Finding the relics of saints in churches, but who was the boy in Wexford Friary?

The reliquary of Saint Adjutor in the Franciscan Friary Church in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Feast of All Saints [1 November], and one of the major feasts in the calendar of the Church.

It is a constant source of amazement to realise how many saints’ bodies and parts of their bodies are kept in churches throughout Ireland. They include the head of Oliver Plunkett in Saint Peter’s Church, Drogheda, the remains of Saint Valentine in Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin, until recently the heart of Saint Laurence O’Toole in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and the bodies of two child martyrs from Rome: Saint Victoria in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, and Saint Adjutor in the Franciscan Friary in Wexford.

I remember children in Wexford being teased: ‘What did the boy in the Friary die of?’

‘He died of eating an egg on a Friday.’

But people from throughout Ireland and beyond visit the Friary to see Saint Adjutor, the boy martyr, killed by his own father. The shrine was once listed in the Lonely Planet, and the life-like waxen figure shows the wounds inflicted by the young boy’s father.

It is said Saint Adjutor was martyred in the third century by his own father, who dealt a hatchet blow to his head when he heard that young Adjutor had attended the confirmation of a Christian friend.

The figure was brought to Wexford in 1856 by Richard Devereux, who was presented with the relic by Pope Pius IX during a trip to Rome. Richard Joseph Devereux (1829-1883) was a Liberal MP for Wexford (1865-1872) while his brother, John Thomas Devereux, was MP for Wexford (1847-1857) before him.

The Devereux brothers were the merchant princes of Wexford in the Victorian era. Richard Devereux owned one of the largest fleets of sailing ships in Ireland and brought the first cargo of Indian corn to Wexford during the Famine.

When Richard Devereux died in 1883, the reliquary was moved from his house to the friary, and the waxen figure of Saint Adjutor is now enshrined in a glassed, enclosed reliquary at the back of the Friary Church.

On a wall beside the shrine, a typed explanatory note reads:

The Reliquary of St Adjutor

The waxen figure which is enclosed in the casket contains a relic of St Adjutor.

The 3rd century was a very difficult one for the church. Many Christians were martyred by order of the Emperor. Very little is known about the life of Adjutor, but it is said that he was one of these martyrs.

During the pontificate of Pope Pius IX the relic of St Adjutor was taken from the cemetery of Preatextatus in Rome about the year 1850. The relic was placed in the wax figure and this wax figure was then clothed in cloth of gold texture.

The relic was given as a token of appreciation to Richard Devereux of Wexford while he was on a pilgrimage to Rome in the 19th century. After some years in his keeping, the reliquary was transferred to the friary in 1883.

Very little is known about the 3rd century martyrs. Some legends have been passed down about some of them, including St Adjutor. They persevered in the faith in very difficult times.

The tomb of Canon John Corrin in the Friary was designed by AWN Pugin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Whether Saint Adjutor ever existed is a topic for another debate. Visitors who come to see his shrine only are likely to pass by the more interesting monument designed by AWN Pugin to commemorate Canon John Corrin, who was parish priest of Wexford throughout 1798 and who died on 4 April 1835, at the age of 86.

The inscription reads:

Of your charity
Pray for the repose of the soul of
Very Rev John Corrin, VG [Vicar General] of Ferns,
Who lieth buried under this stone.

Canon Corrin used the Friary Church as his parish church as there was no Roman Catholic parish church in the town until 1858 and the completion of the Twin Churches in Rowe Street and Bride Street.

Shortly after his appointment as parish priest in 1781, Canon Corrin rebuilt the Friary chapel with the support of the Franciscans and the parish. It was enlarged in 1812 and again in 1827.

The Italianate tower of the Friary seen from High Street through the houses of Mary Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Franciscan Friars have been an intrinsic part of life in Wexford town for almost eight centuries. They first arrived in Wexford in 1230 or 1240, when a friary was founded by William Marshall and they have been present in the town ever since.

The Franciscans survived throughout the ages through the collection of alms, and donations from the townspeople of Wexford. Their friary was suppressed at the Reformation, the friars were expelled in 1540, and stones of the old friary were used to repair Wexford Castle in 1560.

But the friars remained in Wexford, and in the early 17th century were renting a house in Archer's Lane, off High Street, on the site of the present Opera House, and opposite the house I once lived in on High Street.

