Holycross Abbey

HOLYCROSS - Holycross Abbey

View of Holycross Abbey from across the Suir, with the mill wheel to the left

HOLYCROSS - Holycross Abbey

HOLYCROSS - Holycross Abbey

View of Holycross Abbey from across the Suir, with the mill wheel to the left

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Architectural Features

The majority of the Abbey dates from the early 15th Century, although parts of the nave are of the original late 12th/early 13th Century structure. The interior of the church houses several noteworthy pieces of design and decoration. There is a beautifully carved sedilia in the chancel, known traditionally as "The Tomb of the Good Woman's Son". It carries the arms of England, the Butler family, the Fitzgeralds and the Abbey itself. Situated in the south transept is a shrine known as "The Waking Bier of the Monks". It has been put forward that this shrine was used to house the bodies of dead monks prior to their burial, but it is more likely that it was here that the relic of the True Cross, from which the Abbey gets its name, was housed. On the wall of the north transept can be seen a tempera painting from the 14th Century. Measuring 4 feet by 16 feet, it depicts a hunting scene from that period: shown is a huntsman with a hound, 2 archers and a stag, which is taking refuge behind an oak tree. The painting is not thought to depict any specific scene from the history of the Abbey.

The Relic of the Cross

As previously mentioned, the Abbey derives its name from the relic of the cross that was housed in the church. It was granted to Muirchertach O'Brien by Pope Paschal II in 1110. Another account states that the relic was a gift from Eleanor, the wife of Henry II. It remained in the Abbey until 1633, when the then Abbot, Luke Archer, accompanied by some of the monks, took up residence in Kilkenny, taking the relic with them.

Dissolution and Restoration

Despite the fact that the Abbey was dissolved in 1536 (and granted to the Earl of Ormond), it still functioned as a working monastery until 1752. It was in that year that a monk called Cormack, the last cleric to reside in the Abbey, died. After his death the Abbey was used extensively as a burial ground, and fell into ruin.

Reconstruction work on the Abbey began in the 1970s, the eventual goal being to re-establish the church as a fully operational place of worship. This goal was achieved in October 1975 when a celebration of restoration was held in the Abbey, marking the building's rebirth as the parish church of Holycross. The 1970s also saw the return of the artefact that had first made the monastery famous, the Relic of the Cross, granted to the Abbey from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Sources - Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, "Holy Cross Abbey"; Dúchas, "Archaeological Inventory of Co. Tipperary, Vol. 1"