Saint Mary de Castro, a 900-year-old church within the precincts of Leicester Castle

Saint Mary de Castro Church in Leicester is a 900-year-old parish church within the precincts of Leicester Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Mary de Castro is a 900-year-old parish church in a beautiful quiet location within the precinct of Leicester Castle, and I managed to visit it twice during my visits to Leicester within the past two weeks. At the far end of the churchyard, a section of the mediaeval wall separates the castle from the Newarke. It stands on the course of the old Roman city wall of Leicester.

The name Saint Mary de Castro means Saint Mary of the Castle, and the name differentiates the church from the nearby Saint Mary de Pratis or Saint Mary of the Meadows, also known as the monastic church of Leicester Abbey. The unusual church name in Leicester also reminded me of the name of Castro Petre Church, the Church of Ireland parish church on a hill at the west end in Edenderry, Co Offaly, in the Diocese of Kildare.

Saint Mary de Castro was closed for some time after the spire was found to be unsafe and was taken down about 10 years. But the church is open to the public again, and there are regular Sunday and mid-week services.

Saint Mary de Castro dates from 1107, when it was founded as a chapel for the castle after King Henry I granted the lands and castle to Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester.

Saint Mary de Castro dates from 1107, but may stand on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The chronicler Henry Knighton implies that an Anglo-Saxon college of Saint Mary had existed and that Robert merely refurbished it. Local tradition suggests the earlier church on the site long was founded by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great.

Æthelflæd, also known as ‘Lady of the Mercians’, ruled the kingdom of Mercia and helped free the East Midlands from Danish occupation. Today she may be ‘England’s forgotten Queen,’ but she was a formidable leader in a shadowy history of the dark ages, and in Tamworth she is celebrated in sculptures, statues and stained-glass windows.

Robert de Beaumont established the church within the castle bailey as a collegiate church served by a dean and a college of 12 canons. The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and All Souls and he provided a chantry chapel for prayers for the souls of William the Conqueror, his queen Matilda, William II, Henry II and his wife and children, and Beaumont’s own family and relatives. To support the college, he granted the revenues of All Saints’ Church, Saint Peter’s, and other nearby churches and land in the Leicester area.

Robet’s son, Robert le Bossu, 2nd Earl of Leicester, transferred all these endowments to the new Augustinian foundation of Leicester Abbey in 1143. The collegiate church retained its dean, six clerks or priests and a chaplain, along with Robert’s grant of 20 shillings for lamps in the church, as well as parish offerings and most of the tithes.

Saint Mary de Castro Church was closed for a time ten years ago as the spire was carefully removed and put into storage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church has been much altered over the centuries, but some early features survive, including Norman doorways, a 13th century font, a sedilia and a piscina. The tower was built in the 13th century and a spire was added in the 15th century.

The richly carved 13th century font has small heads and winged figures decorating the bowl. There are some exceptional mediaeval carvings on the chancel arcade, and a Roman carved stone is set into the west wall of the church. The timber roof is 16th century and was restored in the Victorian period.

The church exterior has a number of grotesquely carved heads that look out over the large churchyard, said to be the oldest continuously used open space in Leicester city centre.

The richly carved 13th century font has small heads and winged figures decorating the bowl (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The early 12th century church had no aisles, and parts of its walls survive. It had a major expansion in the 1160, with a north aisle, doorways to the north and west, and an extension to the chancel. The two doorways on the north side and at the west end of the north aisle provide striking external Norman zig-zag decoration. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes the sedilia and piscina in the chancel extension as ‘the finest piece of Norman decoration in the county.’

The 13th century alterations culminated in a major reworking of the transepts and the south aisle to create an aisle wider than the nave, providing more space for local parishioners. The mediaeval Saint Mary’s was two churches at once, side by side: one served the castle, the other served the people of the town. This dual-purpose arrangement did not last, though, and eventually the two congregations were combined.

