Finian the Leper
Saint
BornBregia, Leinster, Ireland
Died560 AD
Honored inEastern Orthodox Church
Roman Catholic Church
Feast16 March

Saint Finian the Leper (Irish: Saint Finian Lobhar) was an early Irish saint credited by some sources with founding a church and monastery at Innisfallen in Killarney.[1][lower-alpha 1]

Life

Saint Finian was a disciple of St. Columba. He was a strict Irish abbot, whose monks followed a vegetarian diet.[3] For a period of time, he stayed in Clonmore, later becoming the abbot of Swords Abbey near Dublin.[1] He may have returned to Clonmore in his later years, and was called Lobhar, "The Leper". Following the custom, he acquired the name when he contracted leprosy from a young boy, whom he had cured of the disease.[4] A conflicting source, however, says that he only cured the boy and did not contract leprosy himself.[5] His feast day is 16 March.[3]

Notes

  1. According to John Healy it is unlikely that Finian Lobhar founded the church and monastery at Innisfallen in the extreme southwest of Ireland, and much more likely that Saint Finan Cam was the founder, since Finan Cam was born and spent most of his life in this area.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 "St. Finian Lobhar", Catholic Online, retrieved 6 July 2021
  2. Healy 1890, pp. 439–440.
  3. 1 2 Alban, Butler (1821). The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints. London: John Murphy. p. 165.
  4. Bunson, Matthew, Margaret, and Stephen (2003). Our Sunday Visitor's: Encyclopedia of Saints (Revised). Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. p. 324. ISBN 1-931709-75-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. "St. Finian Lobhar - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online". www.catholic.org. Retrieved 22 December 2015.

Sources


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