Spaces of movement and meditation: Franciscan choirs in Ireland
p. 17-43
Résumé
From the time of their arrival in Ireland in 1224 and until the dissolution of monasteries in the 1540s, mendicant orders enjoyed sustained success in the cities and boroughs of the country, and in its more rural and remote regions. The Franciscan order was the most prolific of mendicant orders in Ireland, both in the first few decades of their arrival and during their Observant revival in the fifteenth century. The surviving remains of their friaries offer architectural historians, art historians and archaeologists a unique opportunity to observe the material realisation of Franciscan ideals and their attitudes to the use of space, as well as tackling questions about architecture, decoration and the spatial division of these friaries. This chapter discusses the position of a choir in Irish Franciscan churches, focusing on how the choir was related to the general division and organisation of ecclesiastical space, and how the choir expressed Franciscan ideals, both materially and symbolically.
Entrées d’index
Keywords : Ireland, Franciscan churches, choir, chancel, sanctuary, tower, burials, iconography
Texte intégral
1A large corpus of Franciscan friaries remains standing across Ireland. Although now empty of furnishings, these buildings have preserved to various degrees the late medieval fabric of ecclesiastical space. Apart from a few examples of churches that are still in use, most friaries are in a ruinous state. What survives offers architectural historians, art historians and archaeologists a unique opportunity to observe the material realisation of Franciscan ideals and attitudes to the use of space, and tackle questions about architecture, decoration and division of space. This chapter discusses the position of the choir in the Irish Franciscan churches, looking specifically at how the choir related to the general division and organisation of space. By combining architectural and archaeological as well as textual and iconographical evidence, it considers the choir as the material, spiritual and symbolic area used by friars. It also looks at the choir’s relation to other spaces, patrons, and the wider lay community1.
The chancel: architectural and archaeological sources
Fig. 1 – Maps of Franciscan foundations: thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (left); fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (right)

2The remains of twenty-seven Franciscan churches standing across Ireland represent the sixty-two recorded medieval foundations of the order (fig. 1)2. They range from entire friaries to partial sections of masonry walls. In fifteen cases, a church, a cloister and domestic buildings survive; most of these nearly complete and impressive ruins are located in the western part of the country and include examples that will be discussed here, such as Quin, Co. Clare (1433)3, Moyne, Co. Mayo (1455, fig. 2) or Adare, Co. Limerick (1464). Six churches survive without adjacent buildings, and are complete or almost complete; they include the remains in Buttevant, Co. Cork (c. 1251-79), Castledermot, Co. Kildare (before 1247, fig. 3) or Moor Abbey, Co. Limerick (1471). The remaining six churches survive in a more incomplete or damaged state, and include Armagh, Co. Armagh (1263-64) and Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny (c. 1232-40).
Fig. 2 – Aerial view of Moyne friary

© Discovery Programme
Fig. 3 – Castledermot Franciscan friary church, ground plan

© A.-J. Lafaye
3Irish Franciscan churches have long chancels, close or equal in length to naves. From the fourteenth century onwards, central towers began to be erected between chancels and naves, and around that time lateral aisles were added along the nave on the side opposite to the cloister, and linked to a chapel placed to the south or north. In Irish scholarship these side chapels are often described as transepts. The so-called transept sometimes had its own lateral aisle, and was sometimes directly connected to the chancel by a passage, as is the case in Timoleague, Co. Cork (c. 1307-16), Askeaton, Co. Limerick (before 1400), or Kilcrea, Co. Cork (1465). In many friaries, internal spaces of both the nave and the chancel are disturbed by the presence of modern burials, making the study of internal space of surviving churches difficult4.
4In general, chancels of earlier foundations are on average longer than those of the fifteenth-century foundations, regardless of whether the latter were Observant or Conventual, which might have reflected the decreasing size of communities, although the overall dimensions of claustral complexes did not change much over time. The vast majority of the late medieval chancels are between 10 and 14 metres long with the examples of Muckross, Co. Kerry measuring 12 metres (fig. 4) and Moor Abbey, Co. Limerick measuring 11.5 metres. In the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century foundations, even after the insertion of towers, chancels often measure over 16 metres in length, with four examples being 18 metres or longer: Kilconnell, Co. Galway – 18 metres, Kildare, Co. Kildare – 19 metres, Kilkenny – 22 metres, and Buttevant, Co. Cork – 23 metres. In the case of Kilkenny friary, both textual sources and the surviving fabric suggest that the chancel was actually rebuilt, and probably extended, in the early fourteenth century, with the construction of a new east gable completed in the 1320s5. Evidence in Britain and on the continent has shown that the dimensions of the chancel could be determined by the fact that it had functioned as the first church of the friars, to which a nave was added later in order to accommodate the growing crowds assembling to hear friars preach6. This may well have been the case for the early foundations in Ireland, especially in an urban context, though we are lacking archaeological and historical records to fully support such chronological sequencing. Indeed, while a number of Franciscan friaries and sites of friaries have been excavated, only one chancel, that of the Franciscan church in Armagh has ever been excavated in Ireland. Archaeological excavations in Armagh friary suggest that both the chancel and nave belong to the same phase of construction in the thirteenth century, beginning sometime before 1266, when Patrick O’Scannail, archbishop of Armagh, had a “broad and deep ditch” cut around the church, and consecrated the cemetery7.
