shrine history incised on them. In1999 she gave us her masterpiece, converting the high windows in church that

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faced the road into glass depictingflowers named after Our Lady inWelsh. The sunlight streamingthrough them on late summerevenings turns them into asymphony of colour. She has recentlycompleted an enormouscommission: the stained glass for theworld-famed Millennium Centre inCardiff.

Caroline Davies ownedNoyaddwilym, where the Bretonmonks had lived from 1904. In 1986she gave us a precious gift: the crossthe monks made to stand over theirchurch door. It now rests in theBlessed Sacrament Chapel.

Some of Amber Hiscott'sstained glass in the Shrine Chapel

Father John Dermody is OrdainedMy longing to see all seven sacraments celebrated in Our Lady of the Taper

was fulfilled on 7 July 1974, when Bishop Langton Fox ordained John Dermodyto the priesthood. A member of the parish, John served on the altar beforeentering the seminary. His fellow-students from Valladolid sang a Mass filledwith joy; their chanting of the Litany of the Saints was electrifying. His parentspresented the offertory gifts and after Mass brought many of us to tears as theyknelt for their son's first priestly blessing.

7 July 1974.Father John Dermodygives his first priestly blessingto his parents.

Although John is the first parishioner to have been ordained priest he is notthe first from the district. That honour lies with William Rees. Born in Hendre,Moylgrove in 1893, he became a Catholic in 1922 and in 1929 was ordained forthe Archdiocese of Westminster, where he served during his priestly life. He tookmuch interest in our church and shrine, visiting us each year up to his death in1987. He had known the monks at Noyaddwilym, and typed out a twenty-pageaccount of them for me.

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The Carmelites LeaveIn 1973 Father Robert Towers Perkins became chaplain to the Carmelite

nuns. This ensured that the parish could have daily Mass. Three years later, in1976, the nuns departed to unite with their sisters in Dolgellau. We miss them,for their prayers and quiet presence reminded us of the one thing that reallymatters. Mother Mary of the Epiphany affected me deeply. While still a youngnun she had been Mother Prioress when the monastery was founded in 1930,while still a young nun; she died on Christmas Day 1972. What overawed mewas neither her words nor any sense of natural authority. Rather she conveyed anatmosphere, an aura, of holiness that cannot be described.

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More PilgrimageThe Bishops continued to encourage pilgrims. Bishop Langton Fox succeeded

Bishop John Petit and came regularly until struck down by illness. In 1974, hewas at the rear of a procession around the grounds bearing the Blessed Sacramentbeneath a canopy held by four men. My kitten Sam thought it was all a game forhis benefit, and lay in wait behind a tussock of grass, pouncing backwards andforwards between the successive rows of pilgrims as they walked by. WhenBishop Fox arrived at the spot where he was the diminutive Sam stood up andwalked under the canopy for the remainder of the procession, tail erect, side byside with the six feet five inches of the Bishop - who was delighted. "All creaturespraise the Lord!" he said.

The Archdiocese of Cardiff had restored Our Lady of Penrhys in 1954, twoyears before Our Lady of Cardigan. Celebrated by the mediaeval Welsh bards, itstands high up in the Rhondda. Many go there, but its dramatic location and theabsence of a nearby church can cause problems when numbers are large.

During the Holy Year of 1975 Welsh bishops led their people to Rome. Thefollowing year the celebrations were extended world-wide, and Our Lady of theTaper was designated as a focus for pilgrimage. Archbishop Murphy led 1,600people here on a blazing day when four people fainted in the heat. It was his firsttime here, and from then on he allowed me to invite Cardiff Catholics to theannual pilgrimage.

Bishop Fox told me to persist in inviting Cardinal Hume, advising "I find heresponds to gentle arm-twisting." But it was Bishop John Aloysius Ward, 0.F .M.Cap., who greeted the Cardinal when he came in June, 1981, a month after theattempted assassination of Pope John Paul. Bishop Fox was present, but by thenhis health had collapsed and he had madeway for his successor. Great crowds cameto see the Cardinal, and it was a delight tosee that retiring and ascetic man in hiselement meeting the ordinary Catholicsfrom the valleys. He was overwhelmedwhen Ivor Radley, Mayor of Cardigan,arrived with his Council to extend him acivic welcome. He stayed overnight, if onecan use the term considering that he was onthe road by 4.30am so as to reach his deskat Westminster by 10.

