St. Finnian of Clonard, Teacher of the Saints of Ireland

Who was St. Finnian of Clonard?

St. Finnian of Clonard was a sixth-century Irish abbot whose monastery on the River Boyne became the most famous school in Ireland. Butler says that among the early teachers of the Irish Church his name ranks next to St. Patrick's. Out of Clonard came the men later called the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, founders like St. Columba of Iona and St. Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, which is why Finnian is remembered as the Teacher of the Saints of Ireland. We keep his feast on December 12.

He is not the same man as St. Finnian of Movilla, another great teacher of the same century in the north. Columba studied under both.

The life of St. Finnian of Clonard

A Leinster boy

The Catholic Encyclopedia gives his birthplace as Myshall in County Carlow, about 470. His medieval Irish Life, preserved in the Book of Lismore, says his father was Finntan and his mother Telach, and that before his birth she dreamed of a flame that became a bright bird, with all the birds of Ireland gathering to it. He was baptized by St. Abban and taught the Psalms by Bishop Fortchern of Trim.

Wales and the British saints

As a young man he crossed the sea. The Irish Life says he met the British saints David, Gildas and Cathmael (that is, St. Cadoc) and studied with them for thirty years. Baring-Gould, writing in the nineteenth century, thought thirty years far too long, and the Catholic Encyclopedia gives the figure only as the Salamanca manuscript's. What is clear is that Finnian brought home the monastic learning of Wales.

Founding Clonard

Back in Ireland he preached and founded churches in Leinster. The Life says he stayed for a time with St. Brigid at Kildare, reading and teaching. At last, the Catholic Encyclopedia relates, an angel led him to Cluain Eraird, "Erard's meadow," on the Boyne, telling him it would be the place of his resurrection. There he built a small cell and a church of clay and wattle and gave himself to study, penance and prayer.

The school

Students came from all over Ireland. The Office of St. Finnian claims that 3,000 pupils were taught at one time "in the green fields of Clonard." The Catholic Encyclopedia says he excelled above all in explaining the Scriptures. The Irish Life adds that none of the 3,000 left without "a crozier, or a gospel, or some well-known sign," and that they built their own churches around those keepsakes.

He lived hard. Butler says he ate bread and herbs, drank water, slept on the ground and used a stone for a pillow. The Life says that on Sundays and feasts he took a little wheaten bread, a piece of salmon and a cup of ale or mead.

His death

Finnian died at Clonard, probably in 549 or 552. The Irish Life says he died for the people of Ireland during the Yellow Plague, offering himself so that they would not all perish. It adds that St. Columba of Terryglass brought him his last Communion. He was buried in his own church.

Miracles and legends of St. Finnian

The Irish Life of Finnian is full of wonders, and they are best read as traditional. In Wales, it says, he made the sign of the cross over his mouth and spoke British as if it were his native tongue. He dipped a torch into a lake and the lake fled into the sea to make room for a church. He found in a stream the gold ring St. Brigid had tried to give him, and used it to buy a man's freedom. The Life also tells of a well whose place an angel showed him, a sick nun made well at his blessing and a king's son raised from the dead.

Butler, more soberly, says "he healed the souls, and often also the bodies of those who applied to him."

Why St. Finnian is the patron of the Diocese of Meath

Clonard was the seat of a bishop for centuries after Finnian. In the early thirteenth century the Norman bishop Simon Rochfort moved the see to Trim, and it became the Diocese of Meath. The Irish bishops still list St. Finnian as patron of the diocese, with his feast on December 12.

Symbols of St. Finnian in art

There are no early portraits of him. Modern Irish art shows him with:

• An abbot's crozier and sometimes a bishop's miter.
• A book of the Scriptures, for his teaching.
• Students gathered around him, often twelve.
• An angel, pointing him to the site of Clonard.

The Church of St. Finian at Clonard has a series of windows from 1957 telling his life, and its medieval font has a worn figure that local tradition says is Finnian.

Where St. Finnian is honored today

Nothing remains of his monastery. The Catholic Encyclopedia tells how Clonard suffered from Viking raids and later wars, and nothing of his shrine survives. A Church of Ireland church stands on the old monastic site, and the Catholic parish church nearby is dedicated to him.

See our feast days calendar for other saints of December, and our page on Irish saints.

Prayer to St. Finnian of Clonard

We know of no traditional prayer to St. Finnian in common use. We may ask him, in our own words, to bless teachers and students, to give us a love for the Scriptures, and to raise up holy founders in the Church again. St. Finnian of Clonard, pray for us.