ST LASERIAN, BISHOP OF LEIGHLIN - 18 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 18th of April

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SAINT LASERIAN, BISHOP OF LEIGHLIN

(Saint Laserian, Called Molaisre, Bishop of Leighlin, in Ireland.) He was son of Cairel and Blitha, persons of great distinction, who entrusted his education, from his infancy, to the Abbot St Murin. 

HE IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN ORDAINED BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

He afterwards travelled to Rome in the days of Pope Gregory the Great, by whom he is said to have been ordained priest. Soon after his return to Ireland, he visited Leighlin, a place situated a mile and a half westward of the river Barrow, where St Goban was then abbot, who, resigning to him his abbacy, built a little cell for himself and a small number of monks. 

THE TIMING OF EASTER

A great synod being soon after assembled there, in the White Fields, St Laserian strenuously maintained the Catholic time of celebrating Easter against St Munnu. This council was held in March 630. But St Laserian not being able to satisfy in it all his opponents, took another journey to Rome, where Pope Honorius ordained him bishop, without allotting him any particular see, and made him his legate in Ireland. Nor was his commission fruitless: for, after his return, the time of observing Easter was reformed in the south parts of Ireland. 

HE WAS BURIED IN THE CHURCH HE FOUNDED

St Laserian died on April 18, 638, and was buried in his own church which he had founded. In a synod held at Dublin, in 1330, the feasts of St Patrick, St Laserian, St Bridget, St Canic, and St Edan, are enumerated among the double festivals through the province of Dublin. St Laserian was the first bishop of Old Leighlin, now a village. New Leighlin stands on the eastern bank of the river Barrow. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

Our St Laserian (Molaisre of Leighlin) must not be confused with St Laserian (Laisren mac Nad Froich, d. 564), one of the 12 Apostles of Ireland, St Laserian (Laisren mac Feradaig, d. 605), second abbot of Iona, St Laserian (Laisren mac Declain), St Laserian (Laisren of Cloonkerrill).