Maighneann

Maighneann was an abbot in Ireland in the first half of the seventh century. He is venerated as a saint in the Western Church.

He built his church on a ridge between the rivers Liffey and Camac, in the place now called Kilmainham near Dublin, and presided there as abbot; sometimes he is called bishop. He was followed by twenty-⁠seven monks, with whom he travelled the country on pilgrimages. He visited other Irish saints, among them Maelruain of Tallaght, to whom he made his confession, Dublitir of Fingal and Finnin of Strangford. Maelruain thought him somewhat lazy, because he shied from manual labor, yet praised him for the ritual fire that he had kept burning without pause for over thirty years.

The name Kilmainham comes from his church, "Cill Mhaighneann". A fifteenth-⁠century manuscript, a Life of Saint Maighneann written by Uilliam Mac an Legha, preserves his teachings on discipline and the last things, and even a discussion of the Antichrist. The sources consulted give no day of commemoration.