Monymusk Priory

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Monymusk Priory was a house of Augustinian canons based at Monymusk in Mar, Aberdeenshire. It began as a Culdee foundation but later became Augustinian. [1]

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History

Church of the Blessed Mary, Monymusk MonymuskChurch1.jpg
Church of the Blessed Mary, Monymusk

The first missionaries to arrive in Monymusk were Culdees, possibly from Whithorn. A 9th century Pictish stone was found in a nearby field and is displayed at the Church of the Blessed Mary in Monymusk. [2] The Culdees received a land grant at Monymusk in 1130, probably to an already established religious community. They had the right to a dormitory, a refectory and an oratory with burial right in the parish cemetery, [3]

A Romanesque church was completed early in the second half of the 12th Century. Gille Críst, Mormaer of Mar constructed a monastery there in the last decade of the 12th century. The church likely served as both a parish church for local inhabitants and the conventual church for the canons who utilized the unusually long chancel. [4]

By 1245, the transformation of the community into an Augustinian priory was complete with a Prior and eleven canons. [4] There was a school, three gardens, a croft, pastures, a number of monastic buildings, and a fish-pond. [2] There were two oratories, each about two miles from the priory.

Some degree of control of the priory was held by St Andrews Cathedral Priory. The bishops of St Andrews and Aberdeen disputed jurisdiction. [5] For some time the priory held custody of Monymusk Reliquary.

By the early 16th century the Priory had entered into a period of decline. The last religious Prior, David Farlie, was charged with murder and other crimes and was succeeded by lay commendator John Elphinstone in 1542, The priory was gutted by fire in 1554, and the canons could not afford to rebuild. About 1587, the Forbses used stone from the old Priory to build the present House of Monymusk. [4] In 1617 the priory was incorporated into the lands of the bishopric of Dunblane. The church continued to serve the local community.

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The Culdees were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and then in Scotland, subsequently attached to cathedral or collegiate churches; they lived in monastic fashion though not taking monastic vows.

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Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a partly similar terminology.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbot of Scone</span>

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The Prior of St Andrews was the head of the property and community of Augustinian canons of St Andrews Cathedral Priory, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It was established by King David I in 1140 with canons from Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire. It is possible that, initially at least, the prior of St Andrews was subordinate to the bishop as abbot, but by the 13th century the canons of St Andrews were given freedom by the bishop to elect their prior. By the end of the 13th century, the abbacy of the native canons was no longer there to challenge the position of the priory, and the native canons themselves had been formed into a collegiate church.

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The St Serf's Inch Priory was a community of Augustinian canons based, initially at least, on St Serf's Inch in Loch Leven, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.

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The Prior of Inchmahome was the head of the community of Augustinian canons at Inchmahome Priory, on Inchmahome in the Lake of Menteith, in Highland Stirlingshire, Scotland. The following is a list of priors and commendators:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Restenneth Priory</span> Monastery in Angus, Scotland, UK

Restenneth Priory was a monastic house of Augustinian canons founded by Jedburgh Abbey, with the patronage of King Malcolm IV of Scotland, in 1153. Although there is little literary evidence, archaeological evidence strongly indicates that there was a monastery at Restenneth from very early times. There is also speculation that Restenneth may even have been the Pictish church dedicated to St Peter built in 710 for Nechtán mac Der Ilei, King of the Picts.

Prior of Monymusk was the head of the property and community of Augustinian canons of Monymusk Priory, Aberdeenshire. The following is a list of priors and commendators:

The Prior of St Mary's Isle was the head of the Augustinian monastic community of St Mary's Isle Priory, in Kirkcudbrightshire, Galloway. The following is a list of priors and commendators:

The Prior of Blantyre was the head of the medieval community of Augustinian canons based at Blantyre Priory. It was founded between 1239 and 1248, but the first prior is not known by name until 1296. Few of the priors are known thereafter until records become more extensive in the 16th century. The following is a list of known priors and commendators:

The Prior of May then Prior of Pittenweem was the religious superior of the Benedictine monks of Isle of May Priory, which later moved to the mainland became called Pittenweem Priory. The priory was originally based on the Isle of May, but was moved by 1318 to its nearby mainland site of Pittenweem, Fife, passing from the overlordship of Reading Abbey (Benedictine) to St Andrews Cathedral Priory (Augustinian). The following is a list of priors and commendators:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isle of May Priory</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monymusk</span> Village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St Mary on the Rock</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monymusk Parish Church</span> Church in Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Monymusk Parish Church is located in Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is of Church of Scotland denomination. Now Category A listed, a structure on the site has existed since at least the late 12th or early 13th century, but it was a site of worship even before that.

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