The Cathedral Church of St. Fachtna, also known as the Cathedral Church of St Faughan, Ross Cathedral, and Rosscarbery Cathedral, is a

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second l ...

Rosscarbery Rosscarbery () is a village and census town in County Cork, Ireland. The village is on a shallow estuary, which opens onto Rosscarbery Bay. Rosscarbery is in the Cork South-West (Dáil Éireann) constituency, which has three seats. History The ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns ar ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Located in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sev ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, it is the smallest cathedral in Ireland. Having once been the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metr ...

of the Diocese of Ross, it is now one of three Anglican cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, alongside

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral ( ga, Ardeaglais Naomh Fionnbarra) is a Gothic Revival three-spire Church of Ireland cathedral in the city of Cork. It is located on the south bank of the River Lee and dedicated to Finbarr of Cork, patron saint of ...

and

Cloyne Cathedral St. Colman's Cathedral, Cloyne ( Irish: ) is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Cloyne, County Cork in Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Originally a Roman Catholic cathedral, it was converted to an Anglican cathedr ...

. Dating from the 1600s, it was extensively refurbished in the 19th century.

History

Early history

Fachtna of Rosscarbery Fachtna of Rosscarbery, known also as Fachanan, was the founder of the monastery of Rosscarbery (Ros Ailithir), County Cork. He died around 600. Life He established a monastery and school in the area now known as Rosscarbery towards the end of ...

came to the area in the late sixth century and founded a monastic site. It was known contemporaneously as , or "wood of the pilgrims". This had been the principal monastery of West Cork;

Brendan the Navigator Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 - c.577), is one of the early Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, Brendan the Bold. The ...

taught there, and it was a school for international students in its time. The ruins of a church erected by St Faughnan 'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''still exist on the southern slope of the land on which Rosscarbery is built. A church or cathedral has occupied the site since at least the tenth century, and after Bishop John Edmund de Courcy resigned in 1517, Pope Leo X ordered an inquiry into the state of the diocese, and it was noted that by then a cathedral stood on the site. It was known at that time as , or "Feachtna's big temple".

16th century

After the reformation, no Bishop of Ross was appointed by the crown until 1582, when William Lyon was enthroned. He was the last bishop to serve before the Diocese of Ross was merged with the

Diocese of Cork The Diocese of Cork was established in the seventh century. The diocese of Cork was one of the twenty-four dioceses established at the Synod of Rathbreasail on an ancient bishopric founded by Saint Finbarr in the sixth-century. On 30 July 1326, P ...

. Bishop Lyon was unsatisfied with the cathedral, and undertook the erection of what he deemed to be a more suitable building. The building was either substantially renovated or entirely rebuilt, either between 1582 and 1589, or between 1589 and 1612. This building was built in the perpendicular English style. Previously the cathedral church of the Diocese of Ross, in 1583 the diocese of Ross was joined with the diocese of Cork, with the see being held in Cork ever since. It is now one of three cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, with Cloyne having been added in 1835.

17th century

During the Catholic Rebellion of 1641, the church suffered extensive damage, leaving it "wrecked". The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

and tower were destroyed, and the chancel and two chapels were used as a slaughterhouse. The former house of Bishop Lyon (who had died in 1617) was burnt down, and his

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

and dumb daughter perished in the fire. In the 1660s the nave was rebuilt. In 1696 it was ordered that a tower be built. Fallow describes the cathedral as having been "almost entirely rebuilt in the seventeenth century".

18th century - present

The spire of the original building was removed in either 1785, 1793, or 1795, with the current spire being added in 1806 at a cost of

IR£ The pound (Irish: ) was the currency of the Republic of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or IR£ for distinction). The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin cir ...

964. The walls of the church were freestone, but what remained of the old walls were plastered and dashed in 1880. Storms have blown the top of the spire over on two occasions, once in the winter of 1886, and then again in February 1923. Between 2002 and 2005, major restorations were carried out on the cathedral, including rebuilding the organ and restoring the bells. In 2012, an additional bell was added to the tower.

Architecture

St Fachtna's is the smallest cathedral in Ireland, being the size of a typical parish church. Its tower is also the only tower in Ireland fitted with a

ring of bells A "ring of bells" is the name bell ringers give to a set of bells hung for English full circle ringing. The term "peal of bells" is often used, though peal also refers to a change ringing performance of more than about 5,000 changes. By ring ...

which has a ringers' gallery, allowing the ringing of the bells to be witnessed by the congregation. The building is

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

. Peter Galloway described the building as "an odd collection of architectural bits and pieces", noting that it incorporates only a little medieval work, while the mixture of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group **Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three script ...

windows along with wooden casements with stone

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case o ...

ed heads leave the cathedral with a confusing architectural style. Located beneath the tower, the west doorway is in the Romanesque style. The Cathedral contains a ring of six bells in the key of G, which are regularly rung. The tenor bell weighs 636 kg.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * * Churches in the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

Ross Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...

Anglican cathedrals in the Republic of Ireland Rosscarbery {{Anglican-church-stub