ST. PATRICK’S DAY IN ROME.

The Church of St. Isidore, the church of  the Irish Franciscans, was crowded on the  17th of March by a fashionable congregation of English-speaking visitors and residents assembled to hear High Mass and a sermon in honour of St. Patrick. The High Mass was pontificated by Mgr. Grasselli, Archbishop of Colosse in fiartibus, and the music was that of Palestrina, sung by the members of the Scuola Gregoriana. The sermon was preached by the Very Rev. Mgr.O’Bryen, lately nominated a Cameriere Segreto to his Holiness, and was listened to with marked attention. It, the sermon, was partly historical and political, and was a defence of the present position of Irish Catholics at home and abroad.

The above text was found on p.29, 26th March 1881 in “The Tablet: The International Catholic News Weekly.” Reproduced with kind permission of the Publisher. The Tablet can be found at http://www.thetablet.co.uk .