INSCRIPTION ON WALL – LATIN

 Just inside the main entrance to the church, on the wall, there is a stone slab with a Latin inscription. This slab was originally set on the west wall of the main church. The inscription reads:

HAEC ECCLESIA TRADITA FUIT FF ORDS S. FRANCISCI A.D. 1269. REAEDIFICATA A P.M. CHEEVERS 1688 AND AMPLIATA 1784.

Translated into the English language this reads:

THIS CHURCH WAS HANDED OVER TO THE FRIARS OF THE ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS IN 1269. IT WAS REBUILT BY FR. M. CHEEVERS IN 1688 AND ENLARGED IN 1784.

 

 

 HOLY WATER FONT

 A dark oval holy water font stands at the entrance. The inscription on it reads:

PRAY FOR FATH. peter COLFER.

A FRANCISCN.

1771.

This Fr. Peter Matthew Colfer is mentioned in the Friary Registers as Guardian of Wexford Friary from 1767 to 1769; from 1789 to 1794; from 1800 to 1801; and from 1811 to 1813. He died on the 30th March, 1825, aged 75, and was buried in the Friars’ Plot in the Friary Graveyard.

 

Most of the foregoing has been taken from the booklet Wexford Friary, by Fr. Patrick O.F.M., published in 1950.