Our righteous Father Kenneth, Founder of the Monastery of Aghaboe in Ireland.
Our Righteous Father Kenneth (Canice or Cainnech in Irish, Canicus in Latin) was born at Glengiven in County Derry in Northern Ireland in 515 or 516, the son of a bard. In 543 he joined the monastic establishment of Saint Finnian of Clonard (feast-day Dec. 12), which was a school of monasticism for all Ireland, such that Saint Finnian was called the Master (or Teacher) of the Irish Saints. Among Saint Kenneth’s saintly friends and fellow-monks were Saint Kieran of Clonmacnoise, Saint Comgall of Bangor, and Saint Columba (or Colmcille) of Iona. Of the last this is said in Butler’s Lives of the Saints: “[Saint Kenneth/Canice] converted numerous pagans and was bound in close friendship with Saint Columba, who on one occasion when he was in great danger at sea said to his companions, ‘Don’t be afraid! God will listen to Kenneth, who is running to church with only one shoe on to pray for us.’ At the same time Canice in Ireland was aware of his friend’s peril and jumped up from a meal to go to the church.” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints, P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1956, vol. IV, p. 87.)
Saint Kenneth preached throughout Ireland and Scotland, enlightening and converting many, and founding monasteries, the chief of which he founded at Aghaboe, where he reposed in peace at the age of eighty-four in the year 599 or 600. Saint Kenneth is counted as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, disciples of Saint Finian of Clonard who spread the Gospel and founded monasteries throughout Ireland. His wide-ranging labors are commemorated in place-names in both Ireland and Scotland, most notably in Kilkenny, from Cill Chainnigh, meaning The Cell or Church of Canice or Kenneth (with variants such as Kil-Chainnech), and Inch Kenneth (from Inis Kenneth – Kenneth Isle) and Cambuskenneth in Scotland.
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