Kilfenora Cathedral and Crosses: A Medieval Ecclesiastical Site in Ireland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
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- Country
- Ireland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page14 sections
History
Kilfenora Cathedral and Crosses is a medieval Christian ecclesiastical site in Ireland, built in the late twelfth century in a transitional style between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Christian activity at Kilfenora is traditionally traced to the sixth century, when Saint Fachtnan, also known as Saint Fachanan or Saint Fachtna, founded a church or monastery there. The site later became the center of a small diocese whose history reflects major changes in the organization of the Irish Church.
Early Christian and Medieval Development
The earliest church was probably built of wood, leaving no surviving trace. A later stone church was burned by Murchad O’Brien in 1055 and rebuilt between 1056 and 1058. It was plundered in 1079 and destroyed by an accidental fire in 1100. These repeated disasters formed part of the site’s early development before the construction of the present cathedral.
The Synod of Kells in 1152 was a major twelfth-century church council that reorganized many Irish religious communities into dioceses. At Kilfenora, it changed the ecclesiastical settlement from a monastic foundation to a diocesan institution governed by a bishop. The diocese corresponded to the ancient territory of Corcomroe and later became part of the ecclesiastical province of Cashel. A bishop is recorded at Kilfenora in 1189, and the present cathedral was probably built between 1189 and 1200.
Reformation and Ecclesiastical Unions
Kilfenora’s diocese covered about 200 square miles of thinly populated territory and contained only 13 parishes. It was regarded as the poorest diocese, although it retained a bishop. After the Reformation, the Catholic Church continued to appoint diocesan bishops alongside those of the established Church of Ireland, an Anglican church that was Ireland’s established church before its disestablishment in 1871. This Catholic succession ended with the death of James Augustine O’Daly in 1749. In 1750 Kilfenora was united with Kilmacduagh, and in 1883 the two dioceses were merged with Galway. The Roman Catholic bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh is now styled Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora, an official appointed to govern a diocese on behalf of the Pope when it has no ordinary bishop of its own.
Within the Church of Ireland, Kilfenora was united successively with Limerick in 1606–07, Tuam from 1617 to 1742, Clonfert from 1742 to 1752, Killaloe from 1752 to 1976, and Limerick again from 1976. In 1661 it became part of the province of Tuam under Archbishop Samuel Pullen.
Parish Use and Preservation
In 1837 the cathedral nave was adopted as Kilfenora’s parish church. It was repaired during the 1830s and reconstructed around 1850, while the chancel was separated from it. By 1839, about 36 feet, or 11 metres, of the eastern end was roofless. The cathedral remains partly ruined, although the nave continues in occasional Church of Ireland use. Restoration work was undertaken by the National Monument Service in the early 2000s. Kilfenora is a National Monument of Ireland under the designation “Kilfenora Abbey, cathedral and crosses; Kilfenora church at Kilcarragh.”
Remains
The surviving site combines a late-twelfth-century cathedral with earlier masonry, later medieval alterations, tombs, carved effigies, and high crosses. The original church consisted of a nave and chancel, which were subsequently separated. The buildings display architectural features from several periods, while the roofless eastern part and the partly restored nave preserve the site’s divided condition.
Cathedral Buildings
Nave
The nave is the part of the cathedral still used for worship. Its probable oldest surviving fabric is the north wall, where plaster covers cyclopean masonry, a construction method using very large irregular stones fitted with little regular coursing. This wall dates from around the turn of the first millennium and may belong to an earlier aisled building. The nave contains several tombs, a large square stone baptismal font possibly dating from around 1200, and a bishop’s throne donated in 1981. Its interior is otherwise mostly undecorated.
Chancel
The chancel is roofless and probably dates from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. Local tradition holds that it retained an oak ceiling painted blue with gold stars until the end of the eighteenth century. Its surviving features include a fifteenth-century doorway, a fifteenth-century Gothic sedilia, and a Romanesque three-light east window. A sedilia is a group of seats built into a church chancel for clergy taking part in the liturgy. Two triangular pillars with carved capitals divide the window’s lights, whose design has been associated with the early-thirteenth-century “school of the west,” including Corcomroe Abbey.
Two carved effigies stand beside the east window. One represents a bishop raising his right hand in blessing and probably dates from the early fourteenth century. The other shows a tonsured, bareheaded cleric holding a book and probably dates from the thirteenth century. The chancel also contains tombs and remains of high crosses, including the tomb of Neptune Blood, the uncle of Thomas Blood, who attempted to steal the English crown jewels in 1671.
Lady Chapel
The Lady Chapel is a ruined rectangular wing attached to the north side of the chancel and entered from it. It probably belongs to the same period as the main church. Its original function is uncertain: it may have served as a transept, although it has also been interpreted as a chapter house or sacristy. The eastern wall retains two lancet windows, a broken two-light window, and fragments of a high cross.
Tombs and Memorials
Numerous graves at the site are associated with monks, abbots, and bishops of the diocese. The cathedral also contains the tomb of the last king of Thomond and his sons. Identifiable memorials include the 1638 tomb inscription of Hygate Lowe, Neptune Blood’s wall tomb, an altar-tomb made by William Mac-an et bharg and Eliza Ni Dea in 1650, and the 1685 wall tomb of Donaldus MacDonogh and Maria O’Connor. The MacDonogh tomb carries carved arms and a Latin inscription, while an English inscription dated 1752 commemorates Patrick MacDonogh, son of Donaldus.
High Crosses
Kilfenora was traditionally associated with seven high crosses. A high cross is a monumental stone cross often decorated with biblical or ecclesiastical imagery. Two of the seven have disappeared, one formerly standing east of the cathedral and another south of Ballykeal House. Another cross remains west of the cathedral, approximately halfway toward the Catholic Church of Saint Fachanan, built in 1917.
Doorty Cross
The Doorty Cross is regarded as the oldest of the group and is dated approximately to 1152. Found in two pieces, it was reassembled at the cathedral’s west entrance before being placed in the chancel. Its western face shows Christ above a figure riding a donkey. On the eastern face, Saint Peter blesses two figures, a bishop carrying an Irish crozier and an abbot carrying a T-shaped crozier. A crozier is a pastoral staff, with the Irish form associated here with a bishop and the T-shaped form with an abbot. The imagery relates to Kilfenora’s change from monastic to diocesan organization in 1152.
South and North Crosses
The South Cross stands near the cemetery entrance and is dated broadly between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. Only its shaft survives. The North Cross stands at the northwestern corner of the cathedral.
Transferred and Protected Crosses
The largest high cross associated with Kilfenora was transferred in 1821 by Dr Mant to Saint Flannan’s Cathedral in Killaloe. The remains of three high crosses were moved into the cathedral’s northern transept, which received a glass roof in 2005 to protect them.
