Saints Michael's Catholic Church is an 18th-century

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church located on Chapel Lane in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It should not be confused with St Michael's Church, a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

building on Pery Square.

History

The

Anglo-Normans The Anglo-Normans (, ) were the medieval ruling class in the Kingdom of England following the Norman Conquest. They were primarily a combination of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, French people, Frenchmen, Anglo-Saxons and Celtic Britons. Afte ...

built the first church in Limerick dedicated to

Michael the Archangel Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

, which stood on an island between Englishtown and Irishtown, in an area outside the

city gate A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway. Uses City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...

s. Saint Michael's is first referred to in the 1205 "Black Book of Limerick". It was originally a

prebend A prebendary is a member of the Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of the choir ...

al church, but by 1418 was attached to the

Archdeaconry An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...

of Limerick. Saint Michael's is one of the five original parishes of Limerick City. It was a joint parish of Saint John's until 1704 when Father Murtagh O'Hehir became the first Catholic

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of the new parish. The church was built in 1779–81 and remodelled in 1805. It was a rebuilding of a penal-era chapel, demolished after the 1651 siege. The Arthur family donated the land for the original church, which now forms part of the south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

. A

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

was added in 1815 and an

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

in 1816.Lenihan, M. (1866:679–680). ''Limerick: Its History and Antiquities.... Ireland'': Hodges, Smith. The church was rebuilt in 1881 to a design by Martin Morris in an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

style with

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

features.

Daniel O'Connell Daniel(I) O’Connell (; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Irelan ...

addressed political meetings in St Michael's. St Michael's also saw the 1916 funeral of the controversial

Mayor of Limerick The Mayor of Limerick is the head of the local government of the Limerick, City and County Limerick, County of Limerick. It is a directly elected office with a five-year term. Following the 2024 Limerick mayoral election, John Moran (Mayor of Li ...

John Daly, and that of Seán South in 1957. The church has a weekly

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

in Polish, for the Polish immigrant community.

Architecture

The church is a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

building on a T-shaped plan with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. There are two stone

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

s dating to , one depicting either Mary holding Jesus, or Elizabeth holding

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

; and the other showing

Saint Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

. A gilt statue of Saint Michael vanquishing

Satan Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...

is on top of the building.

Gallery

File:Statue of St Michael, St mIchaels church Limerick.jpg, Statue of St Michael File:Interior of St mIchaels church Limerick.jpg,

Nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with pews Memorial_in_St_mIchaels_church_Limerick.jpg, Carved memorial to Very Rev. Patrick Hogan (1769–1829) Memorial_2_in_St_mIchaels_church_Limerick.jpg, Memorial to Patrick Arthur (1717–1799), for whom Patrick Street is named. File:ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH IN LIMERICK -WELL WORTH A VISIT--105616 (18889315791).jpg, Niche with image of

Black Madonna of Częstochowa The Black Madonna of Częstochowa (; ), also known as Our Lady of Częstochowa () is a venerated icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary enshrined at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland. Pope Clement XI issued a Pontifical decree of canon ...

and legend ''

Totus tuus is a Latin greeting which was routinely used to sign off List_of_Latin_phrases_(T), letters written in Latin, meaning "all yours", often abbreviated as "t.t." (a variation was ). In recent history was used by Pope John Paul II as his personal ...

'' Statue of St Michael, Limerick.jpg, Gilt statue of St Michael atop the church Limerick - Chapel Street (5770768481).jpg, View of facade from Chapel St

References

External links

Parish history
* {{Limerick Roman Catholic churches in County Limerick Roman Catholic churches completed in 1781 Roman Catholic Diocese of Limerick Romanesque Revival church buildings in the Republic of Ireland 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Ireland 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Ireland Italianate church buildings in the Republic of Ireland