ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 21st March WELCOME! SAINT ENDA, PRIEST One of the most significant of the early Irish saints, Saint Enda of Aran was a warrior who was converted by his sister, the abbess Saint Fanchea . Born in 484 or thereabouts, he established Ireland’s first monastery on the Aran Islands. VIEWING A CORPSE He was the son of a leading Ulster warlord. When his father died he had to fight his clan enemies, but his sister pacified him, on condition she find him a wife. His fiancee died before he could get married. To teach him about death and judgment, Fanchea forced her brother to view the girl’s corpse. Enda at this point decided to study for the priesthood, heading to south-western Scotland, where he took vows, returning to found a monastery at Innish. A GRUELLING LIFE Enda and his monks were inspired by the asceticism of the Egyptian desert hermits. The religious lived hard, gruelling lives of labour, fasting and prayer, and they had no fire