Finian the Leper

Venerable Finian the Leper was a disciple of Saint Columba and a strict Irish abbot whose monks followed a vegetarian diet. In the seventh century he led the monastery of Clonmore in County Carlow, then became abbot of Swords near Dublin, and may have returned to Clonmore in his later years. He is said to have acquired the name Lobhar, the Leper, after contracting leprosy from a boy whom he had cured; another source says that he only cured the boy. The village of Ardfinnan keeps his memory. Some sources credit him with founding a monastery at Innisfallen in Killarney. Orthodox England places him around the year 560. He is venerated as a saint of the undivided Church and is commemorated on 16 March (new calendar).