WATERFORD CITY PARISHES

Samuel Lewis

1837

The county of the city comprises the parishes of Trinity Within, Trinity Without, St. Michael, St. Olave, St. Peter, St. Stephen, St. Patrick, St. John Within, St. John Without, Killoteran, Kilbarry, and Kilculliheen; the three last are entirely rural, and are described under their own heads. They are all in the diocese of Waterford, and province of Cashel, except the last, which is in the diocese of Ossory, and province of Dublin. The parishes of Trinity Within and Without (otherwise called the Holy and Undivided Trinity) form a curacy, which, with those of St. Michael and St. Olave, together comprising two-thirds of the city, are united to the entire rectory of Kilcarragh and part of that of Kilburne, and to part of the rectories of Kilmeaden and Reisk, together constituting the corps of the deanery of Waterford, in the patronage of the Crown. Trinity, St.Michael's, and St. Olave's parishes pay minister's money.

The gross annual income of the deanery amounts to £1044. 8. 9., including one-third share of the corporate revenue of the dean and chapter, amounting to £145. 4. 2. There are two glebes in the union, one of 17 acres in Kilcarragh, and another of 317 acres in Kilburne. There are, exclusively of the cathedral church, which is also parochial, churches in the parishes of St. Olave and Killoteran, which latter rectory is usually held with the deanery by a separate title. St. Olave's church was rebuilt and consecrated by Dr. Milles, bishop of Waterford and Lismore, in 1734, a memorial of which is preserved on a brass plate in the western wall of the building; the pulpit, and the bishop's throne, which is in the church, are of very beautiful oak handsomely carved; divine service is performed here twice every day; and a lecturer, who is also master of the endowed school, receives £100 per ann. from the corporation, as trustees of a bequest by Bishop Milles, for the endowment of lectureships at St. Olave's and St. Patrick's.

The parishes of St. Patrick, St. Peter, and St. Stephen, of which the livings are curacies, are united to the vicarages of St. John Within and Without, together comprising one-third of the city, and constituting the corps of the archdeaconry of Waterford, in the patronage of the Bishop: the income is derivable from minister's money. The church of St. Patrick, the only one in the union, is a plain neat building, situated on elevated ground to the west of the city: the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £576 for its repair. The churches of St. John, St. Stephen, St. Peter, and St. Michael long since fell to ruins.

There are four R. C. chapels, of which the principal, situated in Barron-Strand-Street, was erected in 1793, on ground given by the corporation, nearly opposite a former chapel, which had been built about a hundred years previously, and was the first ever erected in the city; it is a very large building, and was erected at an expense of £20,000, raised chiefly by collections of pence at the chapel doors: the front, which will be of the Ionic order, is not yet completed; the interior is remarkable for the lightness and elegance of its style; the spacious roof is supported on ranges of columns of the Corinthian order; a considerable addition is at present being made to it.

In this chapel are preserved and used, on the day before Easter-Sunday, some rich dresses supposed to have been presented by Pope Innocent III. to the cathedral of Waterford; the plate also is of the most rich and valuable kind. There are two tablets in the interior, to the memory of Dr. Power and the late Dr. Patrick Kelly, and one on the exterior wall of the chapel to the memory of Dr. Hussey, all R. C. bishops of Waterford. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Methodists, and Presbyterians.

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