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Cormac mac Cuilennáin
Irish bishop and king of Munster
SaintResearchedIrelandPre-congregation
Feast: 13 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
836
verified
Died
908
verified
Beatified
—
not needed: before formal processes
Canonised
By tradition
recognised before formal processes began
Who they were
Cormac, of the Eoghanacht of southern Ireland, was ordained priest and made Bishop of Cashel. In 900 he also became King of Cashel, ruling southern Ireland in both church and state.
He defeated the high king in 906 but was killed at the battle of Ballymoon in 908. His Irish glossary, Sanas Chormaic, survives.
The miracles
The Catholic Encyclopedia does not describe how he came to be honoured as a saint.
Why that counted as sanctity
A bishop-king of Munster and a scholar of the Irish language.
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Cormac MacCullinan
- Wikidata Q1143975 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Cormac mac Cuilennáin (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.