Saint Adamnan
Abbé d'Iona (+ 704)
L'un des plus grands
successeurs de saint
Columba à la tête de l'abbaye d'Iona en Écosse. Son influence fut
grande sur la société et l'Église de son temps.
Dans l’île d’Iona en
Écosse, l’an 704, saint Adamnan, prêtre et abbé. Doté d’une connaissance
excellente des Écritures et très zélé pour l’unité et la paix, il réussit par
sa parole à persuader un grand nombre en Écosse et en Irlande de suivre l’usage
romain pour la célébration de Pâques.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/8295/Saint-Adamnan.html
Saint Adamnan d’Iona
Neuvième Abbé d’Iona
(Inner Hebrides)
Fête le 23 septembre
Drumhome, comté de
Donegal, Irlande, v. 624 – † Iona 23 septembre 704
Autres graphies :
Adamnan, Adaman (« petit Adam »), Eunan ou Adomnán
Adomnán (Adam, Aunan ou
Eunan), né à Drumhome, près de Raphoe, au comté de Donegal (Irlande), devint
moine au monastère là-bas. Plus tard en 679, Adamnan fut le neuvième abbé
d’Iona, petite île de la côte écossaise, située juste au sud-ouest de la pointe
de Mull, dans les Hébrides intérieures, et l’un de ses érudits les plus
remarquables. Successeur de saint Columba, son œuvre la plus connue est sa
« Vie de saint Columba », un document hagiographique de grande
importance.
Il donna refuge à Aldfrid
quand la couronne de Northumbrie était en controverse après la mort du père
d’Aldfrid, le roi Oswy. En 686, quand Aldfrid accéda au trône, Adamnan lui
rendit visite afin d’obtenir la libération de prisonniers irlandais. Deux ans plus
tard,Adamnan visita plusieurs monastères anglais et fut persuadé par saint
Ceolfrid d’adopter le calendrier romain pour la fête de Pâques. Adamnan
travailla sans cesse par la suite avec beaucoup de succès à encourager les
moines irlandais et les monastères à substituer leurs pratiques celtes avec
celles de Rome. Il persuada le concile de Birr que les femmes seraient exemptes
des guerres et que les femmes et les enfants ne devraient pas être faits
prisonniers ou massacrés (accord appelé Loi d’Adamnan). Érudit célèbre pour sa
piété, il écrivit une vie de saint Columba, une des plus importantes
biographies du début du Moyen Age. Il a également écrit « De locis
sanctis », une description de l’Orient, raconté par un évêque Franc,
Arculf, dont le navire s’était échoué près de Iona, de retour de Jérusalem.
Quelques-uns en Irlande pensent qu’Adamnan et saint Eunan sont la même
personne, bien que ceci soit indéterminé. Il est mort à Iona le 23 septembre
qui est son jour de fête.
SOURCE : http://www.martyretsaint.com/adamnan-diona/
Cathedral
Church of St. Eunan, Raphoe, County Donegal, Ireland
Cathedral
Church of St. Eunan, Raphoe, County Donegal, Ireland
La Vie de Saint Adamnan
627-704, abbé d'Iona.
Alias Adomnan, Adam et Eunan. Adamnan naquit dans le Comté de Donegal (Irlande)
et devint moine à Iona sous l'abbé Seghine, à qui il succédera en 679. Il
devint tant célèbre comme écrivaint que comme un des protagonistes principaux
dans le nord de l'Irlande contre le système Romain de calcul de la date de la
Pâque. En 686 il vint en Northumbrie pour obtenir de son ancien élève le roi
Aldfrith qu'il libère 60 prisonniers Irlandais, capturés durant le règne
d'Egfrith (670-685). En 688 Adamnan visita Ceolfrith de Wearmouth, qui le
convertit à la tradition d'Iona sur le calcul de la Pâque et d'autres
pratiques. En 692, il prit par aux Synodes et Conventions Irlandais en tant que
dirigeant des monastères d'Iona dans le nord de l'Irlande. Et en 697, il obtint
un considérable succès, plaidant pour l'acceptation des dates de Pâque telles
que suivies à Rome et virtuellement dans toute l'Eglise en Occident. Seuls ses
propres monastères lui résistèrent.
Il fut aussi responsable
de la "Loi d'Adamnan" ("Cain
Adomnain") qui protégeait les femmes en les exemptant d'aller à la
guerre et insistant qu'elles soient traitées comme non-combattantes. Les
garçons et les clercs étaient protégés de même, et il prévoyait des sanctuaires
réels. Ces règles furent acceptées partout en Irlande.
L'oeuvre principale
d'Adamnan fut la célèbre Vie de Columba, abbé d'Iona. Ce très remarquable
portrait d'un pionnier charismatique est une des plus éclatantes Vita's
produites à l'époque. Il rédiga aussi un ouvrage sur les Lieux Saints en Terre
Sainte, compilé sur base des informations fournies par l'évêque Gaulois
Arculfus, qui avait fait naufrage dans l'ouest de la Grande-Bretagne. Bède
connaissait cet ouvrage, mais apparement pas la Vie de Columba.
