Immaculata Comitium — Diocese of Down and Connor
The official website of the Legion of Mary residing in the Diocese of Down and Connor. For nearly a century, legionaries have brought the light of Christ and the love of Our Lady to the streets of Belfast and beyond.
This is us
A week of testimony, Adoration and Confession, ending with the Annual Rosary Procession to St Peter’s Cathedral. Organised by the Legion of Mary and the Knights of Saint Columbanus.
The festival in two minutesThe festival in two minutes. Sound on.
November opens with All Saints and All Souls, and the Church gives the whole month to the faithful departed. Every Legion meeting already ends with them: “May the souls of our departed legionaries and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”
1–8 November · All Saints to the octave
From the 1st to the 8th of November, the Church grants a plenary indulgence, for the souls in purgatory, to anyone who visits a cemetery and prays there for the dead, with the usual conditions of Confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions. On the 7th falls the anniversary of the death of Frank Duff, who founded the Legion, in 1980.
The saints of November →The whole month at a glance, with the rank the Church gives each day — St Malachy on the 3rd and St Columbanus on the 23rd among them. Free, and made to be printed.
See the month →A praesidium meets near you every week of the year, and a visitor is welcome at any of them. That is where the Legion actually happens.
Find your nearest praesidium →
At the Legion’s annual pilgrimage to Knock, the Bishop of Raphoe preached on Frank Duff and baptism as a calling. His homily in full, with photographs and film of the day.
Read the homily →
Monday 12 to Sunday 18 October: four evenings and a procession, and a great deal of anticipation. Here is the week ahead, and how you can be part of it.
Read the invitation →
Yesterday, in St Louis, Archbishop Fulton Sheen was beatified. In 1976 he told the Legion in Ireland that it was “the organisation which is closest to my heart” — read his words in full.
Read what he said to us →
He succeeds Fr Martin Graham after twenty years — and introduces himself in his own words: the rosary in Bright, the first week at university, and the treasure he decided not to lose.
Read his letter →
Mario Nunis gave his testimony at Knock — the family rosary he did not want to pray, the years he kept his faith hidden, and the woman who stopped him on his way out of the church.
Watch and read the story →
Our praesidium resolved to pray for miracles through the intercession of the Legion’s founder, so that his cause may advance. A day later, a lady in County Mayo wrote to us — with no idea of what we had just agreed.
Read the full story →Free · once a month
Every day of the month with the rank the Church gives it — for the fridge, the porch or the praesidium noticeboard. It comes with your welcome email, and a new one follows each month with a Marian reflection and a word from the Handbook. See a past issue.
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The largest apostolic organisation of lay people in the Catholic Church — born from a simple prayer meeting in Dublin, now spanning every continent on earth.
Founded on 7 September 1921 by the Servant of God Frank Duff, the Legion of Mary is an international association of the faithful who serve the Church on a voluntary basis. Under the powerful leadership of Mary Immaculate, legionaries bring the light of Christ to the sick, the lonely, the imprisoned, and the fallen away. Here in the Diocese of Down and Connor, our praesidia carry out this vital work each week.
Reflections, testimonies, prayers and conversations that draw us closer to Jesus through Mary — the first podcast dedicated entirely to Mary’s Legion.
Episode 01, “Twenty Years at Her Service,” opens the series with Fr Martin Graham — Spiritual Director of the Legion in Down & Connor for two decades — recorded on the Feast of the Visitation. Episode 02, with legionary Richard Harrington, tells his life in his own words. And Episode 03, “For the Greater Glory of God,” with AMDG Core co-founder Felipe Cunha, is out now — released on the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola. And Episode 04, “The Seven Months Between,” is out now — legionary Ciaran Wright on the seven months between his first Legion meeting and his second, with Richard Harrington taking the host’s chair for the first time. Episode 05, “Good Soil,” is recorded — Mark McAleer on the years he spent as the seed that fell on rocky ground, with Jasmine Cano in the host’s chair — and its release has been moved to after Our Lady’s Rosary Festival (12–18 October), so that everyone can give the festival their full attention.
The month as the Church keeps it — All Saints and All Souls at its head, the saints of Ireland on the sixth, and Christ the King before Advent begins.
On a Sunday the Sunday itself takes precedence — which in 2026 costs November St Albert the Great and St Cecilia. St Malachy, once Bishop of Down and Connor, has the 3rd in Ireland, and St Columbanus, formed at Bangor, the 23rd.