Fig. 4 – Muckross Franciscan friary, ground plan

© A.-J. Lafaye
5It can be difficult to ascertain how far westwards chancels extended before the insertion of towers and whether rood screens had a depth to them rather than being single screens. However, it can be safely suggested that pre-tower chancels stretched at least as far as the doorway leading into the cloister, which means they would have been an extra three to five metres longer prior to addition of towers. Overall, Franciscan chancels were long and spacious structures, a characteristic they shared with chancels of their mendicant counterparts, namely the Dominicans, Carmelites and Augustinian friars. The excavation of Armagh friary church revealed some interesting material elements within the space of the chancel, such as the base of an altar and a number of wall tombs8. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases excavations have been restricted to the site of the cloister and domestic ranges. The excavation of further chancel spaces would certainly contribute to a better understanding of the division and articulation of space in mendicant churches. In light of limited excavations, we must rely mostly on the physical evidence from surviving churches, textual sources and iconography in order to analyse and appreciate the space of Franciscan chancels.
Symbolism of the choir in textual sources
6 Bearing in mind the location of the choir in relation to other spaces in Irish friaries, it is worthwhile to consider what the word “choir” or chorus could have meant to medieval friars. In his influential exposition on the allegorical meaning of church architecture and liturgical rites, William Durand of Mende (1230-1296), whose text was known to the friars in Ireland, writes that “the choir of the clergy is the agreement (consensio) of the singers, or the multitude gathered for the sacred mysteries9”. According to Boethius (c. 480-524), some of whose works were also read by the Irish Franciscans, the consensio mentioned by Durand meant an agreement of disagreeing parts that led to harmony10. Durand proceeds then to explain that “the word chorus comes from ‘circular dance [chorea]’ or ‘crown [corona]’. For in the past, clerics used to stand in a circle around the altar, and they used to sing psalms in unison (concorditer)”. Durand links the word chorus with concordia and charity, for only those who have charity “sing in unison with others11”. For Durand, the very etymology of the word “choir” implies harmony and unity. Elsewhere in his treatise Durand, attributing the statement to Richard of Saint-Victor, writes that the choir together with the sanctuary and the nave signify “the threefold ordering of those saved in the church: the sanctuary signifies the order of virgins; the choir, the order of the continent; the body of the church, the married12”. Each of these sections of the church is progressively smaller in order to indicate the progressively smaller number of people in each group as well as a progressively more sacred nature of each space. This statement is also repeated in a highly popular text of James de Voragine’s (c. 1230-1298) The Golden Legend that likewise cites Richard of Saint-Victor and stresses a symbolic meaning of the choir and other parts of the church, with the choir connecting and separating the nave and the sanctuary13.
7If the choir was indeed the unifying space as expressed in the allegorical expositions of Durand and de Voragine, is it possible to discern how the notion of harmony was constructed and expressed in the actual friary buildings? How was the sense of architectural harmony experienced by the friars as they moved between private and communal spaces and arrived in the chancel? How did iconography help to create the sense of spatial harmony? And how did the choir space express communal ideals through the unity of architecture, imagery and liturgy?
The chancel: physical evidence and internal divisions
8There is no direct material evidence for the position of the friars’ choir within surviving chancels of Irish friaries, and only one reference in our sources mentions wooden stalls used for sitting in the chancel that were donated by a benefactor to Adare friary in the fifteenth century14. But circumstantial evidence about the division of space in the chancels of Franciscan churches may be gathered through a variety of physical elements. Starting with the most obvious one, there was a distinction between the sanctuary and the rest of the chancel, where the choir of the friars would have likely been located. The most evident physical element marking the division of the two spaces was a step between the friars’ choir and the sanctuary. In most cases the step and the resulting spatial division have disappeared, with the ground having been disturbed by modern burials, or levelled during conservation work. The sanctuary might have been further divided by a step or steps placed before the high altar, as was the case in Kilkenny. There, information on the presence of altar steps comes from Franciscan chronicler John Clyn of Kilkenny, who recorded that a flood of 1338 was so heavy that “only the great altar and the steps of the altar remained uncovered and untouched by the flood15”.
9In Adare friary, the height variations of stone mouldings at the base of the tombs and sedilia along the chancel walls might indicate former divisions of the chancel space, and where the sanctuary ended (fig. 5). A difference in floor levels between the western and eastern sections of the chancel suggests that a step or steps would have originally divided the space. The sanctuary takes up just over half of the entire length of the chancel at about seven metres, with the friars’ choir measuring about six metres. The presence of corbels on either side of the walls at the western end of the chancel suggests that a loft or a gallery was once positioned along the short choir and across the tower, and could have provided additional space for the community of friars. A number of other friaries provide evidence for such galleries that could have also been used as a place of honour for privileged guests, for the cantors to stand during the liturgy, and for organs16.
