Recent from talks
Mass rock
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Mass rock
A Mass rock (Irish: Carraig an Aifrinn) was a rock used as an altar by the Catholic Church in Ireland, during the 17th and 18th centuries, as a location for secret and illegal gatherings of faithful attending the Mass offered by outlawed priests. Similar altars, known as Mass stones (Scottish Gaelic: Clachan Ìobairt), were used by the Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which was similarly criminalised by the Scottish Reformation Parliament in 1560.
During the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland, isolated locations were sought to hold religious ceremonies, as observing the Catholic Mass was a matter of difficulty and danger at the time as a result of the Reformation in Ireland, Cromwell's campaign against the Irish, and the Penal Laws of 1695. Bishops were banished and priests had to register to preach under the Registration Act 1704. Priest hunters were also sometimes employed to arrest Catholic priests and nonjuring Vicars of the Scottish Episcopal Church.[citation needed]
In modern Ireland, a number of Mass rocks remain places of pilgrimage by local Catholic parishioners, with open air Masses offered at some sites. In response to restrictions on indoor gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland, services were offered at several Mass rocks during 2020.
In Scotland, Mass stones were used by the Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which had been criminalised by the Scottish Reformation Parliament in 1560 and which remained unlawful until Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
On the isle of Eigg, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, which was described in 1698 as almost entirely Roman Catholic, the laity secretly and illegally attended Mass at a Mass stone inside a large high-roofed coastal cave, which could only be accessed during low tide and which is still known as the "cave of worship" (Scottish Gaelic: Uamh Chràbhaichd; in English Cathedral Cave).
The island in Loch Morar known as Eilean Bàn was briefly the location first of a Mass stone and then of an illegal and clandestine Catholic minor seminary founded by Bishop James Gordon, until the Jacobite rising of 1715 forced its closure and eventual reopening at Scalan in Glenlivet. Even long afterwards, Eilean Bàn remained a secret chapel and library for Bishop Gordon's successors.
After Culloden much of the remaining Highland population converted to Presbyterianism. According to Marcus Tanner, "[the] Highlands, outside tiny Catholic enclaves like in South Uist and Barra, took on the contours they have since preserved - a region marked by a strong tradition of sabbatarianism".
The oral tradition preserved the former locations of Mass stones and Mass houses in at least some regions. According to the autobiography dictated to John Lorne Campbell by South Uist seanchaidh and crofter Angus Beag MacLellan (1869–1966), while working as a hired hand on Robert Menzies' farm near Aberfeldy, Perthshire in the 1880s, Menzies told him that a Mass stone had stood in the farm field. A nearby high cross, marked the site of an important college of learning dating from the days of the Celtic Church. Though the local population had long since switched to Presbyterianism, former Catholic religious sites were still locally viewed with superstitious awe and were never tampered with. Menzies explained that the term for Mass stones, in the Perthshire dialect, was Clachan Ìobairt, lit. "offering stones".
Hub AI
Mass rock AI simulator
(@Mass rock_simulator)
Mass rock
A Mass rock (Irish: Carraig an Aifrinn) was a rock used as an altar by the Catholic Church in Ireland, during the 17th and 18th centuries, as a location for secret and illegal gatherings of faithful attending the Mass offered by outlawed priests. Similar altars, known as Mass stones (Scottish Gaelic: Clachan Ìobairt), were used by the Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which was similarly criminalised by the Scottish Reformation Parliament in 1560.
During the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland, isolated locations were sought to hold religious ceremonies, as observing the Catholic Mass was a matter of difficulty and danger at the time as a result of the Reformation in Ireland, Cromwell's campaign against the Irish, and the Penal Laws of 1695. Bishops were banished and priests had to register to preach under the Registration Act 1704. Priest hunters were also sometimes employed to arrest Catholic priests and nonjuring Vicars of the Scottish Episcopal Church.[citation needed]
In modern Ireland, a number of Mass rocks remain places of pilgrimage by local Catholic parishioners, with open air Masses offered at some sites. In response to restrictions on indoor gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland, services were offered at several Mass rocks during 2020.
In Scotland, Mass stones were used by the Catholic Church in Scotland, membership in which had been criminalised by the Scottish Reformation Parliament in 1560 and which remained unlawful until Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
On the isle of Eigg, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, which was described in 1698 as almost entirely Roman Catholic, the laity secretly and illegally attended Mass at a Mass stone inside a large high-roofed coastal cave, which could only be accessed during low tide and which is still known as the "cave of worship" (Scottish Gaelic: Uamh Chràbhaichd; in English Cathedral Cave).
The island in Loch Morar known as Eilean Bàn was briefly the location first of a Mass stone and then of an illegal and clandestine Catholic minor seminary founded by Bishop James Gordon, until the Jacobite rising of 1715 forced its closure and eventual reopening at Scalan in Glenlivet. Even long afterwards, Eilean Bàn remained a secret chapel and library for Bishop Gordon's successors.
After Culloden much of the remaining Highland population converted to Presbyterianism. According to Marcus Tanner, "[the] Highlands, outside tiny Catholic enclaves like in South Uist and Barra, took on the contours they have since preserved - a region marked by a strong tradition of sabbatarianism".
The oral tradition preserved the former locations of Mass stones and Mass houses in at least some regions. According to the autobiography dictated to John Lorne Campbell by South Uist seanchaidh and crofter Angus Beag MacLellan (1869–1966), while working as a hired hand on Robert Menzies' farm near Aberfeldy, Perthshire in the 1880s, Menzies told him that a Mass stone had stood in the farm field. A nearby high cross, marked the site of an important college of learning dating from the days of the Celtic Church. Though the local population had long since switched to Presbyterianism, former Catholic religious sites were still locally viewed with superstitious awe and were never tampered with. Menzies explained that the term for Mass stones, in the Perthshire dialect, was Clachan Ìobairt, lit. "offering stones".
Recent media