Breen, Aidan

Donnán (d. 615) of Eigg, missionary and martyr in Scotland, was born (according to tradition) in north-eastern Ireland; he trained under Finnian (qv) of Movilla, and came as a missionary to Scotland sometime before 590. He…

Dorbéne (d. 713), 3rd abbot of Iona in succession to Adomnán (qv), belonged to a branch of the Cenél Conaill that had not previously held the abbacy. An entry in the Annals of Ulster states that he ‘obtained the chair of Iona and having spent…

Dottin, Henri-Georges (1863–1928), philologist and Celticist, was born 29 October 1863 at Liancourt, in the Oise department of northern France, son of Henri Dottin, public official, and Marie Dottin (née Pourcelle). He was educated in Laval College and afterwards at the University of…

Dub-dá-leithe (d. 1064), abbot of Armagh, belonged to the Clann Sínaig (who had controlled the abbacy for many generations), and was son of Máel-Muire (qv) (d. 1020) and a grandson of Eochaid grandson of Flann/Flannacán; he also had some…

Dublittir (d. 796), abbot of Finglas, Co. Dublin, was one of the leaders of the Céli Dé reform movement in the eighth-century Irish church. The sources for his life and his monastic rule are three documents known as ‘The rule of the Céli Dé’, ‘The customs of…

Dubthach (d. p. 869), son of Máel-tuile and scribe and author of computistical verses, was one of the group of Irish and Frankish scholars associated with Sedulius Scottus (qv) in the mid ninth century, during…

Dúnán (Donatus) (d. 1074), first bishop of Dublin. Although the background to the establishment of a bishopric in the Hiberno-Norse city of Dublin has been elucidated, almost nothing is known of the see's first incumbent. Like all his successors, with the possible exception of…

Duncaht (Dúnchad) (fl. 9th cent.) of Reims, scribe and scholar, may perhaps be identified with Donnacán son of Máel Tuile who died in Italy in 843, according to a note in the Karlsruhe manuscript of Bede's ‘Computus’. The incipit to a fragmentary computus in the…

Dúnchad (d. 717), 11th abbot of Iona, was of royal descent, being a direct descendant of some of the Uí Néill high-kings – grandson of Maél Cobo (d. 615) and grandnephew of Domnall (qv) (d. 642). Under his rule (from c.707) Iona, and…

Dúngal (d. p. 830), formerly thought to have been a composite figure of two or even three separate personalities associated with Saint-Denis, Pavia and Bobbio, was an Irish scholar-poet in the service of a succession of Carolingian monarchs. He is first mentioned in a…

Ecgberht (c.638–729), an Englishman of noble birth, moved to Ireland, ‘either for the sake of religious studies or to live a more contemplative life’, according to Bede. His departure for Ireland can be assigned to the period when Bishops…

Énnae (Enda, Éanna) (d. c.530), one of the earliest monastic founders of the Irish church, is said to have been born in the mid fifth century in the kingdom of Airgialla. His Latin Life, which is a late production, has a number of chronological incongruities. It states…

Esposito, Mario (1887–1975), medievalist and Hiberno-Latinist, was born 7 September 1887 in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, third child and only son of Michele Esposito (qv), professor of music in the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and Natalia…

Fachtna (Fachanan) (c.554–c.600), abbot and founder of Ros Ailithir (Ross Carbery, Co. Cork), was born at Tulach Tenn, in the territory of the Corco Loígde. The Martyrology of Donegal describes him as ‘of the race of Lughaidh, son of Íth’. According to a twelfth-…

Fáelán (d. early 8th cent.), Irish missionary to Scotland, was a son of Caintigern (qv) (d. 734), who is supposed to have gone to Scotland in the early eighth century with her brother Comgán and her sons, one of whom was Fáelán.…

Fáilbe (d. 679), 8th abbot of Iona and predecessor of Adomnán (qv), was a third cousin of Cumméne Find (qv), 7th abbot, and therefore a distant kinsman of…

Féchín (Mo-Ecca) (d. 665) of Fore, monastic founder, notable ascetic, and saint in the Irish tradition, is known from one Latin and one Irish Life. John Colgan (qv) knew of three Irish Lives, which he conflated into a Latin version called…

Ferdomnach (d. 845) was chief scribe of the monastery of Armagh in the first half of the ninth century and scribe of the Book of Armagh. Although an unprinted genealogy of Ferdomnach, tracing his descent back twenty-three generations, is preserved in the Book of Lecan, nothing…

Fergno (Fergna, Virgno) Brit (‘the Briton’) (d. 623), 4th abbot of Iona and the first to be described as a bishop in the later martyrologies, was (according to Colgan's (qv) Latin Life) son of Fáilbe, a descendant of…

Fergus (fl. early 8th cent.), an Irish missionary bishop to Pictland (and indeed to large parts of northern Scotland), is known in the ‘Breviary of Aberdeen’ as Fergus, but in other Scottish calendars corruptly as Terguse or Tergusius. Although he is apparently unknown…

Fiacc (d. late 5th cent.), bishop of Sléibte (Sletty, Co. Carlow), was a younger contemporary of St Patrick (qv). The only sources for the life of this obscure bishop are the materials on the life of Patrick, the…

Fiacre (Fiachra) (d. c.670) was anchorite bishop of Brie in the district of Meaux in northern France. Biographical information is very sparse; the chief source, the ‘Vita Faronis’ (the Life of Bishop Faro (d. 672) of Meaux), states that Fiacre went to France as a man of…

Fínán (d. 661), monk of Iona and bishop of Lindisfarne, was Irish-born, apparently the son of one Rímid, and was probably of Ulster origin, although his genealogy is not preserved. A priest of the Columban community, he travelled to Northumbria in 652 to take up episcopal office as…

Fíngen (d. 1004/5), abbot of the monasteries of Saint-Félix/ Saint-Clément and St Symphorien in Metz and finally of St Vannes in Verdun, was a reformer and restorer of the monasteries of Metz who became a personal friend of Adalbero II, bishop of Metz 984–1005. He succeeded…

Fintan (d. 603) of the moccu Echach, one of the founders of Irish monasticism and abbot-founder of the monastery of Clonenagh (near Mountrath, Co. Laois), is said to have belonged to the Fothairt of Leinster, a branch of the Laigin. Some sources name his father and his mother…