So there’s an early Christian monastery around Glendalough, Ireland that I would love to visit some time. Wikipedia has a photo of what appears to be a little stone chapel with the description “St. Kevin’s Church” or “kitchen”. Huh?
So, are small stone chapels sometimes called “kitchens”?
Is this where the food was prepared for the monks? (Doesn’t seem likely; the structure looks like a chapel)
What’s up with the whole “church or kitchen” thing?
Here’s the link. It looks like two joined buildings, so perhaps the little one attached to teh main church was a kitchen. (Just a WAG.)
Or Wikipedia vandalism?
I seem to recall that it’s just the local name for the church.
According to these sites, it got that name because of its size, and because of the attached tower that looks like a chimney.
St. Kevin’s Church is unusual in that it has a round tower or belfry with conical cap integrated with the church. Perhaps because of its small size, or the tower resembling a chimney, it is frequently called “St. Kevin’s kitchen.”
[/QUOTE]
The usage of “St Kevin’s Church or ‘Kitchen’” is not the work of Wikivandals but is perpetuated on the Glendalpough tourism monuments webpage. No clue except that St Kevin seems to have been a bit of an eremite, so he may well have eaten at the chapel.
Glendalough is certainly well-worth visiting, not just for the monastic site but for the incredible scenic beauty of the surroundings.
I don’t know how “St Kevin’s kitchen” came to bear that name. It is a small typical early-Christian church and was certainly nothing to do with food preparation. Of course the monastic settlement would have had a kitchen for the monks and students.
A lot of legends grew up associated with St Kevin and with the site long after the monastic site was abandoned, and a lot of names were attached to different locations around the site.
Was anyone else suprised to hear that there was a Saint Kevin? I actually thought it was a joke, because I thought the name Kevin was invented in the 20th century, and because it’s a typical “white trash” name. It’s like finding out there’s a Saint Wayne ::checks Wikipedia to make sure there isn’t a Saint Wayne::
Ignorance fought!
That’s ironic, because the literal meaning of the word in Irish is “noble born” (caoimh ghin).
We’ve been there. (Glendaloughis a great site). I was under the impression that “kitchen” was a misuse by folks for many years, who thought that such a fireproof and well-built structure must be intended as a kitchen (like the “summer kitchens” in the American South). certainly I’ve never heard that “kitchen” was ever a term for a kind of church.
OK, I guess I can understand the colloquialism…the tower’s appearance as a chimney for a kitchen. Hey, thanks! Now I can travel with confidence not calling every country chapel a “kitchen” thinking I’m scoring points with the locals!
So it’s basically a nickname for the church.
Not so unusual. Where I grew up in Willmar, MN, we had a local Lutheran congregation that built a new church: a big, tall, round building. Being set in a farming community, we all recognized the style – it was the Lutheran silo church, a term known to everybody in town.
(But they did serve a real good lutefisk & swedish meatballs supper every Fall. You could just ignore the lutefisk and still get a real good meal.)
