Irish Franciscans in Prague

The Franciscans, fleeing from religious persecution in Ireland, had first arrived in the Czech capital in 1629 at a time of great conflict – the Thirty Years War had started in Prague just ten years previously and was still to rage throughout Europe for another twenty desperate years. With the financial assistance of Irish military officers engaged in the war they bought some land and houses on the site of the old church of St Ambrose and began to build their training college. They had a large garden at the back of the buildings in which they grew much of their own food, and were the first to introduce the potato to the Czech lands. The Czechs were amazed at the Irish as they had regarded the potato as an interesting flowering plant but anything growing under the ground as evil, and possibly Satanic!

The Franciscans also received help from some among the Czech aristocracy including Count Franz Anton Šporc, who had a special corridor built connecting his adjoining palace directly to the  church when it was built.  A commemorative plaque giving the history of the building (in Czech and English) was recently sited in the connecting passageway.

The foundation stone of the church was laid on 15 August 1652 , blessed by by Franciscan Provincial Francis O’Sullivan OFM(1) in the presence of Emperor Ferdinand III and Archbishop (later Cardinal) Ernst Adalbert Harrach. A relic of St Patrick was imbedded in the church’s substructure. A detailed and charming account highlighting the significance of the Irish Franciscans in the intellectual life of Baroque Prague over the lifetime of the College is given in ‘The Irish Franciscans in Prague 1629 – 1786’(2)

On the dissolution of the monastery by Emperor Joseph II in 1786 as part of his ‘religious reforms’ some of the monks had to leave Prague, while others too infirm to travel were retired on pension. The furnishings and precious relics of the church were dispersed to other churches in Prague, including the Czech Franciscan Church of Our Lady of the Snows. The panel with the memorialinscription (in Latin) commemorating the laying of the foundation stone, was removed from the church in 1949 and is now in The National Institute for the Preservation of Monuments.

Notes:

(1)Sadly, the following year Fr O’Sullivan, together with his congregation were massacred on Scariff Island (in Kenmare Bay Ireland) by Cromwellian soldiers (23 June, 1653). His skull is now preserved in the sacristy of the Franciscan friary in Killarney.

(2)Jan Pařez and Hedvika Kuchařová, Charles University 2015.

(3) The presentation is called (in English) The Blue Flower Exhibition, blue being the colour of our Lady to whom the church was dedicated. The exhibition opens on Friday 23 August and will run until end of year. The Wild Geese will be organising  a visit there when the cooler weather prevails.

Gallery