Overview
According to the Martyrdom of Oengus, Enda was a warrior, and the King of Oriel. He visited his sister, Saint Fanchea, an abbess, who tried to persuade him to lay down his arms. He agreed, if only she would give him a young girl in the convent for a wife. The girl she promised turned out to have just died, and Enda only saw his fiancée as a corpse. Greatly affected by this, he went to study for the priesthood.
He returned to Ireland, and built churches at Drogheda. He was given land in the Aran Islands by his brother-in-law, the King of Cashel. There he founded one of the first monasteries in Ireland, the monastery of Killeaney on Aran Mor, as well as several other across the island, and has since been known as the father of Irish monasticism, along with Finnian of Clonard. The division of Aran Mor in two parts, one half assigned to the monastery of Killeany, the western half, to such of his disciples as chose "to erect permanent religious houses on the island."
Patrick Pearse named his school for young boys St. Enda's School in honour of the saint in 1908. Ballyboden has a Gaelic Athletic Association club named after him, Ballyboden St. Enda's. Omagh St. Enda's Gaelic Athletic Club is also named in his honour and in 2011, members of the club paid tribute to their patron by visiting his church on the Aran Islands before 150 members of the club cycled from Galway to Omagh. He setnup the first Irish monastery on inis mor (the Aran islands)
Read more about this topic: Enda Of Aran