Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback

Jarlath, Saint

Patron of the Archdiocese of Tuam (ca. 445 - ca. 540)

Click to enlarge

Jarlath, Saint, patron of the Archdiocese of Tuam, b. in Connaught about 445; d. December 26 (al., February 11), about 540. Having studied under St. Benen (Benignus), he founded a college at Cloonfush, near Tuam, which soon attracted scholars from all parts of Ireland. The fame of Cloonfush is sufficiently attested by two of its pupils, St. Brendan of Ardfert, and St. Colman of Cloyne. But, great teacher as he was, he went, through humility, to avail himself of the instruction of St. Enda at Arran about 495. He removed to Tuam about the second decade of the sixth century. St. Jarlath is included in the second order of Irish saints, and on that account he must have lived to the year 540. The “Felire” of Aengus tells us that he was noted for his fasting, watching, and mortification. Three hundred times by day and three hundred times by night did this saint bend the knee in prayer, and he was also endowed with the gift of prophecy. His feast is kept on June 6, being the date of the translation of his relics to a church specially built in his honor, adjoining the cathedral of Tuam. His remains were encased in a silver shrine, whence the church—built in the thirteenth century—was called Teampul na scrin, that is the church of the shrine, a perpetual vicarage united to the prebend of Kilmainemore in 1415.

W. H. GRATTAN-FLOOD


Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free
Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donatewww.catholic.com/support-us