Saint Senan

Senan, Saint, was born about 488, in Corcavaskin, in Thomond. Disgusted with the wars and outrages going on round him, he placed himself under the abbot Cassidan, took the monastic habit, and about 534 founded the religious establishment of Inishscattery, on the Shannon, and afterwards several of the cells and oratories on the remote islands off Clare and Kerry. Dr. Lanigan relates how a lady of Bantry, afterwards canonized as St. Cannera, sought permission to receive the viaticum, and to be buried in Inishscattery. At first the Saint positively refused; but at length, understanding she was near her death, permitted her to spend the last few days of her life on the island, and there gave her body a resting place. Senan himself died about 544. Lanigan says: "The reputation of St. Senan has not been confined to Ireland, and his acts have been published amongst those of the saints of Brittany, on the supposition, whether well founded or not, that he was the same as St. Sane, one of the chief patrons of the diocese of St. Pol de Leon. Yet, notwithstanding the great fame of this saint, and in spite of the many monuments still recording his name and transactions in the island of Inishscattery, a pseudo-antiquary of our days has had the impudence to write that he was no other than the river Shannon personified." His festival is the 1st of March.

Sources

119. Ecclesiastical History of Ireland: Rev. John Lanigan. 4 vols. Dublin, 1822.