Fig. 5 – Sedilia and tombs, south wall of chancel, Adare Franciscan friary, fifteenth century

Photo: Keith Smith
10In many churches there are other surviving material features associated with the space of the sanctuary: on the south wall are the piscina, where the sacramental vessels were washed, and the sedilia, a set of three seats reserved for the clergy officiating the liturgy. Both features can be quite elaborately decorated. Examples of a double piscina survive in the chancels of Muckross and Buttevant churches, while sedilia were often framed by individual arches and separated by freestanding or engaged columns. Beautiful examples of sedilia survive in the chancels of Kilkenny and Adare, the former with three trefoil arches and slim freestanding columns (fig. 6), and the latter with three moulded, pointed arches resting on engaged chamfered columns (fig. 5). The current height of sedilia is another indicator of the presence of an elevated floor in the sanctuary, as nowadays sedilia often appear too high above the ground for the celebrants to sit comfortably. The doorway to the sacristy is another element indicative of the extent of the sanctuary space, as this door was used by celebrants rather than by the entire community to access the chancel. The community would have entered the chancel to take place in choir stalls through another doorway located further west in the chancel, and most often placed under the central tower. Such a separate communal entrance most likely predated the existence of towers.
Fig. 6 – Sedilia, south wall of chancel, Kilkenny Franciscan friary

Photo: Keith Smith
11Tombs or tomb niches are other material elements that identify the space of the sanctuary. They appear grouped in the eastern part of the chancel, further indicating the extent of the sanctuary. Tombs even took on a liturgical function in the context of the Easter celebration, being used as Easter sepulchres, as discussed later. At times, as in Kilkenny, the windows at the level of the sanctuary are different, they are larger as if to highlight the importance and sacrality of the space. A pulpit or a large wooden lectern would have likely stood in the middle of the choir, as can be seen in the fresco depicting the Christmas miracle at Greccio in the nave of the Upper Church of the Assisi basilica. In the Irish context, the possible base of a pulpit was identified in the excavated chancel of the Armagh church17. While a vast majority of Franciscan churches stand as ruins, the restored mendicant church of the Augustinian friars in Adare gives us the opportunity to see what it might have looked like in the late Middle Ages (fig. 7). It was restored for Protestant worship in the nineteenth century, with an effort to keep as much of the medieval fabric as possible, and it seems that the conservators also kept the medieval internal configuration of ecclesiastical space. The Augustinian church and that of the nearby Franciscan friary have many architectural elements in common, and it is possible that their interiors would have been organised in a similar manner with the choir stalls set against the walls. While there is no archaeological evidence for such a configuration in Ireland, a low stone ledge running on each side of the choir space in the church of the Dominican friary of Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, from the tower to the sanctuary, could have acted as the support for timber stalls18. The absence of wall tombs beyond the space of the sanctuary in most Franciscan churches also indicates a similar layout for the stalls. Another possibility is that the stalls were more centrally placed, forming a separate precinct within the space of the chancel, as was the case in Italian churches19.
Fig. 7 – Chancel, Adare Augustinian friary

Photo: Keith Smith
12Overall, the material evidence in Franciscan chancels seems to highlight the simple division between the sanctuary and the rest of the chancel, strongly suggesting that in Irish Franciscan churches from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, the general position of the choir of the friars did not change. Even though the choir’s exact configuration remains difficult to establish, the spatial relationship between the celebrant and the friars, the celebrant and the laity, and the friars and the laity would have remained the same throughout the period.
The chancel: burials and decoration
13Material and textual evidence helps us see beyond the bare walls of buildings to get a sense of what friars saw when they arrived in a chancel and sat between the high altar placed to the east and the bell tower to the west, and hence what messages were expressed in the space of the chancel. Above the altar, they saw the east window, which in accordance with the 1260 statutes of Narbonne, could have displayed a limited range of subjects, namely the Crucifixion, Mary and John, and Francis or Anthony20. Unfortunately, medieval and early modern Irish sources that reference the glazing of friaries mention the glass colour only occasionally and never the subject matter. In one case, at Creevelea friary, Co. Leitrim, the carving of a lily on the east window suggests that it may have been part of the Annunciation scene21. The glazing, in particular that of the largest east window, was a major financial undertaking and is often recorded in the Irish friary registers that list the names of the deceased benefactors. The Adare register mentions that the glazing was sponsored by the chief donors of the friary, Thomas, Earl of Kildare and his wife Johanna, daughter of the Earl of Desmond, who built the church and a fourth part of the cloister in the 1460s, as well as furnished the church with glass windows, a bell and two silver chalices22. The Dominican register from Athenry, Co. Galway records how a certain noble woman following the death of her husband held a wake for fifteen days at which were present all mendicant orders. To coincide with the burial, “she caused the great window over the high altar […] and all the windows in the choir to be glazed23”. Due to the widespread destruction of Irish stained glass during the upheavals of the early modern period and the fragmentary nature of surviving material, one may only speculate that at least some windows would have included the benefactors’ coats of arms. Such heraldic images that commemorate the donors can be found carved in cloister arcades, on tombs or beneath corbels in the towers of some friaries24.
14The scarcity of altar retables suggests that in many Irish friaries, the east window provided a visual backdrop for the main altar25. Within the prestigious setting of the sanctuary, on the north side of the chancel was often located the tomb of a founder or of a key benefactor. At times, as with the O’Brien tomb in Ennis, Co. Clare (commonly known as the MacMahon-Creagh tomb), it contained the elaborate Passion imagery (fig. 8)26. The position, the flat top of the chest and the iconography suggest that the Ennis tomb served as the Easter sepulchre, used as a symbolic tomb of Christ during Easter celebrations27. Details of respective Passion scenes highlight the liturgical aspect of the events depicted. For example, in the Crucifixion scene, angels gather Christ’s blood into vessels, stressing the sacramental aspect of the Crucifixion28. On the Entombment panel, the shrouded body of Christ is placed on top of a tomb decorated with a design that recalls the structure of an altar and the penitential figure of Mary Magdalene is highlighted by being placed in the foreground of the scene29. In the Resurrection scene, two angels carry thuribles recalling the censing of the Easter sepulchre, while also alluding to the censing of the benefactor’s body or that of the tomb during celebrations of the benefactor’s anniversary30. The overall sequence of the Passion narrative on the Ennis tomb, which begins with the Betrayal and ends with the Resurrection, coincides with the meditation on these events as presented in the Office of the Passion composed by Francis and in other Franciscan texts, including the mid-fourteenth-century Meditations on the life of Christ known to friars in Ireland. Such texts encouraged a personal involvement in the Gospel narratives by focusing on the human aspect of Christ’s life and the pain of his suffering31. For the Ennis friars who viewed the tomb daily as they entered the chancel, the images stressed those ideals that were at the very core of their identity, the Passion and the Eucharist, and Christ’s humanity and humility. For the anonymous female O’Brien sponsor of the Ennis Passion cycle, who herself is depicted next to the Resurrection scene, the images provided models of penance and good death, much needed in the O’Brien family torn in the fifteenth century by internal feuds, homicide and incest32.
Fig. 8 – MacMahon-Creagh tomb, north wall of the chancel, Ennis Franciscan friary, c.1470

Photo: Małgorzata Krasnodębska-D’Aughton
15In the nearby friary at Quin, Co. Clare, a medieval canopy tomb of the benefactors was enhanced in the 1580s by the stucco Crucifixion set above it (fig. 9)33. The friary was founded in the early fifteenth century by the local McNamara family on the site of the earlier Anglo-Norman fortress http://monastic.ie/history/quin-franciscan-friary/. It is possible that the scale of the Crucifixion and its position close to the altar were related to the loss of the rood screen, as the Crucifixion image on the rood, possibly sculpted, was replaced by the Crucifixion executed in a different medium34. The position of the large-scale Crucifixion image on the chancel wall could have reminded the Irish friars of the double Crucifixion imagery found in the transept walls of the Upper Church in the Assisi basilica. Executed by Cimabue around 1279-1282 these Crucifixions served as monumental altarpieces painted behind the side altars. The Irish friars would have been aware of the Assisi iconographic programme through their travels to attend chapters held at the Mother Church35. On the other hand, the Quin Crucifixion, created at the end of the sixteenth century in the fashionable medium of stucco, was a testimony to the ongoing though scattered presence of the friars in the area in the post-dissolution period, and to the continued use of the friary church by the McNamara benefactors. The McNamaras not only sponsored the stucco decoration but reroofed the chancel around the same time to enhance it as the family’s mausoleum36.
Fig. 9 – Remains of the stucco Crucifixion, south wall of the chancel, Quin Franciscan friary, 1580s

Photo: Keith Smith
16The area around the main altar was a much-desired burial space. The Adare register contains a curious information about a certain widow, Johanna O’Loughlin, who “caused the addition of ten feet in length to where the seats of the ministers of the high altar are located” to accommodate her tomb, suggesting she was buried next to the sedilia and as close to the altar as she possibly could (fig. 5)37. A seventeenth-century Franciscan minister provincial, Donatus Mooney, who compiled an extensive survey of all Irish houses in 1617-18, often mentions tombs situated in the choir or more specifically in the middle of the choir (in medio chori) that were subsequently destroyed or repositioned. In Drogheda, Co. Louth a magnificent tomb of the Darcy family, regarded as the friary’s founders, was placed in the centre of the choir and decorated with a marble statue38. A chancel tomb of the Baron of Cahir in Clonmel friary, Co. Tipperary was elevated high in the centre of the choir, and decorated with statues and images39. In Clane friary, Co. Kildare as described by Mooney “a marble statue of the founder lies at present over his tomb in the centre of the choir40”. In Athlone, Co. Westmeath the principal donors of the Dillon family were buried in the choir in a tomb decorated with a statue of an armed knight41. Similar freestanding tombs are found in Franciscan choirs outside Ireland; one such example is the now digitally reconstructed tomb of King Richard III in Leicester Greyfriars church, the site of which was excavated in 201342.
17An early modern list of burials from Waterford friary edited by Julian Walton makes an interesting distinction between various areas of the chancel allocated for different burials (fig. 10)43. The list is possibly based on the friary’s list of deceased benefactors, comparable to those from the Franciscan house at Adare and the Dominican house at Athenry. The document indicates the prominence of the altar area as it reads that the founder of the friary, knight Hugo Purcell, was “buried at the left hand side of the altar44”. Near the door to the vestibule and on the same side of the altar was the burial site of a knight, Peter Sweetman. On the opposite side of the altar was the burial of a Waterford judge. Near the chair of the main celebrant (prope cathedram) were buried children of a prominent burgess from the town of Cashel. Facing the altar was the tomb of Richard Butler, son of the Earl of Ormond, and member of one of the most prominent and influential families in Ireland, who was buried alongside his mother and daughter. On the third step leading to the altar was the grave of Thomas Henebre, whose status is not identified45. The document then lists the tombs in the area of the choir (chorus)46. The burial of Edmund Purcell, a descendant of the founder and a judge was located in the upper part of the choir on the right, while in the left part of the choir was the tomb of John Poer. In the left corner of the choir was the tomb of the city official Philip Tobyn and his two sons. In the middle of the entrance of the choir were the burials of three persons with the O’Felan name of the local lords47. Of over seventy medieval burials in the church, about twenty were located in the chancel area, around the high altar and in the choir, indicating the highly important nature of that space.
