Lugid (Molua)

Saint Lugid (Molua) of Killaloe, also called Lua or Da Lua, was an Irish priest and abbot of the sixth century, a disciple of Saint Comgall, founder of many monasteries and above all of Killaloe (Cill-⁠da-⁠Lua). He reposed around 609. His birth name was Lughaidh (pronounced Lua). Like Columba and Gall, he was trained at the monastery of Bangor, County Down.

His father is believed to have been Coche or Carthach of the Corca Oiche, a sept from around Limerick, and his mother, Sochla, was from Ossory. Little is known of him except that he was a monk, a builder and possibly a hermit. He had his oratory on Friar's Island, later replaced by a stone church near the present village of Killaloe. Like most Irish saints he was very hospitable, believing that in entertaining others he was entertaining Christ. He was kind to animals as well as humans, and it was said that when he died all living creatures bewailed him. His principal disciple, Saint Flannan, succeeded him; his monastery of Clonfert-⁠Mulloe in Osraige produced the scholar Laidcenn mac Buith Bannaig. He is commemorated on 4 August as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.