Breen, Aidan

Displaying 101 - 125 of 221 results on page 5 of 9

Fintan

Fintan (d. 878), Irish peregrinus and hermit in Rheinau, was (according to his Life) born as a ciues provintiae Laginensis (a freeman of the province of Leinster) and was the son of a soldier in the army of a Leinster king. He was captured and enslaved by the…

Fintan

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…

Fintan (Munnu)

Fintan (Munnu) of the moccu Moíe (d. 637), abbot of Tech Munnu (Taghmon, Co. Wexford) and defender of the Celtic Easter, was son of Tailchán or Tulchán, a member of the Cenél Conaill branch of the Northern Uí Néill. His father was a descendant of Fiachra Róede, whose descendants the…

Flann

Flann (d. 979) son of Máel Máedóc, Leinster poet and airchinnech (superior) of Killeshin (Co. Laois), belonged to the Uí Máeluidir group of the Dál Cormaic Loisc branch of the Laigen, and is described in genealogies as ‘Flann fili m. Maíl Máedóc’, the son of…

Foillan (Fáelán)

Foillan (Fáelán) (d. 655), Irish missionary and martyr associated with East Anglia and Fosses (southern Belgium), was a brother of Fursa (qv) (d. 649/50) and Ultan (Ir. Ultán). The earliest sources indicate that his Irish name was…

Forannán (Farannán)

Forannán (Farannán) (d. 982), third (or possibly fourth) abbot of the Irish Benedictine foundation at Waulsort (Belgium), was son of Rónán, son of Fiachu, a descendant of Éogan son of Art. According to his twelfth-century biographer Robert, a monk of Waulsort, he had been bishop of…

Fothad na Canóine

Fothad na Canóine (d. 819), bishop of Othain (Fahan Mura, Co. Donegal), was author of a metrical rule of Christian life. The rule, which is divided into nine sections, regulates life for all believers, including bishops, priests, kings and laity. It also regulates monastic life.…

Fredianus

Fredianus (d. c.588) of Lucca, Irish peregrinus and bishop, was (according to some sources) son of a king of the Ulaid – though it has been suggested that he may have been a local Tuscan saint whose cult was adopted by later Irish pilgrims to Italy. The tradition…

Fursa (Fursu, Furseus)

Fursa (Fursu, Furseus) (d. 649/50), Irish missionary abbot and visionary associated with East Anglia and Péronne (in Picardy in northern France), was a brother of Foillan (qv) and Ultan (Ir. Ultán). The brothers are supposed to have been…

Gallus (Gall)

Gallus (Gall) (c.550–c.645), kinsman and follower of St Columbanus (qv), accompanied the latter on his mission to the Continent sometime before 590. His genealogy gives the Irish form of his name as Gallech and…

Gerald (Garald)

Gerald (Garald) (d. 726/32) of Mayo, romanising reformer and abbot-bishop of Mag Éo na Saxan, was – according to his fabulous late medieval Life – born in England, son of a certain Cusperius and an unnamed queen. He received his monastic training and education with his three…

Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis)

Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) (c.1146–c.1223), cleric and writer, was born at Manorbier (Maenor Pyr) castle, Pembrokeshire (Dyfed), Wales, of mixed Norman and Welsh ancestry, youngest son of William de Barri and his wife Angharad, daughter of Nesta, the…

Gilbert (Gille, Gilla, Gilli)

Gilbert (Gille, Gilla, Gilli) (d. 1145), first bishop of Limerick and papal legate at the synod of Ráith Bressail (1111), was possibly of Norse-Irish birth, as may be inferred from the forms of his name: Gilla as he himself wrote it in Latin, and Gilli as it…

Gildas

Gildas (d. c.570), British ecclesiastic and monastic reformer, exercised considerable influence on the early Irish church. His ‘De excidio et conquestu Britanniae’, although not an historical work, remains a primary source for the history of post-Roman Britain. There,…

Gregorius

Gregorius (d. c.1185), fourth abbot of the Schottenklöster of Regensburg, was successor to Macarius and previously prior of St James at Würzburg. According to the ‘Vita Mariani’, he obtained a charter from Emmerich, bishop of Würzburg, to found a monastery for…

Gregory (Gréne)

Gregory (Gréne) (d. 1161), fifth bishop and first archbishop of Dublin, was chosen as successor to Bishop Samuel Ua hAingliu (qv) by a section of the people and clergy of Dublin. It seems that he was only a young sub-deacon when…

Holland, John Philip

Holland, John Philip (1841–1914), inventor of the submarine, was born 24 February 1841 at Castle Street, Liscannor, Co. Clare, son of John Holland, a coast guard officer, and his second wife, Mary (née Scanlon). He was educated at St Macreehy's national school, Liscannor, and by the…

Honorius Augustodunensis

Honorius Augustodunensis (fl. c.1156) is one of the most enigmatic authors of the middle ages. Honorius is a nom de plume, for (as he said in his first work, the ‘Elucidarium’, a rudimentary synopsis of dogmatic theology) ‘nomen autem meum volui silentio contegi…

Indract (Indrechtach)

Indract (Indrechtach) (d. 726), pilgrim and martyr, was – according to a twelfth-century passio (Oxford, Bodl., Digby 192) – the son of an Irish king. He was martyred with his companions near Glastonbury by one of the thegns of King Ine of Wessex (688–c.726),…

Jofroi (Geoffrey, Gotofrid) of Waterford

Jofroi (Geoffrey, Gotofrid) of Waterford (fl. 13th cent.), Dominican friar and academic, produced between 1290 and 1300 (with the assistance of the Walloon Servais Copale) a modified and expanded French translation of the Arabic medical text known as the ‘Secretum…

Jonas

Jonas (d. p.659), monk and biographer of Columbanus (qv), Atalanus, and later abbots of Bobbio, was born at Susa, Piedmont in northern Italy. He entered Bobbio c.617/18 and remained there till c.

Josephus Scottus

Josephus Scottus (‘the Irishman’) (d. c.794), monk, poet, and biblical exegete, was one of the many Irish peregrini in the western Carolingian empire. It is possible that he belonged to the Cianachta Breg (in the present Co. Louth). He was educated at Clonmacnoise…

Kilian (Cilian)

Kilian (Cilian) (d. 689), bishop of Würzburg, was according to native tradition born in the present townland of Cloghballybeg in the parish of Mullagh, Co. Cavan. He went to the Continent with eleven companions and was martyred in 689 in Würzburg with two co-workers, whose names…

Kilian (Cilian, Cillianus, Chillenus)

Kilian (Cilian, Cillianus, Chillenus) (d. 670) of Aubigny (near Arras, northern France) was a hermit-saint and evangeliser. He is associated with his fellow Irishman St Fiacre (qv) (d. 670) of Brie and with St Faro of Meaux. In the Lives…

Laichtín

Laichtín (d. 622) son of Toirbín, abbot of Achad Úr (Freshford, Co. Kilkenny), is a shadowy figure reputed to have been born in the sixth century. Pádraig Ó Riain has argued that he was a Christianised version of the Celtic divinity Lug, whose festival, Lugnasa, was celebrated on…