Creevelea Monastery

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The monastery seen from the south, with the south transept in the foreground

The monastery Creevelea ( Irish At Chraobh Liath ) was founded in 1508 by Margaret O'Brien, wife of Eoghan O'Rourke , as a house of Observant Franciscans south of Dromahair in the area of County Leitrim founded.

It was the last Franciscan foundation in Ireland before the Reformation, and it is the only case in which an Irish Franciscan monastery has been founded by a woman. The monastery was closed during the Reformation ; the monks could stay until 1598 and used the monastery for a short time in the 17th century. The monastery is also associated with the name of the neighboring village, Dromahair , and the names Balliniairck or Ballyniairke were common.

history

The founder Margaret O'Brien was a sister of Nuala O'Brien, who was involved in the Franciscan monastery founded in 1474 in Donegal . Because of this connection, the first monks from the Monastery of Donegal who belonged to the Observant Movement came . The church was consecrated in 1511 by Thomas MacBrady, Bishop of Kilmore. Apparently Thomas MacBrady died during the celebrations or during a later visit to the monastery, so that he was buried here in 1511. The founder Margaret was buried in 1512 in the monastery church, which was then still built in wood, her husband Eoghan O'Rourke followed in 1526.

In 1536 a fire destroyed the monastery, in which the brothers Eremon O'Donnell and Mael Sechlainn MacGovern were killed. The surname O'Donnell indicates that he was still one of the Donegal monks. After the fire, the monastery was rebuilt by Brian Ballach O'Rourke in the form that can still be seen as a ruin.

After the Reformation, the monks stayed in the area and in the monastery until 1590, despite the clashes and persecution, until the English took partial possession of the house and destroyed it. The monastic community continued, however, and they built a new house for themselves in 1618. In 1642, at the beginning of the Confederation , the monks managed to return to the monastery for a few years.

architecture

View from the nave through the tower towards the choir. On the right the arcades to the south transept

All buildings of the monastery that can still be seen today are attributable to the construction period that began in 1536. In accordance with the typical structure of the Franciscan monasteries at that time, there was a nave without aisles , a south transept, a tower and a choir. The monastery garden with the surrounding residential buildings joined on the northern side. The refectory and the associated kitchen were located in the north wing . Some of the structural changes in the living area appear to date from the period after the lifting.

In the monastery garden, some arcades have been preserved on the north, south and east sides. It is possible that the work was never completed to the extent that the arcades on the west side were also completed. The arcades themselves are very simple in shape. Only a few simple stone carvings are striking, one of which shows Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds.

literature

  • Harold G. Leask: Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings: Volume Three . Dundalgan Press, Dundalk 1960.
  • Aubrey Gwynn and R. Neville Hadcock: Medieval Religious Houses Ireland . Longman, London 1970, ISBN 0-582-11229-X .
  • Peter Harbison: Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland . Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992, ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 .
  • Colmán N. Ó Clabaigh: The Franciscans in Ireland, 1400-1534: From Reform to Reformation . Four Courts Press, Dublin 2002, ISBN 1-85182-548-7 .

Web links

Commons : Creevelea Friary  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. See Gwynn and Hadcock, p. 248.
  2. See Ó Clabaigh, pp. 62 and 63.
  3. See Gwynn and Hadcock, p. 248; Ó Clabaigh, p. 63.
  4. Cf. Ó Clabaigh, p. 63.
  5. See Harbison, p. 212.
  6. See Leask, pp. 149-151.

Coordinates: 54 ° 13 ′ 52 ″  N , 8 ° 18 ′ 35 ″  W.