Relics of popes to be installed in Tralee priory

Relics of the two popes to be canonised tomorrow are to be installed during the St Peter’s ceremony in Tralee’s Dominican priory.

Holy Cross Dominican Church in Tralee will be the only church in Ireland and one of only a handful throughout Christendom with relics of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II and those of the Polish saint Sr Faustina.

They will be formally installed at a special Divine Mercy Mass tomorrow timed to coincide with the ceremony at St Peter’s Square that will see the popes named as saints.

The relics are in the form of drops of the blood of Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II and the Polish saint.

Dominican Prior Fr Joe Bulman who will preside at the Mass to mark the formal installation of the blessed relics, told the Kerry’s Eye newspaper: “The relics of Pope John Paul II and St Faustina came from Krakow,” Fr Bulman said.

“The relic of Pope John XXIII came from Rome. As far as I know, we are the only church in Ireland to have all three of them.

“We had been told that it was an absolute impossibility to get all three relics,” he said.

Next Sunday is the Feast of the Divine Mercy, a devotion popularised by St Faustina and popular with churchgoers in Tralee.

The Dominicans have been in Tralee since early medieval times.