1990. A young pilgrim from St. JohnLloyd School, Llanelli.

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Refreshments after the pilgrimage.

1990. A procession of the Welsh Union of Catholic Mothers begins.

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18 June 1981. Cardinal Basil Hume responds to the civic welcome accordedhim by the Mayor of Cardigan. Councillors Aneurin Jones, Frances Mason,

John B. Evans, Mr and Mrs Gwynfi Jenkins and Mayor Ivor Radley.In addition: Bishop John Aloysius Ward, O.F.M. Cap.

and Canon Seamus Cunnane.

18 June 1981.Bishop Langton Fox(retired'and friends.

In 1983 BishopWard becameArchbishop ofCardiff, and JamesHannigan, the greatfriend and confidantof Bishop Petit, tookhis place.

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Our Own PilgrimagesCardigan welcomes pilgrims but we were pilgrims too, going to Lourdes in

1970 in thanksgiving for our new church and in 1975 joining the WelshNational Pilgrimage to Rome. Then Bishop Fox, knowing I loved the Holy Land,asked me to lead a group there to include his friends Archbishop George PatrickDwyer of Birmingham and Father Michael O'Dwyer. Many from the parishjoined us in fifteen unforgettable days, celebrating Mass in all the Holy Places. In1979 Archbishop Dwyer came to Cardigan to lead the shrine pilgrimage as anexpression of his gratitude. Apart from my twenty private pilgrimages there,seven further groups from the parish went to the Holy Land over the years. Thiseventually led to two noteworthy connections with the Holy Land. The firstrelated to Nazareth.

The Nazareth Plaque

Nazareth is the original and greatestshrine of Our Lady. Its magnificent Basilica,standing over the Grotto of theAnnunciation, marks the place where theangel told Our Lady she had been chosen asMother of the Son of God. Countries all overthe world celebrate their devotion to theBlessed Virgin by placing images of theirnational shrines in its courtyard. In 1987Archbishop Ward asked me to have a plaqueof Our Lady of Cardigan set up in Nazareth torepresent Wales. I chose Maggie Humphry, agifted artist in ceramics, to execute thecommission. It was to be seven feet in heightby two feet eight inches in breadth (213 x81cm).

Its beauty is evident from the illustration.Our Lady of Cardigan is surrounded by amandala highlighted in gold. Around her areflowers named after Our Lady in Welsh,together with the daffodil (cenhinen Bedr/St.Peter's leek). Above and below are vignettesof sacred sites in Wales:

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1. Caerwent, which has the oldest material evidence of Catholicism inWales, a fourth-century bowl from Roman times with the Chi-Rho sign.

2. Bardsey Island/Ynys Enlli, famed in poetry as the reputed burial-place oftwenty thousand saints.

3. St. Winefride's Well at Holywell has attracted pilgrims since the seventhcentury. It was the only place in Britain where pilgrimage never ceasedeven during the harshest years of persecution during the Reformation. Ithas a Cardigan connection: in 1674 John Nicol, a crippled young manwho lived near here, had himself placed by the roadside in a handcart andasked passers-by to push him a little of the way towards Holywell. Afterthree weeks he reached it, was immersed in the well and curedinstantaneously.

4. Cynbelin Cross/Croes Cynfelin, at Margam, dates from the ninth ortenth century.

5. Strata Florida/Ystrad Fflur was the greatest Cistercian monastery inWales.

6. The shrine at St. David's Cathedral is thought to have held the relics of St.David until they were cast out at the Reformation.

The plaque went to Tel Aviv by air and thence to Nazareth, where it wasimmediately put in place. On 8 September 1988, Our Lady's Birthday, I wentthere to bless it. Father Raphael, custodian of the Basilica, said that when thecrate arrived he and Edward, curator of their museum, had argued over whoseturn it was to open it, as the plaques from some countries were so terrible thatthey had decided to share the suffering by opening them turn about. Edward hadtried to get out of it, but lost the argument and set about the work, grumbling.Then he looked up and said: "Father, this one is going to be all right!" Thefollowing week in Jerusalem a Franciscan priest caught me up in the street. Astrange and memorable conversation took place:

"Father Cunnane?""Yes.""lam am Father Real] ""Yes, Father, I know you.""I am a member of the Fine Arts Commission for the Custody of the HolyLand."

"Yes, Father.""We have been to Nazareth to inspect your plaque."That sounded ominous. Slightly nervous, I replied: "Yes, Father. ""And," he raised a finger, "we have come to a decision.""Yes, Father.""Iris the best!"

