Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/42

Finn Bar hermitage, as his resurrection was not to be there, he set out, and crossing the Avonmore (Blackwater) proceeded in a north-easterly direction until he arrived at Cluain, where he built a church. This place, which has been strangely confounded with Cloyne, near Cork, is stated by Colgan to have been situated between Sliabh g-Crot (the Galtees) and Sliabh-Mairge, and appears to be Cluainednech, now Clonenagh, a townland near Mountrath, in the Queen's County. Here, when he had stayed some time, he was visited by two pupils of St. Ruadan, whose church of Lothra was some thirty miles distant. These clerics, Cormac and Baithin, had asked Ruadan for a place to settle in. 'Go,' he said, 'and settle wherever the tongues of your bells strike.' They went on until they arrived at the church of Cluain, where their bells sounded. They were much disappointed at finding the place already occupied, not thinking they would be allowed to stay there, but Barra gave them the church and all the property in it, and leaving the place returned to co. Cork, and came to Corcach Mor, or 'The Great Marsh,' now the city of Cork. Here he and his companions were engaged in fasting and prayer, when Aodh, son of Conall, the king of the territory, going in search of one of his cows which had strayed from the herd, met with them and granted them the site of the present cathedral. Before settling there finally, Barra was admonished by an angel, we are told, to go to the place to the westward, 'where,' he said, 'you have many waters, and where there will be many wise men with you.' A long time after this, Barra, with Eolang, David, and ten monks, is said to have gone to Rome to be consecrated a bishop, but the pope refused to consecrate him, saying the rite would be performed by Jesus Christ himself. The Latin lives, instead of Barra's journey to Rome, tell of a message brought by MacCorb from the pope informing him how he was to be consecrated. At this time, MacCorb having died, Barra desired to have Eolang of Aghabulloge as a soul-friend or confessor in his place. According to the 'Calendar' of Oengus, Eolang was originally at Aghaboe, and probably accompanied Barra, whose pupil he had been. Eolang declined, say ing, 'Christ will take your hand from mine and hear your confession.' It was reported that Barra afterwards wore a glove on one of his hands which Christ had touched, to hide its supernatural brightness. Seventeen years after the foundation of Cork, feeling that his death was near, he went to Clonenagh, and there died suddenly. His remains were brought to Cork and honourably interred, and in after times his bones were taken up and enshrined in a silver casket. His pastoral character is thus described : 'The man of God abode there [at Cork], building up not so much a house of earthly stones as a spiritual house of true stones, wrought by the word and toil through the Holy Spirit.' His generosity is often referred to. Cumin of Condeire, in his poem, says : 'He never saw any one in want whom he did not relieve;' and the 'Calendar' of Oengus at 25 Sept. notices 'the festival of the loving man, the feast of Barre of Cork,' and in his 'Life' he is the 'amiable champion' (athleta). In after times, when Fursa was at the city of Cork, 'he saw [in vision] a golden ladder near the tomb of the man of God, to conduct souls to the kingdom of Heaven, and he beheld the top of it reach to the sky.' Barra's travels are scarcely referred to in his 'Life.' He is said to have gone to Britain with St. Maidoc. In Reeves's edition of Adamnan's 'St. Columba' reference is made to 'his repeated and perhaps protracted visits to St. Columba at Hy,' though no notice of them is found in his 'Life.' There is an extraordinary story in the Rawlinson manuscript of his having borrowed a horse from St. David in Wales and ridden over to Ireland, in memory of which a brazen horse was made and kept at Cork, but there is nothing of this in the other lives. He is the patron saint of Dornoch, the episcopal seat of Caithness, where his festival is performed riding on horseback, a usage which seems to have some connection with the legend just mentioned. The island of Barra also claims him as patron and derives its name from him. According to Gerald de Barré, or Giraldus Cambrensis, his family name was derived from this island, and thus ultimately from the saint. Mr. Skene thinks the name Dunbarre is connected with him, as Dunblane with St. Blane. The name undergoes many modifications. He is termed Finn Barr, Barr-fhinn, or Barr-fhind, which by the silence of fh becomes Barrind, and then Barrindus. He is also Barr-og, or Barrocus, Bairre, Barra, and Barre, the last being his name in popular usage. In the parallel lists of Irish and foreign saints in the 'Book of Leinster' he is said to have been 'like Augustine, bishop of the Saxons, in his manner of life.' He died on 25 Sept. most probably in 623. [Beatha Barra MS. 23 a, 44, Royal Irish Academy; Codex Kilkenniensis, fol. 132 b, 134; Codex Bodl. Rawlinson B. 485, both published by Dr. Caulfield in his Life of St. Finn Barr ; Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. ii. 314-18; Calendar of Oengus at 25 Sept. ; Reeves's Adamnan, lxxiv.] 