The legacy of the dual-church means the south aisle is extraordinarily wide, because it originally served as a nave. The large east window in the south aisle, with intricate tracery, was created around 1300. The tower was built inside the south aisle, apparently as an afterthought, rising to a quatrefoil frieze, four decorated pinnacles, and with a needle-like spire rising from the battlements.

The chancel at the east end of the north side of the church … note the sedilia and the piscina to the the right, reagrded by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘the finest piece of Norman decoration in the county’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, is said to have married his second wife Philippa Roet in the church in 1366. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III’s queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, later the third wife of Chaucer’s friend and patron, Prince John of Gaunt, who kept Leicester Castle as one of his residences.

The infant king Henry VI, when he was a five-year old, was knighted in the church on the Day of Pentecost 1426 by his uncle, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford and the Regent of France. The child king then proceeded to dub a further 44 knights that same day, the first being 15-year-old Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, father of Richard III.

At the time, the Parliament of Bats was meeting at the castle. Tensions were high at the time and members of parliament were banned from bringing swords with them, and so brought bats instead.

The east end of the south aisle … some historians suggest Richard III prayed in the church the day before setting off for the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

It is suggested by some historians that Richard III may have prayed in the church the day before setting off for the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

The collegiate status of the church lasted until the college was abolished in 1548 under the Chantry Act of Edward VI during the Tudor Reformation.

The meeting in which the Town Council of Leicester resolved to hold the town against the forces of Prince Rupert in 1645 was held in Saint Mary’s. Both Crown and Parliament forces stabled their horses in the church during the Civil War.

William Bickerstaffe (1728-1789), a charitable local schoolmaster and antiquarian, was baptised, buried and held a seven-year curacy at the church.

The doorways on the north side (above) and at the west end of the north aisle (below) are striking examples of Norman zig-zag decoration (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church spire was completely rebuilt in 1783, but retained its crockets and three tiers of lucarnes.

The architect Sir Gilbert Scott designed three Victorian arches in 1852 to replace the unstable large brick arch built in 1800 allowing for a better view of the preacher in the pulpit. The south aisle roof was extensively repaired in the 1930s and is the widest single span timber roof of its kind in England.

The church had to close for a time about 10 years ago when the spire was found to be unsafe. The 14th century octagonal spire, which was rebuilt in 1783, had developed cracks six-metres long in four of its faces in September 2013. Structural engineers who inspected the spire agreed it was at risk of collapse.

While the church was closed in 2014, the spire was carefully removed and put into storage. But current funds are insufficient to rebuild the spire and to repair the tower.

The church has a three manual pipe organ that was originally installed in 1860 by Forster and Andrews in 1860. It was modified and restored by Joshua Porritt in 1880 and by RJ Winn in 1960.

Castle House, a landmark building beside Saint Mary de Castro Church, was sold in recent weeks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Castle House, a landmark building beside Saint Mary de Castro Church and the site of Leicester Castle, was sold in recent weeks with an asking price of £800,000. It is made up of two principal buildings – a 15th century timber-framed gatehouse and an 18th century two-storey Georgian house.

Both houses are inter-connected, and until recently they were used as a residence for visiting High Court judges. Castle House was described as having a series of reception and dining rooms, 12 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and seven WCs, as well as a converted coach house with two bedrooms and bathroom.

Local reports say Castle House is expected to be converted into a restaurant or boutique hotel.

• Sung Mass is on Sundays Saint Mary de Castro at 11 am, with a Said Mass (BCP) at 11 on Wednesdays. The church is open on Sundays, 10 am to 1 pm, and Wednesdays, 10:30 to 12 noon; the church is also open on Monday, 11 am to 12:30; Tuesday and Thursday, 12 noon to 2 pm; Friday and Saturday, 12 noon to 4 pm.

