SAINT FINBARR
SEPTEMBER 25TH
ST.,FINBARR, who lived in the sixth century, was a native of
Connaught, and instituted a monastery or school at Lough Eirc, to which such
numbers of disciples flocked, as changed, as it were, a desert into a large
city. This was the origin of the city of Cork, which was built chiefly upon
stakes, in marshy little islands formed by the river Lea. The right name of our
Saint, under which he was baptized, was Lochan; the surname Finbarr, or Barr
the White, was afterward given him. He was Bishop of Cork seventeen years, and
died in the midst of his friends at Cloyne, fifteen miles from Cork. His body
was buried in his own cathedral at Cork, and his relics, some years after, were
put in a silver shrine, and kept there, this great church bearing his name to
this day. St. Finbarr's cave or hermitage was shown in a monastery which seems
to have been begun by our Saint, and stood to the west of Cork.