Our righteous Father Kevin, Abbot of Glendalough in Ireland.
Our righteous Father Kevin (or Coemgen, meaning “fair-begotten”) was born of the royal line of Leinster in 498. He was baptized by Saint Cronan, educated for a time by Saint Petroc of Bodmin (feast-day June 4), and was a friend of Saint Kieran of Clonmacnois (feast-day Sept. 9). Monasticism was flourishing in Ireland and Saint Kevin was brought up by monks. Conceiving a great desire to live in solitude, he withdrew to a deserted place called Glendalough, “Valley of the Two Lakes,” and lived there for seven years as an anchorite in great austerity. He later founded a monastic community elsewhere for the monks who were drawn to him by his sanctity, but returned to Glendalough where his greatest and most famous monastery stands. In his old age he returned to strict solitude, and reposed in peace in the year 618. Since the grace of God that Adam lost came to dwell in Saint Kevin, wild animals and birds did not fear him. Perhaps the most celebrated example of this is the time he was standing with his hands outstretched being rapt in prayer, and a blackbird made her nest in his hand and laid her eggs in it; in his compassion for God’s creature he remained standing until they had hatched. Saint Kevin’s monastery at Glendalough became one of the principal places of pilgrimage in Ireland.
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