Après la mort d'Adamnan,
Iona accepta la Pâque Romaine en 716. Son culte fleurit tant en Irlande qu'en
Ecosse, avec des dédicaces en Donegal, Derry et Sligo, de même
qu'Aberdeenshire, Banff, Forfar et les Iles de l'Ouest. En 727 les reliques
d'Adamnan furent ramenées d'Iona en Irlande, afin de ramener la paix entre les
clans du père d'Adamnan et les autres. Elles furent emmenées en procession
entre les 40 églises qui avaient été sous la Règle d'Iona : le peuple jura
d'obéir à la Loi d'Adamnan. Ses reliquaires furent profanés par les Normands en
830 et 1030. Fête : 23 septembre / 6 octobre [ 13 jours de plus dans
l'ancien calendrier byzantin ]
SOURCE : http://home.scarlet.be/amdg/oldies/sankt/adamnan1.htm
Sarah Purser (1848–1943), Saint Eunan, East-most stained glass window in the choir (W02), Raphoe Cathedral Church of St. Eunan
Sarah
Purser (1848–1943), Saint Eunan, East-most stained glass window in the
choir (W02), Raphoe Cathedral Church of St. Eunan
Also
known as
Adam
Adamnano
Adamnanus
Adampnanus
Adomnan
Adomnanus
Arnold
Arnty
Aunan
Edheunanus
Eonan
Eudananus
Eunan
Eunende
Fidamnan
Odanodanus
Onan
Ounan
Skeulan
Teunan
Theunan
Profile
Distant relative of Saint Columba. Monk at
Drunhome, Donegal, Ireland. Abbot of Iona in 679.
President-general of all the Columban houses in Ireland. Evangelized throughout Ireland.
Adamnan gave sanctuary
to Prince Aldfrid
when the throne of Northumbria was
in dispute following the death of King Oswy.
When Aldfrid became king in 686,
Aldamnan secured the release of all Irish prisoners taken
in the conflict, and visited the monasteries of
Wearmouth and Jarrow.
Persuaded by Saint Ceolfrid,
Adamnan adopted the Roman calendar for determining Easter, and
then worked for the adoption of many Roman liturgical practices in the Celtic
region. This so displeased some brother monks at Iona that
from 692 on,
Adamnan rarely went there.
Attended the Council
of Birr and Synod of Tara in 697 at
which he helped enact the Canons of Adamnan, laws that helped protect
civilian and clerical populations
in areas at war, prohibiting the murder or enslavement of
non-combatant women and children.
A noted scholar,
he wrote the
biography Life of Saint Columba in the late 680’s, a work that survives
today (see links below). He also wrote De
locis sanctis (On the Holy Places), a popular description of Palestine based
on the notes of and interviews with the Frankish pilgrim bishop Arculf.
Renovated and revitalized the monastery of Raphoe, Ireland.
Born
c.628 in Drumhome, County
Donegal, Ireland
23
September 704 at Iona Abbey
relics taken
to various Irish sites
during the next century during peacemaking conferences
most relics were
destroyed during Danish incursions
in 830 and 1030
11 July 1898 by Pope Leo XIII (cultus
confirmed)
in Ireland
Donegal,
county of
Raphoe,
city of
man in prayer with
the moon and
seven stars over
his head
man writing (his
biography of Saint Columba)
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Ramsgate
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Ramsgate
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Encyclopedia, by W H Grattan Flood
Dictionary
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Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
Life
of Saint Columba, by Saint Adamnan
of Iona
books
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the Whole World
Kalendars of Scottish
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Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
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MLA
Citation
‘Saint Adamnan of
Iona‘. CatholicSaints.Info. 15 January 2024. Web. 24 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-adamnan-of-iona/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-adamnan-of-iona/
Book of Saints
– Adamnan – 6 September
Article
(Adam) (Saint) Abbot
(September 6) (8th century) An Irish Abbot of Iona in Scotland – “a wise and
good man, well versed in the Holy Scriptures” -best known by the Life of Saint
Columba he has left and by a description of the Holy Places of Palestine which
he compiled. He was remarkable for his success in procuring in Scotland and
Ireland the adoption of the Roman practice as to the date of Easter. He died
A.D. 704. Whether or not he is one and the same with Saint Eunan the Patron
Saint of the Diocese of Raphoe in Ireland, remains an open question. His name
has been popularly abbreviated into Adam, and is still frequently given in
Scotland at Baptism.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Adamnan”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
29 November 2017. Web. 24 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-adamnan-6-september/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-adamnan-6-september/
St. Adamnan
Feastday: September 23
Patron: of Diocese of Raphoe
Birth: 628
Death: 704
Adamnan, born in
Drumhome, Donegal, Ireland, became a monk at
the monastery there. Later at Iona, of which he became ninth abbot in
679. He gave sanctuary to
Aldfrid when the crown of Northumbria was in dispute after the death of
Aldfrid's father, King Oswy. In 686, when Aldfrid had ascended the throne,
Adamnan visited him to secure the release of Irish prisoners. Two years later
Adamnan visited several English monasteries and was induced by St. Ceolfrid to
adopt the Roman calendar for Easter. Adamnan worked ceaselessly thereafter with
much success to get Irish monks and monasteries to replace their Celtic
practices with those of Rome. His success in convincing the Council of Birr
that women should be exempt from wars and that women and children should
not be taken prisoners or slaughtered caused the agreement to be called
Adamnan's law. A scholar noted for his piety, he wrote a life of
St. Columba, one of the most important biographies of the early Middle Ages. He
also wrote DE LOCIS SANCTIS, a description of the East told to him by a Frank
bishop, Arculf, whose ship was driven ashore near Iona on the way back from
Jerusalem. Adamnan is thought by some in Ireland to
be the same as St. Eunan, though this is uncertain. He died at Iona on
September 23 which is his feast day.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=878
New Catholic
Dictionary – Saint Adamnan
Article
Also known as Saint
Eunan. Abbot,
born Drumhome, Donegal, Ireland,
c.624; died Iona, Ireland, 704.
