Wall monument — effigial in Unknown Townland

14th-century statue (L 2.04m x Wth 0.72m x T 0.32m) located inside the south transept of St Patrick’s Cathedral (DU018-020269-).  Described in the Urban Survey of Dublin City (Bradley and King 1988, Vol. 1, 81) as the; ‘Effigy of an archbishop. c. 1300. Popularly known as St Patrick. Set on a fifteenth century wall-bracket in the south transept. The head is of seventeenth century date’ (Hunt 1974, 140-1).  Described by John Hunt (1974, No. 47) as; ’On a large fifteenth-century bracket built into the wall of the south transept is a statue which has been christened 'St Patrick'. On examination this figure resolves itself into the remains of the recumbent effigy of an archbishop, lacking the head and with the feet and lower portion of the vestments (alb, apparel, etc.) missing. Upon the mutilated and shortened figure thus remaining a seventeenth-century head has been crudely cemented. The head is a fine piece of sculpture with strongly modelled nose and features, curling full beard and whiskers, and with a seventeenth-century mitre on his head. The face bears many traces of polychrome decoration. It does not appear to have originally come from an effigy but has all the characteristics of having been part of an important standing figure. The body is that of an archbishop, fully vested, with a long pallium and remains of a crozier or cross staff in the left hand, while the right (restored) is raised in blessing. The drapery is more angular and less rounded than that on the figure of de Saundford (Pl. 73, 46). The alternation of high and low relief folds, as on the wooden figure of Archbishop C. Peckham of 1290 at Canterbury, more strongly marked. The date of the archbishop's effigy is about 1300. The bracket on which the figure stands is not in its original position: It formerly was the base of a pulpit which was situated in the north wall of the nave. It is shown there in a drawing in the manuscript Monumenta Eblanae, now in the Genealogical Office in Dublin Castle. The question arises as to which Archbishop does this figure represent. Of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century successors of Fulk de Saundford (Pl. 73, 46), the first to have been buried in Dublin was John de St Paul, in Christ Church Cathedral. In all probability then the St Patrick figure has been made out of the effigy of Fulk's brother, John de Saundford, who died in 1294. Ware, De Praesulibus Hiberniae, p. 110, writing in the seventeenth century, says that he was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral, but in his brother's grave. The style of the carving of this figure would accord well with the date of John's death however, and he seems to be the only Archbishop possible in respect of time and place of death. The tradition which Ware records must have been erroneous'.   Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien