At Abergavenny (Y Fenni), in Monmouthshire, St Mary's is nicknamed 'the Westminster Abbey of Wales' for its exceptional collection of tombs. A former priory saved from the Dissolution thanks to its links with the Tudors, it shelters a carved treasure unique in the world.
A priory saved by the Tudors
A Benedictine priory founded in 1087, St Mary's was closed in 1536 at the Dissolution — but, unlike so many others, it was spared and given to the parish. This survival is explained by the close links between the lords of Abergavenny and the Tudor dynasty. The church indeed keeps an exceptional series of effigies and tombs of the ap Thomas and Herbert families (fourteenth-sixteenth centuries) — including that of Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook. His kinsman, Richard Herbert of Ewyas, had been raised alongside young Henry Tudor and fought for him at Bosworth (1485): it is this closeness to the dynasty's founder that protected the priory from the common fate of the monasteries.
A unique carved treasure
St Mary's shelters an unequalled masterpiece: the Jesse figure, an immense fifteenth-century oak sculpture representing Jesse, ancestor of Christ, reclining — a remnant of a monumental 'Tree of Jesse' (the genealogical tree of Christ). It is one of the only sculptures of this kind to have survived in Britain, most having been destroyed by reformed iconoclasm. With its painted, polychrome Herbert tombs and its medieval stalls, the church offers an exceptional funerary and sculpted ensemble — hence its nickname of 'the Welsh Westminster Abbey'. To see: the Jesse figure (oak, fifteenth century, a unique treasure), the painted and polychrome Herbert tombs, the medieval stalls.
Did you know?
The Jesse figure of St Mary's is a miracle of survival: these immense sculptures representing the genealogical tree of Christ, springing from the sleeping body of Jesse, once adorned many churches — but the iconoclasm of the Reformation made almost all of them disappear, judged too 'popish'. That of Abergavenny, carved from a single oak trunk, is one of the very rare survivors in the world. That it escaped the fire and the hammer, in a country where so many images were burned, is a marvel.
Notes
St Mary's Priory Church lies at Abergavenny (Y Fenni), Monmouthshire; a working parish church, open to visits. Hours to check.
Quiz
- Why is St Mary's nicknamed 'the Westminster Abbey of Wales'?
- For its exceptional collection of tombs
- For its crowned kings
- For its size
- Why was the priory spared in 1536?
- The links of the lords of Abergavenny with the Tudors
- A miracle
- It was too poor
- Which unique carved treasure does the church shelter?
- The Jesse figure (oak, fifteenth century)
- A gold statue
- An Egyptian sarcophagus