He entered the monastery of
Iona, 650,
and was elected abbot in 679.
On a visit to Ireland he
introduced the Roman method of reckoning Easter.
He is the author of
a biography of Saint Columba
and “Adamnan’s Vision.” First bishop of
the diocese of Raphoe, Ireland,
and one of its patron saints. Feast, 23
September.
MLA
Citation
“Saint Adamnan”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
18 January 2020. Web. 24 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-adamnan/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-adamnan/
Adomnan (Adamnan) of
Iona, Abbot
September 23 (RM)
Today the Universal
Church celebrates the memorial of St. Adomnan of Iona, Abbot, who died
September 23, 704. He was the 9th abbot of Iona (near present-day Argyll,
Scotland), the monastery founded by Saint Columba in 563. Born c. 627, Adomnan
became abbot c. 679. At that time, abbots were members of the powerful Ui'
Neill family, kings in northern Ireland.
There were different
practices in various parts of the British Isles then. In Celtic monasteries
there was a different method for dating Easter, a different tonsure, and the abbot
held administrative superiority to a bishop.
Conflict over practice
came to a head when King Egfrith of North Umbria (Celtic) married a Kentish
princess (English/Universal) and the Synod of Whitby followed in 664 to resolve
the differences between the Celtic and English churches. The king was won over
by the English, but the Columban factions remained unresolved until Adomnan
used his diplomatic skills to convert the Columbanus.
Adomnan had an open mind
regarding issues damaging to unity but not essential to the faith. He worked
for 15 years to emphasize the essential and downplay the differences. During
this time he also established a law to protect women, children, and clergy from
injury or participation in war (Cai'n Adomna'n or Law of the Innocents (697))
and wrote the Vita Columbae. The Cai'n Adomna'n established legal rights for
women for the first time in the British Isles.
The Vita Columbae
stresses St. Columba's relationship with God and his fight against
exploitation, carelessness, falsehood, and murder. St. Adomnan upholds Columba
as an Irish saint whose faith transcends petty divisions.
May God help us all to
live in the spirit of St. Adomnan.
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0923.shtml
St. Adamnan
Abbot of Iona,
born at Drumhome, County Donegal, Ireland,
c. 624; died at the Abbey
of Iona, in 704. He was educated by
the Columban monks of
his native place, subsequently becoming a novice at Iona in
650. In 679 he succeeded to the abbacy of Iona,
which position he held up to his death. He was also president-general of all
the Columban houses in Ireland.
During his rule he paid three lengthy visits to Ireland,
one of which is memorable for his success in introducing
the Roman Paschal observance. On his third visit (697) he
assisted at the Synod of Tara, when the Cain Adamnain,
or Canon of Adamnan (ed. Kuno Meyer, London, 1905) was adopted,
which freed women and
children from the evils inseparable from war,
forbidding them to be killed or made captive in times of
strife. It is not improbable, as stated in the "Life of St. Gerald"
(d. Bishop of Mayo,
732), that Adamnan ruled the abbey of Mayo from 697 until
23 Sept., 704, but in Ireland his memory is
inseparably connected with Raphoe, of which he is patron.
From
a literary point of view, St. Adamnan takes the very
highest place as the biographer of St.
Columba (Columcille), and as the author of a treatise "De Locis
Sanctis". Pinkerton describes his "Vita Columbae" as
"the most complete piece of biography that all Europe can
boast of, not only at so early a period but even through the whole Middle
Ages". It was printed by Colgan (from
a copy supplied by Father
Stephen White, S.J.), and by the Bollandists,
but it was left for a nineteenth-century Irish scholar
(Dr. Reeves, Protestant Bishop of
Down, Connor and Dromore) to issue, in 1837, the most admirable
of all existing editions. St.
Bede highly praises the tract "De Locis Sanctis", the
autograph copy of which was presented by St. Adamnan to
King Aldfrid of Northumbria, who had studied in Ireland.
