Rosserk Abbey lies near Ballina in County Mayo, reached down maze of leafy lanes.

It is Franciscan, having been built in 1460 for a group of Third Order Franciscans, who, being unable to be monks and nuns because they were married, still wanted to live in a monastic community. Rosserk, like so many abbeys, is in a setting of great natural beauty, in a sheltered sea estuary amid fertile land. Practical, of course, as they could then be self-sufficient; fishing and farming...... Sadly, it was, like Moyne, burnt down by the compatriot I heartily disown, the then Governor of Connaught, who similarly torched nearby Moyne Abbey, around 1590.

It must have been a dramatic and dreadful scene; riders with great blazing torches, galloping along the tranquil, leafy lanes, destroying the prayerful silence, and bringing havoc and violence to the cloisters.... And the flames leaping high, hell's ministers, as night fell, the brethren homeless, the sacred places desecrated.

Now, it lies open to the skies, the magnificent arched window in the church all the more stark in its simply beauty. A complex, complete monastery; full now as all these holy places are in Ireland, with more recent graves and gravestones. Stairs and passages, windows, rooms. All their life and living there. Both times I have been there, there has been one other car there - and both times that has belonged to a French family..... The man this time had a French guide book, and asked if I knew this place, and if so, could I show him where the "piscine" was - with carving and Gothic arches. I was puzzled; a piscine is usually a swimming pool! So that was what they were looking for... In a 15th century monastery.......

Then realisation came, and I led them to the church; Rosserk has a rare double basin near the altar for washing the sacred communion vessels..... Complete with carvings of angels, and intricate stone arches.. ( see photo) And on the right hand side, a small and very old lion carving I had not noticed last time.

Let us never take freedom to pray for granted; nor let us persecute and exile those who pray differently from us. Let us not burn each others prayer-places.

For we answer not to man, but to God Himself for all we thus harm and exile and wound, for all His prophets we turn out of the camp, as man did to Jesus.Amen, amen and amen

PS I have to admit to having nursed a very sore head; I failed to duck in a stone doorway.. I know they say that people were shorter in those days, but I remain sure that this one one way of teaching monastic humility:) It certainly, as I was moving fast, brought me to my knees, literally, in a daze of "What happened?" Hard stone; hard lessons.......