Bishop Niall Coll to celebrate home Mass in St Johnston

A mere couple of hundred yards from where he was born and raised, Niall Coll – now as The Most Reverend, Dr. Niall Coll, Bishop of Ossory – will celebrate Mass this weekend.

Bishop Coll will celebrate Saturday evening Mass at St Baithin's Church at 7.30pm.

It will be an emotional and historic homecoming for the popular prelate, the first native of his home parish to have been ordained a Bishop.

He'll celebrate Mass in a Church in which he acted as an altar server in his formative just over a fortnight from the 35th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on July 3, 1988.

A son of Willie and Kathleen Coll from the Hillhead Brae in St Johnston, he was ordained as the 96th Bishop of Ossory in January.

'The Homes of Donegal' give Bishop Niall Coll strength for new post in Ossory

A native of St Johnston, Niall Coll was ordained as the Bishop of Ossory in Kilkenny on Sunday - a day that brought back echoes from home as he began bishophood

The spire of St Baithin's is visible, just two fields away, from the Coll homestead and the well-travelled cleric has always been proud of his roots.

Prior to his consecration as Bishop of Ossory in January, he told Donegal Live: “I have a great love of a sense of east Donegal.

“It will be very important for me to keep my links with Donegal and especially St Johnston. The St Johnston people have been very supportive. St Johnston was a very tightly-knit community when I was growing up. We knew our neighbours.”

In April, Bishop Coll celebrated Sunday Masses in St Agatha’s Church, Clar and St Patrick’s Church, Donegal Town, having served as the Parish Priest in Townawilly until his ordination as Bishop.