All Saints Church in Manassas will once again commemorate the anniversary of the appearance of Our Lady in the tiny village of Knock, in County Mayo, Ireland over a hundred years ago. The noted Irish tenor, Mark Forrest -- a Prince William County resident -- will sing "Golden Rose of Ireland" among other Irish Catholic favorites on Aug. 21 at 8 p.m.. The event will mark one more milestone in the remarkable, peaceful transition that can best be described as the greening of Manassas.

Manassas is located at the western end of Prince William County, a county named for the English Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, a son of King George II, and a man most noted for the slaughter of Catholic Scots Highlanders and their familes -- cousins of the Irish -- at the infamous battle of Culloden in 1746. Until recently, Manassas has been best known as the site of three major battles of the Civil War -- the first and second battles of Bull Run (1861 and '62), and Bristow Station (1863) -- and as a predominantly Protestant farming community of the Old South.

Such was Manassas in August 1879 -- 14 years after the end of the Civil War -- when Bishop William Elder of the Diocese of Richmond dedicated a small wooden building as the mission church of All Saints with these words: "Here we are assembled on the very fields which not many years ago were the scene of the most bloody battles of the war. When not only man fought against man, but relations against relations, whose blood still, we may say, rests upon this earth."

The mission church dedicated that August served as parish for an area covering hundreds of square miles, stretching north to the Potomac River, east to Triangle and Woodbridge, and west to Gainesville and the Bull Run mountains. There were very few Catholics in Prince William County in those days, but the greening of Manassas had already begun.

Curiously, it began in the same month and year when the Blessed Mother chose to visit the tiny Irish hamlet of Knock in the west of Ireland. She appeared by the side of a small Catholic church with two companions, St. Joseph, on her right, and St. John the Evangelist, on her left. To the left of St. John a cross and a lamb were on top of an altar, around which hovered angels. The Blessed Mother wore a golden crown with a rose under the crown. The vision lasted for a full two hours, and was witnessed by 15 people, ranging in ages from six to 75.

In the years following the apparition at Knock and the dedication in Manassas, Our Lady of Knock became one of the foremost Marian shrines in the world -- and, as northern Virginia became more suburban and less agricultural, the Catholic population in Prince William County increased. The little mission church in Manassas became the independent parish of All Saints in 1929, and as the number of faithful grew throughout the 20th century, the area covered by All Saints shrank as new parishes were established. Nevertheless, by the year 2000, All Saints Parish, now focused primarily around Manassas, was the largest parish in the Diocese of Arlington.

The increase in the Catholic population around Manassas was accompanied invariably by an increase in the number of Americans of Irish descent and Catholic conviction -- second, third and fourth generation Irish-Americans whose ancestors emigrated from Ireland shortly before or after Our Lady visited Knock. In 1988, a handful of Irish Catholic gentlemen, most of them members of All Saints Parish, organized the Reverend Edwin F. Kelley Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH). The greening of Manassas began to kick into high gear.

Named for a deceased pastor at All Saints, the new division was formed in the traditions of a Catholic fraternal order that began over 400 years ago when Catholicism in Ireland was besieged by the English throne, and the Catholic clergy was hunted down and summarily, brutally executed. Organized under the motto "Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity," the Hibernians in Ireland were formed expressly for the purpose of protecting -- by force of arms when necessary -- the Catholic clergy. In this country, the Hibernians unite to protect Catholic clergy and their Irish Catholic values in much more subtle ways.

Their efforts are educational, social, and charitable. Working within the communities where they live, Hibernians strive to bring to those communities the "friendship, unity, and Christian charity" that is their reason for being, while enlightening their neighbors in the joys of Irishness. And the classic example of Hibernians at work is the Father Kelley Division in Manassas. Now fifty strong, the Manassas Hibernians have had a greening effect on this once predominantly Protestant farming community.

This past March, Old Town Manassas witnessed its third annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. For the second year in a row, the City Council of Manassas has proclaimed the month of March "Irish History Month." And this week, with the urging, support, and cooperation of the Father Kelley Division of the AOH, All Saints church will continue a tradition begun last year. It will celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Knock. Refreshments will be provided after the Mass by the Hibernians.