What is recorded here

Martini died young or old, loved or forgotten, but the chisel still cut his name into Clonmacnoise stone. Petrie saw the cross in 1872, perhaps smelling bread or hearing prayer in the air. The slab has vanished since then, leaving only a hole in the ground and a name floating free.

Clonmacnoise grave-slab inventory (1992) number: CLN00590 Dimensions: Unknown. Cross type unknown. Inscription: 'MARTINI'. Evidence of discovery: Petrie 1872. Condition: Now lost. Stokes, M. (1878) Christian Inscriptions in the Irish language, Vol 1, p X, no. 25. The Clonmacnoise inventory was compiled by the Office of Public Works. A copy of the record for this slab is available for inspection in the relevant Archaeological Survey of Ireland (SMR) file. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Dated to the early medieval period, likely 8th to 11th century AD, the cross-slab with the inscription 'MARTINI' may commemorate a Christian individual, possibly a monk or layperson associated with the monastic settlement of Clonmacnoise. Such inscriptions often denoted dedication to a saint, in this case Saint Martin, and were used in funerary or commemorative contexts.

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