Summary: St Crónán was born in the territory of Ely O’Carroll, Ireland and founder of Roscrea Abbey
Early Years
His father’s name was Odhran, while his mother came from west Clare. After spending his youth in Connacht, he returned to his native district about the year 610 and founded Roscrea Abbey, where he established a school.
Hermit
Previously he settled at a place known as Sean Ros or Loch Cre, which was a wooded morass far from the haunts of men; in fact, it was utterly wild, so much so, that pilgrims would get lost, so St. Crónán abandoned it and thereafter, he moved from place to place donating each dwelling he left to a needy hermit.
Puayd
Cronan founded a monastic community at Puayd. There is a miracle attributed to Cronan that carries with it a touch of humour. On one occasion, lacking a beverage for his guests, he is said to have miraculously obtained by his prayers so much beer for them that they all became inebriated. Subsequently, he settled at Seanross to live in solitude, but later founded a monastery at in the wood of Cre,Ros Cre. He settled , that is Ros Cre, Co. Tipperary.Toward the end of his life, he was afflicted with blindness.
See of Roscrea
The old See of Roscrea grew around Cronan’s monastery about the middle of the sixth century. This monastery became a famous school, and it was within its walls that the scribe Dimma wrote for St. Cronan the copy of the Four Gospels now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, for which Tatheus O’Carroll, chieftain of Ely, made a costly shrine in the twelfth century.
Miracles
Like those of so many other Irish saints the Acts of St. Crónán abound in miracles. The most surprising, perhaps, is the legend as to the transcribing of the Four Gospels by one of his monks, named Dimma. It appears that Dimma could only undertake one day’s task, from sunrise to sunset. Crónán, however, bade him write, and then Dimma set to work, never ceasing until he had finished the Four Gospels, the sun continuing to shine for the space of forty days and forty nights – the scribe himself being unconscious that the work occupied more than one day. The scribe, Dimma Mac Nathi, signs his name at the conclusion of each of the Gospels, and he has been identified with Dimma, subsequently Bishop of Connor, who is mentioned with Crónán in the letter of Pope John IV in 640, in regard to Pelagianism in Ireland, but this identification cannot be sustained.
Book of Dimma
The case containing the “Book of Dimma” was richly gilt by order of O’Carroll, Lord of Ely, in the twelfth century. Notwithstanding the conflicting statements arising from the number of contemporary Irish saints bearing the name Crónán, it is more than probable that St. Crónán of Roscrea, as les Petits Bollandistes say, lived as late as the year 640, and his death occurred on 28 April of that year.
