An effigy of St Francis

An effigy of St Francis from Meelick Franciscan Friary, Co Galway. This church is now the local parish church. This effigy seems to originate from either a decorated tomb where it may have functioned as a weeper, or from the cloister arcade. It depicts the saint exhibiting the ‘stigmata’. A carved image of St Francis is also found on an elaborate canopied tomb of similar date in Kilconnell, Franciscan friary. Papal permission was granted for the erection of Meelick Friary by Pope John the 23rd in 1414.