A Singular Woman: The Prioress of Lismullin Convent and Her Seal

Abstract: The pointed oval seal of Avicia de la Corner remains attached to a document dating to 1261–4 at the National Library of Ireland. The seal is unique in its presentation of the Dormition and Assumption, both of which are not found on another documented seal in the British Isles or Ireland until the sixteenth century. The iconography points to the singularity of Mary who was the only woman in Christianity to rise bodily to heaven. Avicia’s selection of such a seal provides evidence for her own agency and speaks to her identity as a patron and leader of women in medieval Ireland.