Set into the nave floor are a number of large grave-slabs, the kind of memorial that was once common in Irish and European churches but has become increasingly rare as buildings were altered, floors replaced, or stones lost to neglect. Here, though, they remain underfoot, worn smooth by centuries of footfall, marking the resting places of people whose names and dates are still legible to anyone who thinks to look down.

The earliest of these slabs commemorates Bartholomew Gowan, who died in 1619. Little else is recorded about him in the available notes, but the date alone places him in a particularly turbulent period of Dublin's history, just over a decade after the Flight of the Earls and at a time when the city's religious and civic landscape was shifting considerably. St Audoen's itself is one of the oldest surviving medieval parish churches in Dublin, and the presence of such slabs reflects a practice common among the urban merchant and civic classes, who paid for the right to be buried within the church building rather than in the churchyard outside. A nave burial, particularly one marked by a carved stone, was a statement of social standing as much as an act of piety.

St Audoen's stands on High Street in the Liberties area of the city, close to the surviving section of the old city walls. The church is managed by the Office of Public Works and is generally open to visitors during the summer months, though it is worth checking opening times before making the trip. Once inside, the grave-slabs are in the nave floor, and the Gowan stone, as the earliest of the group, is the one to look for. The inscriptions can be difficult to read depending on the light, so it is worth taking a moment to let your eyes adjust and to move around the space slowly rather than crossing it quickly.