What is recorded here

Johanna, widow of Hugh the clerk, still lies beneath a broken tapering slab at Kells Priory, her name preserved in Lombardic script alongside an incised cross with fleur-de-lis terminals. The stone emerged during late nineteenth-century handball work at the chancel’s eastern end, pulling a fourteenth-century domestic loss out of forgotten earth. Hugh may have tended priory records or taught children nearby, while Johanna waited him home beside the altar, their ordinary love made permanent by chisel and prayer.

One of a large number of graveslabs (KK027-029005-; KK027-029015-, KK027-029016-, KK027-029021- to KK027-029051-) found at Kells Priory for Augustinian canons (KK027-029004-) which have been described and catalogued by Higgins (2007, 453-67). A tapering slab (L 2.17m; Wth at top 0.7m; Wth at base 0.59m; T 0.22-0.26m), which is broken into two pieces. It is decorated with an incised cross, consisting of a four-armed open lozenge-shaped two-lined cross-head with concave sides and fleur-de-lis terminals. There is circular knop of two concentric lines on the cross-shaft immediately below the cross-head. The cross-shaft terminates in a fleur-de-lis with an oval knop immediately above it. There is an inscription in Lombardic script along the edge of the dexter surface which continues along the base of the slab. It reads: HIC JACET JOHANNA RELICTA HUGONIS CLERICI CUIUS AIE PROPIAITUR. This translates as: Here lies Johanna widow of Hugh the clerk, on whose soul [God] have mercy. Manning (1991, 850) suggests the slab dates to c. 1330 based on historical references. The slab was found at the eastern end of the chancel of the Priory church when extending a handball alley in the late 19th century. Stylistically the graveslab dates to the 13th/14th century. (Higgins 2007, cat. no. 13, 460, fig. 7.1:9). Ref.: Higgins, J. 2007 The medieval funerary monuments. In M. Clyne, (ed.), Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny: archaeological excavations by T. Fanning & M. Clyne, 453-67. Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Dublin. Manning, C. 1991 Hugh the clerk. Old Kilkenny Review 3 (3), 848-52. See attached: KK027-029030-_01 Illustration in Higgins, J. 2007 The medieval funerary monuments. In M. Clyne, (ed.), Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny: archaeological excavations by T. Fanning & M. Clyne, 453-67. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 31 May 2023

Medieval Christian graveslab; associated with an Augustinian priory and significant for its connection to ecclesiastical burial practices in the region.

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