FEAST OF ST FELIM
Patron of the Diocese of Kilmore
9 August 2017

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was on a pilgrimage to Wurzburg in Germany with a parish group from Mullagh. We went for the annual feast of St Kilian, who was born in Mullagh and who brought the faith to that part of the Germany in the 7th century. St Kilian is the diocesan Patron of the diocese of Wurzburg. Its cathedral is St Kilian’s, so too its diocesan secondary school and many other churches and institutions. The feast of St Kilian is on the 8th July and is celebrated as a religious and civic festival for a whole week.
Today we celebrate the feast of our own diocesan Patron, St Felim. I wonder how many people outside this congregation know that today is the feast of our patron? I wonder even how many priests know it? If not, then let me say, Mea Culpa! But I have to say that the celebrations in Wurzburg some weeks ago were very impressive and made me think that we really should we doing more to mark the feast of our Patron Saint here in Kilmore.
The big events of the celebration in Wurzburg revolve around the veneration of the relics of St Kilian and his two companions, St Kolonat and St Totnan, who were martyred for their witness to the faith in 689. And that, I suppose, is one of the differences between our situation and that of the people in Wurzburg. We have no relics of St Felim. We don’t even a decent legend about him, not to mention a historical account of his life and work.
Nevertheless, we do know that, like St Kilian and his compansions, St Felim took the word of Jesus to the apostles in today’s Gospel to heart: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
We do not have relics, but we have a strong tradition that has been passed on for 1500 years. It has been passed on in the name Felim, which is still a common name that parents give their children. It is a name which we share with our Church of Ireland diocese and Cathedral despite the divisions of the Reformation 400 years ago. St Felim’s name lives on in the Church and school in parish of his origin, the parish of Kilmore. And the tradition that he was a monk in the monastery in Slanore near Crossdoney is well founded and attested.
But the most important evidence we have of the work of St Felim in our diocese is the fruit of his mission, the faith that we share. And today we celebrate him for bringing the message of Jesus to our ancestors, for planting the seed of faith in our soil and nourishing it to grow strong and steady over the centuries.
The prophet Jeremiah tells us: “Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies, and walk in it and find rest for your souls.’ As we thank God for our faith today, we do so conscious that we stand at a crossroads. We live in a time of testing for faith. We wonder will the next generation ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies. Will they continue to live by the Gospel of Jesus and the faith of St Felim. We cannot afford to be complacent, but neither should we be fearful and anxious.
Today we ask St Felim to pray for us and especially for our young parents. We pray that their faith and our faith will be renewed, that our children will grow strong in faith. We pray that the faith of our fathers will still inspire those who come after us and that we and they will be true to it till death.