The St. Donard Chapter House is now complete! Thank you
Now onto our little sacred Magdalene Chapel
Our new St. Donard’s Priory is built from the stones of the ruined 12th century Irish Cistercian Abbey (1199 AD) which replaced the original church founded by St Patrick himself around 433 AD. Fr Mcana reported in 1644 that all the Abbey stones had been taken to build the town after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Our Magdalene Chapel, Chapter House and Priory were all built with these ancient and sacred stones laid down by monks from the mother abbey of the patron of the original Templar Order, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, France. There is no other priory, anywhere else in the world, which can claim such heritage and authenticity.
This is an important priory world-wide as it handles the bulk of our Western admin duties. After just over a year of relentless construction work, and many trials and tribulations, I am delighted to say that the construction work on the Chapter House is now complete! Thank you all for your incredible support and generosity. DEUS VULT!
To bring the Magdalene chapel back into use we need to do a few things. We need a completely new roof, timbers, steel beam, slates and insulated. We have to lift the floor and to finish it with insulation and flagstones. We also need to install three Gothic stone handmade window frames complete with stained glass (these are already paid for). Then we need to repair and repoint the walls internally and externally, after 400 years of neglect the old Abbey stones are in dire need of immediate attention.
Thankfully, we have already raised the funds for the windows, Altar and other Church furniture through previous donations from our fantastic members and donors so the expensive items are already bought and paid for, praise Jesus!
The estimate to replace the roof, floor and to repair the ancient stone walls stands at £30,000, however the other priories have already chipped in £5,000 to assist. So we need to raise the remaining £25k ($34,000)and so we must turn once again to God’s people, in order to secure the future of the very special and Holy chapel so deeply linked to our Order since 1199, and to Ireland from 430 AD.