In a ceremony in Co Tipperary on Saturday at Mount St Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, a commemorative stone was laid to mark the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Cistercian order. The stone was unveiled by the president of the Cistercian College Roscrea Union, Mr Laurence Branigan, on behalf of the college's past students. It was chosen from a limestone quarry within the original lands of the 12th-century Cistercian abbey of Jerpoint, Co Kilkenny.
The Cistercians came first to Ireland in the 12th century at the behest of St Malachy of Armagh. Roscrea was founded in 1878 on lands bequeathed by Count Arthur Moore, who stipulated a school for boys should be established and maintained by the community.
On Saturday Mr Branigan paid tribute to the abbot and community of Mount St Joseph and in particular to the nine monks who served as presidents of the college over the years since its foundation. He referred to the "faithfulness of the monks to the college and the qualities of understanding, wisdom and joy" of those who guided it until 1997, when it was placed under the charge of a board of governors.
"That faithfulness and those qualities and the example close at hand of the monks' lives of work and prayer constitute the foundation on which the unique spirit of the staff and students is built," he said.
The stone was blessed by Abbot Colmcille O'Toole. The college opened in 1905. It is administered on the abbey's behalf by the board, under the management of its first lay president, Mr Patrick Cronin.
Jerpoint Abbey was founded from the monastery at Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, which was founded from Mellifont Abbey, near Drogheda - the first Cistercian foundation in Ireland - in 1142.
There have been three foundations this century from Mount St Joseph Abbey. They are Sancta Maria Abbey, outside Edinburgh; Tarrawarra Abbey North, Melbourne, Australia; and Bolton Abbey, Co Kildare.
Last July the Malankarese Catholic Monastery at Kurisumala in the Indian state of Kerala was introduced to the Cistercian order.