The ancient cemetery of Killmoleran, from which the parish itself takes its name, survives without its church, and the graveyard has long been known locally by the peculiar Irish name Relig na Muc, meaning the Pig's Cemetery. The origin of that nickname, as the antiquarian Patrick Power noted in 1896, was already unknown in his time.

Power's account places the cemetery close to the remains of the Franciscan friary at Carrickbeg, separated from it by little more than the width of a public road. He recorded that not a trace of the ancient church survived and that even oral tradition had lost track of its exact position on the ground. For a building significant enough to lend its name to the entire parish, that is a considerable disappearance. Complicating matters further, the site was for some time incorrectly identified as the graveyard associated with the modern Franciscan church in the area. Subsequent research re-located it to the graveyard sitting at the junction of Mass Road and Mothel Road, the spot still known locally as Relig na Muc. The parish name, Killmoleran, preserves the Irish word "cill", meaning a church or monastic cell, so the dedication and the general area survived in place-name form long after the physical structure ceased to exist entirely.