Kevin of Glendalough
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| Saint Kevin of Glendalough | |
|---|---|
| Born | 498, Ireland |
| Died | 3 June 618 |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodoxy Anglican Communion |
| Canonized | 1903 (cultus confirmed) |
| Feast | 3 June |
| Attributes | blackbird |
| Patronage | blackbirds, Archdiocese of Dublin, Glendalough, Ireland |
Saint Kevin of Glendalough (c. 498–618) is a Christian saint who was known as the founder and first abbot of Glendalough in County Wicklow, Ireland. Kevin is the anglicized form of the Irish name Caoimhín, or Cóemgen in Old Irish, which became Latinized as Coemgenus.
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[edit] Life
His life is not well known, as very little contemporaneous material exists. His Latin vita maintains that he was descended from a royal line and was related to the Dál Messin Corb. He was given the name Coemgen, which means "fair-begotten", was baptized by Cronan, and educated by St Petroc during that saint's sojourn in Ireland. He lived in solitude at Disert-Coemgen for seven years, sleeping on a dolmen (now known as "Saint Kevin's Bed") perched on a perilous precipice, that an angel had led him to, and later established a church for his own community at Glendalough. This monastery was to become the parent of several others. Eventually, Glendalough, with its seven churches, became one of the chief pilgrimage destinations in Ireland. His legend says that he lived to the age of 120.
He was known for his disdain of human company, especially that of women; his name was used in Ireland as a term for men with cold relations with women up until the 19th century. An extreme example of his chastity was the instance when he pushed an amorous woman into a patch of nettles.
St. Kevin is said to have first lived in Kilnamanagh (church of the monks) in Tallaght, Dublin 24, but moved on to Glendalough in order to avoid the company of his followers, a group of monks who founded a monastery on the site. Locals say that it was his monastery that was demolished by developers in the 1970s when building the housing estate that is there today. St. Kevin’s well is all that remains today as the plot was unsuitable for building. It is now surrounded by a garden kept by locals in the saint’s honour. St. Kevin is today the patron saint of the Kilnamanagh parish.
His feast day in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches is 3 June.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ "Kevin". Patron Saints Index. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintk02.htm. Retrieved on 2007-12-05.
[edit] Further reading
[edit] Primary sources
- Latin vita of St Kevin, ed. Charles Plummer, "Vita Sancti Coemgeni (Life of St. Kevin)." In Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910. 234–57.
- Irish vita of St Kevin, ed. Charles Plummer, "Betha Caimgin (Life of St. Kevin)." In Bethada Nóem nÉrenn (Live of Irish Saints). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922. Vol. 1: 125–67 and vol. 2: 121–61. Edition available from CELT.
- Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hibernica.
[edit] Secondary sources
- Barrow, Lennox. Glendalough and Saint Kevin. Dundalk: Dundalgan Press, 1972.
- MacShamhrain, A.S. "The 'unity' of Cóemgen and Ciarán. A convent between Glendalough and Clonmacnoise in the tenth to eleventh centuries." In Wicklow: history and society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county, ed. by Ken Hannigan and William Nolan. Dublin: Geography Publications, 1994. 139-50.
