Feast Day ~ October 11
The small nation of Ireland has produced numerous saints who enrich the Church with the examples of their holy lives and with their intercessions in Heaven. One of these saints, Kenneth, is known to us through the writings of Adomnan, a seventh century abbot of Iona, as well as through many legends. An ethnic Pict, his given name was Cainnech moccu Dalann and he is called Cainnech or Canice in Ireland but he is known as Kenneth in Scotland and America.
Born around the year 516, Kenneth was the son of Lughadh, a respected bard who became tutor to the son of a chieftain, and his wife Mella. Both were devout Christians who taught their son the faith. In his youth, Kenneth tended the sheep of the chieftain.
While still a young man, Kenneth became a student under St. Finian at the Abbey of Clonard, where he devoted himself to studying the holy Scriptures, to prayer and penance, striving to lead a holy life. At this abbey, he met and became friends with those who would become the most important Irish Christian leaders of that age. Kenneth – along with such famous saints as Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, Brendan of Clonfert, Columba of Iona – are known as the “Twelve Apostles” of Ireland.
Kenneth became a monk at Clonard and in 544, he and his fellow monks, Ciaran and Comgall, continued their studies at Glasnevin. Shortly thereafter, that monks scattered because of a plague epidemic, so Kenneth traveled to Glamorganshire in Wales to the monastery of Llancarfan where St. Cadoc was his spiritual father. There he was ordained to the priesthood in 545.
Following the tradition of many Irish monks, Kenneth traveled frequently. He made the journey to Rome to receive the blessing of the Pope (the western Patriarch) and returned to Glasnevin in 550. Soon he visited St. Columba in Scotland and accompanied him on some of his missionary travels, serving as translator in his work among the Picts.
Kenneth founded monasteries in many places in Ireland and Scotland, with place names reflecting his influence. In Ossory (in County Laois today), King Colmann granted him land including a field which was called Aghaboe (meaning “the field of the ox”) where Kenneth built his principle monastery. It grew in importance in the following years and in the next century, St. Feargal was sent from here as a missionary to the city of Salzburg. The monastery was the bishop’s see until the 12th century.
Despite this energetic missionary activity, St. Kenneth periodically sought the isolated life of a hermit, living in quiet contemplation. As is typical of many hermit saints, he had an affinity for animals. The stories that are told of him (which may be in his father’s bardic tradition) include one about how he expelled mice from his cell for chewing on his shoes and another that he stilled the birds from chattering on Sundays during the celebration of the Liturgy!
In the last years of his long life, St. Kenneth lived on an island, where he wrote a commentary on the Gospels known as the “Chain of Cainnech”. God called St. Kenneth to his eternal reward in his 84th year. We give thanks to God for the work of his faithful servant Kenneth and pray that we may follow his example in seeking to live holy lives through prayer and penance, to know the Scriptures, and to be zealous in our desire to bring others to knowledge of God.
Sources: A Calendar of British Saints (Orthodox Synaxarion), compiled by Fr. Benedict Haigh; Irish Saints by Peg Coghlan; The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David H. Farmer; Saints of the British Isles by Andrew Bond and Nicolas Mabin; online articles from Wikipedia