The Collegiate Church
of St. Nicholas

Exploring the Irish countryside can be a profound experience. The island's past endures, in the countless ruined churches and crumbling castles that mark the landscape; and for the thoughtful traveler, those ruins are like heralds, forever lamenting the greatness of a world that exists now only in the shadows of history. But in the heart of Galway's city-centre stands the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas: a structure older than half of those ruins, and whose only shadows are parted by the brilliant colours streaming through her vast stained glass windows

St. Nicholas is the largest medieval church in use in Ireland today. The early sections of the church date from 1320, although tradition tells us that St. Nicholas was built upon the ruins of an older structure, and part of the chancel's south wall may incorporate some of this earlier material. The Church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, the 4th century Archbishop of Myra. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, merchants, sailors, scholars and virgins. Because of his veneration among sailors, many medieval seaport towns have churches dedicated to him. Given that he is also the patron saint of merchants, it seems that Nicholas was the clear choice for patron saint of Galway. Known for his boundless generosity, he is best known to us today as Santa Claus.

As Galway's spiritual centre for nearly seven-hundred years, the church of St. Nicholas often faced Ireland's turbulent times head on. The church's first important transformation came in 1485, after the 14 merchant tribes garnered a papal bull from Pope Innocent VIII granting their request to convert the church into a collegiate body, administered by a warden and eight vicars, whom the town could appoint without interference. Henceforth, the Tribes had complete political and ecclesiastical control of the city for several hundred years. Nonetheless, the merchants donated endless sums to the expansion and upkeep of St. Nicholas, and many of the church's finest features date from this period. Later, the church would suffer from Ireland's religious differences with England. In the years between Henry VIII's 1534 expulsion of the Catholic Church from England and Cromwell's occupation of Galway in 1652, the church changed faith five times.

Today, the interior of the church is decorated with a host of interesting artifacts, some ancient and some more recent. Adorning the walls are numerous plaques dedicated to the memory of lost loved ones, some of these bear striking inscriptions,such as that for Joffre Briand (1915 -1986),

The seconds sweep, the hours glide,
and the minutes are in between,
but the forces that govern the heavens wide
remain forever unseen.

Or the inscription commemorating the life of James Kearney, who died at the young age of 11 on 22, February 1837:

Fairest flower of nature's garden blessed
Permitted just to bloom to bud, but plucked in haste.
Angels beheld him ripe for future joys to come
And called by God's command a brother home.

The eloquent eulogies are only a small portion of the attractions in this sacred space. Perhaps one of the more interesting items to inhabit the church is the Crusader's Tomb, a 13th century tomb, located in The Chapel of Christ. The Crusader's Tomb is thought to have originated at a nearby chapel of the Knights Templar, which was destroyed in 1324. The Knights Templars were a military and religious order that was founded in Jerusulem in 1118 to protect pilgrims travelling in the Holy Land after the First Crusade; they later established themselves throughout Europe as a force both powerful and wealthy.

Other places of interest within St. Nicholas include the Victorian Henry Library, which contains over 4,500 finely preserved volumes, The Baptismal Font, a late 16th or early 17th century carved stone basin that is still in use today, and the flamboyant Altar Tomb, which features a rare figure of Christ displaying the five wounds. And, of course, there is a great deal more to see in this magnificent medieval church.

So it is, that as we travel about the country searching for the remains of tumbled churches and castles, it is more than worth the while to visit St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church in Galway, and find history still living before our eyes.

Jeremy M. Usher
November 2000