Founding Of Holy Cross Abbey

Tradition presents a picture of a visit by King Donal Mór O’Brien with a retinue of bishops and chieftains to his place, where there was already a monastery or hermitage following a Celtic rule of life. The Cistercian Rule, having spread throughout Europe with amazing rapidity had been introduced to Ireland some forty years previously by St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, and now King Donal proposed to endow a Cistercian monastery with large tracts of land here by the Suir in the country of the O’Fogartys, his mother’s people.
The group of monks who founded (or ‘colonised’) this monastery came from Monasteranenagh (Mainister, near Croom, Co. Limerick). Monasteranenagh had been colonised from Mellifont and Mellifont from Clairveaux in France, whose abbot, St. Bernard, was a friend of St. Malachy.The first Cistercians, aiming at a hidden and silent life, drew up a simple Rule. The monasteries were to be in remote places and the monks were to be self-supporting through working the monastic lands themselves, hence a sizeable estate was needed.

The Cistercian plan grouped the building in a square with the church on the North side, an East range including the sacristy, chapter house and parlour, the kitchen and refectory (dining hall) on the South side, and in the West Range, the cellars and foodstores. In the centre was the cloister garth, a grass-covered square with a roofed-in walk around it. On the first floor in the East Range was the dormitory for the choir monks while the dormitory of the lay brothers was similarly provided in the West range.
Life was austere and silent, devoted to prayer and work. Community prayer was distributed over seven periods each day, beginning at 2 am, and consisted of the chanting of the Divine Office (psalms and readings); there was also the Conventual (community) Mass. The abbey church was bare and plain, with whitewashed walls which reflected light coming mainly from the windows on the North side.

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During its first two centuries of its existence the Abbey had its difficulties and at times its independence, and even survival, seemed in doubt. There was promise of a happier era when, in 1414, a new patron extended to the Abbot and monks of Holy Cross his special protection. This time the patron came from the Norman settlers. He was James Butler, fourth Earl of Ormonde, the most powerful nobleman in Ireland. During his long term as Earl (1505-1452) he held the offices of Lord Lieutenant or Justiciar at various periods. Significantly, it was at this time that an ambitious scheme of rebuilding portions of the Abbey commenced. The eastern arm of the church was rebuilt, that is, the chancel, the two trancepts, the monks’ choir and the massive tower. Of the earlier Cistercian church most of the nave was retained but new windows, including the great West window, were inserted into the old fabric. The East and West Ranges were largely reconstructed, apart from the lower parts of the walls. The cloister arcade was rebuilt, the Abbot’s house was added and the infirmary and guest house extensively remodelled.

Suppression of Monasteries Act
Hopes were blighted within a century of the great rebuilding. In England, King Henry VIII set in train an investigation of the monasteries of his realm and having established that they were too wealthy and were either badly run or no longer served a useful purpose, he decreed that all religious houses worth less than £200 a year were to be suppressed and handed over to him. This was in 1536. The Dublin Parliament immediately rushed through an Act of Suppression. Soon thirteen Irish religious houses were gone, their property given to the Crown. They included five Cistercian houses. In 1539 Henry decreed the closing of the bigger monasteries.

Reprieve for Holy Cross Abbey
Initially Holy Cross escaped the fate of abbeys of similar size because the monks had foreseen the likely course of events. In 1534 William Dwyer, then Abbot, resigned his office to a married layman, Philip Purcell. Holy Cross became a provostry rather than a Cistercian abbey.
Late in the 16th century a rudimentary Cistercian community still continued in the Abbey. Pilgrims continued to come to venerate the relic of the Cross. Irish Cistercians who had been trained in Spanish monasteries returned to Ireland in the 17th century to live near to the former monasteries and maintain a Cistercian presence. Continued persecution and suppression led the Cistercians to move to private houses in Kilkenny for 15 years with permission from Rome. When they returned, Holy Cross was in ruins. By 1685 the unsettled condition of the country and the shortage of vocations left the Abbey with one abbot and one monk. The Abbey was plundered in 1690 during the Williamite wars. Abbot Coogan remained on until his death in 1700. With the death of Fr Edmond Cormack in 1735, the Cistercian link was broken. People began to bury their dead within the Abbey about 1740.

The vesting order was dated Saturday, 30th October, 1880. On that day, Holy Cross Abbey became a national monument.

The following year the government announced its intention of introducing the necessary legislation and on the 21st January 1969, at a commemorative meeting in the Mansion House, Dáil Éireann began the first stage of the Holy Cross Bill, 1969. The Bill entitled “An Act to enable the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland to restore for ecclesiastical purposes Holy Cross Abbey in the County Tipperary” was passed, without opposition, by the Dáil. The Act of 1869 was amended to make this an exception. Archaeological exactions began in the Abbey shortly afterwards and restoration began in 1971. A celebration of the restoration was held in October 1975.

The Sedilia
“The most sumptuous of all Cistercian fittings, indeed the finest piece of church furnishing in medieval Ireland, are the sedilia in the chancel at Holy Cross” (Stalley: Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland). The structure provided seats for celebrant, deacon and subdeacon at Mass; sedilia (sedes, seat) are found in most monastic churches. The structure is 17 feet high, there is a richly carved base with leaf ornamentation and the structure is surmounted by a roof with a canopy. Slender pillars separate the seats; on one the figure of an angel has been badly displaced. An unusual feature of the sedilia, one which has given rise to much discussion among students of the abbey, is the set of five shields between the pointed arches. Reading from left, the first is a plain cross, possibly the coat of arms of the Abbey.

The second and largest, carries the royal arms of England in a form adopted after 1405.

The third shield carries the arms of the Ormonde Butlers, an acknowledgement of the patronage of the earls of the period and the arms of the fourth seem to be those of one of the Desmond Geraldines. The fifth shield is blank; like the first shield it is only cut into the face of the sedilia, not in bold relief like the other three; possibly those shields were not part of the original design. The sedilia has been popularly known as the “Tomb of the Good Woman’s Son.” A tradition still surviving claims that this is the burial place and monument of the English prince who was murdered locally.

Nowadays the authenticated relic, acquired from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 1977, is displayed for veneration in the North transept. Between the chapels in the South transept. on the way to the sacristy , is a structure which has given rise to much discussion. It is disappointing that so much uncertainty surrounds the original relic of the Holy Rood which brought fame to the Abbey. There are differe