Born at Bregia, Leinster, Ireland; died February 2, c. 560. Little is
authentically known about Saint Finnian because the records of his life
are conflicting. He is said to have been the son of Conail and
descendent of Alild, king of Munster. He may have been a disciple of
Saint Columba (f.d. June 9)
(or perhaps he was trained at one of
Columba's foundations); others, that he was a disciple of
Saint Brendan (f.d. May 16).
He was ordained by Bishop Fathlad, and may have been
consecrated by him.
Finnian built a church that is believed to have been at Innisfallen in
County Kerry and so is considered by some scholars to have been the
founder of that monastery. Later he lived at Clonmore Abbey in Leinster
and then went to Swords near Dublin, where he was made abbot by Columba
when he left. Another account has him abbot of Clonmore Monastery,
where he was buried, for the last thirty years of his life.
Lobhar means "the Leper," a name he acquired when he reputedly assumed
the disease of a leper to cure a young boy of an illness
(
Benedictines,
Delaney,
Encyclopedia,
Farmer,
Gill,
Husenbeth).