The "Four Masters" tells us that he was "tearful, penitent, fond
of prayer,
diligent and ascetic, and learned in the clear understanding of the Holy
Scriptures of God." His feast is
celebrated 23 September.
Grattan-Flood,
William. "St. Adamnan." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907. 23 Sept.
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01135c.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph and Marie Gallagher. With
gratitude for the kind assistance of the Central Catholic Library, Merrion
Square, Dublin, Ireland.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2026 by New Advent LLC.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01135c.htm
St. Adamnan of Ireland,
Abbot
HE was the eighth in
descent from the great Nial, king of Ireland, and from Conal the Great,
ancestor of St. Columbkille. His parents were eminent for their rank and
virtue. He was born in the year 626, at Rathboth, 1 now
called Raphoe, in the county of Donegal, and embraced a monastic life with
great humility and fervour, in the monastery which had been founded there by
his kinsman St. Columb. Afterwards following the steps of his holy kinsman, he
left Ireland, and retired to the celebrated monastery of Hij, of which he
became fifth abbot. In 701 he was employed by Longsech, king of Ireland, on an
embassy to Alfred, king of the Northern Saxons, to demand of the latter a
reparation of the injuries committed by his subjects on the province of Meath,
and carrying off the effects of the inhabitants before the troops of the Irish
could arrive to chastise those invaders. Adamnan succeeded happily in this
negotiation: he was favourably received by the Saxon monarch, and obtained full
satisfaction for all the damages done to his countrymen in the foregoing year.
While he continued in England he laid aside the custom of his predecessors, and
conformed to the true time of celebrating Easter. Upon his return home, says
Bede, 2 he
used his utmost endeavours to guide his monks of Hij, and all those who were
subject to that monastery, into the road of truth, which he himself walked in,
but was not able to prevail. He therefore sailed into Ireland, his native
country, and there preached to the natives, and with modest exhortations
explained to them the true time for observing Easter: by which means he brought
almost the whole island to a conformity with the universal church in that point
of discipline. Having remained in Ireland to celebrate that festival according
to the canons, he afterwards returned to Hij, and earnestly recommended to his
own monks to conform in this particular to the Catholic custom; but did not
compass his ends before his death, which happened in 705. However, he left
among them a judicious treatise, On the right time of keeping Easter, which
disposed them some time after to forsake their erroneous computation.
St. Adamnan wrote the
life of St. Columbkille; he also wrote certain canons, and a curious
description of the Holy Land, as that country stood in his time. This book
furnished Bede with his principal memorials, l. De Locis Sanctis; and is
published by Gretzer, and by Mabillon, t. 4, Act. Ord. St. Benedicti, p. 456.
He mentions the tombs of St. Simeon and of St. Joseph at Jerusalem, many relics
of the passion of Christ, the impression of the feet of our Saviour on Mount
Olivet, covered with a church of a round figure, with a hole open on the top,
over the place of the impression of the footsteps; he also mentions
grasshoppers in the deserts of the Jordan, which the common people eat, boiled
with oil; and a portion of the cross in the Rotunda church in Constantinople,
which was exposed on a golden altar on the three last days of Holy Week, when
the emperor, court, army, clergy, and others went to that church at different
hours, to kiss that sacred wood. 3 The
festival of St. Adamnan is kept with great solemnity in many churches in
Ireland, of which he is titular patron, and in the whole diocess of Raphoe, of
which he was a native. The abbatial church of Raphoe was changed into a
cathedral soon after, when St. Eunan was consecrated the first bishop: of whom
Sir James Ware could not find any further particulars. See Ware, p. 270, Colgan
in MSS. ad 23 Sept. Suysken, t. 6, Sept. p. 640.
Note 1. Rath, in
old Irish, signifies a town or military inclosure, and Both, a booth,
or cottage: so that Rathboth is a town made up of cottages. [back]
Note 2. Hist.
Eccles. l. 5, c. 16. [back]
Note 3. See Mabillon,
t. 4. Act. Ord. Bened. p. 456. Bp. Tanner, de Scriptor. p. 5. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume IX: September. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/9/233.html
Calendar
of Scottish Saints – Saint Adamnan, Abbot
Article
A.D. 704. He was of Irish
race, and belonged to the same family as Saint Columba. In his 55th year he was
elected Abbot of Iona. He is said to have been instrumental in obtaining the
passing of “The Law of the Innocents” in the Irish National Assembly of Tara.
This statute exempted the Irish women from serving on the battle field, which
before that time they had been bound to do. In 701 Saint Adamnan was sent on an
embassy to his former pupil, Aldfrid, King of Northumbria, to seek reparation
for injuries committed by that King’s subjects in the Province of Meath. It was
during this visit to England that he conformed to the Roman usage with regard
to the time for keeping Easter, and he was afterwards successful in introducing
the true practice into the Irish Church. His efforts in this respect were not
successful with his monks at Iona; though his earnest exhortations, and the
unfailing charity which he exhibited towards those who differed from him, must
have helped to dispose them to conform to the rest of the Church, which they
did about twenty years after his death.