In 1649, Father Raymond Stafford, a Franciscan was killed in the Bull Ring as he pleaded with Cromwell’s soldiers to stop the slaughter of the people of the town. Six other friars – Richard Sinnott, John Esmonde, Paulinus Sinnott, Peter Stafford, James Rochford and the blind Didacus Cheevers – died at the altar in their church as they led the people in prayer before the onslaught of the Puritans.

Local lore says a shot fired at a crucifix held up by Father Raymond Stafford in the Bull Ring was deflected and killed a Cromwellian captain. There are also tales that other shots failed to penetrate the habits of some of the Friars.

Despite the sacking of Wexford, some Franciscans remained in the community incognito. At Easter 1654, four Franciscans were captured and hanged near Wexford Friary. In 1658, a Franciscan Guardian was re-appointed in Wexford, and with the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 the Franciscans were free to come out of hiding.

By 1690, the Franciscans had returned to the site of their original friary, renting it at a nominal rent until they were able to purchase the site where School Street meets John Street. An 18th century member of the Franciscan community in Co Wexford was Father James Comerford, who was parish priest of Tagoat and Rosslare from 1709 to 1734.

The striking interior of the Friary Church with its exquisite stucco work and panelled ceiling (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The present church is largely an 18th century building, when extensive renovation work took place, although two of the walls date from pre-Cromwellian times. The church is architecturally striking with its exquisite stucco work decorating the panelled ceiling, on which the brothers Richard, Robert and James Comerford worked in the early 19th century.

The grounds of the church hosted huge Temperance rallies addressed by Father Theobald Mathew in the 1840s.

Before the Twin Churches were built in Wexford in 1851-1858, the Friary Church also served as the parish church in the town.

The Franciscans led the way in terms of ecumenism in Wexford town, and during major renovations of the Friary Church in the 1980s, they accepted the friendship and hospitality offered by the Church of Ireland parish, and celebrated their Masses in Saint Iberius’s Church.

In 2007, the Franciscans of the Order of the Friars Minor (OFM or brown friars) left the Friary, and the Franciscan presence in Wexford is now maintained by the Conventual Franciscans or grey friars.

The spire of Rowe Street church glimpsed through a window in the Friary church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Trim Castle is a strong symbol in stone of Anglo-Norman strength and power

Trim Castle is the largest, best-preserved and most impressive Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Trim Castle on the banks of the River Boyne in Co Meath looks for all the world like the ideal castle for a mediaeval block-buster, peopled with valiant warriors and cloistered monks. And it has been. Mel Gibson and the makers of Braveheart chose Trim Castle as their location.

But history is always more impressive than fiction – or movies – and I walked around Trim Castle, towering above the banks of the River Boyne, early one afternoon this weekend when I stopped there on my way to visit friends who live near the neighbouring Navan.

Trim Castle is the largest, the best-preserved and the most impressive Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland. In the Middle Ages, this was a strong symbol in stone of Anglo-Norman strength and power at the edges of the Pale.

The surviving moat at Trim Castle, built at an important crossing point on the River Boyne(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In Irish, Trim was known as áth Truim or ‘The Ford of the Elder Trees,’ indicating how this was once an important crossing point on the River Boyne, with a local chieftain’s fort and an early monastery on the site.

Shortly after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland, King Henry II granted the Kingdom of Meath to Hugh de Lacy, along with custody of Dublin in 1172 as he tried to curb the expansionist policies of Richard de Clare, best remembered in Irish history as Strongbow.

For strategic reasons, Hugh de Lacy decided to make Trim, rather than Drogheda, the centre of his newly acquired lordship. He converted a ringfort into a wooden castle with a spiked stockade, but this structure was seen as a threat to the Gaelic Irish and in 1174 Rory O Connor, King of Connacht and last High King of Ireland, attacked and destroyed the castle.

The following year, work began on a more permanent stone replacement and over the following decades Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter built the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Europe.

The three-storey, 20-sided tower is the central stronghold of Trim Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Initially a stone keep, or tower, replaced the wooden fortification. Work on building the massive three-storeyed keep, the central stronghold of the castle, began ca 1176 on the site of an earlier wooden fortress. This massive 20-sided tower, which is cruciform in shape, was protected by a ditch, curtain wall and moat.

The keep was remodelled and then surrounded by curtain walls and a moat. The wall, punctuated by several towers and a gatehouse, fortified an area of about three acres. Walter de Lacy’s castle was completed by about 1224.

The unique 20-sided cruciform design of the keep, with walls that are three metres thick, typifies the experimental military architecture of the day. This keep was both the domestic and administrative centre of the castle.

