Colmán of Lindisfarne
Bishop of Lindisfarne; Saint
Feast: 18 February (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Colman was born in Connacht about 605 and became a monk of Iona. Bede praises his virtue and learning, and on the death of St. Finan in 661 he became Bishop of Lindisfarne. He held to the old Irish way of reckoning Easter, and when King Oswy decided against it at the Synod of Whitby in 664, he resigned his see.
After founding several churches in Scotland he sailed for Ireland with thirty disciples and settled on Inishbofin in County Mayo in 668. There he later built an abbey for his English monks, known as Mayo of the Saxons. He died on 8 August 676, and his feast is kept on that day.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
The Irish bishop of Lindisfarne who held to the Irish Easter at Whitby and founded Mayo of the Saxons.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Colman of Mayo
- Wikidata Q1110134 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Colmán of Lindisfarne (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.