Note 797 — Chapter VII

Jocelin, writing towards the end of the twelfth century, declares that St. Patrick founded a monastery at Saul (Vita S. Patricii, cap. 32). But, apparently, neither in the Annals nor in any other authority earlier than Jocelin, is mention made of a monastery there before St. Malachy's time. The text seems to imply that there were no monastic buildings on the site when he founded (or re-founded) it. Malachy placed in his new monastery a convent of regular canons of St. Augustine (A.U. 1170); but it never became an important establishment, though it was still in existence in the sixteenth century. See Reeves, pp. 40, 220 ff.