Fig. 10 – Waterford Franciscan church, ground plan, with position of tombs listed in an early modern list of burials (A.-J. Lafaye).

18Within the chancel, various media focusing on the Crucifixion repeatedly emphasized and visually amplified the unity between the Cross and the Eucharist expressed in Francis’ own Eucharistic writings, some of which were known to the friars in Ireland48. The theme was frequently preached in Franciscan homilies and can be found in the late fifteenth-century manuscript, linked to the O'Brien familiy, that contains sermons on the body of Christ and instructions on the solemn reception of the Eucharist49. The Christ-centred imagery of the chancel, the presence of the high altar and the tombs of benefactors continuously reminded the friars about the sources of their sustenance, both spiritual and material.
The bell tower: movement and memory
19The space of the chancel in Irish Franciscan churches was defined to the east by the sanctuary and the high altar, and to west, almost always, by the bell tower. The tower certainly played a crucial role in the articulation of the ecclesiastical space, especially with regards to the choir of the friars. Towers were added to virtually all churches from the fourteenth century onwards, and became part of all new foundations from then on, typically placed between the nave and the chancel. There are some exceptions to that Irish Franciscan scheme: Ardfert friary, Co. Kerry has a tower built at the west end of the nave, Castledermot friary, Co. Kildare to the south of the chancel (fig. 3) and Askeaton friary, Co. Limerick to the north of the chancel. Early examples of central bell towers include the church of Buttevant friary, Co. Cork, possibly built as early as the end of the thirteenth century. Written records indicate that towers were built in the Kilkenny Franciscan friary and the Athenry Dominican friary in the middle of the fourteenth century50.
20It is highly meaningful that the tower in Irish Franciscan churches appeared as a catalyst for many of the issues relating to the choir of the friars, because of the spatial consequences it had in terms of access, circulation and vision. The questions related to access, circulation and vision are more difficult to answer when the physical separation between the chancel and the nave is gone as a result of the disappearance of towers or rood screens. The near ubiquitous presence of central towers in Irish friaries helps us draw the focus back to such issues.
21Ostensibly, the towers had functional roles as belfries. The often tall and slender towers of Franciscan churches physically express that function, more so than the lower and stockier examples of towers in some Dominican and Carmelite churches. The form of towers also suggests their role in signalling the very presence of friaries in the landscape, especially in more rural areas or small towns. Particularly impressive examples exist in Quin and Claregalway friaries (fig. 11). But the inevitable material impact of towers on the churches themselves was just as significant as their impact on the surrounding landscape, and there is evidence that this impact was in fact foreseen. The immediate effect of the towers was a physical separation of the chancel: it is likely that the addition of towers also introduced a system of doors linked to the tower arches, obscuring the friars from the view of laity, while allowing the latter to have a narrow view of the Eucharist during the elevation, with the doors opening to allow the sight of the high altar. In Moor Abbey sockets at the bottom of tower arches indicate the existence of such doors.
Fig. 11 – Bell tower, Claregalway Franciscan friary

Photo: Keith Smith
22The presence of towers raises the question of what was there before the towers were erected. Are towers the vertical materialisation of a space that already existed and has been identified in mendicant churches in Britain as the “walking place”, where the space was demarcated not by a single rood screen, but by two screens or walls51? In addition, the insertion of a tower could have meant the integration of the rood screen into it, and as in Ross Errilly friary, Co. Mayo the tower could have provided the backdrop for a crucifix and a raised preaching loft. However, a freestanding masonry rood screen placed in front of the central tower in the Sligo Dominican church suggests that the screen and tower could have been two separate structures.
23The insertion of towers is also connected to the physical position and configuration of the friars’ choir in the chancel. If friars’ stalls were placed on either side of the chancel against the walls, the presence of the tower concealed the friars completely from the view of the laity in the nave. But the tower was not just an element of structural closure; it was also, de facto, an element of connection and articulation of various spaces, and of circulation, especially in those friaries where the friars entered the chancel through the space beneath the tower. The tower united the private and sacred space of the chancel and the public space of the nave, becoming the material embodiment of the friars’ role as intermediaries between the secular and the sacred. Towers and their position bring into focus the friars’ relationship with the laity: the tower was a space where burials took place, and sculpted décor could be found, raising the question of what the friars saw when they processed under the tower, going into the chancel from the cloister, processing to the transept, or into the nave during the office of Compline’s Salve Regina, which was originally a Dominican practice adopted by other mendicant orders because of its great popularity amongst the laity52.