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Soon afterwards two women from Lampeter called to Cardigan. They hadbeen to Nazareth, seen the lovely plaque and wanted me to know it was there!They gave me two photographs and recounted how their group was so overcomeby its beauty and by its Welsh captions that they were in the seventh heaven. Tobegin with they burst into tears and then sang a hymn on the spot. Aftersavouring their enthusiasm it felt rather deflating and ungrateful of me merely tothank them and say I knew about it and had put it there.

The Stone from Calvary

The following year our second link between Cardigan and the Holy Landcame about. On arriving in Jerusalem in September 1989 I went immediately asalways to pray at Calvary only to find the place of crucifixion at the back of theGreek Orthodox altar hidden by shuttering. At supper that evening I asked didanyone know what was going on. A man sitting opposite said: "I am MichaelZygomalas. I come from Thessaloniki. I am a civil engineer lecturing in theuniversity there, and the Greek government has asked me to do the work for thePatriarch.' He had removed the terracing behind the altar to replace it with steelbars covered in brass to support reinforced glass, and was installing digitallycontrolled lighting to enable pilgrims to see the rock.

One Sunday Michael said: "I start work in the morning at 7.30. Can you bethere?" He brought me beyond the shuttering and I found myself behind thealtar, on the bare rock and in the very place where Jesus had bled for us, andwhere Our Lady had stood with St. John and St. Mary Magdalene. I cannot beginto describe the emotion that flooded me, and the thoughts and prayers andlongings that came unbidden to my soul. Untold millions including saints hadprayed at Calvary and yet had never had the privilege I now experienced. To cap itall, Michael presented me with a piece of stone his work had dislodged from theplace where I stood. It was an indescribable treasure, for a piece of rock fromCalvary cannot be had for the asking. Rightly, its Greek custodians guard itjealously, or else by now the whole rock would long since have disappeared. Yet Icould not keep it for myself; it had to be in the church where it could be seen.Back home I asked Harry Comley to carve a Crown of Thorns and set the stone init. He suggested Welsh oak (a far tougher medium than English) and said hewould add a hammer at the back on whose head he would set the stone, togetherwith three nails to close the gap in the centre of the Crown. There the stone nowrests.

I examined Calvary carefully that morning and photographed it. It had beenaltered in the past, perhaps to fix some structure there, and at the edge there wasa portion of mosaic. It is perhaps barely possible that Hadrian may have donethis when erecting a pagan temple over Calvary in a vain attempt to blot out thememory of Christ. But far more likely it was Constantine's work, for afterA.D.326 he built an ornate canopy over Calvary and possibly re-shaped the rock,cutting into its edges.

A r-

Cardigan now possesses a relic that is unique, for no other church in theworld, as far as I know, has anything like it.

Three years ago researchers into mediaeval art and the tradition of pilgrimagewere intrigued to learn that pilgrims to the Shrine, without any bidding, hadalready devised their own response to the stone from Calvary, sliding in a fingerto touch it and dangling their rosaries over it. It confirmed their belief that manypilgrim customs originate from the pilgrims themselves, and supported theirthesis that such practices, and indeed Christian art itself, are a form of responseto the Gospel.

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Restoring a Connection with the MonksWe had long lost track of the monks who came here in 1904. It was important to

restore the connection, for communities need a sense of history, but building thechurch and promoting pilgrimage had delayed us. We made amends in 1978, whenI travelled to Brittany to meet the successors of the monks at the Abbey of St.Guenole in Landevennec. They had resettled in their old abbey at Kerbeneat beforerestoring Landevennec, the greatest of all Breton monasteries. They were delightedto hear from us, all the more so as 1978 was the centenary of their originalfoundation at Kerbeneat. I invited them to visit us in 1979 to mark the seventy-fifthanniversary of their arrival, and this they did, visiting their old abbey, owned by MrsCaroline Davies, and meeting Gwennie Williams, who as a girl of eight had seenthe first monks arrive, and who was to live to celebrate her centenary in 1996. Thefollowing year a group went to Landevennec and was received royally. Theirhistorian Pere Marc Simon and I researched their history in Wales and exchangedinformation. Pere Marc came here once more in 1986 to witness the shrine theyhad restored in 1912 become National Shrine of Wales. In June 2004 our presentparish priest, Father Jason Jones, led us to Landevennec to mark the centenary oftheir coming to Cardigan, and three months later they reciprocated by attendingour celebration of the same event.

