St. Berrihert's Kyle | |
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Native name Irish: Cill Bheircheirt | |
Type | cross slabs, wheel crosses, high crosses and a cursing stone |
Location | Ardane, Bansha, County Tipperary, Ireland |
Coordinates | 52°24′39″N8°05′34″W / 52.410727°N 8.092677°W Coordinates: 52°24′39″N8°05′34″W / 52.410727°N 8.092677°W |
Area | Glen of Aherlow |
Built | 7th–9th century; renovated 1946 |
Official name | St. Berrihert's Kyle |
Reference no. | 396 |
St. Berrihert's Kyle is an ecclesiastical enclosure and National Monument containing cross slabs, wheel crosses, high crosses and a cursing stone located in County Tipperary, Ireland. [1] [2] [3]
St. Berrihert's Kyle is located in the Glen of Aherlow at the foot of the Galtee Mountains, 4.5 km (2.8 mi) southwest of Bansha.
St. Berrihert's Kyle is named after Saint Berrihert (Berrahert, Bernihardt, Bericheart), an Anglo-Saxon holy man who is traditionally believed to have come to the Glen after the Synod of Whitby (AD 664), and in some biographies is the brother of Gerald of Mayo (d. 731). He may be the same as Saint Berchert. Many Saxon monks came to the region after the controversy at that synod over the dating of Easter. He is probably the same man as St Berichter, the patron of an early medieval ecclesiastical site at Tullylease, County Cork. A cross slab there mentions Beirchachtuire, an Irish version of the Anglo-Saxon name Beorhtwine ("bright friend"). The Annals of the Four Masters mention the death of Berichtir of Tulach Leis on 6 December 839; this could be an error for 739. His feast day is 18 February. [4] In some legends, "Saint Berihert" was the brother of legendary saint Latiaran. [5]
A vast collection of stone cross slabs and other monuments were placed in the Kyle (from Irish cill, "church"; a medieval church once stood on the spot).
St. Berrihert's Kyle is a stone enclosure containing a variety of stone monuments: 72 slabs, fragments of a bullaun stone, four wheel crosses, the head and base of a high cross, the head of a small cross and a slab with an incomplete inscription on it. It is possible that the walls of the church were taken away for other building use, but the carved stones were considered sacred and so were left on site. [6]
The stone enclosure is a recent construction, built in 1946 by the Office of Public Works. [7]
Nearby is a holy well; a pool 20 m (66 ft) across traditionally believed to heal scalds and burns.[ citation needed ]
Northumbria was an early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is now Northern England and south-east Scotland.
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Northumbria, today in north-eastern England and south-eastern Scotland. Both during his life and after his death, he became a popular medieval saint of Northern England, with a cult centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria. His feast days are 20 March and 4 September.
A high cross or standing cross is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone crosses, usually outdoors. These probably developed from earlier traditions using wood, perhaps with metalwork attachments, and earlier pagan Celtic memorial stones; the Pictish stones of Scotland may also have influenced the form. The earliest surviving examples seem to come from the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, which had been converted to Christianity by Irish missionaries; it remains unclear whether the form first developed in Ireland or Britain.
The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses erected across the islands, especially in regions evangelized by Irish missionaries, from the ninth through the 12th centuries.
Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. No universally accepted example survives above ground. Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.
Chad of Mercia was a prominent 7th-century Anglo-Saxon Catholic monk who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonised as a saint.
A double monastery is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East at the dawn of monasticism. It is considered more common in the monasticism of Eastern Christianity, where it is traceable to the 4th century. In the West the establishment of double monasteries became popular after Columbanus and sprang up in Gaul and in Anglo-Saxon England. Double monasteries were forbidden by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, though it took many years for the decree to be enforced. Double monasteries were revived again after the 12th century in a significantly different way when a number of religious houses were established on this pattern among Benedictines and possibly the Dominicans. The 14th-century Bridgittines were purposely founded using this form of community.
Galbally is a village in southeast County Limerick, Ireland, on the border with County Tipperary. It is located at the foot of the Galtee Mountains and at the western approach to the Glen of Aherlow. The Aherlow River, flowing down from the Galtee mountains, runs by the village, to meet the Suir at Kilmoyler a short distance north of Cahir. Galbally is in a valley overlooked by the Galtee Mountains.
Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of England, whose sophisticated art was influential in much of northern Europe. The two periods of outstanding achievement were the 7th and 8th centuries, with the metalwork and jewellery from Sutton Hoo and a series of magnificent illuminated manuscripts, and the final period after about 950, when there was a revival of English culture after the end of the Viking invasions. By the time of the Conquest the move to the Romanesque style is nearly complete. The important artistic centres, in so far as these can be established, were concentrated in the extremities of England, in Northumbria, especially in the early period, and Wessex and Kent near the south coast.
Finan of Lindisfarne, also known as Saint Finan, was an Irish monk, trained at Iona Abbey in Scotland, who became the second bishop of Lindisfarne from 651 until 661.
The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaelic missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, England and Merovingian France. Celtic Christianity spread first within the Kingdom of Dál Riata, within Ireland and the western coast of Scotland. Since the 8th and 9th centuries, these early missions were called 'Celtic Christianity'.
Selsey Abbey was founded by St Wilfrid in AD 681 on land donated at Selsey by the local Anglo-Saxon ruler, King Æðelwealh of Sussex, Sussex's first Christian king. The Kingdom of Sussex was the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to be evangelised.
St Oswald's Church, is in the village of Winwick, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool, the archdeaconry of Warrington and the deanery of Winwick.
St Peter's Church is in the village of Heysham, Lancashire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn.
The Gregorian mission or Augustinian mission was a Christian mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 596 to convert Britain's Anglo-Saxons. The mission was headed by Augustine of Canterbury. By the time of the death of the last missionary in 653, the mission had established Christianity in southern Britain. Along with the Irish and Frankish missions it converted other parts of Britain as well and influenced the Hiberno-Scottish missions to Continental Europe.
The Church of St Mary and All Saints is an Anglican church in the village of Whalley, Lancashire, England. It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn. A church probably existed on the site in Anglo-Saxon times and the current building dates from the 13th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
The Christianisation of Scotland was the process by which Christianity spread in what is now Scotland, which took place principally between the fifth and tenth centuries.
Toureen Peakaun is an ancient church located in County Tipperary, Ireland.
A cult of saints played a key part within Anglo-Saxon Christianity, a form of Roman Catholicism practised in Anglo-Saxon England from the late sixth to the mid eleventh century.
Saint Berchert was an early mediaeval English monk, commemorated in several churches in Ireland. He probably came to Ireland as part of the wave of Northumbrian exiles led by Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne following the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD. His feast day is celebrated on the 6th December.