The life of St Ciaran of Clonmacnoise
He spent some further years visiting monasteries and holy men around Ireland before making a first, short-lived foundation on an island in Lough Ree. In the year 544, he settled with a small band of companions on the bank of the River Shannon and founded what would become his lasting monastery, Clonmacnoise.
He did not live to see it grow: within about seven months of its founding, Ciaran fell fatally ill, reportedly in an outbreak of plague that claimed several other Irish saints of his generation, and died at only thirty-three. What he left behind became, over the following centuries, one of the great centers of learning and monastic life in Ireland, home to scholars, chroniclers, and craftsmen for a thousand years. The written Lives that preserve his memory were composed long after his own time and are laced with legend, but the plain outline of his life and his early death are well attested, and he is remembered as one of the most beloved of Ireland's founding saints.
