Kilcrea Friary is located near Ovens in County Cork

County Cork

County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. It is in the barony of Muskerry, a short distance west of Cork city

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

. To the west of the friary stand the ruins of Kilcrea Castle which was also built by the friary's founder.

Name

The name Kilcrea means the Church of Cré, a woman who founded a hermitage

Hermitage (religious retreat)

Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.-Western Christian Tradition:...

 here before the time of the Franciscan

Franciscan

Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

s. The name Kilcrea means the Cell of Cere, Cera or Cyra. Saint Cyra

Saint Cyra

Saint Cyra was an early Irish abbess. Her feast day is October 16.The virgin saint was abbess of the famous monastery of Killchere in that part of Munster which was called Muscragia or Muskerry. The site is now occupied by the ruins of a later Franciscan Kilcrea Friary...

, lived in the 6th century, and is said to have founded a nunnery about a mile east of the friary in the parish of St Owen's, now called Ovens.

History

Founded in 1465 for the Observant Franciscans by Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, Lord of Muskerry, Kilcrea Friary is located on the site on an earlier monastery, and named after Saint Cyra

Saint Cyra

Saint Cyra was an early Irish abbess. Her feast day is October 16.The virgin saint was abbess of the famous monastery of Killchere in that part of Munster which was called Muscragia or Muskerry. The site is now occupied by the ruins of a later Franciscan Kilcrea Friary...

. He is interred in the centre of the choir. The Friary was officially suppressed in 1542 but continued in use under MacCarthy patronage. It was sacked by English troops in 1584. In 1597, it was granted to Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy who leased it to Richard Hardinge.

In 1661, the friary was granted to the first lord of Clancarty. It was vested in the Commissioners of Public Works in 1892. However, as late as 1832, a small number of friars remained living on the site. A graveyard is situated within the ruins of the Abbey. This was the burials place of the MacCarthys of Muskerry from 1494 to 1616, commencing with Cormac MacCarthy. No trace of the MacCarthy tombs survive. The Friary has been used for general burial since the early 17th century. Art Ó Laoghaire

Art Ó Laoghaire

Art Ó Laoghaire , a Roman Catholic, was an officer in the Austrian army.Having returned home to Rathleigh House near Macroom, Cork, Ireland, Art refused to sell his prize-winning horse to Englishman Abraham Morris, and was thus made an outlaw...

 is buried here.

Features

Kilcrea Friary consists of a nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 and chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 church with tower, cloister and surrounding east, west and north range of buildings. The nave measures 25.95m in length by 7.20m in width. The friary is carefully laid out on a square and the church is entered through a doorway in its west gable. An arcade separates the nave from the south aisle and transept

Transept

For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

. A recess for a holy water stoup is found outside the doorway and in the gable over the doorway are the remains of a large, three-light window. The tower contained four storeys which had timber floors supported on stone corbel

Corbel

In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...

s. Each storey was lit by plain, narrow, flat-headed windows, except for the top storey where there is a single ogee-headed light in each wall. No trace survives of the high altar which would have been sited under the east window, but an arched piscina

Piscina

A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. Roman Catholics usually refer to the drain, and by extension, the basin, as the sacrarium...

 is found nearby in the south wall. On the north side of the church is the cloister area and domestic buildings, which include the remains of the chapter room, the refectory and dormitories. Adjoining the chancel of the church is the sacristy

Sacristy

A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...

, above which is the scriptorium. A 15th century manuscript written at Kilcrea is preserved in Rennes

Rennes

Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

See also

• List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Cork)

External links

• Ecclesiastical Ireland - Photographs of Kilcrea Friary