What is recorded here

Graveslab in Gardens (kilkenny City By., St. Mary’s Par.) is a broken limestone slab that once marked the burial of Richard Purcell inside St. Francis' Abbey. In 1889, workers renovating the abbey pulled modern stone from a closed doorway and found the slab hidden as a lintel, its Lombardic letters still naming the dead man. The surviving half rises like a forgotten tomb, bearing a cross and the weight of a life reduced to chisel marks.

In St. Francis' Abbey (KK019-026101-). According to the Rev. James Graves during the course of renovations to the abbey by the Board of Works in 1889, ‘a closed up doorway on the south side of the chancel was cleared of modern masonry, when it was found that the lintel was part of a coffin-shaped slab’ (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 109-10). The incised Lombardic inscription along the dexter side, starting at the base of the slab starts with a small incised cross followed by: CI : GIT : RICARD : PURCELL’, which translates as, Here lies Richard Purcell. Only the lower half of this limestone tapering graveslab survives (L 1.26m; Wth at top 0.48m; Wth at base 0.44m; D 0.14m). It is decorated with an incised cross, only the cross-shaft (Wth 0.025-0.03m) survives terminating in a fleur-de-lis. There is a chamfer (Wth 0.075-0.08m) along the sinister side and the base. There is some weathering on the lower dexter edge and an area of spalling on the surface on the sinister side of the cross-shaft. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Medieval Christian tomb slab, 13th–15th century. Found within the context of St. Francis' Abbey, it is significant as a remnant of monastic burial practices in Kilkenny.

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