St. Tigernach, Bishop and Confessor in Ireland


HIS father, Corbre, was a famous general, and his mother, Dearfraych, was daughter of an Irish king, named Eochod. Tigernach was baptized by Conlathe, bishop of Kildare; St. Brigide being his godmother. In his youth he was carried away by pirates into Britain, and fell into the hands of a British king, who being taken with his virtue, placed him in the monastery of Rosnat. In the school of affliction he learned the emptiness of all earthly enjoyments, and devoted himself with his whole heart to the pursuit of true happiness in the service of God. When he returned into Ireland, he was compelled to receive episcopal consecration, but declined the administration of the see of Clogher, to which he was chosen upon the death of Bishop Mac-karten, in 506. He founded the abbey of Cluanois, or Clones, in the county of Monaghan, where he fixed his episcopal see, now united to that of Clogher. He taught a great multitude to serve God in primitive purity and simplicity. In his old age he lost his sight, and spent his time in a lonesome cell in continual prayer and contemplation, by which he in some measure anticipated the bliss of heaven, to which he passed in 550, according to Bishop Usher. See his acts in Henschenius.	1