Note 667 — Chapter VI

Luke xvii. 16, 18.—This was probably Gilla Aedha Ua Muidhin, who attended the Synod of Kells in 1152 as bishop of Cork (Keating, iii. 317), and died in 1172 (A.U.). Since he attained "a good old age" there is no reason why he should not have been consecrated as early as 1140 or 1141. He had been a monk of Errew in Lough Con, co. Mayo (A.T. 1172), and was therefore "a stranger," i.e. not a native of Munster. He is called a "poor man," no doubt, for the same reason as Malachy himself (§ 24), because he had embraced the life of voluntary poverty. He had a reputation for piety and learning, for the Annals describe him as "full of the grace of God" (A.U.), and "the tower of devotion and wisdom and virginity of Ireland" (A.T.). And if the tradition is trustworthy that he was abbot of St. John the Evangelist at Cork, founded by Cormac Mac Carthy "for pilgrims from Connaught" (see the charter of Dermot Mac Carthy printed in Gibson's History of Cork, ii. 348), and that it received its later name of Gill Abbey from him, we can explain how he came to be near at hand when the election was taking place.