Although not part of the United Kingdom, for geopolitical reasons the Isle of Man is part of the Archdiocese of Liverpool. There are Catholic churches in all of the main towns, the largest being the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Isle in Douglas. A large percentage of the Catholics on the Isle of Man are Irish or of Irish descent.
Furthermore, after baptizing Irish clan chief and pirate leader Maughold, St. Patrick ordered the latter to do penance for his past crimes and to abandon himself to the Christian God by sailing alone from Ireland in a currach without oars.[2] Maughold drifted to the isle, where two of Patrick's disciples, Romulus and Conindrus (Romuil and Conindri), were already established. Tradition says he landed on the northeast corner of the Isle near Ramsey, at the foot of a headland since called Maughold Head, where he lived as a hermit in a cave on the mountainside. He is said to have been chosen to succeed Romuil and Conindri as bishop and eventually as the patron saint of the Manx people.[2]
Some scholars in recent centuries have identified a distinctive Celtic Church, to which Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox Christians have all claimed in historical debates to be the only legitimate heirs. In the Celtic Church, attitudes towards clerical celibacy were more relaxed, a differing form of monastic tonsure was used, the use of prayer beads known as the Pater Noster cord preceded the invention of the rosary by St Dominic, and the lunar method was used for calculating the date of Easter. During the 1960s, Frank O'Connor explained that the reason why, on both sides of the Irish Sea, abbots were often more powerful than bishops is because a Church governed by an Episcopal polity, "in a tribal society was a contradiction in terms. No tribe, however small or weak, would accept the authority of a bishop from another tribe; but with a monastic organisation, each tribe could have its own monastery, and the larger ones could have as many as they wished."[3]
During the most anti-Catholic periods the English Penal Laws stipulated perpetual imprisonment or execution for aiding an outlawed priest, or saying or attending the Tridentine Mass. The same laws declared all Catholics disenfranchised, incapable of owning, purchasing, or inheriting land, and made the possession of a horse worth more than £5 a capital offence. The Island did not follow these practices - until his death quite late in the Elizabethan era, the 3rd Earl of Derby, the Lord of Mann, was a Catholic Recusant who did little to spread the Church of England to the Island, where the English Reformation progressed relatively slowly.
The island, whose people since the days of the Celtic Church had held a particularly strong devotion to Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid of Kildare, and Saint Maughold, long maintained the tradition of giving the dying a drink of water from the local holy well, but eventually former places of Christian pilgrimage slowly fell into ruins once the population no longer believed in the intercession of the saints.[10]
Though the Island displayed considerable religious toleration (however around the 1660s a small group of Maughold Quakers was persecuted) and had none of the penal laws about Catholics that so disfigured the English Statute book, they were of course required to obey the ecclesiastical laws of attendance at church, places of marriage and burial etc.
During the 18th-century, Thomas Wilson, the Anglican Bishop of Sodor and Man, proudly alleged that dissent on the island from the Established Church was unheard of; there were only one or two families of Quakers and no Catholics at all.[11] In reality, several Catholic priests were briefly imprisoned in the 18th century for illegally celebrating marriages, another was presented in 1759 for ministering to a non-Catholic.
Meanwhile, the widespread practice of smuggling brought trading links with Ireland, France and other Catholic countries, thus providing a nucleus for a small Catholic community.
From 1779 a Benedictine monk, Father Johnston, who served the mission at St. Begh's Whitehaven, started to make regular pastoral calls - he noted some 29 Catholics living on the Island. In 1789 a French émigré priest, Father Louis, sought asylum on the Island; for a time he acted as tutor to the governor's and bishop's children whilst living at Castle Rushen. Whenever possible, he would covertly offer Mass in a barn at Scarlett or inside the cottages of Manx Catholic families. He appears to have left the Island before 1794.
Around the early 19th century an influx of Irish Catholics, refugees fleeing the Irish rebellion of 1798, brought the number of Catholics up to around 200. One of these families, the Fagans, brought over their chaplain, Father Collins, who until his death in 1811 seems to have ministered to the Irish fishing community of Castletown. He is buried near St. Michael, which appears to have been regularly used as a chapel.
The first priest to reside in Douglas was Father Miles McPharlan - as Rev Demsey says his story is not without interest and is also linked to the Dublin rising. Lieutenant Major John Taubman (of The Nunnery family and later Speaker of the House of Keys) and a contingent from the Manx Fencibles were sent to Dublin where Major Taubman was billeted in Fr McPharlan's rooms (though Peter Kelly in his History of St Mary's treats this as something of a myth).