Thee east end of Saint Mary de Castro … the church is open during Mass on Sundays and Wednesdays and at other times during the week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

An old monastery, an old church, and the beginning of a new ministry

Saint Finian’s Church, Clonard … stands on the site of a sixth century monastery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

It was a warm and sunny day for late September yesterday [Friday] and in the late afternoon we headed out to the Midlands. We were going to an ordination in Edenderry, Co Offaly, and as we drove out west along the M4 we decided to stop on the borders of Co Meath and Co Westmeath and visit the old monastic site at Clonard, between Kinnegad and Enfield, north of the M4.

Clonard (Cluain Ioraird, “Iorard’s meadow”), is now a small village in Co Meath and it is hard to imagine that this was once an important centre of learning and one of the most important and earliest monasteries in Ireland.

Clonard may have been a centre of the early missionary activities ca 450 of Palladius, who was the first bishop in Ireland and whose missionary activities predate those of Saint Patrick.

However, the memory of Palladius has faded in Clonard in favour of Saint Finian, who founded his monastery here in the sixth century.

We began our visit at Saint Finian’s, the former Church of Irelabd parish church on the edges of Clonard village. The church has been closed since 1991, but this is the heart of the ancient monastic site and the church was, inevitably, known as Saint Finian’s.

A saint’s life

The entrance to Saint Finian’s Church is at the end of an overgrown, tree-lined drive (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Saint Finian was born at Myshall, Co Carlow. He is said to have studied under Saint Cadoc at Llancarfan, Glamorganshire, and spent 30 years in Wales before returning to Ireland, where his first monastery was at Aghowle, Co Wicklow. Around 520, he was led by an angel to Clonard, on the banks of the River Boyne, on an expanse of land between the kingdoms of Meath and Leinster.

He was told this would be the place of his resurrection, and here he built a little cell and a church of clay and wattle. Saint Finian died about 549 and was buried on the site, perhaps in the church that was later replaced by the Church of Ireland parish church. The church at Ros Findchuil, where he spent his final days, lay within an enclosure known as lios an memra or the enclosure of the shrine. His relics were kept there and his grave lay below.

An imposing monastery

Clonard became known as a distinguished seat of learning in Ireland, and students from all over Ireland and these islands, and from France and Germany came to study here, sp that at one time the school had 3,000 students.

Life in his monastery was based on the ascetic models of the monasteries in Tours and Llancarfan, where Saint Finian had received his monastic training. The Penitential of Finian prescribed hard penances for misdemeanours, particularly those involving sexual misconduct, oath-taking and magic.

An oak tree planted in 1997 remembers Saint Columba of Kells and Iona, one of the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland” who studied at the monastery in Clonard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

During the sixth century, some of the most significant names in the history of Irish Christianity, later known as the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland,” studied at the monastery. These 12 holy men were:

● Saint Ciaran of Seir-Kieran;
● Saint Ciaran of Clonmacnoise;
● Saint Brendan of Birr;
● Saint Brendan of Clonfert;
● Saint Columba of Terryglass;
● Saint Columba of Kells and Iona;
● Saint Mobhi of Glasnevin;
● Saint Ruadhan of Lorrha;
● Saint Senan of Scattery Island;
● Saint Ninnidh of Inismacsaint on Loch Erne;
● Saint Lasserian of Leighlin;
● Saint Canice of Aghaboe.

Clonard was on the boundary of the kingdoms of Leinster and Meath that were often at war with each other. From the eighth century on, Clonard came under the control of various rival political dynasties, and by the mid-ninth century it was the leading church of the Irish midlands.

When King Maél Sechlainn proclaimed himself King of Ireland in 857, Abbot Suairleach of Clonard was called on to persuade the Irish nobles to support his claims.

By the early 10th century, Clonard has blossomed into a monastic town, with a round tower, a high cross, a stone church and a library, built by Bishop Colmán Mac Ailella, who became Abbot in 888.

Visiting the site

Saint Finian’s Church was closed in 1991 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Very little remains of the old monastic site, but the former Church of Ireland parish church, Saint Finian’s Church, is said to have been built on the sixth century monastic site. It was the local Church of Ireland parish church until it was closed in 1991.

