Category: Irish Heritage

An Irish Bishop Who Died in Italy

October 25, 2018

Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy We kept today the commemoration of Blessed Thaddeus Machar (McCarthy). When we first began following the Irish Sanctoral, and I had to...

Patrick, bound fast to the mystery of Christ

March 17, 2016

Saint Patrick’s Day On this feast of Saint Patrick , I should like to reflect on his life and mission, and on the patrimony of...

Saint Patrick

March 17, 2016

Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland Today is my fifth Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland. Silverstream Priory is not very far from the famous Hill of...

Brigid’s Bright Burning Chastity

February 1, 2016

The Mary of the Gael Today is the feast of Saint Brigid, the Mary of the Gael, born just north of Silverstream in Faughart, County...

Martyrs Close to Home

January 30, 2016

The photograph shows statues of the martyrs Blessed Margaret Ball and Blessed Francis Taylor at Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. We keep their feast today....

Situated amidst pasture land and forest in the eastern reaches of County Meath, Silverstream Priory was founded in 2012 at the invitation of the Most Reverend Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath, and canonically erected as an autonomous monastery of diocesan right on 25 February 2017. The property belonged, from the early 15th century, to the Preston family, premier Viscounts of Ireland and Lords of Gormanston. In 1843 Thomas Preston (1817-1903), son of Jenico Preston, the 12th Viscount (1775-1860), built what today is Silverstream Priory. Silverstream Priory is a providential realisation of the cherished project of Abbot Celestino Maria Colombo, O.S.B. (1874–1935), who, following the impetus given by Catherine–Mectilde de Bar in the 17th century, sought to establish a house of Benedictine monks committed to ceaseless prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation. The community of Silverstream Priory holding to the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, celebrate the Divine Office in its traditional Benedictine form and Holy Mass in the “Usus Antiquior” of the Roman Rite. Praying and working in the enclosure of the monastery, the monks of Silverstream keep at heart the sanctification of priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. They undertake various works compatible with their monastic vocation, notably the development of the land and gardens, hospitality to the clergy in need of a spiritual respite, scholarly work, and publishing.