Catholic Diocese of Killaloe

Killaloe Diocesan Office, Westbourne,

Ennis, Co Clare, Ireland

Tel: 065-6828638������ Fax: 065-6842538������ Email: [email protected]

�Beginnings

An early life of St. Patrick (Vita Tripartita) says that the saint never visited Thomond. However, it also tells us that the men of Thomond crossed the Shannon to meet St. Patrick and were baptised by him. After that from a hill in Co. Limerick he blessed Thomond ‘for the willingness with which they had come with abundance of their gifts’. The hill is probably Knockpatrick, near Foynes, which commands a fine view of Co. Clare.

� Shortly after the death of St. Patrick the Irish Church took a direction different from the usual pattern elsewhere. This was due to the very rapid growth of many monasteries which became the focal points for the life of the Church. The bishops had a subsidiary role to that of the abbots of the larger monasteries and, because of the importance attached to the monasteries, the normal diocesan system did not take root.

� In what is now County Clare there were two great island monasteries at Iniscathaig (Scattery) and Iniscealtra (Holy Island). St. Senan belonged to the generation after St. Patrick and founded his monastery on Iniscathaig in the first half of the 6th century. The medieval lives of St. Senan are contradictory in many details and it is impossible to sift historical fact from various later additions. However, the attention given to Senan’s memory, particularly the extent to which traditions about him have survived in West Clare, shows the important role he must have played in establishing Christianity in the region.

� St. Caimin, half brother of Guaire, King of Connacht, went to live a life of solitude on Iniscealtra. Before long his reputation for sanctity attracted many disciples and he had no option but to organise them into a regular monastic community. Christianity was already well established at this stage as Caimin lived about one hundred years after Senan. His death is recorded in the year 654.
The surviving buildings on Iniscathaig and Iniscealtra mainly date from the later medieval period.

By the early 12th century it was clear that the Irish Church was in need of reform and reorganisation. The monasteries, which had been the focal points of religious life, had declined in importance and the way was ready for the introduction of the diocesan system, which was the norm elsewhere, into Ireland.

� THE DIOCESE OF KILLALOE

Covers a vast area much larger than the county in which its ancient cathedral still stands. It owes its existence as a diocese to the efforts of Brian Boru who ruled the Kingdom of Ireland from here. His successors continued his efforts to establish a church independent of Norman influence. This was a source of some concern to William the Conqueror's wily advisor, Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who wanted to extend Norman influence over Irish ecclesiastical affairs. Lanfranc's death in 1089 weakened Canterbury's grip on Irish church affairs, particularly in Killaloe which was becoming an important centre of religious life and enjoying the patronage of the Dalcassian Kings. The O'Briens still considered themselves Kings of Ireland although their power was restricted to Munster and Leinster. Towards the end of the eleventh century they shifted their capital to Limerick, making it their chief power base as Kings of Munster and Thomond. Killaloe came into being as a diocese in 1111 after the Synod of Rathbreasail.

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St. Senan
Feastday: March 8


Senan was born of Christian parents at Munster, Ireland. He was a soldier for a time and then became a monk under Abbot Cassidus, who sent him to Abbot St. Natalis at Kilmanagh in Ossory. Senan became known for his holiness and miracles and attracted great crowds to his sermons. He made a journey to Rome, meeting St. David on the way back. He built several churches and monasteries, and then settled on Scattery Island, where he built a monastery that soon became famous. He died at Killeochailli on the way back from a visit to St. Cassidus monastery. His feast day is March 8.

St. Cronan, Abbot

Abbot-Bishop and Patron of Roscrea, a see afterwards incorporated in that of Killaloe, Ireland; b. in the territory of Ely O'Carroll; d. 28 April 640. After spending his youth in Connacht, he returned to his native district about the year 610 and founded Abbey Roscrea, where he established a famous school. Previously he settled at a place known as Sean Ros or Loch Cre, a wooded morass far from the haunts of men; in fact, it was utterly wild, so much so, that St. Cronan abandoned it and moved to the wood of Cre, that is Ros cre, County Tipperary. Like those of so many other Irish saints the Acts of St. Cronan abound in miracles . The most surprising, perhaps, is the legend as to the transcribing of the Four Gospels by one of his monks, named Dimma. It appears that Dimma could only undertake one day's task, from sunrise to sunset. St. Cronan, however, bade him write, and then Dimma set to work, never ceasing till he had finished the Four Gospels, the sun continuing to shine for the space of forty days and forty nights - the scribe himself being unconscious that the work occupied more than one day. Whatever may be thought of this legend, it is certain that a magnificent Evangelistarium, known as the "Book of Dimma", was for centuries preserved in St. Cronan's Abbey at Roscrea, and is now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. The scribe, Dimma MacNathi, signs his name at the conclusion of each of the Gospels, and he has been identified with Dimma, subsequently Bishop of Connor, who is mentioned with St. Cronan in the letter of Pope John IV in 640, in regard to Pelagianism in Ireland, but this identification cannot be sustained. The case containing the "Book of Dimma" was richly gilt by order of O'Carroll, Lord of Ely, in the twelfth century. Notwithstanding the conflicting statements arising from the number of contemporary Irish saints bearing the name Cronan, it is more than probable that St. Cronan of Roscrea, as les Petits Bollandistes say, lived as late as the year 640, and his death occurred on 28 April of that year. His feast is celebrated on 28 April and as such is included in all the Irish calendars, as also in the Kalendar of Drummond.

Brendan of Birr (d. 573) was a contemporary of St Brendan the Voyager and a friend of Colum Cille, who had a vision of his body being carried to heaven by angels. His foundation was at Parsonstown in County Offaly. His feast day is 29 November.