Callan
Augustinian Friary
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
The ruined Augustinian
friary is situated in a green meadow on the north bank of the King River,
opposite the town of Callan, in County Kilkenny. The friary is a late medieval
foundation of the mid-15th century. The present (2018) ruins consist
of the church with its central tower belfry. When the friary was suppressed in
1540 there were in addition to the church, a dormitory, hall, three chambers.[1]
Friary west gable and north wall
In 1461 Edmund, son of
Sir Richard Butler of the Polestown branch of the Butler family, and his wife
petitioned the Pope to establish an Augustinian friary in Callan.[2]
In 1455 Edmund Butler and Gyles, his wife, had acquired property in and around
Callan from James son of Walter Spellys.[3] The
proposed friary could have been built on some of this property. On 3rd
November 1461 Pope Pius II instructed the abbot of Ferns to proceed with the
foundation. But before anything worthwhile was accomplished Edmund Butler was
defeated in battle in 1462 as part of the War of the Roses. In June 1464 Edmund
Butler died.[4]
After a period of time, Edmund’s eldest son, James Butler, renewed the project.
It is said that James Butler was driven by the project as reparations for
living with a relative in concubinage for many years before their marriage was
formalised about 1467.[5]
In 1472 James Butler was granted the lordship of Callan by King Edward IV for
life.[6]
In 1487 James Butler was buried in the friary church with the title of founder.[7]
In 1515 James’s son, Pierce Ruadh Butler, became Earl of Ormond on the death
without male heirs of his cousin, Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond and after Pierce
denounced his two elder brothers as illegitimate.[8] In
1516 Isabella Blanchfield was examined in Callan friary in which she said that
the Earldom of Ormond descended by heirs male and thus Pierce Butler was the
rightful Earl.[9]
The nave looking towards the chancel under the central tower
Once established the
friary became noted for its fine library and its care for the poor. In 1472 the
friary renewed the rule of St. Augustine by adopting the Observant reform and
became independent of the English province. In 1479 the Callan friary was
chosen as the centre of the Irish Observant Congregation.[10]
Outside south wall of chancel
With the friary in
operation many other people of lesser means than Edmund and James Butler made
donations to the friary of property, goods and money in return for prays to
help the soul of the donor, and others, in the afterlife. In April 1507
Richard Trody gave a messuage in Callan to the Augustinian friary.[11]
In 1530 Nicholas Avell gave to the friary a bushel of wheat and a bushel of
oats.[12]
North wall of the nave
But the 16th
century saw a political crisis in England causing a religious revolution. In
1540 the Augustinian friary at Callan was suppressed as part of the general
dissolution of the monasteries and religious guilds. William O’Fogarty was the
last prior and surrendered the three acre friary site to the government
officials with its church, dormitory, kitchen, three chambers and other
buildings with gardens and enclosed fields. But these buildings were by 1540
already in a ruinous state and of no monetary value. Extra commercial property
owned by the friary did have a monetary value (10s 8d) and this consisted of
three messuages, including a bake-house, two gardens and an acre of meadow. In
1541 a revaluation of the friary put 20s 8d on its worth. Yet this amount excluded
a ruinous watermill with a parcel of land (2s 6d) and a quarter of an acre in
Callan town at a place called Gorttnemraher (4d) which was concealed from the
government by Sir Thomas Butler.[13]
In November 1590 an inquisition was made at Callan by 3 commissioners and 12
jurors into this concealed land, and then held by Thomas Butler, Earl of
Ormond.[14]
East window and north wall
In 1540 James Butler,
Earl of Ormond, was granted the friary by the government in return for an
annual rent but the Earl was not a good payer of the rent which fell into
arrears.[15]
The lease on the friary was for 21 years at 21s 8d per year.[16]
The Butler family acquired not just Callan friary but most of the dissolved
religious houses in County Kilkenny such as Jerpoint, Kells and Duiske in
return for supporting the Protestant Reformation.[17] In
1548 the site of the friary was held by the executors of the late Earl of
Ormond.[18]
In 1557-8 the friary was granted to Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, to hold in capite forever. In 1618 King James
included Callan friary in a sweeping grant of land to Lady Elizabeth Butler
(daughter of Earl Thomas) and her husband, Preston, which included Kilkenny
castle and which left the new Earl of Ormond, Walter Butler with a much reduced
estate.[19]
Meanwhile the displaced Augustinian friars continued to live in the Callan area
and in 1766 built a new monastery in the town.[20]
West doorway
Inside the central tower
Inside the central tower with east to the right
South wall of the nave by the central tower
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End of post
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[1] Gwynn,
A. & Hadcock, R.N., Medieval
Religious Houses Ireland (Blackrock, 1988), p. 297
[2]
Gwynn & Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses Ireland, p. 297
[3]
Curtis, E. (ed.), Calendar of Ormond
Deeds, volume III, 1413-1509 A.D. (Dublin, 1935), p. 175
[4]
Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds,
volume III, 1413-1509 A.D., p. 204
[5]
Gwynn & Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses Ireland, p. 297
[6]
Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds,
volume III, 1413-1509 A.D., p. 214
[7]
Gwynn & Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses Ireland, p. 297; Curtis (ed.), Calendar
of Ormond Deeds, volume III, 1413-1509 A.D., p. 323
[8]
Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds,
volume III, 1413-1509 A.D., pp. 207, 296-7; Curtis, E. (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds, volume IV,
1509-1547 A.D. (Dublin, 1937), pp. v, vi
[9] Curtis
(ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds, volume
IV, 1509-1547 A.D., p. 30
[10]
Gwynn & Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses Ireland, p. 297
[11]
White, N.B. (ed.), Irish Monastic and
Episcopal Deeds, A.D. 1200-1600 (Dublin, 1936), p. 238
[12]
Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds,
volume IV, 1509-1547 A.D., p. 140
[13]
Gwynn & Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses Ireland, p. 297
[14]
White (ed.), Irish Monastic and Episcopal
Deeds, A.D. 1200-1600, pp. 274-5
[15]
Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds,
volume IV, 1509-1547 A.D., p. 192
[16]
Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds,
volume IV, 1509-1547 A.D., p. 206
[17]
Edwards, D., The Ormond Lordship in
County Kilkenny, 1515-1642: The rise and fall of Butler feudal power (Dublin,
2003), p. 14
[18]
Gwynn & Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses Ireland, p. 297
[19]
Edwards, The Ormond Lordship in County
Kilkenny, 1515-1642, pp. 15, 116
[20]
Gwynn & Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses Ireland, p. 297
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