ST FINIAN THE LEPER, ABBOT - 16 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 16th of March

WELCOME!

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST FINIAN THE LEPER, ABBOT 

⬅️ Litany of the Irish Saints

(Saint Finian, surnamed Lobhar, or the Leper.) He was son of Conail, descended from Kian, the son of Alild, king of Munster. He was a disciple of St Brendan, and flourished about the middle of the sixth century. 

HE SUFFERED FROM A TEDIOUS DISTEMPER

He imitated the patience of Job under a loathsome and tedious distemper, from which his surname was given him. 

INNISFALLEN

The famous abbey of Innisfallen, which stood in an island of that name, in the great and beautiful lake of Lough-Lane in the county of Kerry, was founded by our saint. 

ARDFINNAN

A second, called from him Ardfinnan, he built in Tipperary; and a third at Cluain-more Madoc, in Leinster, where he was buried. He died on February 2; but, says Colgan, his festival is kept on March 16, at all the above-mentioned places. 

NOTE:

In the monastery of Innis-fallen was formerly kept a chronicle called the Annals of Innis-fallen. They contain a sketch of universal history, from the creation to the year 430. From that time the annalist amply enough prosecutes the affairs of Ireland down to the year 1215, when he wrote. They were continued by another hand to 1320. They are often quoted by Bishop Usher and Sir James Ware. An imperfect transcript is kept in the library of Trinity college, Dublin. Bishop Nicholson, in his Irish Historical Library, informs us, that the late duke of Chandos had a complete copy of them.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

May the intercession of the blessed abbot Finian commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.