Saint Canice’s Cathedral: A Medieval Church of Ireland Cathedral in Kilkenny
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Ireland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Celtic, Norman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page13 sections
History
Saint Canice’s Cathedral is a Church of Ireland cathedral in Kilkenny, Ireland, whose Christian history reaches back to the sixth century. The present limestone building was constructed between about 1202 and 1285 in the Early English, or English Gothic, style. It became the cathedral of the Diocese of Ossory and remains part of the United Dioceses of Cashel and Ossory in the ecclesiastical Province of Dublin.
Christian origins and the medieval diocese
Tradition connects the site with Saint Canice, also known as Cainnech of Aghaboe, a sixth-century Irish Christian saint. He is associated with the foundation of a Celtic Christian monastery here as a daughter house of Aghaboe Abbey. The earliest church is thought to have been built of wood. A Romanesque stone church later replaced it, before the medieval cathedral took its place.
The cathedral hill is believed to have stood at the centre of Kilkenny’s first major settlement. Kilkenny was the ancient capital of Ossory, a medieval Irish kingdom centred on the city, and the surrounding district of Irishtown remains the oldest part of present-day Kilkenny. The early secular buildings of this settlement are little known.
The Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111 placed Aghaboe and Kilkenny within the Diocese of Ossory, an ecclesiastical jurisdiction serving the region, with the bishop’s see, or principal seat of diocesan authority, at Kilkenny. The idea that the see first stood at Aghaboe and was later moved to Kilkenny has been linked to a sixteenth-century misunderstanding of a thirteenth-century property transfer. The Annals of the Four Masters record that Cill Chainnigh was largely burned in 1085 and completely burned in 1114.
Construction of the present cathedral began around 1202 and continued until 1285, when the building stood at the western end of Kilkenny. It was completed by the close of the thirteenth century and is about the second-longest cathedral in Ireland after Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.
Reformation and later development
During the Reformation, the cathedral became Anglican. It is now a Church of Ireland cathedral, while Saint Mary’s Cathedral was built for Roman Catholic worship. The Diocese of Ossory was united with Ferns and Leighlin in 1835, and later with Cashel and Waterford in 1977, creating the Diocese of Cashel and Ossory.
In about 1324, Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory, wrote sixty Latin verses in the Red Book of Ossory for the vicars choral, priests, and clerics of Kilkenny Cathedral. The verses were intended to be sung at major festivals and other occasions, providing a connection between the cathedral’s medieval administration and its religious practice.
Saint Canice’s Library was established in 1693 by Bishop Thomas Otway. Its holdings include theological documents and artefacts associated particularly with Otway and Bishop Edward Maurice. Some documents were transferred to the house of the Church of Ireland Representative Body in Dublin, while the Maurice Otway collection was loaned to Maynooth College in 2013 for restoration and safekeeping.
Restoration and memory
The cathedral underwent restoration between 1844 and 1867. The work preserved its original style and form without removing important medieval features. Its memorials and burials record a broad section of the community connected with the cathedral, from bishops and the owners of Kilkenny Castle to members of the House of Ormonde and people in humbler occupations.
Among the individuals commemorated are William de Karlell, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and his brother John, Chancellor of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. The cathedral also contains memorials to the second, eighth, tenth, and eleventh Earls of Ormond, Bishops Griffith Williams and Hugh Hamilton, and Major-General Denis Pack. A cenotaph commemorates David Rothe, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ossory, although his remains lie in Saint Mary’s Church. The cathedral continues to serve as the place where the bishops of Cashel and Ossory are ceremonially enthroned.
Remains
Saint Canice’s Cathedral is a limestone building on a cruciform plan, measuring about 75 yards, or 70 metres, in length and 41 yards, or 37.5 metres, across the transepts. Its low central tower rests on black-marble columns. The outer walls are embattled except at the gables, and two small spires rise at the west end. A ninth-century Celtic Christian round tower stands a few yards from the south transept, forming a surviving part of the site’s earlier ecclesiastical landscape.
The cathedral building
Nave and transepts
High pointed arches connect the nave with the choir and the two transepts. Most of these arches date from the fourteenth century. The nave is divided from each aisle by rows of five clustered groups of black-marble columns, which support high moulded arches. Light enters through a large west window, five clerestory windows high in the nave walls, and four windows in each aisle. Numerous stained-glass windows remain, including an east window that reproduces the original thirteenth-century design.
Choir and roof structure
The choir has a groined ceiling, formed where two barrel vaults intersect, with fine tracery and a central group of cherubs. Its choir stalls contain continental carvings. The cathedral also retains a hammer-beam roof, a timber structure in which projecting beams support the roof framing without full-length cross-ties.
Fonts, enthronement seats, and chapels
The medieval baptismal font survives inside the cathedral. In the north transept, the ancient stone of episcopal enthronement lies beneath the seat of the medieval throne. The same transept contains the carved-stone Chair of Saint Kieran, which remains in use when the Church of Ireland bishops of Cashel and Ossory are enthroned.
A dark passage from the north transept leads to Saint Mary’s Chapel, where parish services were formerly held. A later parish church beside the chapel contains the tomb of Bishop Gafney, who died in 1576. Near the eastern end of the cathedral stands the Bishop’s Palace. The eastern side of the south transept contains the consistory court built by Bishop Pococke, an ecclesiastical court for church-law and diocesan matters, while the chapter house, the meeting room of the cathedral chapter, stands to its north. The cathedral has eight bells.
Celtic round tower
The well-preserved round tower beside the south transept dates from the ninth century. Built as a tall circular ecclesiastical tower, it rises about 100 feet, or 30 metres, and is reached by steep internal ladders. Its possible functions included providing a lookout and a place of refuge, alongside its religious and practical uses. The summit overlooks Kilkenny and the surrounding countryside.
Monuments and collections
Memorials and burials
Ancient monuments remain within the cathedral, including a monument to Bishop David and the tombs of numerous bishops of Ossory. Other tombs are associated with owners of Kilkenny Castle and members of the House of Ormonde. The memorials also commemorate people from outside the ruling and ecclesiastical elite, including a shoemaker and a carpenter, preserving a varied record of those connected with the cathedral.
Library and medieval furnishings
The cathedral’s surviving historic furnishings include its medieval baptismal font, the enthronement stone, the Chair of Saint Kieran, carved choir stalls, stained glass, and the Red Book of Ossory’s association with the verses written for the cathedral clergy. Saint Canice’s Library, founded in 1693, preserves theological material and artefacts linked especially with Bishops Thomas Otway and Edward Maurice.
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