MHAS Website
Rosserk Abbey
By Noel O'Neill
Jan 9, 2004, 19:27

Rosserk Friary.

Rosserk Friary, is a house of the Third Order of St. Francis, situated on the west bank of the river Moy, about 6 kilometres north of Ballina. The history of the friary is one of uncertainty and no definitive date is yet available for its construction or its consecration. Neither is it certain who the founder was but it is generally accepted that the house was fully established before December 1441. This fact is deduced from the reading of contemporary records, which state that a Philip O Clumhain had resigned a prebend in Achonry in order to enter Rosserk, about that time.

Writing in the mid-seventeenth century Duald McFirbis wrote that Rosserk derived its name from …’ Searc, the daughter of Cairbre, son of Amhalgaidh, who blessed the ‘baile’ and the ‘ros’ which are at the mouth of the river Moy. This Searc was a miracle-working female saint, and it was for her that the ’regleus’ and ‘duirtheach’ were erected’. (A ‘regleus’ is an abbey-church or hermit’s cell; a ‘duirtheach’ is a small cell for prayer).

Long before the monastery was built a church stood at Rosserk. It is mentioned in a list dated 1198 and Petty marked it on his map of Mayo in the mid-sixteenth century.

Further Reading:

‘The Diocese of Killable’
Author, Thomas McDonnell, Bishop of Killala
Publ. 1976.

‘Medieval Religious Houses Ireland‘.
Gwynne & Hadcock
First Ed. 1970 - Republished 1988.

© Copyright 2003 by www.castlebar.ie and the author