Whitefriars seal matrix
Last updated | 22/09/2010
This seal matrix was discovered during the 1983
excavations on the site of the medieval Carmelite Friary of Perth.
It is vesica piscis shaped with a single suspension loop at the
back. The front carries a scene of the Virgin Mary suckling the
infant Christ above a kneeling friar beneath an arch. The
inscription reads S' PRIORIS: FRATRUM: CARMEL: DEPERT - the seal of
the Prior of the Carmelite Friary of Perth. It probably dates to
the late 13th or early 14th century.
Only five other such priors’ seals
survive from Britain, all of them English. Other seals are known
from Scottish Carmelite friaries (including Linlithgow and
Aberdeen) but they are not specifically the seals of the priors of
those houses. The Virgin Mary is depicted on the seal because she
was the holy patron of the Carmelites.
