Saint Ruadán | |
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Died | 5 April 584 Monastery of Lorrha |
Honored in | Roman Catholic Church |
Feast | 5 April |
Ruadán[1] mac Fergusa Birn was the founder and first abbot of the monastery of Lorrha (Lothra, County Tipperary, Ireland), near Terryglass. After his death, he was venerated as a saint and as one of the "Twelve Apostles of Ireland".[2]
His embassy to King Diarmait mac Cerbaill (d. 565) at Tara, in 556, is worked into a legend known as the "Curse of Tara", but the high-king continued to reside at Tara till his death (564). The legend as to Tara's halls having been deserted after 564 is of comparatively late origin, and is contradicted by the fact that a Feis was held at Tara in 697.
A bell which bears his name is preserved in the British Museum. He is said to have died at the monastery of Lorrha, 5 April 584. His feast is kept on the anniversary of his death.
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Ruadán gave the prophecy that Diarmait would be killed by the roof-beam of his hall at Tara. Diarmait had the beam cast into the sea. Diarmait then asked his druids to find the manner of his death, and they foretold that he would die of slaughter, drowning and burning, and that the signs of his death would be a shirt grown from a single seed of flax and a mantle of wool from a single sheep, ale brewed from one seed of corn, and bacon from a sow which had never farrowed. On a circuit of Ireland, Diarmait comes to the hall of Banbán at Ráith Bec, and there the fate of which he was warned comes to pass. The roof beam of Tara has been recovered from the sea by Banbán and set in his hall, the shirt and mantle and ale and bacon are duly produced for Diarmait. Diarmait goes to leave Banbán's hall, but Áed Dub, waiting at the door, strikes him down and sets fire to the hall. Diarmait crawls into an ale vat to escape the flames and is duly killed by the falling roof beam. Thus, all the prophecies are fulfilled.[3]
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