Saint Canice

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Saint Canice Saint Kenneth
Born	515 / 516, what is now County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Died	6th Century, Aghaboe, Ireland
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	11 October
Patronage	Patron saint of the shipwrecked
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Saint Canice, also Saint Kenny or Saint Kenneth, was born in 515 or 516, at Glengiven, in what is now County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He was descended from Ui-Dalainn, a Waterford tribe which dwelt on an island now identified as Inis-Doimhle in the Suir. Canice's father was a distinguished bard who found his way to the North and settled at Glengiven in Cinachta under its chief. His mother was called Maul; her name is commemorated in the church of Thomplamaul, Kilkenny, dedicated to God under her invocation.

The early years of Canice were spent in watching his chieftain's flocks, however, sensing a higher calling, in 543 he went to Clonard, under St. Finian, where he was a fellow-pupil of St. Columba. In 544 he was studying in the school of Glasnevin, with [[St. Kieran] of Clonmacnoise and St. Comgall of Bangor, under the tuition of St. Mobhi. He was ordained priest in 545 in the monastery of Llancarvan in Glamorganshire. He left for Rome to obtain the blessing of the reigning pontiff. In 550 he had returned to Glengiven, where he converted his foster-brother, Geal-Breagach, who afterwards assisted him in founding Drumachose. In 565 he passed over to Scotland, where his name is recalled in the ruins of an ancient church, Kil-Chainnech on Tiree Island, and in a burial ground, Kil-Chainnech, in Iona.

Canice built monastic cells on the island of Ibdon and Eninis, an oratory called Lagan-Kenny on the shores of Lough Lagan, and a monastery in Fifeshire on the banks of the Eden. He is known in Scotland as St. Kenneth, was closely associated with St. Columba in the latter's missionary work, and, next to him and St. Bridget, is a most popular Irish saint in Scotland (Eammack).

His Irish foundations were Drumachose, two miles southeast of Limavady, Kilkenny West, in County Westmeath, and the great Abbey of Aghaboe in Ossory, Queens County. Tradition asserts that he founded a monastery in Kilkenny by the round tower and cathedral which bears his name. A man of great eloquence and learning, he wrote a commentary on the Gospels, known for centuries as Glas-Chainnigh.

Kilkenny was one of the last parts of Ireland to be converted to Christianity. In 597 A.D. Canice led a Christian force to Kilkenny to eliminate the last bastion of Druidic rule in Ireland. The last Archdruid of Ireland had retired with his Council to a mound in Kilkenny for safety. Canice led an army there and overcame them. St. Canice's Cathedral, replete with round tower, stands on that mound to this day.

Canice died at Aghaboe in 600. His feast day is commemorated on 11 October. He is the patron saint of the shipwrecked.

[edit] Sources

Catholic Forum
See Reeve's "Adamnàn" (Dublin, 1857, xxvi, xxxi); also the ancient lives in the "Codex Solmanticensis" edited by De Smedt and Backerand the "Liber Kilkenniensis" in Marsh's Library, Dublin.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.