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
On the evening of 7 September 1921, fifteen working women, one priest and one civil servant climbed the stairs of Myra House in Dublin and found a table waiting for them — a statue of the Immaculate Conception, two candles, two vases of flowers. Nobody had been told to arrange it so. They knelt, said the Rosary, and began.
Monday 7 September · the eve of Our Lady’s Nativity
The Legion keeps its birthday on the eve of hers. The same statue, the same two candles, the same Rosary before a word of business — in Nairobi, in Manila, in São Paulo, and in a side room off a church porch in west Belfast on a Wednesday evening. It is the one thing that has never changed.
How it began →The whole month at a glance, with the rank the Church gives each day — and four days that belong to Our Lady. Free, and made to be printed.
See the month →But 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 →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. Episode 04 is coming soon — 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.
Learn More About the Podcast →The month as the Church keeps it — the saint of each day, the four days that belong to Our Lady, and the day the Legion began.
On a Sunday the Sunday itself takes precedence, and any memorial falling that day is set aside for the year — which in 2026 costs September three. The 24th is shaded for Our Lady though it is a feria: it is kept devotionally rather than on the calendar of Ireland.
