Fail Monastery
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| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Trinitarian |
| Established | circa 1252 |
| Disestablished | 1561 |
| Mother house | Saint Mathurian, Paris |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Andrew Bruce |
Fail Monastery, occasionally known as Failford Abbey, had a dedication to 'Saint Mary', and was located at Fail (NS 42129 28654) on the bank of the Water of Fail, Parish of Tarbolton near the town of Tarbolton, South Ayrshire. Most of the remaining monastery ruins were removed in 1952. The official and rarely used title was House of the Holy Trinity of Failford or the Ministry of Failford.
Other spelling variations for the monastery are 'Valle' (1307), 'Faleford' (1368), 'Feil' (1654), 'Feill' (1732), 'Faill' or 'Ffele' References refer loosely to both monks and friars and the establishment is sometimes marked on maps as a priory.
Also known as the 'Red Friars', or 'Mathurines' from the monastery of Saint Mathurin in Paris. The monks were charged with the duty of saving captives from slavery and as such, were called 'Fratres de Redemptione Captivorum' or 'The Fathers of Redemption'. The monks either paid the ransom of Christians or purchased pagan captives to exchange for Christians. The monks wore a white outer garment with a red and blue cross on the shoulder or over the breast. The monks were not permitted to ride horses and had to use asses for transport.
In Scotland the order had friaries at Aberdeen;Berwick;Dirleton;Dunbar; Houston (East Lothian);Peebles; and Scotlandswell. Kettins in Angus, only a parish church, was however appropriated to the Trinitarian friars.
William Aiton records that the monastery was established by John de Graham, Lord of Tarbolton in 1252, however Love regards Andrew Bruce as being the founder.
The monastery originally lay within the civil and ecclesiastical Parish of Barnweil or Barnwell, which was suppressed in 1673, its lands joining the Parishes of Craigie and Tarbolton. Founded about 1252, the monastery was partially destroyed by fire in 1349 or 1359. Two thirds of the monastery's income was ordered to be spent on redeeming Christian slaves and as a consequence and also as an order, the Trinitarians buildings were not overly ornate.
Although Tarbolton was twice subject to the jurisdiction of the monks of Fail, it did not remain with them, but remained an independent rectory. In 1429 Tarbolton was erected into a prebend or canonry of Glasgow Cathedral. Barnweil, a vicarage of the monks of Fail, was annexed partly to Tarbolton, and partly to Craigie in 1653. The church ruins, which stood near to an old castle of the same name, have been allowed to go to total ruin.
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Wikipedia