The Teacher of Irish Saints

Finnian of Clonard was an Irish cleric who built schools, monasteries, and churches to spread Christianity. His schools thrived for centuries after his death.

Born about 470CE in the Kingdom of Leinster, he was placed at an early age under the care of a bishop. He is said to have studied at the monastic center of Martin of Tours. Later, after spending 30 years in Wales, he returned to Ireland.

Around 520, he was led by a vision of an angel to Clonard, where he built a chapel of wattle and daub, and a small hermit's cell for himself. His reputation for learning and piety drew pilgrims wishing to see and scholars wishing to learn. He established a monastery at Clonard, known (based on the Martin of Tours system) for strictness and asceticism. It drew great numbers: at one time supposedly had 300 students in the school.

Finnian's brilliant teaching of Scripture and reputation for asceticism inspired a generation of students, among them a group known as the "Twelve Apostles of Ireland." The Twelve were not designated during his lifetime that we know of; their names were gathered in the 1600s, although this might have been based on earlier unwritten tradition. One was St. Brendan, called the Navigator. The rest were also saints, and many of them were bishops. The list has one fluctuation: Finnian himself is the first of them in some versions; in others, it is St. Ciarán of Saigir.

He is said to have died during the Plague of 549-50. The School lived on, and Clonard grew as a town, becoming the diocesan center of East Meath in the 12th century.

One of the Twelve who went on to become well-known in his own right was St. Columba, who provides us with the earliest sighting of the Loch Ness monster; but that can wait until next time.