Colman of Oughaval

Saint Colman of Oughaval (Colman mac Ua Laoighse, sometimes called Columbanus) was an Irish monk, a disciple of Saint Columba of Iona and of Saint Fintan of Clonenagh, and the founder of a monastery at Oughaval in County Laois, Ireland, in the sixth century. He is commemorated on 15 May.

After several years as a novice at Iona he returned to Ireland and chose Oughaval as the site of a new monastic settlement, a little before the repose of Fintan, around 595. In the Martyrology of Tallaght he appears as Colman mac h Laighsi, with a feast on 15 May. The Book of Leinster was kept at Oughaval for many generations and was known as Lebor na Nuachongbála, the Book of Oughaval. The foundation had ceased to function long before the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Around 1994 the Russian Orthodox Church built a new church nearby, in the demesne of Stradbally Hall, dedicated to Saint Colman of Oughaval.