24Lurking from high in those Franciscan towers are various creatures, such as pelicans, owls and rams, as well as human figures. A common understanding of the pelican as a symbol of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice found its mendicant interpretation in the late thirteenth-century work composed by Marcus of Orvieto. For Marcus, the pelican symbolised preachers and contemplative persons that withdraw from the world, his lean body stood for discipline over flesh, but like an owl, whose representation features within the tower of Waterford friary, the pelican also stood for dejection, withdrawal and mourning53. The sight of such creatures in the area of the bell tower would trigger for the friars associations with sacrifice and penitence, as well as preaching, for in the words of William Durand the tower itself stands for preachers, who fortify the church54. Similar associations with sacrifice are evoked by the carvings of rams’ heads. A ram’s head can be seen on the vaulting of the bell tower of Kilkenny friary, and in Ennis friary two ram heads are carved on corbels beneath the tower55. The animal evoked the story of Abraham and his son Isaac, whose sacrifice was stopped by divine intervention and appearance of a ram (Genesis 22). In exegesis the sacrifice of Isaac was interpreted as a prefiguration of the Crucifixion as well as the bloodless sacrifice of the Eucharist56. The association of the animal with Abraham and the image of Abraham as the renunciant and pilgrim who left his fathers’ land in obedience to God (Genesis 12) bore significant Franciscan implications. For Bonaventure, Abraham was the figure of renunciation and example for the followers of Francis who should leave behind “their home and family” before joining the order57. Pope Gregory IX evoked Abraham renouncing his carnal ties in the 1228 canonisation bull of Francis, that compares Francis to the patriarchal figures and states that Francis like Abraham left “his country and his kindred” spiritually and physically58. The figure of the patriarch also features in Franciscan texts written in Ireland. Two Irish friars who went to Jerusalem in the early fourteenth century compared their pilgrimage to Abraham “leaving his native land and paternal home”59. A late fifteenth-century Observant poet, Philip Bocht (The Poor) Ó hUiginn presented Abraham as a figure of obedience, who submitted to God’s will by leaving his land and then by his readiness to sacrifice his son. As Philip writes the miraculous appearance of the ram to replace Isaac on the fire of the offering was “a wondrous exchange” when one flesh replaced the other60. In the Assisi basilica, the two scenes of Abraham Greeting the Three Angels and the Sacrifice of Isaac are spatially linked to the scenes of St Francis before the Crucifix and St Francis Renouncing His Father, and present Francis as the father and founder of his order in vein of Abraham as the father of faith61. The architectural setting of the ram as a sacrificial animal in Irish friaries appears well suited in places that precede the entrance to the choir and the main altar, with the animal pointing to the story of Abraham and a wider notion of sacrifice.
Fig. 12 – Sculpted figures, corbels supporting the ribbed vaults of the central tower, Kilkenny Franciscan friary, fourteenth century

Photo: Keith Smith
25In the friary of Kilkenny, the area of the bell tower is decorated with human figures (fig. 12). John Clyn, a Franciscan chronicler, records how the high altar of the friary was consecrated in 1323. On Palm Sunday of 1347, Isabella Palmer, a benefactor, was buried, and is recorded as having built “the front of the choir of the friars” (frontem chori fratrum erigi fecit)62. It has been suggested that this reference describes the rebuilding of the friary’s east end, mentioned earlier. However, it is also likely that the phrase may describe building activity taking place in front of the stalls, towards the tower. In either case, the date of such an enterprise is unknown, though it was likely done before 1323 when the high altar was re-consecrated63. In the year of Isabella’s death, 1347, on the first Sunday in Advent a confraternity was established to repair the church and rebuild the bell tower of the friary that had collapsed64. The establishment of the confraternity indicates a strong social support for the friars from the local community. The building project was delayed when a year later the Black Death spread across Europe and its effects in Ireland were vividly recorded by friar John Clyn. Archaeological excavations revealed hastily conducted burials dated to that period in the western passage of the cloister65. It is likely that the figures of laymen carved on the corbels supporting the arches of the bell tower represent members of the confraternity enclosed in stone so they can be remembered by the friars when they processed underneath the tower to the chancel66. Comparable visual commemoration of confraternity members can be found in continental Franciscan churches. Wooden stalls in the Geneva Franciscan church display lay figures that probably depict Florentines who sponsored the stalls, while in the Lübeck friary confraternity emblems were depicted on the altar67.
26In Ennis, the tower space is decorated with the images of ecclesiastics that possibly represent local O’Brien bishops, including Donatus, who was killed in a family feud in 146068. It is possible that the Ennis images executed during a troubled period in the O’Brien history, were intended as a sign of penance for the family’s transgressions and a reminder to the friars to pray for the family that had been their chief benefactors from the thirteenth century onwards.
The cloister: communal identity
27Cumulative iconographic evidence from Irish Franciscan friaries suggests that while the images in the chancel centred on the cross and those under the tower were intended to trigger repentance or memory of the dead, the images of the order’s founder can be found in the cloisters. Images of the saint were carved in the cloisters of Adare, Askeaton, Creevelea, Co. Leitrim and Meelick, Co. Galway69. Most of the Irish medieval images of Francis focus on the stigmata and preaching70. These two events illustrate two aspects of Francis’ life: the contemplative life of prayer that culminates in the stigmatisation and the active life of preaching, while at the same time they evoke two aspects of the friars’ ministry: prayer and pastoral care. The two events are repeatedly recollected in Julian of Speyer’s Office of Francis composed between 1228 and 1232, which presented to his followers a liturgically condensed vision of Francis and as such impacted on the collective image of the Saint71. A copy of the Office is found in the late fifteenth-century antiphonary from Ireland72. Imagery created liturgically through the Office performed in the choir space was carried through to visual representations of the Saint displayed in the cloister. In Askeaton the image of Francis is positioned at the corner of the cloister arcade, facing the door that opens directly to the chancel (fig. 13)73. It was the last image the friars saw and possibly touched before entering the church and the first they encountered after leaving it74.
