Friary History

A Brief History of the Friars in Wexford

According to tradition the Franciscan Friars first arrived in Ireland during the lifetime of St. Francis of Assisi. There is documentary evidence that they were in Ireland in 1232. Hore, in his History of Wexford, dates the Friary as early as 1230, but 1240 seems a more likely year. A small chapel and cemetery set aside for the Knights Hospitallers of St. John were given to the Friars by the first Maurice Fitz-gerald as the start of their new foundation, which was situated just outside the walls of the town.

In I534 King Henry VIII had himself proclaimed, by Act of Parliament, supreme head of the Church in England. In I536 he summoned an Irish Parliament, and this Parliament declared King Henry the supreme head of the Church in Ireland.

In dire need of money Henry set about confiscating church property. The Wexford Friary was declared confiscated in 1540, and the Friars sought refuge among their friends and benefactors in the town. In 1560, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I there is a reference to the effect, that the Wexford Friary is now "despoiled and torn down by the Heretics."

Between 1540 and 1622 (when the Friars regained possession of the ruins of the Friary) the Friars were living in a house in Back Street, and were secretly ministering in a little chapel built in the yard of the present Printing Works of the "People Newspapers.¡± From 1622 until 1649 the Friars used a temporary shelter and chapel on the site of the ruined Friary.

In 1654 four more Franciscans were captured and hanged without trial in the neighbourhood of the Friary. And in 1655, two secular priests, Father Daniel O¡¯Brien, Dean of the Diocese, and Father James Murphy, and a Cistercian-Father Luke Bergin, were executed. All were buried in the ruins of the Friary. Oliver Cromwell died in 1658.

The Cromwellian massacre of Wexford took place on Thursday, 11th October, 1649. Seven Friars were among the several thousands of Wexfordians who were killed by Cromwell's soldiers on that day. The persecution continued, and in a letter written by Dr. Nicholas French, Bishop of Ferns, dated 1653, we read. "...Out of 80,000 Catholics in the diocese, there are now 18,000; and in Wexford town where there were easily 18,000 Catholics, there are now only 50."

About 1672, Dr. Wadding, opened a thatched Chapel for Catholic worship in High Street. In 1688 the Friars once again regained possession of the ruins of their Friary, and by 1691 they had built a fairly large church. In this latter year Bishop Wadding was refused permission to repair the church in High Street because it was inside the walls of the town; and because the Friary was outside the walls, the official religious services of the parish began to be held there.

For the next century and a half- from 1692 to 1858 (when the present twin parish churches were opened-the old Friary Church served Wexford as Parish Church. Bishop Wadding died in 1692 and was buried in the Friary.

The present Convent and Library were built in 1803 by Father Richard Walsh, O.F.M., Guardian, who journeyed to Belgium and succeeded in tracing and purchasing back many of the books and manuscripts scattered throughout Belgium at the time of the suppression of St. Anthony's College, Louvain, 1794. The Transept was added to the Church in 1832, and in 1875 the present tower was erected at the north gable of the Transept.