Saint Adamnan is most
renowned for his life of Saint Columba, which has been called by a competent
judge “the most complete piece of such biography that all Europe can boast of,
not only at so early a period, but throughout the whole Middle Ages.” He is
also the author of a treatise on the Holy Land, valuable as being one of the
earliest produced in Europe.
Though the saint died at
Iona, his relics were carried to Ireland; but they must have been restored to
Iona, as they were venerated there in 1520. He was one of the most popular of
the Scottish saints, and many churches were named after him. The chief of these
were at Aboyne and Forvie (parish of Slains) in Aberdeenshire; Abriachan in
Inverness-shire; Forglen or Teunan Kirk in Banffshire; Tannadice in Forfarshire;
Kileunan (parish of Kilkerran) in Kintyre; Kinneff in Kincardineshire; the
Island of Sanda; Dull, Grandtully and Blair Athole in Perthshire—the latter
place was once known as Kilmaveonaig, from the quaint little chapel and burying
ground of the saint. There were chapels in his honour at Campsie in
Stirlingshire and Dalmeny in Linlithgow. At Aboyne are “Skeulan Tree” and
“Skeulan Well,” at Tannadice “St. Arnold’s Seat,” at Campsie “St. Adamnan’s
Acre,” at Kinneff “St. Arnty’s Cell.” At Dull a fair was formerly held on his
feast-day (old style); it was called Feille Eonan. Another fair at Blair Athole
was known as Feill Espic Eoin (“Bishop Eunan’s Fair” though Saint Adamnan was
an abbot only); it has been abolished in modern times. His well is still to be seen
in the Manse garden there, and down the glen a fissure in the rock is called
“St. Ennan’s Footmark.” There was a “St. Adamnan’s Croft” in Glenurquhart
(Inverness-shire), but the site is no longer known.
Ardeonaig, near Loch Tay;
Ben Eunaich, Dalmally; and Damsey (Adamnan’s Isle) in Orkney, take their names
from this saint. At Firth-on-the-Spey, near Kingussie, is a very ancient bronze
bell, long kept on a window-sill of the old church, and tradition relates that
when moved from thence it produced a sound similar to the words, “Tom Eunan,
Tom Eunan,” until it was restored to its original resting-place in the church,
which stands on the hill bearing that name. The tradition points to the
dedication of the church to this saint. Few names have passed through such
various transformations in the course of ages as that of Adamnan. It is met
under the forms of Aunan, Arnty, Eunan, Ounan, Teunan (Saint-Eunan), Skeulan,
Eonan, Ewen and even Arnold.
Saint Adamnan’s feast was
restored by Pope Leo XIII in 1898.
MLA
Citation
Father Michael
Barrett, OSB.
“Saint Adamnan, Abbot”. The Calendar of Scottish
Saints, 1919. CatholicSaints.Info.
8 December 2019. Web. 24 April 2026. <https://catholicsaints.info/calendar-of-scottish-saints-saint-adamnan-abbot/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/calendar-of-scottish-saints-saint-adamnan-abbot/
Dictionary
of National Biography – Adamnan
Article
Adamnan, or Adomnan
(625?–704), is supposed to have been born, about 625, in the south-west of the
part of Ulster now known as Donegal, with the principal septs of which his
parents were allied. Few details which can be accepted as authentic have been preserved
in relation to Adamnan’s career. In 679 he was elected abbot of Iona, being the
ninth in succession to his eminent kinsman Columba, by whom the monastic
institution on that island had been founded. Through his personal application,
in 686, to Aldfrid, king of Northumbria, Adamnan effected the liberation of
some of the Irish who had been carried off by pirates and retained in captivity
there. About this period he became an advocate for adopting the Roman
regulations as to the tonsure, and in relation to the time for the celebration
of Easter. The Latin life of Saint Columba – ‘Vita Columbæ’ – who died in 597,
is supposed to have been compiled by Adamnan in the interval between his visits
to Ireland in 692 and 697. He is stated to have taken part in conventions and
synods in Ireland, enactments ascribed to which were styled ‘Adamnan’s Rule’
and ‘Canones Adomnani.’ The latter, consisting of eight sections, were
published by Martene. Adamnan died at Iona in 704, on 23 September, on which
day he was commemorated as a saint in old Irish and Scottish calendars. To the
high character and learning of Adamnan strong testimony is to be found in the
statements of his contemporaries, Bede and Ceolfrid. Alcuin, in the eighth
century, classed Adamnan with Saint Columbanus and other Præclari fratres,
morum vitæque magistri.
The claim of Adamnan to
the biography of Columba was questioned in former times, but the work is now
generally ascribed to him. The author mentions that he had conversed with
persons acquainted with Saint Columba, and in the third book he has
incorporated a narrative attributed to Cummeneus or Cumine, abbot of Iona from
657 to 669. Pinkerton considered Adamnan’s life of Columba to be ‘the most
complete piece of such biography that all Europe can boast of, not only at so
early a period, but throughout the whole middle ages.’ The erudite Alexander P.
