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Parishes
Trory and Killadeas
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Click here to visit the Trory & Killadeas Parishes Facebook page
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Services Times:
| 1st Sunday | 2nd Sunday | 3rd Sunday | 4th Sunday | 5th Sunday | |
| Priory Killadeas 10am | Holy Communion | Service of the word | Morning Prayer | Morning Prayer | Morning Prayer |
| Trory 11.30am |
Holy Communion | Service of the word | Morning Prayer | Morning Prayer | Morning Prayer |
Killadeas Church and Churchyard - A Brief History
The year 1981 marked the centenary of the Priory Church, however, the present structure represents only a small portion of the history of this ancient site. The name Killadeas tells us something of the site's history. The word is a corruption of 'Culdees', the 'Ceili De of Companions of God', a monastic order which was prominent from the eighth century onwards on nearby Devenish and other islands of Lower Lough Erne.
Mary Rogers, in her history 'Prospect of Erne', writes that substantial and elaborately carved stones in the Killadeas churchyard bear pre-Christian symbolism; the well known bishop's stone itself is thought to have been adopted by the Christians when they took over what had been a pagan site. Other ancient stones also bear markings of earlier rituals and beliefs.
A previous structure, whose ruins were noted by Isaac Butler in 1744, was known as the Yellow Church because of the colour of its stonework. According to legend, this church was first built on the wrong site because of the founder's incorrect interpretation of a vision; after it had been finished and consecrated, angels credited with its being 'in one night taken up and laid where it is now'.
When the new church was built in 1881, it incorporated the stones of the earlier construction. Some of those stones may be seen as part of the archway that now separates the nave from the choir and chancel.