Crónán

Crónán (fl. 7th cent.) of Roscrea, saint in the Irish tradition, is frequently confused with Crónán son of Sinell (d. 665). Very little is known of this seventh-century saint, the recensions of whose Latin Life are of the eleventh or twelfth century. For what they are worth, his Lives state that Crónán's father was Odrán, a Munsterman of Éile (Ely O'Carroll), and that his mother was from Connacht. His first foundations, in Connacht, survive only as names. He is supposed to have had associations with Clonmacnoise, which he visited with his cousin Mo-Bí (qv) of Glasnevin. He finally returned to his native place to found a monastery at Seanros near Monaincha (near Roscrea, Co. Tipperary), but found it too remote and built a greater monastery on the high road in Roscrea. He continued, however, to use Monaincha as a hermitage; there are still remains of a small Irish Romanesque church. There are other Romanesque ruins in Roscrea, including a high cross of continental inspiration showing a robed figure of Christ on one side and on the other a figure held to be that of Crónán.

The obits of many of the abbots of Roscrea are recorded, the first being that of Daniel in 761 (Ann. Inisf.). A house of Augustinian canons regular is recorded for 1173 (Ann. Tig.), though the Augustinian rule may have been introduced here earlier by Malachy (qv) (d. 1148). The diocese of Ely O'Carroll was attached to Munster at the synod of Ráith Bressail (1111) and ceased to be an independent bishopric soon after. The only survivals from Roscrea's early monastic culture are the late eighth-century ‘pocket gospel’ known as the Book of Dimma (T.C.D. MS 59); the Annals of Roscrea, which survive in a seventeenth-century copy; and a poem on the Real Presence by Echtgus (or Isaac) Ua Cuanáin (qv) (d. 1161), bishop of Éile and Roscrea.