When Walter de Lacy died in 1241, Trim Castle was inherited by his grand-daughter Mathilda (‘Maud’). When Mathidla died in 1304, her second husband, Geoffrey de Geneville, Lord of Vaucouleurs in France, entered the Priory at Saint Mary’s in Trim. Trim then passed to their oldest daughter, Joan. In 1301, she married Roger Mortimer and the castle passed to the Mortimer family.

A new great hall was built at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The next phase of building and expansion of Trim Castle came at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, when a new great hall was built, with an under-croft and attached solar in a radically altered curtain tower. A new forebuilding and stables were also added to the keep.

During the late Middle Ages, Trim Castle was the centre of administration for Meath and marked the outer northern boundary of The Pale. King Richard II stayed there before being deposed in 1399. Richard II left behind two boys as wards: Prince Hal later became Henry V, while Humphrey of Gloucester later became known as the ‘Good Duke’; the guests were housed in the gate-tower at the drawbridge.

The Mortimer family continued to hold Trim Castle until 1425, when the descendants of Roger Mortimer died out.

The estate passed to the next heir in the female line, Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York and great-grandson of Edward III. He was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, and in 1461, Richard’s son, King Edward IV, appointed Germyn Lynch of London to be his representative at Trim.

The Irish Parliament met in Trim Castle seven times (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

During the 15th century, the Irish Parliament met in Trim Castle seven times, notably in 1465 when it passed a law authorising the beheading of all robbers or those under suspicion of robbery.

By 1500, Trim Castle was in decline, but it remained an important outpost on the north-west edges of the Pale. Much of its fabric has remained unchanged since then. But in the 16th and 17th centuries, Trim Castle had declined in importance, except as a potentially important military site, and the castle soon began to deteriorate.

The castle was refortified during the Confederate and Cromwellian wars in the 1640s. After the Drogheda was sacked in 1649, the garrison of Trim fled to join other Irish forces and Trim was occupied by Cromwell’s army.

After the wars of the 1680s, the castle was granted to the Wellesley family who held it until Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who received his early schooling in Trim, sold it to the Leslie family.

From the Leslie family, Trim Castle passed through the Encumbered Estates Court into the hands of the Plunkett family of Dunsany Castle. They left the lands open and from time to time allowed various uses, with part of the Castle Field rented for some years by the Town Council as a town dump.

The Plunketts of Dunsany held Trim Castle and the surrounding until 1993. After years of discussion, Lord Dunsany sold the land and buildings to the State, retaining only river access and fishing rights.

The Office of Public Works began a major programme of exploratory works and conservation, costing over €6 million, including partial restoration of the moat and the installation of a protective roof. The castle re-opened to the public in 2000.

There was some local controversy in 2003 when the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Martin Cullen, decided not to oppose a five-storey hotel being built across the road from the castle despite the opposition of local councillors and heritage bodies.

Trim Castle was built in three phases and has two main gates (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The surviving curtain walls of Trim Castle were built in three phases. The west and north sides of the enceinte are defended by rectangular towers, including the Trim Gate, dating from the 1170s. The Dublin gate was erected in the 1190s or in the early 13th century. The remaining wall to the south with its round towers dates to the first two decades of the 13th century.

The castle has two main gates. The gate in the west side dates to the 1170s and sits on top of a demolished wooden gateway. The upper stories of the stone tower were altered to a semi-octagonal shape, ca 1200. The Dublin Gate in the south wall is a single round towered gate with an external barbican tower. It dates from the 1190s or the early 13th century and is the first example of its type to be built in Ireland.

Apart from the keep, the main structures that survive to this day consist of:

1, An early 14th century three-towered fore work defending the keep entrance and including stables within it. This is accessed by a stone causeway crossing the partly filled-in ditch of the earlier ringwork.

2, A huge late 13th-century three aisled great hall, with an under croft beneath its east end opening via a water gate to the river.

3, A stout defensive tower, turned into a solar in the late 13th century at the north angle of the castle.

4, A smaller aisled hall, added to the east end of the great hall in the 14th or 15th century.

5, A building that may have been the mint and that was added to the east end of the smaller aisled hall.

6, Two 15th or 16th-century stone buildings added inside the town gatehouse.

7, Some 17th-century buildings, added to the end of the hall range and to the north side of the keep.

8, A series of lime kilns, one dating from the late 12th century, the remainder from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Trim Castle is open in November and December on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a small entrance charge.

In November and December, Trim Castle is open on Saturdays and Sundays (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)