Saint Máedóc of Ferns

Saint Máedóc of Ferns , also known as Saint Aidan (Irish: Áedan; Welsh: Aeddan; Latin: Aidanus), Saint Madoc or Saint Mogue (Irish: Mo Aodh Óg), was an Irish saint. He was the first Bishop of Ferns in County Wexford, and the founder of thirty churches. Áed was born c. 558 at Inisbrefny (an island in Templeport Lake), in the area then known as Magh Slécht, now the parish of Templeport, County Cavan. In the Welsh genealogies of the saints, Aeddan is called the son of Gildas or Aneurin, sons of Caw, king of Strathclyde; Irish sources make him a son of Sedna, a chieftain of Connaught and his wife Eithne and a first cousin of St. Dallán Forgaill. These separate origins, his work in Wales, the extraordinary span of Aidan's activity, and the appearance of two dates of death has led some scholars—such as Sabine Baring-Gould—to propose that the existing stories of Maedoc are a conflation of two separate Aeds, one Welsh and one Irish, who served as Bishop of Ferns a generation apart. There is also confusion of these Aeds with Aed mac Bricc, who preceded them and possibly participated in the cursing of Tara with Saint Ruadhán. Irish legend says that the "Bell of St. Mogue" was given to the infant on his birth by Saint Caillín. When a boat could not be found to take the infant Aedan across the lake to where Caillín waited to baptize him, Aedan was floated to shore on a slab of stone. The font at St Mogue's in Bawnboy is said to be made from part of the stone. As a youth, Aedan was a hostage of Ainmuire mac Sétnai of the Cenél Conaill, High King of Ireland. Ainmire was so impressed with Aedan that he told him he could stay or go. Aedan said he would go, but only if the other hostages were also released, whereupon Ainmire let them all return home. He studied at the great school of Saint Finnian at Clonard Abbey. While at Clonard, Aedan made friends with Molaise, who would later found the monastery of Devenish Island on the River Erne.