Fig. 13 – Image of Francis, cloister arcade, Askeaton Franciscan friary, fifteenth century

Photo: Keith Smith
28The act of moving between the cloister and the church allowed the friars to encounter their patron visually as well as liturgically75. The choir provided a space where architectural and iconographic elements reached their harmony in the communal liturgical practices to express the core values of the Franciscan order. As expounded by William Durand, the choir signified the harmony of physical and social spaces by being located between the sanctuary and the nave of the church.
29The Ennis friary due to its extensive sculptural programme provides an interesting example of how that harmony is visualized. The first image seen by the laity on entering the friary was that of the cross, now lost, surmounting the rood screen and supported by a beam that was placed in sockets still visible in the west wall of the bell tower (fig. 14). Placed to the left of the screen is the portrait of Francis, paired with the depiction of the Man of Sorrows located across the nave. The association between Francis and Christ that reached its visual climax in the Ennis rood screen was carefully arranged with the laity in mind. The image of the Man of Sorrows reminded the laity about Christ’s sacrifice and his wounds imprinted on the body of Francis turned Francis into a particularly effective intercessor76. As the Ennis friars encountered daily the Passion story on the tomb panels in the chancel, their lay audiences could view these stories encapsulated into a single devotional image of the Man of Sorrows displayed in the nave.
Fig. 14 – Nave, Ennis Franciscan friary

Photo: Keith Smith
30The friars’ choir, standing between different spaces, expressed their harmonious agreement and unity through architectural and iconographic features. While the questions on the exact location and meaning of the choir often remain unanswered, a multidisciplinary approach allows us to tease out some possibilities on the friars’ creative use of the choir space that was to accommodate both their spiritual and practical needs.
Notes de bas de page
1 In recent years, students and scholars of medieval monasticism and mendicant orders have been able to rely on a number of online resources, such as CELT (http://celt.ucc.ie/index.html, Corpus of Electronic Texts), a free, searchable database of digitized contemporary and historical Irish sources, and the Monastic Ireland Project (http://www.monastic.ie/), which strives to be an accurate and comprehensive source of information on the history, architecture and material culture of the medieval religious houses of Ireland, for visitors, students and researchers. NB: All websites quoted in this article accessed on 11 May 2017.
2 See Gwynn – Hadcock 1970, p. 240-241.
3 Dates given refer to the year of foundation of a friary as presented in either medieval sources or works of early modern historians.
4 For more on the architecture and internal spaces of Franciscan friaries, see Lafaye 2016, and Mooney 1955, 1956, 1957.
5 Butler 1849, p. 15: the annals of John Clyn, a friar from the Franciscan community of Kilkenny who lived in the first half of the fourteenth century, were first edited by Richard Butler in the nineteenth century and are now available online at http://celt.ucc.ie/published/L100011/index.html. The original manuscript is lost, but a number of seventeenth-century transcripts exist, including TCD MS 574 (written for Archbishop James Ussher, now in Trinity College Library, Dublin), and BL Additional 4789 (once in possession of Sir James Ware, now in the British Library, London).
6 See Bruzelius 2014, p. 23-24, and 89-97. This is the case, for example, with Greyfriars in Oxford, as revealed by extensive excavations in the 1960s and 1970s: Hassall et al. 1989; similar conclusions were reached for the churches of London friaries: Holder 2017, p. 175-178.
7 Lynn et al. 1975, p. 61-80 (a ground plan of the excavated church, facing p. 63).
8 Ibid., p. 69-70.
9 Thibodeau 2007, p. 17; Davril – Thibodeau 1995, p. 18. See also Ó Clabaigh 2002, p. 163.
10 Boetius, De institutione arithmetica 2.32, after Jeffery 2001, p. 248. See also Ysabaert 2010, p. 584-585; Ó Clabaigh 2002, p. 138, 173, 179.
11 Thibodeau 2007, p. 17; Davril – Thibodeau 1995, p. 18.
12 Thibodeau 2007, p. 16; Davril – Thibodeau 1995, p. 17. See also Constable 1995, p. 272-273.
13 Ryan 2012, p. 777.
14 Jennings 1934, p. 63-64.
15 Butler 1849, p. 28: solum altare magnum et gradus altaris de tota abbacia Fratrum Minorum Kilkennie, aqua non attigit nec cooperuit.
16 See Ó Clabaigh 2012, p. 241.
17 Cooper – Robson 2013, p. 160; Lynn et al. 1975, p. 70.
18 Excavations in English and Welsh friaries have identified the foundations for timber choir stalls set against the north and south walls of the chancel in places such as Carmarthen Greyfriars, and Guildford and Ipswich Blackfriars: O’Sullivan 2013, p. 102, 157 and 176.
19 Cooper 2014, p. 55.
20 Ó Clabaigh 2012, p. 247; Bihl 1941, p. 48.
21 Moss 2006, p. 79; MacKenna – Scott 1899.
22 Jennings 1934, p. 63-64 (translation: Franciscan Tertiary 5, 1895, p. 354-356).
23 Ó Clabaigh 2012, p. 152. Coleman 1912, p. 207: Et fecit vitriare magnam fenestram frontis magni altaris et omnes fenestras chori et in vitro et in omnibus expensis ad vitrum pertinentibus expendebat plusquam centum marcas ut asseritur.
24 See for example a tomb in Kilcullen Franciscan friary, http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/26321 and the cloister arcade of Adare Augustinian friary, http://www.monastic.ie/tour/adare-augustinian-friary/#8.
