DUBLIN (CWNews.com)

    Financiers, internet entrepreneurs, and captains of industry are being invited to take time out from the stresses and strains of modern life and spend a few days recharging their batteries in "purgatory."

    The chief executives of Ireland's top 200 companies have been invited to a retreat on the small island on Lough Derg, popularly known as "St. Patrick's Purgatory." The country's patron saint is said to have spent time fasting and praying in the County Donegal sanctuary which has been a Christian center since at least the 6th century.

    Pilgrims at Lough Derg spend three days fasting--they receive one meal of dry toast and black tea or coffee each day--and recite prayers while walking barefoot on the sharp stones of the island's penitential beds.

    Invitations to the Ireland's top businessmen have been sent out by the sanctuary's guardian, Msgr. Richard Mohan, who believes the retreat will rejuvenate the otherwise desk-bound executives. "We offer a peace without interruption," says the invitation. "A time to re-tune the personal batteries. A time to think, to share, and to listen."

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