Cronan
Cronan
Name of several Irish saints.
St. Cronan Mochua
Founder of the See of Balla, subsequently merged into that of Tuam, Ireland, flourished in the period 596-637, d. 30 March, 637, but his Acts are more or less of a legendary character. However, it would appear that he was educated at Bangor, under St. Comgall, and founded a monastery at Gael, among the Feara Rois of Louth and Monaghan, whence he migrated to Fore and Tehilly. Passing through Hy Many, he journeyed to Connacht, in 616, and founded the church and Abbey of Balla, of which he was first abbot-bishop. Numerous miracles are recorded of St. Cronan Mochua, and are minutely described in his Irish life. His feast is celebrated on 30 March, though, through a misconception, his Acts are given by the Bollandists under date of 1 January.
St. Cronan, Abbot
Abbot-Bishop and Patron of Roscrea, a see afterwards incorporated in that of Killaloe, Ireland; b. in the territory of Ely O’Carroll; d. 28 April 640. After spending his youth in Connacht, he returned to his native district about the year 610 and founded Abbey Roscrea, where he established a famous school. Previously he settled at a place known as Sean Ros or Loch Cre, a wooded morass far from the haunts of men; in fact, it was utterly wild, so much so, that St. Cronan abandoned it and moved to the wood of Cre, that is Ros cre, County Tipperary. Like those of so many other Irish saints the Acts of St. Cronan abound in miracles. The most surprising, perhaps, is the legend as to the transcribing of the Four Gospels by one of his monks, named Dimma. It appears that Dimma could only undertake one day’s task, from sunrise to sunset. St. Cronan, however, bade him write, and then Dimma set to work, never ceasing till he had finished the Four Gospels, the sun continuing to shine for the space of forty days and forty nights – the scribe himself being unconscious that the work occupied more than one day. Whatever may be thought of this legend, it is certain that a magnificent Evangelistarium, known as the “Book of Dimma”, was for centuries preserved in St. Cronan’s Abbey at Roscrea, and is now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. The scribe, Dimma MacNathi, signs his name at the conclusion of each of the Gospels, and he has been identified with Dimma, subsequently Bishop of Connor, who is mentioned with St. Cronan in the letter of Pope John IV in 640, in regard to Pelagianism in Ireland, but this identification cannot be sustained. The case containing the “Book of Dimma” was richly gilt by order of O’Carroll, Lord of Ely, in the twelfth century. Notwithstanding the conflicting statements arising from the number of contemporary Irish saints bearing the name Cronan, it is more than probable that St. Cronan of Roscrea, as les Petits Bollandistes say, lived as late as the year 640, and his death occurred on 28 April of that year. His feast is celebrated on 28 April and as such is included in all the Irish calendars, as also in the Kalendar of Drummond.
Other saints named Cronan
A number of other saints of this name find a place in Irish calendars. The three most important are St. Cronan Mochua, of Clashmore (10 February); St. Cronan, Abbot of Clonmacnoise (18 July); and St. Cronan, Abbot of Moville (7 September). Another saint frequently quoted as of this name is really St. Cuaran (Cuaranus Sapiens), whose feast occurs on 9 February. There is also a St. Cronan Mochua of Sliabh Eibhlem (4 May).
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ST. CRONAN MOCHUA: COLGAN, Acts of SS. Hib. (Louvain, 1645); BUTLER, Lives of the Saints; Acta Sanctorum, Jan. I and III; TODD AND REEVES, Martyrology of Donegal (Dublin, 1864); O’HANLON, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin, 1875), III; KNOX, Notes on the Dioceses of Tuam (1904); WHITLEY STOKES, Anecdota Oxonien. (1890). Acta SS., III, 28 April; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, IV; O’HANLON, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin, 1875), IV; GILBERT, National Manuscripts of Ireland (1884); Les Petits Bollandistes (Paris, 1880), V; LANIGAN, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (Dublin, 1829), III; HEALY, Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars (4th ed., Dublin 1902)
W.H. GRATTAN-FLOOD Transcribed by Kevin Fisher For Beatrice
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Cronan
(Croman, or Chronan) is a very frequent name in Irish hagiologies, and has several synonyms, as Cuaran, Mochuaroc, and frequently Mochua, Cron and Cua having in Irish the same meaning.
