Saint Ruadhan of Lorrha

Also known as

• Rodan
• Rodanus
• Ruadain
• Ruadan
• Ruadanus
• Ruadhain

Memorial

• 15 April

Profile

Related to the royal family of Munster (part of modern Ireland. Studied under Saint Finian of Clonard. Founded the monastery of Lorrha c.545, and served as its first abbot. His brother monks produced the Stowe Missal, and his abbot‘s bell is preserved in the British Museum. Ruadhan’s embassy to King Dermot of Tara in 556 is recounted in the romance the Cursing of Tara where he is supposed to have cursed Dermot for violating the sanctuary of the Lorrha monastery in order to capture the king of Connaught. Considered a confessor of the faith, and one of the Twelve Apostles of Erin.

Born

• Leinster, Ireland

Died

• 5 April 584 in the monastery of Lorrha, County Tipperary, Ireland of natural causes
• his hand was preserved in a silver shrine in Lorrha, but destroyed during the Reformation

Name Meaning

• red-haired (Irish)

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Additional Information

• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Catholic Encyclopedia, by W H Grattan-Flood
• Katherine Rabenstein
• Kirken i Norge
• Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

MLA Citation

• “Saint Ruadhan of Lorrha“. Saints.SQPN.com. 15 April 2013. Web. 22 May 2013. <>