The present church, where we began our visit, is down at the end of a long, overgrown path. It was built in 1808 by James Bell, with loan of £400 from the Board of First Fruits. It replaced an older church that had fallen into disrepair, and that stood on the site of the earlier abbey church.

Saint Finian’s Church has no windows on the north side (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The church is a typical 19th century hall-and-tower church, with no windows on the north side. The three-stage entrance tower has pinnacles and castellations to the west, and there is a vestry to the north-east corner. The church has a pitched slate roof, rendered walls with ashlar limestone quoins, string courses, date plaque and a carved mediaeval stone head. The traceried windows set in pointed-arched openings with stone sills and surrounds. The timber-battened double doors have a fanlight above set in a pointed-arched opening with limestone dressings.

A stone corbel-head, inserted into the tower above the door, is believed to have survived from a previous church, perhaps even the monastery. The church is crumbling and the grounds are overgrown, but a local committee is negotiating a lease on the building.

Saint Finian’s Church reflected in the Trough … this may have been the lavabo of the monastery and is associated with many local superstitions (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Below the tower of the old parish church is “The Trough,” a unique rectangular feature cut in a block of limestone. It is 18 inches deep, 36 inches long and 24 inches wide. This trough may have been the lavabo of the monastery.

Many superstitions are associated with the Trough. It is said the water in it has curative powers, particularly for warts, and that no local person has ever seen it dry or empty, even during the hottest summers.

A tree planted in 1998 at the unmarked grave of the Croppies from 1798 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

There are many old headstones in the graveyard, some dating back to the 1690s. But the most interesting gave is the “Croppies” grave. The Battle of Clonard on 11 July 1798 was a turning point in Rising that year. Many of the rebels or “Croppies” lay dead and wounded and those who survived escaped to Carbury about six or seven miles away.

The dead “Croppies” from Wexford and Wicklow were left lying in fields and ditches. Some were buried in a mass grave; others were carried across the Boyne and buried in an unmarked mass grave in the Church of Ireland graveyard, where a commemorative oak tree was planted in their memory on 11 July 1998.

Ard na Reilige, the site of Saint Finian’s first church in Clonard and later the monastic cemetery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From the old parish church, we drove on to Ard na Reilige, the “high cemetery.” Saint Finian selected this raised grassy site as the site of his first church in Clonard. The church was later moved westward, and the site at Ard na Reilige became the monastic cemetery. It continued to be used as a cemeteryuntil the late 17th century.

Saint Finian’s Well was restored in 2011 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From there we drove a short distance further to Saint Finian’s Well. When he came to Clonard, Saint Finian’s first acts were to build a church and to sink a well. Monastery wells were sources for holy water and may have been used as baptisteries.

A long grassy path leads down to the well. In recent times, a wall has been built around the well, the area was roofed, and steps were provided to allow access to the water level. A chained beaker is provided for visitors who want to drink water from the well.

A chained beaker invites visitors to drink from the water in Saint Finian’s Well (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Back in Clonard village, we passed Saint Finian’s Roman Catholic Church, built in the mid-19th century, on the site of an earlier church. The church windows depict scenes from the life of Saint Finian and life in his monastery. The church also has the panelled, mediaeval stone Baptismal Font that was brought there in 1991 when the Church of Ireland parish church was closed. The font is octagonal in shape with deeply chamfered under panels depicting scenes from the life of Christ.

The bell from the former Church of Ireland parish church is now in Glenstal Abbey.

The end of a monastery

Until the early 12th century, the Kingdom of Meath was divided into eight small monastic episcopal sees, located at Clonard, Duleek, Kells, Trim, Ardbraccan, Dunshaughlin, Slane and Fore. With the reforms of the Irish Church in the 12th century, the Abbot of Clonard became the bishop of the new diocese of East Meath formed at the Synod of Cashel in 1101.