Forbes, late bishop of Brechin, observed that this biography ‘is the solitary
record of a portion of the history of the church of Scotland, and, with the exception
of Bede and the Pictish Chronicle, the chief trustworthy monument till we come
to the Margaretan reformation.’ The Count de Montalembert characterised the
‘Vita Columbæ’ as ‘un des monuments les plus vivants, les plus attrayants et
les plus authentiques de l’histoire chrétienne.’ To Adamnan we are indebted for
a treatise entitled ‘De Locis Sanctis,’ an account of Palestine and other
countries. This, Adamnan states, was written by him from the dictation of
Arculfus, a Frankish bishop, who had visited Palestine. Arculfus had been
shipwrecked on the British coast, and was hospitably received at Iona by
Adamnan, to whom he recounted his adventures. The book was brought by Adamnan
to Aldfrid, king of Northumbria, and by his liberality several transcripts were
made of it. Bede also noticed it in his ‘History,’ and gave an abridgment of
it. The treatise ‘De Locis Sanctis’ was one of the earliest detailed accounts
of the Holy Land produced in Europe. It is divided into three books, treating
of the holy places, Tyre, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Sicily. The narrative
of Arculfus remained long in manuscript, and the publication of it in its
integrity was to some extent the result of criticisms by Isaac Casaubon on the
‘Annales Ecclesiastici’ of Cardinal Baronius. Casaubon severely animadverted on
the cardinal for having implicitly accepted statements by Arculfus. The
laborious Jesuit, Jacob Gretser, however, undertook to vindicate Baronius, and
published the entire treatise of Arculfus from an ancient codex at Ingolstadt
in 1619, with the title ‘Adamnani Abbatis Hiiensis libri tres de locis sanctis
ex relatione Arculfi, Episcopi Galli.’ Gretser, in his ‘Prolegomena,’
vigorously assailed Casaubon for having, on insufficient information, impugned
the authenticity of the statements of Arculfus. Another edition was published
at Paris in 1672 by d’Achery and Mabillon from manuscripts in the Vatican and
at Corbie. Gretser’s edition was reprinted in the fourth volume of his works,
issued at Ratisbon in 1734.
A composition in old
Irish language, styled ‘Adamnan’s Vision,’ is extant in a manuscript
transcribed early in the twelfth century entitled ‘Leabhar na h-Uidhri,’
preserved in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. This production
purports to give an account of ‘what was shown’ to Adamnan ‘when his soul went
forth from his body, and when he was taken to Paradise and to Hell.’ There is
no distinct evidence that this is the production of Adamnan. It may, however,
be justly regarded as ‘one of the strangest of those mediæval visions which
begin with that of the Irish saint Fursa, and culminate in that of the ‘Divina
Commedia.’ Adamnan’s ‘Vision,’ with an English version, was printed in 1870. A
more diffuse Irish version of the composition is extant in a manuscript of the
fourteenth century, styled ‘Leabhar Breac,’ also in the library of the Royal
Irish Academy. From this copy extracts were given by John O’Donovan, LL.D., in
his grammar of the Irish language, published in 1845.
An unsuccessful effort
was made in Ireland, towards the commencement of the sixteenth century, by
O’Donnell, lord of portion of the Ulster district of which Adamnan was believed
to have been a native, to procure copies of his ‘Vita Columbæ.’ The object in
view was the compilation of a history of that saint, and some of the results
were embodied in a finely written manuscript, now extant in the Bodleian
Library. Reproductions of portions of this volume, in which Adamnan is
specially referred to, will be found in the third part of the ‘Facsimiles of
National Manuscripts of Ireland,’ plates lxvi., lxvii. The first edition of the
‘Vita Columbæ’ appeared in the ‘Lectiones Antiquæ’ of Canisius in 1601. It was
again, with other Lives of Saints, published by Surius in 1617, by Thomas
Messingham in 1624, by John Colgan in 1647, by the Bollandists in 1698, by
Basnage in 1725, and by Pinkerton in 1789. In 1845 an ancient copy of the ‘Life
of Columba’ was found at the bottom of a book-chest in the library of
Schaffhausen by Dr. Ferdinand Keller. From this codex, which is ascribed to the
eighth century, and from six other manuscripts, a valuable edition of the work
was produced in 1857 by the Rev. William Reeves, D.D., through the co-operation
of the Bannatyne Club and the Irish Archæological Society. Another edition was
published at Edinburgh in 1874.
MLA
Citation
John Thomas Gilbert.
“Adamnan”. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885. CatholicSaints.Info.
