Foundation of Tuam
John Colgan drew up a memoir of the saint in his Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae (1645). Iarlaithe is said to have studied under St. Benignus of Kilbannon, disciple of St Patrick.
Afterwards, he founded his first monastery at Cluainfois (Cloonfush), near Tuam, while his principal seat came to be at Tuam. His monastic school is said to have attracted scholars from all parts of Ireland, including such students as St. Brendan of Ardfert and Saint Colman of Cloyne. On the significance of the place-name Tuam, Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig remarks that:
the first element in the placename Tuaim Dá Ualann/Ghualann referred to a pagan burial-ground similar to that designated by the second element of Cluain Fearta (see Clonfert). If so Tuam offers another example of an early church being built on or near a pre-Christian sacred site.
Despite his fame, Iarlaithe left Cloonfush to study under Saint Enda of Aran around 495. In the 520s, he retired to Tuam. He chose Tuam because the wheel of his chariot broke there.
Iarlaithe is included in the second order of Irish saints, which implies that he must have lived prior to the year 540.
A poem ascribed to Cuimmín of Coindeire, which is also cited in Ó Cléirigh's Martyrology of Donegal, states that Iarlaithe was known for his generosity and devotion to prayer ("three hundred genuflexions every night, and three hundred genuflexions every day"). In the Martyrology of Donegal, he is credited with having predicted the names of his successors, including those of three 'heretical' bishops and one Máel. Similarly, his hagiography in the "Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church" records that as a result of his great asceticism and devotion to prayer he was granted the gift of prophecy.
Read more about this topic: Iarlaithe Mac Loga
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