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News
Launch of RCB Library's Text and Calendar' Series Vol. 7
On Tuesday 20th October in St Anne's cathedral, Belfast, the seventh volume in the RCB Library's Texts and Calendars' series, Preaching in Belfast, 1747-72: a selection of the sermons of James Saurin, was launched by the Bishop of Clogher. The volume has been edited by Professor Raymond Gillespie from NUI Maynooth and Roibeard O Gallachoir, a graduate of the MA in Historical Archives in Maynooth who is shortly to join the staff of the RCB Library.
James Saurin, a descendant of a prominent Huguenot family, was appointed as vicar of Belfast in 1747, and one of his first acts was to write a series of sermons that he preached to his congregation over his long tenure as vicar. Some fifty-five of these sermons were recently discovered in St Anne's cathedral, having been preserved and used by Saurin's son and grandson for their preaching.
This edition includes twenty of these sermons. They provide a vivid insight into the mind of a Church of Ireland clergyman in the rapidly changing town of Belfast at the middle of the 18th century and illuminates many of the key issues of the world of provincial Ireland.
To learn more about this book, visit the Four Courts Press website at www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2015/preaching-in-belfast