6 April 2019. Web. 24 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/dictionary-of-national-biography-adamnan/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/dictionary-of-national-biography-adamnan/
Adamnan
Adamnan, Saint, was born
about 624, in the district now part of the County of Donegal. Very little is
known concerning his early life, except that he was Abbot of Raphoe, a
monastery which he probably founded. In 679 he was elected Abbot of the island
of Iona, and in 686 was successful in a mission to Britain to plead for certain
captives who had lately been carried away from Meath. About 692 he visited
Ireland for the purpose of settling some matters connected with the Borromean
tribute. In 697 he attended the Synod of Tara. It is probable that between these
two visits he wrote his celebrated work, Vita Sancti Columbæ. The latter
part of his life was chiefly spent in efforts (attended with little success) to
induce his countrymen and the Hebridean Scots to accept the Roman computation
of Easter. He is supposed to have died in 704 at Iona. Adamnan is justly
considered one of the fathers of the Irish Church—no fewer than ten Irish and
eight Scotch churches having been dedicated to, or called after him. His Vita
Sancti Columbæ has been edited by Dr. Reeves, chiefly from a MS. of the
early part of the 8th century, preserved in the public library of Schaffhausen.
The following interesting remarks upon its style are made by the
learned editor:—"The reader will observe the liberal employment of
diminutives, so characteristic of Irish composition. … He delights in
distributive numerals instead of cardinals, and in the adjective
termination ax where admissible. He uses the pluperfect for the
perfect, and the nominative instead of the ablative absolute. He occasionally
employs Greek or Greco-Latin words; and in a few instances introduces Irish and
Hiberno-Latin expressions. Proper names he sometimes inflects according to the
rules of Irish grammar." [1] Adamnan's
festival is 23rd September. [1] [2] [3]
Authorities
Columba, St., Adamnan's
Life of: Edited by Rev. William Reeves, D.D. (I. A. S.)
Dublin, 1857.
Ecclesiastical History of
Ireland: Rev. John Lanigan. 4 vols. Dublin, 1822.
Martyrology of Donegal:
Edited by J. H. Todd, D.D., and William Reeves, D.D. (I.A.S.) Dublin, 1864.
A Compendium of Irish Biography
by Alfred Webb
Adamnan, Saint
SOURCE : https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Compendium_of_Irish_Biography/Adamnan,_Saint
Teach
Pobail An Chroí Ró-Naofa, Muine Beag, Dún Lúiche, County Donegal, Ireland
Stained
glass window in the north-east corner of the apsis, depicting St. Eunan.
Irish text reads Paidir do'n t-é a phronn, "a prayer for the person
who bestowed [this window]".
Sant' Adamnano Abate
Festa: 23 settembre
Martirologio
Romano: Nell’isola di Iona in Scozia, san Adamnano, sacerdote e abate:
ottimo conoscitore delle Scritture e instancabile amante dell’unità e della
pace, con la sua predicazione persuase molti sia in Scozia sia in Irlanda a
celebrare la Pasqua secondo la consuetudine romana.
Nacque circa il 624 a Drumhome, nel Donegal (Irlanda), da una nobile famiglia imparentata con san Colomba, fondatore del monastero di Hy (Iona), dove ben presto anche Adamnano entrò, sotto il governo di Seghino. Distintosi per le sue virtù, nel 679 Adamnano fu eletto successore di Failbhe e divenne il nono abate di Tona. Aifrido, che alla morte del padre Oswy, re di Northumbria, era stato cacciato in esilio dall'usurpatore Ecfrido, si rifugiò presso Adamnano, e dal popolo fu soprannominato Dalta Adhamnain («alunno di Adamnano») a significare i legami di profonda amicizia che lo univano all'abate. Dopo che nel 685 Alfrido, morto Ecfrido, aveva visto riconosciuti i suoi diritti, Adamnano nel 686 fu inviato presso di lui per ottenere la restituzione di alcuni prigionieri catturati da Berct nel Meath: ricevuto con grandi onori, Adamnano riportò completo successo nella sua missione e tornò in Irlanda con sessanta compatrioti.
Nel 688, nel corso di una seconda visita ad Aifrido, Adamnano visitò numerose chiese inglesi e tra esse le abbazie di Wearmouth e di Jarrow, dove l'abate san Ceolfrido lo convinse ad adottare nella Chiesa irlandese l'uso romano per la tonsura e per la celebrazione della Pasqua. Tornato ad Hy, si prodigò, senza notevoli risultati però, per far accettare ai suoi monaci gli usi romani, ma nel 692, visitando l'Irlanda, egli riuscì a convincere il popolo a conformarsi ai precetti generali.
Nel 697 presiedette un Concilio a Birr, alla fine del quale fu promulgata la «legge degli innocenti» (Cain Adomnain, «legge di Adamnano»), volta a preservare le donne e i fanciulli dagli orrori della guerra. Nel 701 Adamnano partecipò al Concilio di Tara, in cui fu condannato un capo tribù, colpevole di un grave delitto: sentenza questa di notevole valore giuridico e sociale, stante la grande tracotanza di quei despoti locali. Nel 704, il 23 settembre, Adamnano morì nella sua abbazia, dove ebbe sepoltura.
