St. Mary’s Collegiate Church Gowran (Gaelic/Irish: Eaglais Mhuire), also known as the Church of the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption, is a church in the centre of the town of Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland. The site is a National Monument in the care of the Gowran Development Association (GDA) and the Office of Public Works (OPW). The church and its family connections have been of huge importance to Gowran and further afield over the centuries. The church is a collegiate church, which means that the priests or chaplains attached to it lived in community together. The present church was not a monastery or an abbey; however experts believe the church was built on the site of an earlier monastery. The presence of an Ogham stone on the site, which is on display in the chancel, suggests there was a place of worship here dating back 2000 years to Celtic times or beyond. The Collegiate Church In 1312 A.D. Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick and Lord Deputy of Ireland made a binding agreement before the Kings Justice in Dublin with the Dean and Chapter of St Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny to financially support four priests in St. Mary’s Church Gowran to celebrate masses forever, for himself, his wife Joan, his son, James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormonde, his daughters and his ancestors living and dead. The Gowran Ogham Stone The oldest inscribed monument in the church is the Christianised Ogham Stone from the 3rd or 4th century, which was found on the site during the rebuilding of the chancel in 1826. The Gowran Ogham Stone was used as a building stone in another part of the Church and lay undisturbed for centuries. The Ogham stones were grave stones or memorials. The one in Gowran is a freestone or grit block: about tall, across the face, and thick. Canon Carrigan gives Fr. Edmund Barry's reading as "DALO MAQA MUCOI MAQUI-ERACIAS MAQI LI", that is, "Dalach, grandson, of Mac-Eirche, who was son of Lia". The stone was Christianised (a Christian cross was carved on the stone) about the 6th century. History St. Mary’s Church has undergone many alterations. Pre-Christian to Medieval period 1st/2nd Century: foundation of the Kingdom of Osraige. 3rd/4th Century: Ogham stone. The presence of this Christianised Ogham stone suggests that this site was a site of worship in pre-Christian times, before St. Patrick arrived in Ireland in 432 A.D. 455