By the time of the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111, Ardbraccan, Dunshaughlin, Slane and Fore had been united to Clonard. The Synod of Ráth Breasail made Clonard the centre of the new Diocese of Clonard, and this was confirmed at the Synod of Kells in 1152. Duleek ceased being a separate diocese soon after, and for much of the 12th century, the Bishops of Clonard were frequently called Bishops of Meath.

Meanwhile, under the influence of Saint Malachy, two religious houses, one of Augustinian canonesses and the other, of regular canons dedicated to Saint Peter, were founded at Clonard in 1146.

At the end of the 12th century, the Anglo-Normans built a new abbey on the north bank of the river, which became the cathedral of the diocese, Bishop Colmán Mac Ailella’s church became a parish church, and the monastic lands passed into the hands of Bishop Eugenius.

In 1202, the Anglo-Norman bishop Simon de Rochfort transferred the see from Clonard to Trim and the Diocese of Clonard became the new Diocese of Meath. The Diocese of Kells was incorporated into the Diocese of Meath after 1211. In1569, the Diocese of Clonmacnoise was incorporated into the Diocese of Meath.

And so, on to Edenderry

The Downshire family heraldic symbols at the gates into Castro Petre Church in Edenderry, Co Offaly (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We stopped briefly in Kinnegad before continuing on our journey. The sun was setting behind us with bight hues of orange and amber and a tint of purple in the western sky as we drove the 16 km south and east to Edenderry.

We were in Edenderry for the ordination of the Revd David White as deacon by Bishop Richard Clarke of Meath and Kildare – the successor of all those bishops of Clonard, Kells, and Clonmacnoise we had been reminded of earlier in the day.

Traditionally, the Parish of Edenderry has been known as Monasteroris, and the church is known as Castro Petre.

Clergy and choir robing for the ordination of the Revd David White in Edenderry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

I was asked to assist at the administration of Holy Communion at the ordination, and there was large attendance of students and clergy from the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough and Meath and Kildare.

I thought again of the bell of Clonard church when Dom Cuthbert Brennan from Glenstal Abbey stood to read the Old Testament reading.

Afterwards, we went on to a reception in Edenderry Rugby Club. It was about 11 when we eventually left for Dublin. It was a clear, cloudless night, with a beautiful large yellow crescent moon still rising, and clear view of the constellations and galaxies of stars above us.

As we drove west towards Johnstown Bridge and the M4, there was a dramatic array of bright objects like a trailing lantern in the sky above. At first I thought they were shooting stars, but they were too close. Were they the remains of meteor shower? Or was this space junk and satellite debris burning up on their entry into the atmosphere?

hatever they were, they provided a delightful end to a beautiful day.

Where did Castro Petre get its romantic-sounding name?

Inside Castro Petre Church in Edenderry, Co Offaly, last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Edenderry, Co Offaly, last night [Wednesday 7 September] for the ordination of the Revd Martin O’Kelly as deacon by Bishop Richard Clarke of Meath and Kildare.

Edenderry is a pretty market town on the eastern edges of Co Offaly, close to the borders of Co Meath and Co Kildare, and is in the Diocese of Kildare. The town still has many Georgian and Regency buildings and a fine Town Hall and central square. The town is bookended by the old Quaker Meeting House at the east end and the Church of Ireland parish church, Castro Petre Church, on a hill above the town at the west end.

Traditionally, the parish has been known as Monasteroris, and the church is known as Castro Petre. The name Edenderry comes from the Irish Eadán Doire, meaning “the hill-brow of the oak wood.” But where does the old name of the parish come from? And how did Castro Petre get a name that is so unusual, with almost a hint of Latin or Italian romance?

