The Augustinian canons were not monks in the strict sense but followed a rule of common life derived from the writings of Saint Augustine, combining elements of monastic discipline with pastoral activity. Houses of this order appeared across medieval Ireland, often founded under the patronage of local Gaelic lords or Anglo-Norman settlers, and tucked into landscapes that have since been transformed beyond recognition.

Beyond its classification and location, the documentary record for this particular site is, for the moment, thin. What the designation does confirm is that a recognised medieval religious house of Augustinian canons once existed at An Chrois, a place whose Irish name simply means the cross, itself a quietly suggestive detail for a site of religious settlement. The Augustinian presence in Connacht was part of a broader wave of reform-era monasticism that reshaped Irish ecclesiastical life from the twelfth century onward, when the older Gaelic church gave way to Continental orders and their more structured communities. Whether this house was a modest cell dependent on a larger foundation elsewhere, or a more independent establishment, remains unclear without further archival work.