25 Moss 2006, p. 82.
26 Krasnodębska-D’Aughton 2016; http://www.monastic.ie/history/ennis-ofm-friary/.
27 Moss 2014, p. 471; Sheingorn 1987, p. 6-25; Kroesen 1975, p. 45-109.
28 Schiller 1972, p. 119, 205-206; Cheetham 1984, p. 245-258.
29 Sheingorn 1987, p. 26-27; Kroesen 1975, p. 150-51, 153-165.
30 Cheetham 1984, p. 272-281; Duffy 2005, p. 29-33; McGee Morganstern 2000, p. 16.
31 Armstrong et al. 1999, p. 139-157; Ragusa – Green 1961; Flora 2009. See Krasnodębska-D’Aughton 2016, p. 79-84.
32 Binski 1996, p. 33-47; Krasnodębska-D’Aughton 2016, p. 93-96.
33 Shirley 1867, p. 181; Moss 2014, p. 94.
34 Rachel Moss, email 14.07.2016.
35 Cooper – Robson 2013, p. 84-85; Fitzmaurice – Little 1920, p. 1, 42, 45-46, 66.
36 Moss 2014, p. 94.
37 Jennings 1934, p. 64 (translation: Franciscan Tertiary 5, 1895, p. 355); Ó Clabaigh 2012, p. 100.
38 Jennings 1934, p. 28 (translation: Franciscan Tertiary 4, 1894, p. 2): Constat tamen sepulturam ipsius Domini Darsy esse in busto marmoreo in medio chori opere exquisito elaborato.
39 Jennings 1934, p. 78 (translation: Franciscan Tertiary 3, 1895, p. 132): inter coetera sepulchrum Domini Baronis de Cahyr, in medio chori, alte elevatum ex marmore, cum yconibus et statuis.
40 Jennings 1934, p. 86 (translation: Franciscan Tertiary 6, 1895, p. 228): Effigies praedicti fundatoris videtur ibi hodie in marmore, quod superjacet suo sepulchro in medio chori.
41 Jennings 1934, p. 101 (translation: Franciscan Tertiary 7, 1892, p. 34): Quis sit fundator hujus conventus non satis constat. Familia Dillonum hoc sibi attribuunt, quia ibi est quoddam sepulchrum in choro super quo est statua cujusdam militis armati quem suae familiae principalem dominum representare dicunt.
42 You can watch the digital reconstruction of Greyfriars online at http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/archaeology/artisticimpressions.html.
43 Walton 1973. The original manuscript (Waterford Treasures collection, inventory No. 2001.008) is part of the Bonaparte Wyse collection of papers and artefacts.
44 Walton 1973, p. 71.
45 Ibid.; see also Ó Clabaigh 2012, p. 243
46 Walton 1973, p. 70-77.
47 Walton 1973, p. 71.
48 Armstrong et al. 1999, p. 45–60, 77–78, 124–127; Colker 1991, p. 737.
49 Trinity College Dublin, TCD MS 667; Colker 1991, p. 1123-1165; Ó Clabaigh 2002, p. 138-140; Flower 1927, p. 14. Recent unpublished studies by Conor McDonough suggest the possibility of a Dominican provenance for TCD MS 667.
50 Butler 1849, p. 34 and Coleman 1912, p. 206.
51 Vallance 1947.
52 See Bonniwell 1945, p. 148-66.
53 Etzkorn 2010, p. 179-185.
54 Davril – Thibodeau 1995, p. 19 (English translation: Thibodeau 2007, p. 18); Hourihane 2003, p. 99-113.
55 http://www.monastic.ie/history/kilkenny-franciscan-friary/; http://www.monastic.ie/history/ennis-ofm-friary/; Hourihane 2003, p. 46.
56 Cooper – Robson 2013, p. 172; Hourihane 2013.
57 Armstrong et al. 2000, p. 579.
58 Armstrong et al. 1999, p. 567.
59 Esposito 1960, p. 24-25.
60 McKenna 1931, p. 191-192.
61 Cooper – Robson 2013, p. 170-176.
62 Butler 1849, p. xxv-xxvi, 15-34; O’Keeffe 2016, p. 22.
63 Butler 1849, p. 68; Moss 2006, p. 79; O’Keeffe 2016, p. 22.
64 Butler 1849, p. xxvi, 34.
65 O’Keeffe 2016, p. 21.
66 O’Keeffe 2016, p. 23.
67 Charles 1999, p. 100-143; Mänd – Randla 2012, p. 74.
68 Krasnodębska-D’Aughton 2016, p. 93-96.
69 See pictures on: http://www.monastic.ie.
70 Ó Clabaigh 2006, p. 142-162.
71 Armstrong et al. 1999, p. 313.
72 TCD MS 109; Colker 1991, p. 234-235.
73 Ó Clabaigh 2012, p. 226.
74 For recent discussions on sensorial experiences of devotion, including the sense of touch, see Carrillo-Rangel et al. 2019.
75 Dijk 1960, p. 391-393.
76 Armstrong et al. 1999, p. 288; Armstrong et al. 2000, p. 634-639, 650-651; Krasnodębska-D’Aughton 2016, p. 79-84.
Auteurs
University College Cork - m.daughton@ucc.ie
Irish Research Council - annejulie.lafaye@gmail.com
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