The Legion of Mary

The Legion of Mary meets in the Sacristy of St Bernadette’s at 6.30 pm every Tuesday evening. Our first meeting was on 8 December 1981, the feast of the immaculate Conception. We pray the Rosary and Legion prayers and arrange ‘work’ for the upcoming weeks.

Although our main work is home visitation, we carry out tasks that the Priests feel will help the parish community, e.g. school Rosaries in May and October, Nursing home visitations and rosaries, organising parish retreats, and our group run a very successful monthly discussion group which has now been going for over 9 years and is attended by members of our parish as well as Legion of Mary members and our priests.

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The Legion had its humble beginnings in Dublin over 97 years ago and was founded by a man called Frank Duff who was a very active member of the St Vincent de Paul. He knew first hand of the great poverty back in 1921, however, he was also acutely aware of the great spiritual poverty that existed.
His desire to address this spiritual poverty led him and a small group of like - minded people to set up an organisation that eventually spread throughout Ireland and then throughout the world, with Scotland being the first country outside Ireland to establish a group. It is now the biggest lay organisation in the world with 4 million active members in 170 countries. The work of the legion has been recognised by successive Popes.
The financial poverty and spiritual poverty are as relevant today as they were on the inception of the Legion of Mary and now as it was when formed the Legion is dedicated to the spiritual need.

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Its purpose is to help members develop their faith through prayer and active work, particularly visitation.

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Legionaries visit people wherever they are: - in their home, nursing homes, schools and hospitals.