When Fr McPharlan fled to the Island around 1804, to escape debts incurred in setting up a brick factory for his Irish parish, he made contact with Major Taubman who donated a site within the disused quarry on the Douglas-Castletown road, for Catholic worship. Eventually in 1814 the small chapel dedicated to St. Bridget of Kildare was built though Fr McPharlan left for France to better escape his creditors.
The Irish Jesuit College, which had provided some earlier priests on a temporary basis, agreed to provide a resident priest in 1823 - this was Father Gahan, who also opened St. Mary's Church in Castletown.
Fr Gahan's generous Irish friends allowed the purchase of an old theatre at the corner of Athol Street and Prospect Hill which was adapted for use as Chapel and school in 1836. An additional footnote added to the second, 1841, edition of Quiggin's Guide noting this move stated that we are not aware of a single conversion of a Manx native "to Popery", having occurred on the Island.
Fr Gahan died in 1837 before St Mary of the Isle Church was completed and his memorial can be seen in the grounds of St. Mary's - he was accorded a full and generous tribute in the Mona's Herald - a letter to the Manx Liberal (dated 6 Oct 1837), however, states that Fr Gahan's memorial in Krk Braddan had been repeated desecrated, mainly by anti-Catholicgraffiti both chalked and scratched into his gravestone.
On 29 July 1837 the Manx Liberal reported, "On Wednesday last, arrived from Liverpool, his Lordship the R. Rev. Doctor Brigs, R. C. Bishop of the northern district of England, accompanied by the Very Rev. Doctor Ewins, of Liverpool; and on the following day administered the sacrament of confirmation in the Church of St Francis Xavier, in Athol Street, the Rev. Messrs. Aylmer and M'Grath attending, where upwards of 110 children and adults were confirmed."
The Great Famine of Ireland of the 1840s further increased the Catholic population who towards the end of the century were further swelled in the summer months by tourists from the North of England.
In 2012 a bishop's seal was discovered buried in a field in the north of Man, bearing the inscription, "Let the prayers to God of Germanus and Patricius help us".[13]
The Isle of Man had become physically separated from Great Britain and Ireland by 6500 BC. It appears that colonisation took place by sea sometime during the Mesolithic era. The island has been visited by various raiders and trading peoples over the years. After being settled by people from Ireland in the first millennium AD, the Isle of Man was converted to Christianity and then suffered raids by Vikings from Norway. After becoming subject to Norwegian suzerainty as part of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, the Isle of Man later became a possession of the Scottish and then the English crowns.
The Isle of Man is an island in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland in Northern Europe, with a population of almost 85,000. It is a British Crown dependency. It has a small islet, the Calf of Man, to its south. It is located at 54°15′N4°30′W.
Manx, also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Gaelic language of the insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family. Manx is the heritage language of the Manx people.
Germanus of Auxerre was a western Roman clergyman who was bishop of Autissiodorum in Late Antique Gaul. He abandoned a career as a high-ranking government official to devote his formidable energy towards the promotion of the church and the protection of his "flock" in dangerous times, personally confronting, for instance, the barbarian king "Goar". In Britain he is best remembered for his journey to combat Pelagianism in or around 429 AD, and the records of this visit provide valuable information on the state of post-Roman British society. He also played an important part in the establishment and promotion of the Cult of Saint Alban. The saint was said to have revealed the story of his martyrdom to Germanus in a dream or holy vision, and Germanus ordered this to be written down for public display. Germanus is venerated as a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, which commemorate him on 31 July.
Castletown is a town in the Isle of Man, geographically within the historical parish of Malew but administered separately. Lying at the south of the island, it was the Manx capital until 1869. The centre of town is dominated by Castle Rushen, a well-preserved medieval castle, originally built for a Viking king.
Peel is a seaside town and small fishing port in the Isle of Man, in the historic parish of German but administered separately. Peel is the third largest town in the Island after Douglas and Ramsey but the fourth largest settlement, as Onchan has the second largest population but is classified as a village.
The Diocese of Sodor and Man is a diocese of the Church of England. It is one of only two Church of England dioceses not within the United Kingdom. Originally much larger, today it covers just the Isle of Man and its adjacent islets. Today, the bishop's office is in Douglas and the cathedral is in Peel. The diocese is not generally called either "Sodor diocese" or "Man diocese".
St Patrick's Isle is a small tidal island on the west coast of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, largely occupied by the ruins of Peel Castle and of the Pre-Reformation Cathedral of the Diocese of the Isles.
