FINTAN, SS.

There are several Irish saints of this name.

Fintan of Clonenagh, Irish abbot; d. 603. He founded the monastery of Clonenagh, County Laois, under the Slieve Bloom Mountains. He was closely associated with St. Columba of Terryglass, and his regime at Clonenagh was noted for extreme asceticism.

Feast: Feb. 17.

Fintan of Rheinau, Irish hermit; b. Leinster?, Ireland;d. Rheinau, 876? On his way home from a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the hermits on the island of Rheinau in the Rhine near Schaffhausen. As a patron of the abbey of rheinau, he is still the object of local devotion. His Latin vita (Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 15:503–506) contains what may be the first mention of "Ceili Dé" or culdees, as well as the first Irish sentences recorded on the Continent. His Sacramentary is extant.

Feast: Nov. 15.

Fintan of Taghmon, Irish abbot; d. 635. He studied at Irish monasteries, then went to Scotland. But columba of iona, before he died, had said that Fintan must go back to Ireland to found a monastery. Fintan's principal foundation was at Taghmon, County Wexford. A number of churches in Scotland (where he was called Munnu) were dedicated to him and perhaps were personal foundations.

Feast: Oct. 21.

Bibliography: F. of Clonenagh. j. f. kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: v.1, Ecclesiastical (New York 1929) 384–386. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:356–357. d. d. c. pochin mould, Irish Saints (Dublin 1964). F. of Rheinau. j. f. kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: v.1, Ecclesiastical (New York 1929) 602–603, 704–705. l. gougaud, Les Saints irlandais hors d'Irlande (Louvain 1936). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 4:350. j. hennig, "Liturgical Veneration of Irish … Switzerland," Iris Hibernia 3 (1957) 23–32; Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 4:137–138. F. of Taghmon. j. f. kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: v.1, Ecclesiastical (New York 1929) 449–450. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 4:170. adamnan, Life of Columba, ed. and tr. a. o. and m. o. anderson (New York 1961). d. d. c. pochin mould, Irish Saints (Dublin 1964).

[d. d. c. pochin mould]