Fergnae or Fergno Britt mac Faílbi was the fourth
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
of
Iona
Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...
(605–623). Fergnae was the first abbot of Iona to have come from outside
Saint Columba
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
's generation. Moreover, unlike his predecessors, he was not from the
Cenél Conaill
Cenél is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Cenél Conaill, the name of the "kindred" or descendants of Conall Gulban, son of Niall Noígiallach defined by oral and recorded history
*Cenél nEógain (in English, Cenel Eogan) is ...
, the kin-group to which Columba belonged and he may also have been British and a bishop.
Adomnán
Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona (, la, Adamnanus, Adomnanus; 624 – 704), also known as Eunan ( ; from ), was an abbot of Iona Abbey ( 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and saint. He was the author of the ''Life of Co ...
, in his ''
Vita Columbae
The ''Life of Columba'' ( la, Vita Columbae) is a hagiography recounting the life of Columba, the founder of Iona Abbey, written a century after Columba's death by Adomnán, one of his successors as Abbot of Iona.
Adomnán (also known as Eunan), ...
'', says that he was 'a young man of good ability' and records that he witnessed one of Columba's miracles.
[Adomnán, ''Vita Columbae'' III.19.] Fergnae died in 623, and was succeeded by
Ségéne
Saint Ségéne (also called Segein, Segeni, Segeno, Seghene, Segin, Segine, Ségíne, Segineus, Segini, Seighin; c. 610 – 24 May 688), was the Archbishop of Armagh, Bishop of Armagh, Ireland from 661 to 24 May 688.
Genealogy and birth
St. Ség ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Sharpe, Richard, ''Adomnán of Iona: Life of St. Columba'' (London, 1995)
623 deaths
Abbots of Iona
6th-century Irish abbots
Year of birth unknown
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