See alsoCashel, Synod of I (1101); Ecclesiastical
Organization; Gille (Gilbert) of Limerick; Kells,
Synod of; Malachy (Máel-Máedóic);
Ráith Bressail, Synod of; Religious Orders
CIARÁN
The name Ciarán, from ciar (dark, black), is
assigned by the list of homonymous Irish saints to
over twenty reputedly distinct saints, of whom only
the first two, Ciarán mac int Shaír and Ciarán mac
Laigne, respectively of Clonmacnoise (Offaly) and
Saigir (Seirkieran, Offaly), attained prominence. As
well as being used of the eponymous ancestor of the
Ciarraige tribal group (hence Ciarraí, “Kerry”), the
name was also attached, without the diminutive ending
- án, to the female patron of Cell Chéire, Kilkeary
(north Tipperary).
St. Ciarán of Clonmacnoise
The Clonmacnoise saint was the better known of the
two Offaly bearers of the name, mainly due to the
outstanding role of his church as a center of cultural
and politico-ecclesiastical activity. Several, as yet
unevaluated, Lives were written for him, in Latin and
Irish. The Latin text is preserved in three recensions,
the Irish in one only. Ancestrally attached to the
Latharna (now Larne, Antrim), the saint is said to have
been born on the plain of Connacht in Roscommon.
This probably reflects both the position of his church,
Clonmacnoise, on the boundary of Connacht and the
power of the kings of that province during the second
half of the twelfth century, when the Life (in its present
form) may have been written. Another association of
the saint in the Life is with Finnian, whose church of
Clonard rivaled Clonmacnoise for primacy among the
churches of the kingdom of Meath. Each became a
diocesan center, one of West and the other of East
Meath. Significantly, a prophecy of Ciarán’s authority
over the whole of the northern half of Ireland is placed
in Finnian’s mouth. Moreover, Ciarán is assigned a
critical role in the foundation story of a house of nuns
at Clonard—probably St. Mary’s, a house of Augustinian
nuns founded there by Murchad Ua Máel Shechlainn,
king of Meath. A niece of Murchad, Agnes, became
abbess there, and his daughter, Derbfhorgaill, rebuilt
the Nuns’ Church at Clonmacnoise in 1167. Short of
a full investigation of the Life, these events supply
a probable terminus post quem. That its author was
an Augustinian canon is reflected inter alia by the
choice of Ciarán’s first teacher, Diarmait, patron of
Inchcleraun, a house of canons on Lough Ree. A
legendary dun cow associated with Ciarán, Odar
Chiaráin, is commemorated in the name of the ear-
liest surviving vernacular manuscript, Lebor na hUidre
(Book of the Dun Cow), which was compiled at
Clonmacnoise in the late eleventh century. Ciarán’s
feast fell on September 9.Ciarán of Saigir
Although less well-known in Ireland than his Clonmac-
noise namesake, Ciarán of Saigir exercised wider influ-
ence abroad through his (groundless) assimilation to
the cult of Perran of Perranzabuloe in Cornwall, which
led to the adaptation of one version of his Life for use
as a Life of Perran’s. There are three Latin and two
Irish versions of his Life. These, as we now have them,
were probably written in the late twelfth or early thir-
teenth century, against the background of a church
which, although within the diocese of Ossory
(Osraige), was physically separated from it by a stretch
of land belonging to the diocese of Killaloe. The arrival
of the Anglo-Normans led to the replacement of Seirk-
ieran as a diocesan center by Kilkenny. Previously,
however, a house of Augustinian canons was founded
here, and their attitude may be reflected in the Life’s
attribution to the saint of paruchia(jurisdiction) over
all of Ossory. Until superseded by Canice of Kilkenny,
Ciarán is reputed to have been Ossory’s chief saint. He
is also said, spuriously, to have brought Christianity to
Ireland before Patrick. His mother allegedly belonged
to the Corca Loígde of the Clonakilty area, who were
said to have provided several early kings of Ossory.
This would explain the presence of a church of his on
the island of Cape Clear. His feast falls on March 5.
PÁDRAIGÓ RIAINReferences and Further Reading
Doble, G. H., Saint Perran, Saint Keverne, and Saint Kerrian.
Shipston-on-Stour: Cornish Saints Series No. 29, 1931.
Kenney, J., The Sources for the Early History of Ireland
(Ecclesiastical). New York: Cornell University Press, 1929,
pp. 316–317, 378–380.
Plummer, C., ed. Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae. 2 vols. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1910, (I) pp. xlviii–liv, 200–233.
Plummer, C., ed. Bethada Náem nÉrenn. Lives of Irish Saints.
2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922, (I) pp. xxv–vii,
103–124.
Sharpe, R. “Quatuor Sanctissimi Episcopi: Irish Saints Before St
Patrick.” In Sages, Saints and Storytellers. Celtic Studies in
Honour of Professor James Carney, edited by D. Ó Corráin,
L. Breatnach, and K. McCone, 376–399., Maynooth, 1989.
Stokes, W., ed. Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore.
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1890, pp. 117–134.
See alsoClonmacnois; Connacht; Ecclesiastical
Organization; Hagiography and Martyrologies;
Lebor na hUidre; Mide; OsraigeCHURCH REFORM, TWELFTH CENTURY