9th May : Our Lady Of The Cenacle
9th May
Our Lady Of The Cenacle
Country :
Year : 1826
This feast commemorates the time between our Lord’s return to His Father in Heaven and the day of Pentecost, during which the Apostles “continued steadfastly in prayer with the women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.”
The title has been popularized by the nuns of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle founded by Blessed Teresa Couderc in 1826. The word “cenacle” is the French form of Latin “coenaculum,” literally meaning dining room; the traditional English rendering is “upper room”.
There is a very popular pilgrimage to the shrine in St. Similien’s Church at Nantes in Brittany, between Ascension and Pentecost; the object is to keep watch with Mary and the Apostles in the upper room in preparation for the promised gifts of the Paraclete. The institution of this observance is ascribed to an exiled Irish Bishop about 1650; probably Patrick Comerford of Waterford, who was active in the work of redeeming captives in the name of Our Lady of Ransom or of Mercy.
