Religious house - Fratres Cruciferi

The National Monuments Service's description

Priory & Hospital of St Mary & St Edward described in the Urban Survey (Bradley et. al. 1989,329-30) as following; 'PRIORY & HOSPITAL OF ST MARY & ST EDWARD, alias HOLY CROSS (FRATRES CRUCIFERI) - According to Ware, Simon Minor placed Augustinians in the priory of SS Mary & Edward before 1216. This was, in fact, a house of Augustinian Cruciferi dedicated to SS Mary, Edward and the Holy Cross (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 214; Begley 1906, 270-4). Described as "near the bridge" in 1321 (Westropp 1904-5, 360) it is shown on the 1590 map as situated in the angle of the town walls, south of the Franciscan Friary, at Sir Harry’s Mall. In 1559 it consisted of the body of the church, a hospital, steeple and a waste garden, barns and close (Westropp 1904-5, 361). Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 214) have suggested that there were two sets of buildings St Mary and St Edward, and Holy Cross, one the priory the other the hospital. It is possible that the references to the church of "Sancte Marie Rotunda" in the inquisition of 1201-2 (MacCaffrey 1907, 28) relates to this site. It cannot be the same, however, as the church of St Mary Magdalen listed in Bishop Donatus O’Brien’s ordinance of 1204-6 (MacCaffrey 1907, 116) because the dedication of the Cruciferi house was clearly to the BVM (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 214)'.
Archaeological testing carried out at 57-8 Mary Street and 1-4 Sir Harry's Mall by Frank Coyne, Aegis Archaeology Ltd, under licence no. 03E1610, uncovered the remains of the graveyard (LI005-017154-) belonging to the abbey along with some architectural fragments. Further excavations by Linda G Lynch took place in 2005 under licence no. 05E0376, which uncovered the remains of 90 skeletons belonging to the graveyard of the abbey.

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 20 December 2019

References

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H.A. 1989 Urban archaeological survey - county Limerick (3 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Westropp, T.J. 1904-5 A survey of the ancient churches of Co. Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 25C, 327-479.

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Begley, J. 1906 The Diocese of Limerick ancient and medieval. Dublin.

MacCaffrey, J. 1907 The black book of Limerick. Dublin.