St. Jarlath

St. Jarlath

Patron of the Archdiocese of Tuam, born in Connaught about 445; died 26 December, (al., 11 Feb.), about 540. Having studied under St. Benen (Benignus), he founded a college at Cloonfush, near Tuam, which soon attracted scholars from all parts of Ireland. The fame of Cloonfush is sufficiently attested by two of its pupils, St. Brendan of Ardfert, and St. Colman of Cloyne. But, great teacher as he was, he went, through humility, to avail himself of the instruction of St. Enda at Arran about 495. He removed to Tuam about the second decade of sixth century. St. Jarlath is included in the second order of Irish saints, and on that account he must have lived to the year 540. The "Felire" of Aengus tells us that he was noted for his fasting, watching, and mortification. Three hundred times by day and three hundred times by night did this saint bend the knee in prayer, and he was also endowed with the gift of prophecy. His feast is kept on 6 June, being the date of the translation of his relics to a church specially built in his honour, adjoining the cathedral of Tuam. His remains were encased in a silver shrine, whence the church--built in the thirteenth century--was called Teampul na scrín, that is the church of the shrine, a perpetual vicarage united to the prebend of Kilmainemore in 1415.

W. H. GRATTAN-FLOOD