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.
Every Legion meeting is built round the Rosary, and every praesidium says it before a word of business. In October the whole Church joins them: Leo XIII asked in 1883 that the month be given to it, and the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, on the seventh, has been kept since Lepanto.
Wednesday 7 October · Our Lady of the Rosary
On 7 October 1571 the fleet of the Holy League met the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto, and Pope Pius V gave the victory to Our Lady of the Rosary. The feast has been kept ever since. A month to the day after the Legion’s own birthday, the Church turns to the prayer the Legion never puts down — and on the 13th, to Fátima, where she gave herself that name.
The saints of October →The whole month at a glance, with the rank the Church gives each day — and two days that belong to Our Lady. Free, and made to be printed.
See the month →Beyond the festival above, 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 coming soon — Mark McAleer on the years he spent as the seed that fell on rocky ground, with Jasmine Cano in the host’s chair.
The month as the Church keeps it — the saint of each day, Our Lady of the Rosary on the seventh, and the anniversary of Fátima on the thirteenth.
On a Sunday the Sunday itself takes precedence, and any memorial falling that day is set aside for the year — which in 2026 costs October three: St Francis of Assisi, St John XXIII and St Luke. The 13th is shaded for Our Lady though it is a feria: it is kept devotionally rather than on the calendar of Ireland.