24 October 1979. Pere Marc, O.S.B. and Abbot Jean de la Croix, 0 S .Bin Cardigan to re-establish the connection between the Benedictines

and the parish their predecessors founded in 1904.With them: Caroline Davies, Gwennie Williams, Canon Seamus Cunnane

and Bishop (then Monsignor) James Hannigan.

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National Shrine and a New StatueProvidence intervened to accord our shrine a new status. Archbishop Ward,

together with his auxiliary Bishop Daniel Mullins and Bishop Hannigan, decidedto restructure our dioceses. Menevia, though poor in numbers, covered too largean area. They proposed that its northern part become the new Diocese ofWrexham under the care of Bishop Hannigan who was Bishop of Menevia at thetime. The south, joined with the western part of the Archdiocese, would retainthe title of Menevia. Pope John Paul agreed, and on 12 February 1987 BishopDaniel Mullins, formerly Auxiliary Bishop of Cardiff, became its new Bishop.

A vital element was to provide a focal point in each diocese where the faithfulcould gather. For Cardiff this was Penrhys, for Wrexham, Holywell and forMenevia, Cardigan. They decided we needed a National Shrine of Our Lady forWales. Penrhys had strong claims but the Bishops chose Cardigan as it wasbetter able to cope with pilgrims.

This coincided with changes at Our Lady of Cardigan. In 1980, after muchhesitation, I told Monsignor Hannigan, as he then was, that the shrine statue didnot draw people to pray. They were shy to mention it, yet over the years one couldsee that it did not attract them. They respected it but it left them with a sense ofdisappointment. I shared their reaction but had delayed saying so out ofconsideration for Bishop Petit. James Hannigan's answer astounded me: BishopPetit had not liked it either but had kept silent out of respect for Martin Gillett!As Martin had died in 1978 the way was clear for a fresh approach. Bishop Fox letme commission a new statue experimentally and pay for it from a personal legacyI was devoting to church improvements. If it did not suit we could always put itquietly aside. I chose a sculptor I hold in high regard. His statue was good:impressive, of high quality, dignified and devoid of the mawkishness that ruinsso much religious work. Yet to my regret it was not what we needed. The aimshould be not so much to provide people with an iconic figure to pray before as tohave its beauty lift up their hearts and encourage them to pray, and this I believedit would not do. But others disagreed, and Cardinal Hume installed it in 1981.The old statue was sent to the Carmelites in Dolgellau, where it is now veneratedwithin their cloister.

When James Hannigan became bishop we spoke once more. He suggestedthat if we commissioned a bronze statue we could view its clay model beforedeciding whether to proceed with it. I asked Mother Concordia, O.S.B., ofMinster Abbey in Kent to make the statue. Her work is widely admired,especially perhaps her bronze in the mediaeval shrine in the undercroft ofCanterbury Cathedral.

Here arose yet another happy coincidence. The mediaeval shrine had bothFlemish and Benedictine associations. Now we were replacing the 1956 statuecarved by a Benedictine and asking another Benedictine to undertake the work,while both the shrine tapestry and the wall hanging had been made by peoplewith Flemish connections.

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Mother Concordia's claymodel was breathtakinglybeautiful and we asked her tohave it cast.

Installing the statue wouldsynchronise with theinauguration of Cardigan asNational Shrine. ArchbishopWard and his fellow bishopsblessed it at a magnificentceremony in Cardiff Cathedralin February 1986. It was thentaken to each deanery in Walesbefore finally Canon DermotClancy brought it to Cardigan.In my mind's eye I can still seethat powerful man walk up theslope to the church bearing itsnine-stone weight as lightly as ifit were a baby.

The pedestal in the ShrineChapel would not support thebronze statue, and we asked afirm near Bath to replace itThey recommended a stonefrom a Leicestershire quarry that had been used for the Houses of Parliament andwhich never forms a skin. An architect designed an outdoor altar at the bottom ofa slope to ensure that pilgrims would be able to see the ceremonies. We sentposters all over Wales and organised parking and crowd management.

