Cronan of Roscrea

Saint Cronan of Roscrea was an abbot and bishop, the founder of the monastery of Roscrea in County Tipperary, Ireland, and patron of that district. He is commemorated on 28 April.

He was born in the territory of Éile, the son of a father named Odhran and a mother from west Clare. He spent his youth in Connacht and came back to his native district around the year 610. At first he settled at Sean Ros, or Loch Cré, a wooded morass so remote that pilgrims often lost their way. He withdrew from there into the woods of Cré, now called Ros Cré, and founded the monastery of Roscrea, where he also set up a school. Other lists say he raised several monasteries across Ireland, above all Roscrea.

The Annals of Tigernach and of Ulster call him bishop of Nendrum. He reposed in 640 by the most probable reckoning, although some lists give 626.

A legend tells of the monk Dimma, who copied the four Gospels, a task he could only work at from sunrise to sunset on a single day. At Cronan's bidding Dimma wrote without ceasing, and the sun is said to have shone for forty days and forty nights without the scribe noticing. The manuscript is now known as the Book of Dimma, and its case was gilded in the twelfth century. He is not to be confused with Saint Crónán Mochua, who died in 637.