The name Monasteroris means the “Monastery of the son of Piers” but the monastery for the Conventual Franciscans is said to have been founded by John de Bermingham, Earl of Louth, in 1325, and the first church in the parish is said to date from that period. But the church history of the area dates back a few decades earlier, and the Annals of the Four Masters suggest the monastery was founded as early as 1260, and there may have been a church on the site from at least 1290.

Mediaeval taxation records from 1302-1306 record a Church de Villa Castris in Tethmoy in the Diocese of Kildare. This may have been the original Castro Petre, and the earlier church may not have been known as Castro Petre until after the friary was built. The list of vicars and rectors of the parish of Monasteroris or Castropetre dates back to Cornelius O’Lehuhyr (Lawlor) in 1424.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, the friary was granted to Nicholas Herbert by Elizabeth I in 1561, when it was described as “two castles, a friary burned and razed, whereby the walls standeth, and there is an old mill place, an orchard, land pasture, wood and underwood.”

By the end of the 16th century, Edenderry was known as Coolestown, after the Cooley or Cowley family. The Edenderry estates passed from the Colley family with the marriage of Sarah Colley and George Blundell, and for the most part of the 18th century they remained in the hands of the Blundell family. Perhaps they were distantly related to Peter Blundell (1520-1601), the prosperous clothier who endowed Blundell’s School and the Blundell Scholars at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and Balliol College, Oxford.

A statue of the 3rd Marquess of Downshire in front of Castro Petre Church in Edenderry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The ownership of Edenderry eventually passed into the hands of the family of the Marquesses of Downshire with the marriage in 1786 of Arthur Hill and Mary Sandys, heiress to Edenderry through her grandmother, who was a sister of Lord Blundell. The Downshire Irish estates included Hillsborough and Dundrum, Co Down, Blessington, Co Wicklow, Clonderlaw, Co Clare, a small estate in Co Kilkenny.

By 1725, the roof of the mediaeval church was a constant source of trouble, incurring heavy expenditure for the parishioners. The vestry voted in 1774 to build a new church, and a site was given by Lord Downshire, with additional funding coming from the Board of First Fruits. The new church was consecrated in 1778 by Bishop Charles Jackson (1713-1790), Bishop of Kildare and Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

When Bishop Charles Lindsay visited the church in 1804, he noted: “No walk round the church and everything wrong.” However, he said the church had a handsome appearance, although the copper had been stolen from the tower and the floor below was rotten.

In 1810, the vestry asked George Kelly to build a wall around the churchyard, three years later decided to build a gallery to accommodate the large congregation – although this was not built until 1828.

An emergency vestry meeting was called in December 1822 after the church and tower were badly damaged by a severe storm. The church bell, known as “The Great Bell” in parish records, was the gift of the Downshire family. It was damaged when it fell from the tower in 1817, and was recast and re-hung in the tower in 1828 at the same time as the gallery was built.

The Downshire heraldic symbols on the gate piers below Castro Petre Church in Edenderry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The church stands at the west end of Edenderry on a hill overlooking the town. Two pillars decorated with stags’ heads and the coronets of a marquess, representing the Downshire family, stand on the piers on each side of the gates into Church Walk, leading up to the church. At the top of Church Walk, immediately in front of the churchyard, is a statue of Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbull Hill (1788-1845), 3rd Marquess of Downshire.

In 1888, the parish asked the trustees of the Downshire Estate to transfer the ownership of Church Walk. Eventually, the Church Walk and Sexton’s House were handed over to the parish in 1913.

Inside the church, there are memorials to the Downshire, Murray, Taylor and Brownrigg families, as well as a stained glass window on the south wall that came from the church Ballyburley. The font in the baptistery also comes from Ballyburley Church.

The Telford Organ, which was played by Stephen Adams last night, is a memorial to the Revd John Dickson Eccles Newcombe (1856-1907), a remarkable rector who built the rectory and the parochial hall or Young Men’s Institute, where we were welcomed with coffee last night and robed before the service.

Later, we went back to Edenderry Golf Club, where it was obvious how friendly and welcoming a parish this is.