Bishop Niall Coll to celebrate home Mass in St Johnston
Saturday evening's Vigil Mass at St Baithin's Church in St Johnston will be celebrated by the Bishop of Ossory, Niall Coll - just over a fortnight ahead of the 35th anniversary or his ordination to the priesthood
A mere couple of hundred yards from where he was born and raised, Niall Coll – now as The Most Reverend, Dr. Niall Coll, Bishop of Ossory – will celebrate Mass this weekend.
Bishop Coll will celebrate Saturday evening Mass at St Baithin's Church at 7.30pm.
It will be an emotional and historic homecoming for the popular prelate, the first native of his home parish to have been ordained a Bishop.
He'll celebrate Mass in a Church in which he acted as an altar server in his formative just over a fortnight from the 35th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on July 3, 1988.
A son of Willie and Kathleen Coll from the Hillhead Brae in St Johnston, he was ordained as the 96th Bishop of Ossory in January.
The spire of St Baithin's is visible, just two fields away, from the Coll homestead and the well-travelled cleric has always been proud of his roots.
Prior to his consecration as Bishop of Ossory in January, he told Donegal Live: “I have a great love of a sense of east Donegal.
“It will be very important for me to keep my links with Donegal and especially St Johnston. The St Johnston people have been very supportive. St Johnston was a very tightly-knit community when I was growing up. We knew our neighbours.”
In April, Bishop Coll celebrated Sunday Masses in St Agatha’s Church, Clar and St Patrick’s Church, Donegal Town, having served as the Parish Priest in Townawilly until his ordination as Bishop.