THE CATENIAN ASSOCIATION - PROVINCE 1

Manchester was the original founding Circle of the Catenian Association and its first meeting place was in the Barton Arcade on St Ann’s Square in 1908.


The Circle Centenary celebrations were incorporated into the Annual Conference weekend commencing with a Mass of Thanksgiving in Salford Cathedral attended by 800+ Catenians and their families followed by a Centenary Banquet in the Midland Hotel.

The Mass was celebrated by the current Bishop of Salford, Rt. Rev. Thomas Brain, sustaining the link back to Bishop Casartelli of Salford, who was hugely encouraging to the original founders of the Association. A further historic link was that the Midland Hotel was the meeting place of Number One for many years.

The Circle celebrations were concluded with a Centenary Meeting in the Palace Hotel with 540 brothers in attendance from all over the world.

Our President for the current year is Peter Purdue, who is also a joint member of Bury and Rossendale Circle.
Peter is pictured left with Frances

We arrange a Mass and a Dinner annually to celebrate the life of Bishop Casartelli, who was Bishop of Salford in 1908 and provided considerable encouragement to the founders of our Circle and of the Catenian Association

The Rt Rev Thomas Brain, Bishop of Salford, (pictured right) again celebrated Mass for the 2009/2010 occasion and joined us for the commemorative Dinner afterwards.
 

Last year we were very pleased to welcome Bro. Grand President Joe McNally (pictured left) as principal guest at our Circle Charter Dinner