Five-year saga draws to a close at Warrenstown’s holy well

Ceremony at St John's Well on Friday evening

Following a five-year saga, access to the water of St John's Well in Warrenstown has been restored, with a revival of the St John's Eve ceremonies there planned for this Friday night, 23rd June.

St John’s Well, on the grounds of the former Salesian College of Agriculture lands at Drumree, was the centre of a large pilgrimage on 23rd June since the seventeenth century at least, with a cure for cancer attributed to it.

Following the sale of the lands and rectory by the Salesians, new owners razed the surrounds of the well and levelled the area, restricting public access. These actions led to a number of public meetings in the community, the involvement of local councillors and TDs, and an inquiry by the Department of Heritage's National Monuments Service, as there were two ancient stone heads on the well structure, which were recorded monuments.

In 2019, the National Monuments Service came to a decision with Meath County Council that the heads be placed in the care of the National Museum, which was put into effect that year.

Negotiations continued with the land owners over a protracted period, leading to an agreement to pipe the water from the well to the roadside. Work on building a new structure, fencing, and connecting power for a pump continued since then, hampered by the shutdowns of the pandemic and electricity connection delays, but the well was finally installed earlier this year.

It is not the first time that there were problems accessing the pilgrimage site. In 1708, the Irish House of Commons enacted legislation to prohibit pilgrimages to St John's Well because it was alleged the assembly of pilgrims compromised the public peace and safety of the kingdom. This law was only revoked in 2015 by the Irish Government.

The Church also opposed the activities at the well. In 1781, the Roman Catholic bishops of the Province of Armagh met at Drogheda and banned all pilgrimages in their dioceses and it was resolved that ‘the pilgrimage to St John’s Well in county Meath is attended with such scandalous enormities as to require immediate redress.’

In the 1830s, St John’s Well was the site of a pilgrimage at ‘at which some hundreds of the Roman Catholics of the surrounding country meet on the eve of St John and perform stations …. some affirm that the blind, lame and those afflicted with pains get cured at this well; whilst other assert that the belief is all nonsense and based on superstition'.

In the 1860s Dean Cogan wrote: “St John’s Well is situated in the demesne of Warrenstown, parish of Knockmark. This well has been frequented from time immemorial, and is perhaps the most remarkable of all the ‘holy wells’ in Meath. St John's Well was described as the most famous holy well in Meath in 1886.

The legend of St John’s Well recounts that John the Baptist was passing a rock in the Holy Land when he struck it with his staff, the point of which came out at Warrenstown, accompanied by a spring. A similar story recalls that the original owners of Warrenstown were the Johnsons. One of the family was visiting the Holy Land and his stick fell into the river Jordan. Some years later he noticed one of his cows licking a large stone in one of his fields. To satisfy his curiosity he got the stone removed. Immediately water gushed forth and up came his walking stick, the story goes.

On Friday next, a ceremony will take place in the chapel of Colaiste na bhFiann (formerly the College of Agriculture) in Warrenstown, at 7.30pm, followed by a blessing of the newly installed well.