Opinion: Who are the Petronellas of today? Kilkenny witch trial gives pause for thought

When I arrived as Dean of St Canice’s Cathedral almost three years ago, I threw myself into learning the stories of this fabulous building and the city to which it gives its name.

The most extraordinary story I encountered is the one the city commemorates at the beginning of November, the Kilkenny Witch Trial. At the heart of that story is Bishop Richard Ledrede, often described as the most extraordinary bishop ever to hold the See of Ossory – and for good reason.

If visitors to the cathedral know little else about Ledrede, they know that there was a bishop here who had an innocent servant girl burned at the stake for heresy and witchcraft.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this terrible story, trying to make sense of the man and separate fact from fiction. The witch trial represents a tragic low point in the life of our city, profound wrong and unspeakable injustice.

One additional sadness is that we know so little about that servant girl, Petronella. Her life, her story is lost among the stories of people more powerful and influential than her.

When we try to see Petronella, we end up almost chasing shadows. But we do know more about Ledrede. He was an Englishman who had spent most of his ecclesiastical career in Avignon at the Papal Court. There, he may have seen the destruction of the Knights Templar on similar charges of witchcraft.

When appointed to the See of Ossory, he came to reform the city. He took the novel step of actually living in Kilkenny and undertook a thorough inspection of his diocese. He wrote new laws for the better running of the church. We know much of this because he recorded it in the Red Book of Ossory, his episcopal register, which is currently on display in the cathedral for the first time in its 700-year history.
Dean Farrell at the tomb of Bishop Ledrede

Also in that book is an extraordinary medical recipe, Aqua Vitae. Today, it is known as whiskey, but then it was at the forefront of medical science, the equivalent of the Covid vaccine, in the war to vanquish the black death which ravished the county.

The hard thing for us to understand through today’s eyes is that just as Ledrede wanted to save his people from the threat of the Black Death, he wanted to save them from the disease of heresy. He saw himself as having a righteous cause.
Today, we see the world differently. But there is a danger that we roll our eyes and say, ‘Thank God we are no longer like that’.

On Sunday, November 3, we will have a service of commemoration in St Canice's Cathedral as we seek to lament these events and to commend Petronella unto God in a way she was denied in 1324. But we will also seek to examine ourselves.

The more I think about Ledrede, the more I ask, who are the Petronellas of today? In 700 years, when the people of Kilkenny look back on our time, I wonder, what will seem as unjust and misguided as the witch trial of 1324?