Gerald of Mayo (died 13 March 732 AD)Monks of Ramsgate. "Gerald". ''Book of Saints''
1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 11 July 2013 is a saint of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

. Born in Northumbria, the son of an Anglo-Saxon king, he was one of the English monks at Lindisfarne who accompanied

Colmán of Lindisfarne Colmán of Lindisfarne ( 605 – 18 February 675 AD) also known as Saint Colmán was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 661 until 664. Life Colman was a native of the west of Ireland and had received his education on Iona. He was probably a nobleman of ...

to Iona and then to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. This occurred after the

Synod of Whitby In the Synod of Whitby in 664, King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practiced by Irish monks at Iona and its satellite ins ...

664AD which decided against the Irish method of calculating the date for Easter. Colman was an ardent supporter of the Irish traditions; after the synod decided to adopt the Roman computation. Inishbofin Graveyard and Old St

Colman and thirty English monks, St. Gerald among them, left Lindisfarne and eventually settled on Inishbofin off the coast of what is now County Mayo in 668. Dissensions arose, after a time, between the Irish and the English monks. The English were disgruntled by the behaviour of the native monks, who would leave Inishboffin to preach around the rest of the country for the duration of the summer while the English monks were left to tend to the island. Colman decided to found a separate monastery for the thirty English brethren. Thus arose the Mayo (Magh Eo, the yew plain), known as "Mayo of the Saxons", with St. Gerald as the first abbot, in 670.Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Gerald." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909 The monastery became an important and flourishing institution. The School of Mayo gained greatly in fame for sanctity and learning under the youthful abbot.Healy, John. "School of Mayo." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 24 January 2020 Although St. Gerald was a comparatively young man, he proved a wise ruler, and governed May until 697, when, it is said, he resigned in favour of St. Adamnan. Some authors hold that St. Adamnan celebrated the Roman Easter at Mayo, in 703, and then went to Skreen, in Hy Fiachrach, and that after his departure the monks prevailed on St. Gerald to resume the abbacy. St. Gerald is reputed to have founded the abbeys of Tempul-Gerald in Connaught and Teagh-na-Saxon and a convent which he placed under the care of his sister. His brother Balin also a disciple of Colman, took up residence in Connaught. Gerald continued to govern the Abbey and Diocese of Mayo till his death at an advanced age. Colgan thinks, Gerald did not live after 697; but the Four Masters give the date of his death as 13 March 726, and the "Annals of Ulster" put the event as late as 731.Healy, John. ''Insula sanctorum et doctorum'', Benzinger, 1902, p. 538
/ref> St Gerald's College, Castlebar is named for Gerald.

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Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...

is an alumnus.

References

Sources

Saint of the Day, March 13
at ''SaintPatrickDC.org'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerald of Mayo 731 deaths 8th-century Irish abbots Christian clergy from County Mayo 8th-century Irish bishops 8th-century Christian saints 8th-century English people Northumbrian saints Medieval saints of Connacht Year of birth unknown