(A.D. 589.)
[Roman and Irish Martyrologies. At Lucca the feast of his translation
is observed on Nov. 19th. Authorities:--Mention in life of S. Enda,
March 21st.]
S. Finnian of Moville is mentioned in the life of S. Enda as one
of his disciples in Aran, the Isle of Saints. This remarkable man
was the son of Ultach, an Irish king, and was baptized without his
father's consent. He was first placed under the care of S. Colman of
Dromore, who flourished about the year 510. It is expressly mentioned
in the life just referred to, that it was from Aran he set out on his
pilgrimage to Rome. This was probably his first visit to the apostolic
See. Being of an active temperament, he there devoted himself with
great ardour for several years to the study of the ecclesiastical and
apostolic traditions. He then returned to Ireland, carrying with him
a rich store of relics of the saints given him by the pope, and the
penitential canons, which in his biographer's time, were still called
"The Canons of S. Finnian." He also brought to Ireland the earliest
copy of S. Jerome's translations of the Gospels; a treatise of such
value in the estimation of his ecclesiastical contemporaries, that the
records of this period very frequently refer to them as S. Finnian's
Gospels.
In 540, he founded the great monastery of Moville, where S. Columba
spent a portion of his youth. After labouring with energy in
Ireland, S. Finnian returned to Italy, where, according to the best
authorities, he was made bishop of Lucca, in Tuscany, in which Church
he is venerated under the name of Frigidian, or Fridian. During
the twenty-eight years that he governed the see of Lucca, he built
twenty-eight churches; the chief of these he dedicated to the three
holy Levites, but it has since borne his name. He is said to have
carried a huge stone towards the erection of the church, which none
else could lift. It is still preserved in the church as a monument of
his strength and zeal. S. Gregory the Great relates a story of his
miraculous power. One day the river Arno had overflowed the country,
devastating the fields. The saint ran a plough down to the flood, and
it recoiled before the share.
The Italian annals give 588 as the year of his death; the annals of
Ulster and Tigernach 589.