Wall monument

The National Monuments Service's description

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A mural slab, composed of fossiliferous limestone, commemorating Richard Ragget (d. 1614) and Catherine Garvey (d. 1593) in St. Mary’s Church (KK019-026115) (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 94; Cockerham 2009, 354). Possibly part of a composite tomb, the rest of which has been lost, but more likely to be a standalone mural plaque. It consists of a rectangular slab (L 0.66m; Wth 1m) decorated with a coat of arms showing a fleurs-de-lis ground a ragged staff and on the top of the staff a lizard: crest, an eagle spread out. Over the shield is the text:
RENOVABITVR UT AQVILAE JVVENTVS TVA; and around its sides and base the motto: SAPIENTIA VINCIT MALITIAM.
Beneath is the inscription in large Roman capitals, in relief:
RlCHARDVS RAGET CIVIS KILKENIAE QVI SVPERIORIS MAGISTRAT' MVNERE BIS FVNCT' EST HIC
DEFVNC [ T ' ] . OBIIT 2° DIE MARTII ANNO DNI 1614 ET VXOR EIVS CATHERINA GARVEY OBIIT IO
OCTOBRIS 1593.
On the left and right of the heraldic shield were stylised, ornamented urns. The top of monument is now damaged and partially illegible.
Carrigan notes that it was out in the churchyard c. 1900 and was subsequently moved into the church and put up on the S wall of the S transept (Canon W. Carrigan notebooks, St Kieran’s College Archive, Kilkenny, notebook 33, 157). The slab was set into the floor of the Monuments Room. It was moved to its present location in the S transept in 2015.

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 4 January 2023

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

Cockerham, P. 2009 My body to be buried in my owne monument: the social and religious context of Co. Kilkenny funeral monuments, 1600-1700. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 109C, 239-365.