st thaddeus monastic site

A monastic settlement was founded on the island, maybe as far back as the 5th Century, by St Thaddeus who is buried there. The settlement continued until the middle of the 16th Century and the Church acted as Parish Church until its burning in the early years of the Ulster Plantation. It is known that the Church was in ruin by the year 1603 but in the troubled year of 1798 many women and children were forced to take shelter on the islands of Lough Beg. Mass was often celebrated within the " roofless walls of the ancient church ". The feast day of St Thaddeus falls on the 7th September and the annual pilgrimage to the island in honour of the Saint still takes place on the first Sunday in September. Pilgrims can walk to the island from the County Derry side as Church Island is not an 'island' as such insofar as only three of its sides are surrounded by water, with the passing of time and in particular after the dredging of the River Bann in the 1930s, the water on the west side of the island has receded although in bad weather the swollen River Bann again completely surrounds the island.