Saint Fursey
Catholic and Orthodox saint, born around 567 in Ireland and died in the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia around 648
Feast: 16 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Fursey, of a Munster princely family, was baptised by St Brendan and became a monk; he founded a monastery at Rathmat on Lough Corrib and received famous visions.
He went to East Anglia, where King Sigebert gave him land for a monastery in 633, and later to Gaul, where he founded a monastery at Lagny near Paris. He died about 650.
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
An Irish visionary monk who founded monasteries in England and France.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Fursey
- Wikidata Q771953 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Saint Fursey (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.