Who we are
St. Columba's stands on the hill above the old Glenmore mills, where Irish families laid its fieldstones one Sunday at a time in 1878. Their great-grandchildren still sit in the same pews, now beside the Brazilian families who arrived in the 1990s and made the 12:30 Mass the fullest of the week.
We sing in English and in Portuguese, dance at the céilí and at the festa, and keep a Celtic cross and a statue of Nossa Senhora Aparecida under the same roof. Whatever language you pray in, come and sit with us — the Mass is the same Mass, and the tea after it is always hot.
Through the years
The first Mass in Glenmore was said in a mill boarding house in 1861 for forty Irish workers from Donegal and Mayo. They quarried the fieldstone for the church themselves, and named it for Columba, the Donegal saint who carried the Gospel to Iona — because they, too, had crossed the sea. The high cross in the churchyard was raised in 1903 in memory of the men lost in the mill fire. When the mills closed in the 1970s the parish nearly closed with them; in 1994 a Brazilian priest said the first Missa em português, and the pews filled again.
Shepherds & servants
Pastor
Born in Letterkenny, a few miles from Columba's birthplace. Fr. Declan came to Glenmore in 2009 and plays tin whistle at the Thursday session, not always in tune.
Parochial Vicar
From Minas Gerais, ordained in 2016. Padre Rafael says the Portuguese Masses, runs the youth group, and is learning the bodhrán.
Director of Faith Formation
Luciana prepares children for First Communion and Confirmation in both languages, and knows every family by name and by town in Brazil.
Director of Music
Brendan has played the 1911 Hook & Hastings organ for twenty-six years and leads the choir at the 10:30. He also arranges the hymns for the 12:30.
Serve & belong
Fiddles, whistles and a bodhrán around the hall table every Thursday night. Players of any standard; listeners especially welcome.
Oração, louvor e partilha da Palavra às terças, às 7h30 da noite, na capela.
Beginners' Irish on Monday evenings, taught by a native speaker from Connemara. Céad míle fáilte.
gaeilge@stcolumba-demo.org
Rent, heat, groceries and a friendly visit for anyone in Glenmore who needs them — in English or Portuguese.
Sings the 10:30 and the Christmas Midnight Mass. Rehearsal Thursdays at 6, before the session.
Saturday mornings in season: the lawns, the flower beds, the old stones and the high cross.
In pictures
