Cadróe (d. 974 × 978), abbot, was born of noble family into an Irish community in Scotland, probably in the west or north-west. He received his first education from a teacher named Beanus or Béoán, and was subsequently educated at Armagh. He set out from Scotland on a pilgrimage to the Continent, being escorted to the borders of Strathclyde by the Scottish Gaelic king whom Cadróe's biographer names ‘Constantinus’ (almost certainly to be identified with Causantín son of Áed, king of the Scots 900–43). The king of Strathclyde, Dovenaldus, escorted him onwards ad Loidam civitatem (Leeds?). He travelled south through York and on to Kent, where he embarked for the Continent.
In c.945 Cadróe established a monastic community at Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache (in France, close to the present French–Belgian border), on land granted by Duke Eilbert and his wife Hersindis, over which his companion Malcalan (qv) was appointed abbot or prior. Malcalan later became a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Gorze and subsequently abbot of Waulsort (in the Ardennes), which was recognised by a charter of Otto I as a monastery of the Scotti that had been given to ‘certain servants of God, coming from Ireland for the sake of pilgrimage and desiring to live under the rule of St Benedict’.
Cadróe next spent some time at the Benedictine house of Fleury, following which he became prior of Waulsort, eventually succeeding Malcalan as abbot. Some time before 962, he was summoned by Adalbero I, bishop of Metz 929–64, to restore the monastery of Saint-Félix, later called Saint-Clément. He was appointed abbot by Adalbero's successor, Theoderic (Thierry), and spent the rest of his life there. Summoned by the empress Adelaide, mother of Otto I, to meet her at Erstein in Alsace, he died on the return journey sometime between 974 and 978. His Life was written c.982/3; it contains some material relevant to the continental cult of his patron St Colum Cille (qv).