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Conall, Saint

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In the Mart. Doneg. there are seven Conalls, and Colgan says there are nine or ten in the Irish martyrologies:

1. Son of Aedh, is commemorated April 2. He succeeded St. Cairpre as bishop of Coleraine, having before been abbot of the monastery of Cluain- dallain (Todd and Reeves, Mart. Doneg. page 93; Reeves, Eccl. Ant. page 114 n.).

2. Abbot of Inis-Caeil, is commemorated May 22. Colgan calls him the son of Mannis Ccelius, son of Caitherius. A panegyric written upon him by St. Dallan Forgaill, the poet, enables us to fix his date as prior to A.D. 594. He is said to have brought over from Rome, though probably not promulgated for more than a century after his death, a curious law-tract or rule, still extant, entitled the Cain Domnaigh, for the observance of Sunday as a day totally free from labor, with certain unavoidable exceptions (O'Curry, Lect. Anc. Ireland, 2:32, 33; Butler, Lives of the Saints, 5:345, 346).

3. A bishop, commemorated March 18. At this date Colgan gives a memoir of St. Conall, founder of the Church of Kilcomnnell. He was made bishop by St. Patrick. Together with St. Etchen, he ordained, unknown to that official, some persons who were unfit for the episcopate, and was severely rebuked for it by his superior. Lanigan (Eccl. Hist. of Ireland, 1:429) doubts the connection with St. Patrick.

4. There is a St. Conall or Connell in Scotland, who gives his name to Kirkconnell, but whom it seems impossible to identify (Forbes, Kal. of Scot. Saints, page 311).