St Moluags Cathedral, Lismore
Encyclopedia
Lismore Cathedral, Ireland
St. Carthage's Cathedral, Lismore is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Lismore, County Waterford in Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin....
.
St. Moluag's Cathedral is located on the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
island of Lismore
Lismore, Scotland
Lismore is a partially Gaelic speaking island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. This fertile, low-lying island was once a major centre of Celtic Christianity, with a monastery founded by Saint Moluag and the seat of the Bishop of Argyll.-Geography:...
just off the coast of Oban
Oban
Oban Oban Oban ( is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,120. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can be crowded by up to 25,000 people. Oban...
.
Saint Moluag
Saint Moluag
Saint Moluag, , , was a Scottish missionary, and a contemporary of Saint Columba, who evangelized the Picts of Scotland in the sixth century...
(Old Irish Mo-Luóc) (d. 592
592
Year 592 was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 592 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Byzantine Empire :* The Byzantine Empire regains...
), founded a monastery on the island. It was a major centre of Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...
, and the seat of the later medieval bishopric of Argyll or the Isles. To modern eyes it seems an isolated location for such a centre, but in an era when the fastest and most reliable transport was by water, Lismore was ideally situated.
The Diocese of Argyll
Diocese of Argyll
The Diocese of Argyll was an ecclesiastical territory or diocese in Scotland in the Middle Ages. The Diocese was led by the Bishop of Argyll, and was based at Lismore....
was Scotland's most impoverished diocese, and the fourteenth century Cathedral was very modest in scale. Only the choir survives, in greatly altered form, the nave and western tower having been reduced to their foundations. The chief surviving medieval features are three doorways, one blocked, another originally the entrance through the pulpitum
Pulpitum
The pulpitum is a common feature in medieval cathedral and monastic architecture in Europe. It is a massive screen, most often constructed of stone, or occasionally timber, that divides the choir from the nave and ambulatory The pulpitum is a common feature in medieval cathedral and monastic...
, a 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...
and the triple-arched sedilia
Sedilia
Sedilia , in ecclesiastical architecture, is the term used to describe stone seats, usually to be found on the south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for the use of the officiating priests...
. Several late medieval grave slabs are preserved in the church or adjoining graveyard.
The building is in use as the parish church of Lismore, a congregation of the Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
. It is also linked with Appin Parish Church on the mainland. The minister is Rev Roderick D. M. Campbell, formerly of St Andrew's and St George's Church
St Andrew's and St George's Church
St Andrew's and St George's West Church serves Edinburgh's New Town, in Scotland. It is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. The parish today constitutes the whole of the First New Town of Edinburgh and a small part of the early 19th century Second New Town of Edinburgh...
in Edinburgh; the previous minister the Reverend John A. H. Murdoch moved to Largo & Newburn linked with Largo St David's, Fife, in 2006.