DESPISING the vanities of the world, though of the race of the monarchs
of Ireland, from his youth he made the science of the cross of Christ
the sole object of his ambition; and to engrave in his heart the lessons
which our divine Redeemer taught by that adorable mystery, was the
centre of all his desires. Having passed many years, first in the school
of St. Fiechus, archbishop of Leinster, and afterwards in the celebrated
monastery of Clonard, in the province of Meath, under its holy founder
St Finian, he retired into the isle of Inis-muighesamb, in the lake of
Erne, in the province of Ulster. Here, in process of time, he became the
director of many souls in the paths of Christian perfection, founded a
great monastery, and, on account of his eminent sanctity, and the number
of illustrious disciples whom he left behind him, is called one of the
twelve apostles of Ireland. He flourished in the sixth century, and has
been honored in Ireland among the saints. F. Colgan was not able to meet
with any acts of his life, though he is mentioned in the lives of
several other Irish saints. A church in the isle of the lake, formed by
the river Erne, is dedicated to God under his invocation.
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