1. Son of Cummain, of Sliabh Eibhlinne, in Munster, commemorated May 4. AEnghus associates him with Siollan the deacon. His church was among the SlievePhelim mountains, County Tipperary (Todd and Reeves, Mart. Doneg. page 120, n., 121).
2. SEE CUARAN.
3. Commemorated November 11, probably son of Sinell, of the race of Coindri, son of Fergus, of the clan Rudhraidhe. Colgan calls him the brother of St. Beodan, Baitan, or Mobaoi (December 13), Carnan, etc., and St. AEnghus calls his mother Sina. He died of the Yellow Plague in A.D. 664 (Colgan, Acta Sanctorum, page 219, n.6; 598, c. 3; O’Donovan, Four Masters, 1:277).
4. Son of Ualach, abbot of Clonmacnoise, commemorated July 18. He died in 637 or 638.
5. Abbot of Airdne (Arran Isles, in Galway Bay), commemorated March 8, the same day as a Scottish saint, “Cronan the Monk.”
6. Abbot of Benuchar (Bangor), 680-691, and commemorated November 6. He is called “filius cucalnaei”= “Mac Cuchuailne.”
7. Abbot of Cluain-dolcain (now Clondalkin, in the county of Dublin), probably in the 8th century. His father was Lughaidh, of the royal line of Erin, and his mother was Carner of Cluain-dasaileach; his brothers were Baedan (q.v.), etc.
8. Abbot and martyr of Glais-mor (Clashmore), commemorated February 10. His father is said to have been Mellan, and he lived among the Desii of Munster, about the end of the 6th century.
9. An obscure saint of Lismore, who died about 718, and is commemorated June 1.
10. Abbot of Fearrea (Ferns), and perhaps bishop of Luachair, who died in 653, and is commemorated June 22.
11. Priest of Maghbile (now Moville, near Newtownards, in County Down), commemorated August 7, addressed by pope-elect John IV on the Paschal controversy (Bede, Eccles. Hist. 2, c. 19), in A.D. 640.
12. Of Roscrea, commemorated April 28, who flourished about A.D. 625. He was a native of Ely O’Carrol in Munster, his father being Odran, of that sept, and his mother Coemri, of the sept of Corcobaschin, a district in the west of the present County Clare. Taking with him his maternal cousin St. Mobai, he spent some years traversing Connaught, and then, returning to his native province, built a cell near Loch Crea, at a place called Seanross, now Corbally (O’Donovan, Four Masters, 1:412 ni.). As this place was so secluded (desertus et avius) St. Cronan afterwards left it, and built his great church by the highway at Roscrea, in the county of Tipperary, where he had one of the most famous schools in Ireland. There, in piety and works that make for peace with God and man, he spent the remainder of his days, the honored friend of Fingen, king of Munster, and the willing advocate of the oppressed.
13. Of Tuaim-greine (now Tomgraney, in the barony of Upper Tulla, County Clare), commemorated October 19. This saint appears twice in the Mart. Doneg., first in the original hand at October 19; and next in the second hand, on the authority of Mar. O’Gorman, at November 1. Among the saints of the family of St. Colman of Kilmacduach (Feb. 3), or house of the Hy-Fiachrach, Colgan gives “St. Cronan, son of AEngus, son of Corbmac, etc., February 20 or October 19;” and Mart. Doneg. at February 20 also mentions that there is a Cronan with this pedigree (Todd and Reeves, Mart. Doneg. pages 55, 279,293; Colgan, Acta Sanctorum, page 248, c. 2).
14. “Beg” of AEndruim (Nendrum), bishop, commemorated January 7. His name appears third among the bishops of the Scots in the north of Ireland to whom, with priests and others, pope John IV, when yet but pope-elect, A.D. 640, addressed the famous: letter on the Paschal question and the Pelagian heresy (see No. 11 above). The Irish Annals generally place his death in A.D. 642, and the Ann. Tigh., perhaps more accurately, in A.D. 643; but Lanigan (Eccl. History of Ireland, 2:412) is mistaken in calling: him ” bishop of Antrim ” (Reeves, Eccl. Ant. page 10, n., 63, n., 148-150, 187-197; O’Hanlon, Irish Saints, 1:95, 96).
There is another Cronan Beg, who, however, is usually known as Cronbeg (q.v.).
15. “Clairenech” (i.e., flat-faced), commemorated January 29. Under Seighin it is stated “the three Claire-nechs were Cronan, Baeithin, and Seighin.”