In the year 1884 a visitor to Killybegs wrote:

I made a pilgrimage to this holy well, and performed my station.  There was a Mission of the Oblate Fathers in Killybegs, and thousands were flocking daily from all the parishes of Southern Donegal to assist at the religious exercises.  All who came to the Mission made a pilgrimage to St Catherine’s Well, and made the usual station.  Some told their beads in the English tongue, but most of them prayed in the grand old Celtic tongue they had learned in infancy in the wild recesses of their mountain homes, at their own mother’s knee.

In that year of 1884, one hundred and forty years ago, a three week Mission was held in St Mary’s church.

In the ‘old days’ people travelling to attend a Mission in Killybegs parish would take the opportunity to attend St Catherine’s Well.  So it was one hundred and forty years ago, in the summer of 1884.   The crowds attending were so large that St Mary’s church could not hold them all.  A packed church on warm summer evenings called for special arrangements to be made.

This was an extended Mission as was the custom then, and lasted for over three weeks. It was conducted by Fathers Dawson, Lawrence, and Furlong, priests of the Oblate missionaries, assisted by the local clergy.

At that time church attendance was very high, and during a mission the numbers were bigger than ever.  The church was filled on the opening day, and on the following Sunday ‘the crush at the doors required all the powers of the committee to hold’.  As this was the pre-electricity era, the altar was ‘lighted up with numerous wax lights, and decorated with a great profusion of flowers and shrubs’. Huge numbers came from the surrounding parishes, and on this evening the church was ‘filled with devout worshippers during the Exposition’.  That sixteen priests were drafted to hear confessions gives an indication of the numbers.

But it was to get more intense.  The closing ceremonies of the Mission took place on Sunday, 31^st August.  The day was hot and humid.  Conditions within the church would be stifling.  The ceremonies commenced with Solemn High Mass at 12 noon.  Leading the choir was Thomas Colin MacGinley, (father of Bishop John Bernard MacGinley), assisted by Teresa Wade on the harmonium.  People of a certain age will remember this lady as ‘Mrs McShane’ who resided in the premises now occupied by the Milis cafe on Upper Main Street. Father Lawrence gave the usual long sermon. 

The evening service commenced at 6 o’clock, and long before that time the church was crowded to suffocation on that close and clammy evening.  The sanctuary was completely filled, and even the altar steps, so that it became impossible to proceed with the service. At the same time there was a crowd outside nearly as large as that inside, trying to get in.  The hot atmosphere in the church became unbearable.  Finally, the priests decided that they would adjourn to the open air to carry out the ceremonies.  They instructed the crowd outside to proceed to the yard of the Niall Mor School while the congregation within recited the Rosary.  Soon those inside began to file out slowly, and without panic.

A temporary altar was set up in front of the porch of the School, and the immense crowd took up their positions in the yard and on the adjoining School Hill. Rev Father Cassidy, C. C., Donegal, read the first table of the law, and the Rev Father Furlong, O.M.I., in a voice which was distinctly heard fully 300 yards away, proceeded to explain the duties of the people towards their Creator, laid down in the first table of the law, including the first three of the Commandments.  He concluded his sermon by asking the people to repeat the Act of Contrition in a loud voice, for their offences against the first three Commandments.  Father Cassidy then read the Commandments contained in the second table of the law, and Father Furlong continued his explanation of the Commandments relative to the duties of the people towards their neighbours.  Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was given by Father Cassidy, and the Papal blessing imparting a plenary indulgence to those who had gone to confession and Holy Communion.

Their baptismal vows were then renewed by all present, including about five thousand persons, each holding a lighted candle.  It was a magnificent spectacle to see so many lights, extending over the old school yard (where the former church once stood), and along the sides of the hillsides. Father Furlong said he had never before seen such a beautiful sight.  By then night had set in, and the effect of so many lit candles created an immense feeling of devotion in those assembled. During the renewal of the baptismal vows the calm was so perfect that not a single light was extinguished, and the rain which fell a few miles distant during that time, passed over, with only a few drops falling.