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Celtic Saints

St. Patrick

The patron saint of Ireland is thought to have been born in the southwest of Britain in the late fourth century AD. According to legend he was abducted and taken to Ireland when he was sixteen and sold to an Irish chief named Milchru. He managed to escape to France after six years and became a monk. At the age of forty-five he was consecrated as a bishop and in 432 AD began his missionary work in Ireland. There are many stories connected to the saint though the only certain authentic literary remains of the saint are his Confession, which is a spiritual autobiography, and a letter addressed to Coroticus, a British chieftain who had carried off some Irish Christians for slaves. His feast-day is March 17th.

St. Brigid of Kildare

Was born near Kildare around 453 AD, eight years before St. Patrick's death, during a time when pagan Ireland was embracing the Christian faith. She received a traditional Irish form of education from a Druidic household. At fourteen she and seven others wished to become nuns and were given white woolen habits, which became the distinctive dress of Irish nuns for centuries. Nothing remains of her first monastic settlement, which was built at Kildare, except a round tower that marks the spot.

St. Brigid died around 524 AD, Gerald of Wales tells how a perpetual fire was kept burning at Kildare, tended by nineteen nuns in her honor. This lasted for a thousand years until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The nuns of the new convent at Kildare have continued the tradition of the perpetual flame.

St. Columba

Born in 521 AD at Gartan County Donegal, the early Irish monk was taught by St. Finnian at Moville on Strangford Lough. He founded numerous monasteries in Ireland until he was forced to leave because of a dispute over the copying of a book without the permission of its owner St. Finnian.

He left in a curragh with twelve followers for the island of Iona where he founded a famous monastery that was to be a powerful influence in all Christendom. There are numerous legends connected with the saint while in Scotland which included a confrontation with the Loch Ness Monster. He died in 597 AD

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