Mura (Muru) (d. c.645), founder and first abbot of Othain (Fahan Mura, Co. Donegal) and a saint in the Irish tradition, belonged to Cenél nÉogain, a dynasty of the Uí Néill. According to the genealogies, Mura (whose original name is stated to have been Gnia) was a son of Feradach son of Rónán; his mother is named as one Derinill, of unknown lineage. Mura is assigned five siblings, the most significant of whom was the saintly Domangart of Dál Fiatach, who is said to have been an uterine brother.
A tradition related in the Fragmentary Annals (§9) claims that Mura received the site of his foundation at Othain (on the shore of Lough Swilly) from the Cenél nÉogain king of Tara, Áed Uaridnach (qv). It is related that Áed, who was second cousin once-removed to Mura, made a pilgrimage to the site of the future monastery before his accession to the kingship. Told by the saint that he could expect a long life, Áed was moved to grant the site to the church. Faced with a premature death some years later, the king sent for Mura to make his final peace, but also to question why he had been deprived of his full lifespan. The saint attributed his royal kinsman's early death to the fact that he had waged war on the Leinstermen.
It appears that Mura spent his career in or adjacent to his native Cenél nÉogain (in Co. Londonderry). It seems probable that he also founded the church at Banagher, in the same county. A poem on Colum Cille (qv), of which only a fragment survives, is attributed to Mura but there is no early authority for this. He died about the year 645; he is commemorated in the martyrologies at 12 March, which probably marks the date of his death. Tradition holds that he is buried at Magheramore, Co. Londonderry, where an old sandstone tomb was pointed out as his grave. Mura was venerated as the patron saint of Cenél nÉogain. A bell and staff believed to have been his were preserved as relics upon which the medieval kings of the Mac Lochlainn and Ua Néill lines made solemn oaths. They are now held respectively in the Wallace Collection, London and in the National Museum of Ireland. Mura's foundation at Othain survived into the medieval period; it produced such distinguished scholars as Fothad na Canóine (qv) and Máel-Mura (qv).