Day: January 20, 2024

Saint of the Day – 20 January – Saint Féchín of Fore (Died 665) Abbot, Priest, Founder of several Irish Monasteries, Féchín name is particularly connected with that of Fobhar (Fore or Foure) in Westmeath which was his first Monastic foundation and an important one for its renowned Manuscripts. Born in Connacht, Ireland and died in 665 ofthe Plague in Ireland. Also known as – Feichin, Vigean, Mo-Ecca.

Born of Irish Royal stock, he was the son of Coelcharna, descendant of Eochad Fionn, brother to the famous King Conn of the Hundred Battles and his mother, Lassair, was of the Royal blood of Munster. When fit to be sent to school he was placed under St Nathy of Achonry (Died 610) Bishop of Achonry/

Having finished his studies, he was Ordained Priest and retired to a solitary place at Fore in Westmeath, there to live as a Hermit. But he was followed by many disciples and Fore became a Monastery. Here he eventually governed over 300 Monks. He is said to have so pitied the Monks engaged in grinding their corn, that he, brought water from a marsh to the Monastery, by cutting a tunnel through the rock and then established a water mill. Of this miracle, the Monk, Scholar and Historian,, Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) relates the following :-

“There is a mill at Foure, in Meathwhich St Fechin made most miraculously with his own hands, in the side of a certain rock. No women are allowed to enter, either this mill or the Church of the Saint and the mill is held, inasmuch reverence, by the natives as any of the Churches dedicated to the Saint.”

Féchín’s influence, being himself Royal, was very great with the Kings and Princes of his age. The Saint finding a poor leper, full of sores one day, took him to the Queen and bade her minister to him, as if to Christ. She bravely overcame her repugnance and tended him with gentle care as if of three hundred Monks.

He also established a religious house on the Island of Immagh, near the coast of Galway. The inhabitants were then pagans but Féchín, with his Monks, evangelised and converted them.

The Monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary which he founded in Cong is renowned because of the Cross of Cong, one of the great treasures of Ireland which had been hidden in an old oaken chest in the village and now resides in the National Museum in Dublin. Both the Church and Monastery at Cong were rebuilt in 1120 for the Augustinians by Turlough O’Connor, who gave them the bejewelled processional Cross he had made to enshrine a particle of the True Cross. Cong Abbey also served as the refuge for the last high king of Ireland, Roderick O’Connor. The Monastery was suppressed by King Henry VIII.

St Féchín’s numerous monastic foundations include those at Ballysadare (his birthplace?), Imaid Island, Omey and Ard Oilean, from which came the oldest Manuscript recording the details of his life. All of these Monasteriest are now in ruins. His memory, however, is also perpetuated at Ecclefechan and Saint Vigean’s (the name under which he is invoked in the Dunkeld Litany), near Arbroath in Scotland, where a fair was held on his Feast day. There are also pilgrimages undertaken to explore St Féchín’s foundations and the holy mill.