Knockmoy Abbey
| Knockmoy Cistercian Abbey | |
|---|---|
 Knockmoy Abbey |
|
| location |
 Ireland County Galway |
| Coordinates: | 53 ° 26 '22 " N , 8 ° 45' 15" W |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
494 |
| Patronage | St. Mary |
| founding year | 1190 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
1542 |
| Mother monastery | Boyle Abbey |
| Primary Abbey | Clairvaux Monastery |
|
Daughter monasteries |
Clare Island Abbey (1224?) |
Knockmoy Abbey ( Irish Mainistir Chnoc Muaidhe ; Collis victoriae) is a former Cistercian abbey in the village of Abbeyknockmoy in County Galway in Ireland . It is located in an open valley about 11.0 km southeast of Tuam , near Knockroe, the site of a battle between the Irish and Normans in 1189, which Cathal O'Connor (1153-1224) the last Irish king of Connaught won. The Abbey is a "National Monument".
history
The monastery was donated by the King of Connacht in 1190 and, as a subsidiary of Boyle Abbey, belonged to the filiation of Clairvaux Primary Abbey . The donor Cathal O'Connor died in the abbey in 1224. In 1224 Knockmoy founded Clare Island Abbey .
Knockmoy served the O'Connor family as a mausoleum for some time . The monastery never belonged to the rich abbeys. In the late Middle Ages it came under the control of the O'Kelly family, from whom u. a. Malachy O'Kelly was buried in the monastery in 1401. The Commendatar Abbot Hugh O'Kelly handed the abbey over to King Henry VIII in 1542 and received it as a fiefdom for life. After the dissolution, a kind of “secularized monasticism” is said to have existed in the monastery.
Buildings and plant
Large parts of the cruciform church and the enclosure building have been preserved, even if they have suffered damage from the gravel mining in the area. On the north wall of the church are the wall paintings of the three dead and three living kings , with the subtitle: We have been as you are, you shall be as we are . The three dead kings, also known under the Latin title “De Tribus Regibus Mortuis” or as “The three living and the three dead”, is a Middle English poem from the 15th century. It is found in the manuscript MS Douce 302 and its authorship is sometimes attributed to the Shropshire priest, John Audelay (d. 1426) of Haughmond Abbey. The theme of the "Three Living and the Three Dead" is a relatively common form of memento mori in medieval art. A “Dit des trois morts and des trois vifs” by Baudoin de Condé (died 1280) was traced back to 1280. The picture also appears as a wall painting in the Saint-Germain church in La Ferté-Loupière .
literature
- L. Russell Muirhead (Ed.): Ireland , The Blue Guides, London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1962, p. 197, without ISBN.
- Peter Harbison : Guide to the Naional Monuments in the Republic of Ireland Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992 ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 pp. 96-97