COLMAN, SS.

Five of numerous Irish saints of the name from the sixth and seventh centuries.

Colman of Cloyne, bishop, patron of Diocese of Cloyne, Ireland; b. 530 (Annals of Inisfallen); d. 606. A bard, he was a late vocation to the priesthood. His life centered in County Cork, where he founded his principal church at Cloyne, with another important foundation at Kilmaclenine. His cultus was approved in 1903.

Feast: Nov. 24.

Colman of Dromore, bishop, patron of Diocese of Dromore, Ireland, early sixth century. He is one of the early important but obscure Irish saints. His life and work centered in County Down. He appears to have studied under St. Caylan at Nendrum on Strangford Lough, and may have founded his church at Dromore c. 514. Devotion to Colman spread to Scotland and Wales, where several churches were dedicated to him.

Feast: June 7 or Oct. 29.

Colman Elo (Eala, of Lynally, of Lann Elo), monastic founder; b. County Tyrone, Ireland, c. 555; d. 611 (Annals of Ulster) or 613 (Annals of Inisfallen). His principal monastery was at Lynally, County Offaly. He was a friend of columba of iona and stayed at iona on one of his visits to Scotland. Several Scottish churches were dedicated in his honor.

Feast: Sept. 26.

Colman of Lindisfarne, third Irish bishop-abbot of lindisfarne, England; d. c. 670. Colman opposed the anti-Celtic decisions of the Synod of whitby in 664. Hence he and the Irish monks and some of the English monks left Lindisfarne for iona, and then for the island of Inishbofin off the west coast of Ireland. From there, the English monks founded Mayo abbey on the Irish mainland.

Feasts: Feb. 18 and Aug. 8.

Colman Macduach (of Kilmacduagh), patron of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, Ireland; b. Kiltartan, County Clare, seventh century. Having studied on the Aran Islands, he lived as a hermit in the Burren district of the Irish mainland opposite these islands. Later he founded a great monastery at Kilmacduagh, but in his old age he returned to the Burren hills to found Oughtmama.

Feast: Oct. 29 throughout Ireland.

Bibliography: Of Cloyne. J. C., "St. Colman of Cloyne," Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 16(1910) 132–142. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 4:419. Of Dromore. Acta Sanctae Sedis June 2:24–29. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 2:493–494. j. f. kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland (New York 1929) 466. Elo. j. f. kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland (New York 1929) 400. c. plummer, Bethada náem nÉrenn, 2 v. (Oxford 1922) 1:168–182; 2:162–176; comp., Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, 2 v. (Oxford 1910) 1:258–273. f. Ó briain, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 13:257–258. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 3:654. Of Lindisfarne. bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.25, 26; 4.4. j. f. kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland (New York 1929) 463–464. f. Ó briain, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 13:256. d. d. c. pochin mould, The Irish Saints (Dublin 1964) 89–90. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:369–370. Macduach. j. fahey, The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh (Dublin 1893). j. f. kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland (New York 1929) 456. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 4:218.

[d. d. c. pochin mould]