Saint Canice

He was born at Glengiven, near Dungiven, in what is now County Derry. ¹³ The Catholic Encyclopedia dates his birth to 515 or 516; CatholicIreland gives 527, though the title of its own article reads 521. ¹³ His family came from the south: the encyclopedia traces them to the Ui-Dalainn, a Waterford people living on an island in the River Suir, and says his father was a distinguished bard who settled in the north under the chief of Cinachta. ¹ CatholicIreland names the father Lugayd. ³ His mother, Maul, is remembered in a church at Kilkenny dedicated under her name. ¹

As a boy he herded flocks: his chieftain's, according to the encyclopedia, or his father's, according to Catholic.net. ¹³⁵ CatholicIreland notes that some would even call him a Pict. ³

By 543 he was at Clonard, in the school of Saint Finian, where he was a fellow pupil of Columba. ¹³ In 544, the encyclopedia says, he was studying at Glasnevin under Saint Mobhi with Saint Kieran of Clonmacnoise and Saint Comgall of Bangor. ¹ CatholicIreland is more careful: Canice and Columba "may also have studied together" there. ³

The order of what came next varies. The encyclopedia has him ordained priest in 545 at the monastery of Llancarfan in Glamorgan, and then setting out for Rome for the blessing of the pope. ¹ CatholicIreland says that when plague scattered the community at Glasnevin, tradition sends him to Llancarfan under Saint Cadoc, where he was ordained, before the journey to Rome. ³ Catholic.net puts Wales first, under Finian and Cadoc, and Glasnevin after his ordination and his visit to Rome. ⁵

In 550 he was back at Glengiven, where he converted his foster-brother, Geal-Breagach, who then helped him found the monastery of Drumachose, near Limavady. ¹³

In 565 he crossed to Scotland. ¹³ CatholicIreland says he is said to have gone with Columba to visit King Brude of the Picts at Inverness. ³ The encyclopedia says he was closely associated with Columba in his missionary work, and that "next to him and St. Bridget, [he] is the favourite Irish saint in Scotland." ¹

His name is still on the map. The encyclopedia lists the ruins of a church called Kil-Chainnech on Tiree and a burial ground of the same name on Iona, cells on the islands of Ibdon and Eninis, an oratory called Lagan-Kenny on Loch Laggan, and a monastery in Fife on the banks of the Eden. ¹ CatholicIreland adds Inchkenneth in the Hebrides and Cambuskenneth near Stirling. ³

Adomnán, ninth abbot of Iona, mentions Canice three times in his Life of Columba, and CatholicIreland retells all three. ³ In the first, a gale was blowing over Iona when Columba told his monks to prepare a lodging and water for a guest's feet. A brother asked who could possibly cross the sound on such a day. "God has granted a holy man a calm, even in the storm," Columba answered, and Canice arrived that same day. ³

In the second, Columba and his companions were at sea in a storm that threatened to swamp their boat. Columba told them not to be afraid: "God will listen to Canice, who is now running to church with one shoe to pray for us." ³ At that moment, the story goes, Canice had jumped up from the table at Aghaboe and run to the church half-shod. ³

In the third, Canice sailed home from Iona and realized off Islay that he had left his staff behind at the harbor. He put in at the southern end of the island and found the staff on the ground where he landed. ³

His foundations in Ireland, the encyclopedia says, were Drumachose, Kilkenny West in County Westmeath, and the great abbey of Aghaboe in Ossory. ¹ CatholicIreland says that when Aghaboe was founded is uncertain, but probably after his return to Dungiven. ³ Aghaboe grew in importance, and in the next century sent Feargal, who died in 784, as a missionary to Salzburg. ³

The encyclopedia gives his monastery at Kilkenny, by the round tower and the cathedral that bears his name, as tradition; its article on the diocese of Ossory calls it probable, and says a town may well have grown up around it. ¹² At the synod of Rathbreasail in 1118 the see of Ossory moved from Seir-Kieran to Aghaboe, and at the end of the twelfth century to Kilkenny, where it has stayed. ²³ The cathedral of Saint Canice there was built under Bishop Hugh de Rous, between 1202 and 1215. ²

The encyclopedia calls him a man of great eloquence and learning, and says he wrote a commentary on the Gospels known for centuries as the Glas-Chainnigh. ¹ CatholicIreland remembers a cheerful man whose good humor won him friends and helpers in preaching. ³

He died at Aghaboe in 600, according to the encyclopedia; CatholicIreland says 603, and the Martyrology entry that Catholic.net reproduces says 599. ¹³⁵

Saint Canice is the secondary patron of the Catholic diocese of Ossory, according to CatholicIreland, after Saint Kieran of Seir, its primary patron. ³ The Catholic Encyclopedia's 1911 article on the diocese names Kieran alone as its patron. ² He also gave his name to Kilkenny, and CatholicIreland notes that the Church of Ireland cathedral and a large Catholic parish church there are dedicated to him. ³

Saint Canice's feast day is October 11. ¹³ The Roman Martyrology, as the Italian bishops print it, enters him that day in the region of Ossory, in Ireland, as abbot of the monastery of Achad-Bó, which is Aghaboe, one among the many he founded. ⁴

Much of what is told of him is tradition, and the people who tell it say so. CatholicIreland closes its life with the Italian proverb "Se non è vero, è ben trovato": if it is not true, it is still a good story. ³ The outline is solid enough. He studied, was ordained, founded monasteries in Ireland and Scotland, and his name stayed on the places he worked. ¹²³

The stories that survive are about friendship and prayer. In Adomnán, Columba expects Canice through a storm, and trusts him to be praying when the boat is in danger. ³ It is a picture of two men who knew each other well enough to count on each other at a distance.

The man running to church with one shoe on is not much of an image of dignity. It is the one the Life of Columba kept. ³