Kinalehin Monastery

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South view of the Kinalehin monastery
Kinalehin Monastery (Ireland)
Kinalehin Monastery
Kinalehin Monastery
The location of the monastery on a map of the Republic of Ireland .

The Kinalehin Monastery ( Irish Cinéal Fechin , English Kinalehin Friary ) was first founded in 1252 by John de Cogan I as the priory of the Carthusians in the Diocese of Clonfert . However, after this establishment was unsuccessful, the de Burgo family re-established the unused monastery as a house of the Franciscans in 1371 . The monastery was initially dissolved and partially destroyed during the Reformation . The convent was housed nearby and in 1611 went over to the observants . The monastery was then used temporarily until 1698, and the last brothers belonging to Kinalehin died around 1825.

The Irish name Cinéal Fechin , translated the "sex of the Fechin", was the name of the local population in the times of the Kingdom of Hy-Many. The community on the grounds of the former monastery is now simply called Abbey and is located on the R353 about twelve kilometers west of Portumna on the foothills of the Slieve-Aughty Mountains further west .

history

Kinalehin was the only Carthusian foundation in Ireland. The monks came from either Witham or Hinton, Somerset . The charterhouse was probably destroyed around 1279, but was apparently restored when Edward I issued a letter of protection for the prior, the monks and the lay brothers on July 27, 1282 . Documents suggest that the monastery was sold to the Johanniter in 1306, but monks remained in the monastery until 1341. However, since the English priors had already decided in 1321 not to send any more monks to Kinalehin, the monastery could no longer be held. At the time the monastery was handed over to the Franciscans, the facility had been unused for three decades.

View of the nave with two arcades to the no longer preserved southern aisle

In 1400, almost three decades after the re-establishment, Boniface IX. an indulgence for all penitent pilgrims willing to give alms for the maintenance and restoration of the monastery and the church dedicated to Patrick . On behalf of the antipope John XXIII. In 1414, with Kilconnell and Meelick, two more Franciscan houses were founded in the same diocese. The influence of the Franciscans in the diocese was so extensive that with one exception all bishops from 1405 until the Reformation belonged to this order.

During the Reformation the monastery was closed and partially destroyed. The brothers withdrew to a forest in the area and joined the observants in 1611 . Richard de Burgo, the fourth Earl of Clanricarde, bought the monastery back from the crown and had the dormitory and some other rooms repaired so that the brothers could return in 1615. The Provincial Donagh Mooney wrote to his mother Richard de Burgos around 1615 that the monastery had recently been burned down, the nave had been covered again, but the other parts of the building had not yet been restored. The de Burgos family continued to protect the monastery and in 1642 John de Burgo received episcopal ordination at Kinalehin. During the campaigns of Oliver Cromwell the monks had to flee again, but were able to return during the reign of Charles II , when the sixth Earl of Clanricarde regained the property in 1662. After the Bishop's Banishment Act passed in 1697 , one of the penal laws of the Irish Parliament , which forced all bishops and clergy to leave Ireland by May 1, 1698, the brothers left the monastery after leaving their valuables with families of friends.

Some older brothers are said to have stayed in the region according to local tradition, but were picked up and killed on a bridge later called Friar's Bridge near Coolfin (about seven kilometers north of Gort ) . In 1715, when the penal laws passed against the Catholics waned somewhat, some brothers found their way back to the monastery, similar to what happened with Kilconnell and Meelick. Later a landowner gave them some land and free quarters free of charge, so that the brothers were so well off that they could build a small chapel. The last Franciscans belonging to Kinalehin died around 1825.

literature

  • Aubrey Gwynn , R. Neville Hadcock: Medieval Religious Houses Ireland . Longman, London 1970, ISBN 0-582-11229-X , pp. 145, 253 .
  • Seán Spellissy: The History of Galway: City & County . The Celtic Bookshop, Limerick 1999, ISBN 0-9534683-4-8 , pp. 365-367 .
  • Colmán N. Ó Clabaigh: The Franciscans in Ireland, 1400–1534 . Four Courts Press, Dublin 2002, ISBN 1-85182-548-7 .
  • Edel Bhreathnach, Joseph MacMahon, John McCafferty (Eds.): The Irish Franciscans 1534–1990 . Four Courts Press, Dublin 2009, ISBN 978-1-84682-210-0 .

Web links

Commons : Kinalehin Friary  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Gwynn.
  2. ↑ See Spellissy.
  3. ↑ Cf. Gwynn, p. 145, and HS Sweetman (ed.): Calendar of documents, relating to Ireland, preserved in Her Majesty's Public Record Office, London, 1252-1284 . Longman, London 1877, p. 443 ( archive.org ). It should be noted here that both Gwynn and, apparently as a result, Spellissy inadvertently Eduard III. instead of Eduard I.
  4. ↑ See Gwynn and Spellissy.
  5. ↑ See Gwynn.
  6. ↑ Cf. Ó Clabaigh, p. 44.
  7. ↑ See Gwynn.
  8. ↑ See Gwynn.
  9. ↑ See Spellissy.
  10. ↑ See article by Joseph MacMahon: The silent century, 1698–1829 , p. 79, from Bhreathnach et al.
  11. ↑ See article by Joseph MacMahon: The silent century, 1698–1829 , p. 87, from Bhreathnach et al.
  12. ↑ Cf. Patrick Conlan: Reforming and seeking and identity, 1829-1918 , p. 104, from Bhreathnach et al.

Coordinates: 53 ° 6 ′ 9.7 "  N , 8 ° 23 ′ 32.5"  W.