The Cathedral Church of Saint German or Peel Cathedral, renamed Cathedral Isle of Man, is located in Peel, Isle of Man. The cathedral is also one of the parish churches in the parish of the West Coast, which includes the town of Peel. Built in 1879–84, it was made the cathedral by Act of Tynwald in 1980.
The culture of the Isle of Man is influenced by its Celtic and, to a lesser extent, its Norse origins, though its close proximity to the United Kingdom, popularity as a UK tourist destination, and recent mass immigration by British migrant workers has meant that British influence has been dominant since the Revestment period. Recent revival campaigns have attempted to preserve the surviving vestiges of Manx culture after a long period of Anglicisation, and significant interest in the Manx language, history and musical tradition has been the result.
Literature in the Manx language, which shares common linguistic and cultural roots with the Gaelic literature and Pre-Christian Celtic mythology of Ireland and Scotland, is known from at least the early 16th century, when the majority of the population still belonged to the Catholic Church in the Isle of Man. Even so, Manx orthography departs so radically from Irish or Scottish Gaelic orthography that it is all but illegible to literate native speakers of both languages.
Maughold is venerated as the patron saint of the Isle of Man. Tradition states that he was an Irish prince and captain of a band of freebooters who was converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick. His feast day is 25 April. His original name is unclear, but was probably adapted from Bishop MacCaille of Croghan, County Offaly, who received Brigit of Kildare into religious life
Philip Moore Callow Kermode, was a Manx antiquarian, historian and naturalist.
Raad ny Foillan is a coastal long-distance footpath in the Isle of Man. Because it is a closed loop around the coast, it can be walked in either a clockwise or an anti-clockwise direction.
Roolwer, also known as Hrólfr, was an eleventh-century ecclesiast. He is the first named bishop of a jurisdiction which later became the Diocese of the Isles, and appears to have served at his post before, and perhaps during, the reign of Gofraid Crobán, King of Dublin and the Isles. Roolwer's name appears to correspond to the Old Norse Hrólfr, which could mean that he is identical to either of two contemporary like-named bishops of Orkney. Roolwer's predecessor in the Isles may have been Dúnán, whose death in 1074 during the Dublin overlordship of Toirdelbach Ua Briain, King of Munster, may have enabled the ecclesiastical separation of Dublin from the Isles. The site of Roolwer's cathedral is unknown, although Maughold and St Patrick's Isle are possibilities.
Saint Germanus of Man, also known as Saint Germanus of Peel, was the first Bishop of the Isle of Man.
The St Mary of the Isle Cathedral, also referred to as the Cathedral of St Mary of the Isle, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Douglas, Isle of Man. It is part of the Roman Catholic Pastoral Area of St Maughold within the Archdiocese of Liverpool. It is one of two cathedrals on the Island, and one of six Catholic churches. It is referred to locally as St. Mary's. In September 2023, St Mary of the Isle was granted co-cathedral status.
The Our Lady, Star of the Sea & St Maughold Church is the name given to a religious building that is affiliated with the Catholic Church in the Isle of Man and is located in Dale Street, in Ramsey the second largest town in the Isle of Man, a dependency of the British Crown.
↑ Frank O'Connor (1968), A Short History of Irish Literature: A Backward Look, page 20.
↑ C. Evans, "The Celtic Church in Anglo-Saxon times", in J. D. Woods, D. A. E. Pelteret, The Anglo-Saxons, synthesis and achievement (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1985), ISBN0-88920-166-8, pp. 77–89.
↑ C. Corning, The Celtic and Roman Traditions: Conflict and Consensus in the Early Medieval Church (Macmillan, 2006), ISBN1-4039-7299-0.
↑ D. O Croinin, ed., Prehistoric and Early Ireland: Prehistoric and Early Ireland, vol I (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 798.
↑ McDonald, RA (2007). Manx Kingship in its Irish Sea Setting, 1187–1229: King Rǫgnvaldr and the Crovan Dynasty. Dublin: Four Courts Press. p.200. ISBN978-1-84682-047-2.
↑ Davey, PJ (2006). "Christianity in the Celtic Countries [3] Isle of Man". In Koch, JT (ed.). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol.2. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp.418–420. ISBN1-85109-445-8.
↑ Midmer, R (1979). English Mediaeval Monasteries (1066–1540): A Summary. London: Heinemann. p.130. ISBN0-434-46535-6.
↑ Marcus Tanner (2004), The Last of the Celts, Yale University. pp. 129-130, 132.
↑ Marcus Tanner (2004), The Last of the Celts, Yale University. p. 140.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Catholicismportal 
