Cruithnechán

Saint Cruithnechán (Modern Irish: Cruithneachán), also known as Cruithnechan, Crunathan and Cronaghan, is an Irish saint from around the 6th century, known as one of St Columba's mentors.

Cruithnechán is briefly mentioned in Adomnán's 7th-century Life of St Columba, founder of the monastery at Iona. Here he appears as the priest who served as fosterfather or tutor (nutritor) to the young Columba before Columba went on to study with Gemmán in Leinster and later with Finnian at Movila.^[1][2][3] An anecdote is told that Cruithnechán once saw a ball of fire hanging over Columba's head, while the boy was sound asleep.^[1] The miracle has been explained as representing a "typical motif used to show how teachers or parents were made aware of the precocious sanctity of their charges".^[4]

Adomnán names no church for Cruithnechán, but the present-day parish of Kilcronaghan (Irish: Cill Chruithneacháin) in County Londonderry is thought to derive its name from his church there.^[5][6][7]

A number of later sources supply details which are not found in Adomnán's account. The otherwise "austere" Middle Irish version of Columba's Life, which has been dated to the 12th century,^[8] identifies him as a son of one Cellachán and says that he baptised the boy before he took him into fosterage.^[9][10] The story of Columba's upbringing had undergone further expansion by 1532, when Donegal chieftain Manus O'Donnell produced the Betha Colaim Chille, a vernacular Life compiled from a range of sources. For instance, citing a poem ascribed to St Mura of Fahan, it relates that Columba was sent to Temple Douglas, in the modern parish of Conwall, County Donegal, to be baptised by Cruithnechán mac Cellacháin, who then fostered the boy in Kilmacrenan, County Donegal.^[11][7][5]

His festival day is given as 7 March in the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae by John Colgan.^[7]

See also

• Columba
• Kilcronaghan

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Anderson, Alan Orr; Anderson; Marjorie Ogilvie, eds. (1991) [1961]. Adomnán's Life of Columba. Oxford Medieval Texts (revised ed.). Oxford. p. xxix and book 3, chapter 2. 
2. ^ Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (1995). Early Medieval Ireland, 400-1200. London. p. 180. 
3. ^ Richter, Michael (1988). Medieval Ireland: the enduring tradition. Dublin. p. 54. 
4. ^ Smyth, Alfred P. (1989). Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland, A.D. 80-1000. Edinburgh University Press. p. 91. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Gwynn, Aubrey; Hadcock, R. Neville (1970). Medieval Religious Houses: Ireland. London. p. 390 (Kilcronaghan); 406 (Temple Douglas); 39 (Kilmacrenan).. 
6. ^ "Kilcronaghan". Logainm Placenames Database of Ireland. http://www.logainm.ie/2904.aspx. Retrieved 2010-07-07. 
7. ^ ^{a b c} Reeves, William, ed (1850). "Acts of Archbishop Colton in his metropolitan visitation in the diocese of Derry, A.D. MCCCXCVII". Dublin. p. 82 note c. http://www.archive.org/details/actsofarchbishop00armauoft. Retrieved 2011-02-21. 
8. ^ Herbert, Máire (2004), "Columba (c.521–597)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6001 
9. ^ Stokes, Whitley, ed (1877). Three Middle-Irish Homilies. Calcutta: privately printed. http://www.archive.org/details/threemiddleirish00unknuoft. 
10. ^ Stokes, Whitley, ed (1890). Lives of saints from the Book of Lismore. Oxford. pp. 24 and 172. http://www.archive.org/details/MN5109ucmf_0. 
11. ^ O'Kelleher, A. and G. Schoepperle, ed (1918). Betha Colaim Chille: Life of Columcille Compiled by Manus O'Donnell in 1532. See further §§ 53-54, 59, 60-62, 68. http://www.archive.org/details/bethacolaimchil00odogoog.