Church of The Assumption

History

The Church of the Assumption is the parish church of Our Lady's Island. The parish's own history records a tradition that the island was founded by St Abban, nephew of St Ibar, in the sixth century, and that its reputation as a place of devotion to Our Lady was established by or before the year 600.

After the Anglo-Norman landings the estates here passed to Milo De Lamporte, who built a feudal stronghold in 1195. His son Rudolph built a tower house on the island in 1237 and gave the land to the Church, asking the Canons Regular of St Augustine to take charge of it. Evidence of the medieval pilgrimage came to light in 1941, when a metal disc unearthed while ploughing on the island was identified as a leaden bulla of Pope Martin V.

In 1607 Pope Paul V granted a plenary indulgence to the faithful who visited the church on the feasts of the Nativity of Our Lady and the Assumption. In the eighteenth century Pope Benedict XIV exempted Our Lady's Island and Lough Derg from his suppression of a number of Irish local pilgrimages, and in 1833 the island was still being described as a celebrated place of pilgrimage. In June 1867 the Redemptorist Fathers conducted a mission in the parish, closing with a procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the island and High Mass in the new parish church. The custom of a public pilgrimage procession on 15 August was established in 1897 by the parish priest, Fr Whitty.

Notable features

A crucifix that had lain in the lake since 1649 was found there in 1887 and brought to the parish priest. It is preserved in a simple shrine in the parish church, where its history is inscribed.