Foundations
After a long sojourn in Wales, of thirty years according to the Codex Salmanticensis, a book of Irish Saints' lives, he returned to his native land and went about from place to place, preaching, teaching, and founding churches, most noticeably at Skellig Michael or Great Skellig eight miles off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland, which is a UNESCO World Hertitage Site. His first monastery was at Aghowle, County Wicklow. Around 520, he was at last led by an angel to Cluain Eraird (Clonard, County Meath) on the River Boyne, which he was told would be the place of his resurrection. Here he built a little cell and a church of clay and wattle, which after some time gave way to a substantial stone structure, and entered on a life of study, mortification, and prayer. The fame of his learning and sanctity was soon noised abroad, and scholars of all ages flocked from every side to his monastic retreat—young laymen and clerics, abbots, and bishops.
Read more about this topic: Finnian Of Clonard
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