The Bishops suggested that I ask Pope John Paul II to bless the first taper to belit at the National Shrine. It would hardly look well to arrive before him with asolitary candle in my hand. Recalling how Martin Gillett had related that in theMiddle Ages decorated candles were considered acceptable presents betweenroyalty, and were often enclosed within beautifully carved containers. I askedHarry Comley to carve a casket decorated with carved flowers named after OurLady in Welsh. He did so superbly, and on 8 May 1986 I presented this, with itstaper within, to the Pope. He blessed it and also sent Archbishop Ward a letter forthe inauguration of the National Shrine which he signed personally – not afrequent event.We inaugurated Our Lady of Cardigan as National Shrine for Catholics in Waleson 18 May 1986 in the presence of 4,500 people borne here by 73 coaches andinnumerable cars. In a heart-warming and joyous expression of faith we sang theMass Abbot Alan Rees, O.S.B., of Belmont had composed for the Papal visit toCardiff in 1982. At the end, when Archbishop Ward lit the Pope's candle,

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8 May 1986Pope John Paul II about to bless the first taper to be lit in the National Shrine.

I swiftly replaced it with another so as to preserve it in Harry Comley's casket.

Truly, the fortunes of Cardigan's shrine had changed greatly from its firstrevival in 1904.

It continues to draw pilgrims though, understandably, not on the scale of thegreat events of 1956 and 1986; the largest gathering since then comprising 2,000people. Young people from Haverfordwest have sometimes come here on foot,on a 27-mile journey crossing the Preseli Hills at an elevation of 1,342 feet.

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18 May 1986. Inauguration of the National Shrine.

18 May 1986. The Processional Banner.

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18 May 1986 Inauguration of the National Shrine.

The new statue in the shrine.

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To my Venerable Brother

John Aloysius Ward

Archbishop of Cardiff

I am pleased to learn that the devotion of the Catholic

people of Wales to the Mother of God is being given particular

recognition by the designation of the medieval Shrine of Our

Lady of Cardigan as the National Shrine of Our Lady for Wales,

and by the solemn placing there of a new statue of Our Lady of

the Taper on 18 May 1986, Pentecost Sunday.

The Second Vatican Council teaches that Mary "in a certain

way unites and mirrors within herself the central truths of

the faith. Hence when she is being preached and venerated,

she summons the faithful to her Son and his sacrifice, and

to love for the Father" (Lumen Gentum, 65). So, by the

example of her faith and discipleship, Mary is a veritable

school of Christian living, and by calling the faithful to

authentic worship of God she is a source of constant renewal

in the life of the community, as well as an incentive to

proceed diligently along the path of Christian unity.

I therefore pray that this Shrine of Our Lady will truly

assume once more the position it occupied for centuries as

a place of pilgrimage and prayer, fostering holiness of life

and an ever deeper commitment to Christian solidarity and

service.

With vivid memories of my visit in 1982, and as a token

of my spiritual closeness to the entire Church in Wales, I

cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to yourself, your

fellow Bishops, the priests, religious and all the faithful

people of Cardiff and Menevia.

From the Vatican, 13 May 1986

13 May 1986.Letter signed by Pope John Paul II for the inauguration of Cardigan

as Welsh National Shrine of Our Lady on 18 May 1986.

rq

ConclusionThe full history of the parish is known to God alone. It is about souls who

have loved God and responded to him and striven to be faithful despite theirfaults and sins; often not so much marching towards eternal life as stumbling ontheir pilgrimage there, falling down and rising again. It is about how we, who livein a cloud made murkier by sin, still seek the vision of God; and how his mercypierces that cloud to let us glimpse his love. Priests know some of the storybecause we receive the confidences of those who tell us their joys and sins anddaily blessings in the knowledge that we, who are no stronger than they, are ableto give them the power of Christ's grace. Compared with that, what I haverecounted is external. Yet in its own small way it tells how we have been blessed.

Appendix A

Since 1930 nineteen priests have served Cardigan, sixteen of them before1962:

1930-1932 Joseph Higgins1932 John Tole1932-1933 Wilfrid Brodie1933-1936 Basil Rowlands1936 Thomas Williams1937-1939 Joseph Wedlake1940 Thomas Canning1941 James McAniff1942-1945 J. B. O'Connell1946-1947 Philip Dwyer1947 William Andrews1947-1951 Albin Kaltenbach1951-1959 George A. An 111951-1959 Raymond Joyce (curate)1959-1961 John McHugh1961 Arthur Davies1962-1999 Seamus Cunnane1999-2003 Augustine Paikkatt2003 - Jason Jones

55

Appendix B

Between 1964 and 1999 Papal medals were conferred upon the followingmembers of the parish:

Mathilde DanielGwladys BateWin WillisElsie JonesJoan PembertonRon CookKitty JamesPatrick Dermody

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