Saint Conleth

[CyrilSebastian]

Conleth lived c. 450 to 519.   
He is believed to have come from the Wicklow area.     
Wicklow is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland.

[Shin]

St. Conleth, ora pro nobis! 

[CyrilSebastian]

Saint Conleth was head of the Kildare school of metal work and penmanship.   
Cogitosus, a community of monks grew up which, under the guidance of Conleth,     
excelled in the making of beautiful chalices and other metal objects needed in the church.

[CyrilSebastian]

The Diocese of Kildare appears to have been founded around 490 by Conleth.

[Speramus]

Saint Conleth was head of the Kildare school of metal work and penmanship.   
Cogitosus, a community of monks grew up which, under the guidance of Conleth,     
excelled in the making of beautiful chalices and other metal objects needed in the church.

Saint Conleth fashioned a crozier for Saint Finbarr of Termonbarry, first bishop of Cork. He also made sacred vessels for Saint Brigid for Masses at her "double monastery".

It is a beautiful thing to see the saints helping each other out.

For a few decades Saint Conleth and Saint Brigid were both buried at the Cathedral at Kildare, one on one side of the altar, one on the other, until in 835 his relics were moved to Connell, where he had been a hermit, to invoke his protection against the invading Danes.

[CyrilSebastian]

Where was the "double monastery" of Saint Brigid?

[Speramus]

Saint Brigid founded the double monastery at Kildare (from the Irish "Cill Dara", meaning "Church of the Oak"), roughly 35 miles west and a little south from Dublin.  There was a monastery for women and a monastery for men, separate but sharing the same church. Saint Conleth became the first bishop of Kildare and for centuries the abbey was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and abbesses.