Adamnano è patrono di Drumhome e a Raphoe si celebra un Eunan, primo vescovo di quella abbazia, da alcuni identificato con Adamnano. Venerato inoltre nelle contee di Derry e di Sligo, Adamnano gode di un popolare culto presso la Chiesa scozzese, nelle contee di Aberdeen, Banff e Forfar. Sembra che il nome Adam, tanto comune tra gli scozzesi, non sia altro che una corruzione di Adamnan (che, però, secondo Colgan, significherebbe forse «piccolo Adamo»).
Adamnano, che diede notevole impulso allo scriptorium monastico, fu buon latinista, tanto da meritarsi l'elogio di Beda: «vir bonus et sapiens», ma le sue opere sono scritte in un latino un po' rozzo. Probabilmente durante la seconda visita ad Aifrido, nel 688, Adamnano dedicò al re l'opuscolo De Locis Sanctis (ritenuto da Beda «legentibus multis utillimum»), una relazione del viaggio a Gerusalemme del vescovo franco Arculfo. L'opera, da cui Beda derivò il Situ Hierosolymae urbis atque ipsius Iudaeae, per tutto il Medioevo restò la principale fonte per la conoscenza della Terra Santa. Tra il 692 e il 697, Adamnano scrisse la Vita San Columbae in tre libri, fondandosi sulle leggende e sulle tradizioni irlandesi.
Ad Adamnano sono anche attribuite, senza molto fondamento, alcune prescrizioni ecclesiastiche: i Canones Adamnani (Mansi, XII, coli. 154 sg.). Un viaggio nell'oltretomba è l'argomento della Fis Adamnáin («la visione di Adamnano») in irlandese, ma Adamnano certamente non ne è l'autore. L'opera di Adamnano è edita nella Patrologia latina del Migne (PL, LXXXVIII, coil. 721-816) e la miglior fonte, per lo studio della sua vita, è la Historia Ecclesiastica di Beda, che, nel 688, all'età di tredici anni, vide Adamnano.
La festa di Adamnano cade il 23 settembre.
Autore: Cuthbert Mc Grath
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/71610
Adamnan von Iona
auch: Eunan, Adomnan, Adam
gälischer Name: Naomh Adhamhnain
Gedenktag katholisch: 23. September
nicht gebotener Gedenktag in Irland
Name bedeutet: kleiner Adam (gälisch)
Priester, Abt in Iona
* um 624 in Drumhome in der Grafschaft Donegal in Irland
† 23. September 704 auf der Insel Iona in
Schottland
Von Mönchen in seiner
Heimat erzogen, wurde Adamnan 650 Novize im Kloster
Hy auf der Insel Iona und 679 dort Abt. Während eine Besuches
bei Ceolfrith
von Wearmouth in England lernte er den Brauch der Tonsur und die
römische Form des Osterfestes
kennen; der Versuch, dies in seinem Kloster einzuführen, scheiterte, aber in
der irischen Kirche wurde beides übernommen, nachdem Adamnan dort an
mehreren Synoden teilgenommen
hatte. Auf der Synode in Tara bei
Navan - der heute in Ruinen liegenden Residenz der Hochkönige von Irland -
wurde 697 der Kanon des Adamnan verabschiedet, der Frauen und Kinder
in Kriegen schützte. Adamnan war der Biograf von Kolumban,
mit dem er auch verwandt war. Gepriesen wurde er als mitfühlend und bußfertig,
für sein Gebetsleben, für Glaubenseifer und Askese und für sein
Schriftverständnis.
727 wurden Adamnans Gebeine nach
Irland gebracht, um den Cáin Adomnáin, das Gesetz von Adomnán, zu
erneuern; ein solches Edikt wurde von königlicher und kirchlicher Seite
gemeinsam und unter dem Schutz eines Heiligen erlassen; in diesem Fall stiftete
es Frieden zwischen verfeindeten Stämmen in Irland. 730 wurden die Reliquien
ins Kloster
Hy zurückgebracht.
Von Adamnan gibt es
in englischer Sprache online sein Life of St. Columba,
die Biografie von Kolumban.
Kolumbans
Biografie auf Lateinisch und ein Kurzbiografie über Adamnan gibt es
online zu lesen in den Documenta Catholica Omnia.
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Autor: Joachim
Schäfer - zuletzt aktualisiert am 26.10.2025
Quellen:
• https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01135c.htm - abgerufen am 19.07.2023
• Friedrich-Wilhelm Bautz. In: Friedrich-Wilhelm Bautz (Hg.): Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, Bd. I, Hamm 1990
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adomn%C3%A1n - abgerufen am 26.10.2025
korrekt zitieren: Joachim Schäfer: Artikel Adamnan von Iona, aus dem Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon - https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienA/Adamnan_Eunan.htm, abgerufen am 23. 4. 2026
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet das Ökumenische
Heiligenlexikon in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte
bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über https://d-nb.info/1175439177 und https://d-nb.info/969828497 abrufbar.
SOURCE : https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienA/Adamnan_Eunan.htm
SAINT ADAMNAN OF IONA. Saint Bride Hermitage, ROCOR Scotland : https://saintadomnan.org/
