Statue of the Blessed Virgin in Dublin

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Statue of the Blessed Virgin in Dublin **

There is preserved in the Carmelite Church, in Whitefriar-street, Dublin, a very interesting sample of ancient sculpture - a statue of the Virgin, with the infant Jesus her arms, the size of life, carved in Irish oak.

The style of this most curious monument is dry and Gothic; yet, it has considerable merit.

There are some circumstances relative to the preservation of this statue, preserved by tradition, which may probably interest the reader.

It was originally the distinguished ornament of St. Maiy’s Abbey, at the north side of Dublin, where it was not less an object of religious veneration than of admiration, for its beauty. - *See Archdall’s Monasticon. *

Its glory, however, was but of short duration. The storm of the Reformation came. The noble abbey, to which it appertained, was given to the Earl of Ormond, for stables for his train, and the beautiful statue was condemned, and, as it was supposed, consigned to the flames.

One half of it was actually burnt, but it was that moiety which, when placed in a niche, is not much missed; the other part was carried by a devout person to a neighbouring inn-yard, where, with its face buried in the ground, and the hollow trunk appearing uppermost, it was appropriated, for concealment and safety, to the ignoble purpose of a hog-trough!

In this situation it remained until the tempest had subsided, and the ignoble rage of the Iconoclasts had passed away, when it was restored to its original use in the humble chapel of St. Michan’s parish (Mary’s-lane), which had grown up fiom the ruins of the great monastery to which the statue had originally belonged.

But during the long night of its slumber in obscurity, a great change had taken place in the spirit of the times, more dangerous to its safety than the abhorrence of its Iconoclastic enemies.

No longer an object of admiration to any, except the curious antiquary, it was considered of little value by its owners. The ancient silver crown which adorned the Virgin’s head was sold for its intrinsic value, as old plate, and melted down (this crown is generally supposed o have been the identical one used at the coronation of Lambert Simnel in Christ Church, Dublin); and the statue itself would most probably have followed the fate of its coronet, had it not been rescued by the Very Rev. Doctor Spratt, of the Church, in which it is at present deposited. The statue now stands at the epistle side of the high altar.

From Duffy’s Fireside Magazine 1853.

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