Saint Mo Chutu of Lismore

Mo Chutu mac Fínaill (died 14 May 639), also known as Mochuda, Carthach or Carthach the Younger , was abbot of Rahan, County Offaly, and subsequently, founder and first abbot of Lismore (Irish: Les Mór Mo Chutu), County Waterford. The saint's Life has come down in several Irish and Latin recensions, which appear to derive from a Latin original written in the 11th or 12th century. Through his father, Fínall Fíngein, Mo Chutu belonged to the Ciarraige Luachra, while his mother, Finmed, was of the Corco Duibne. Notes added to the Félire Óengusso (the Martyrology of Óengus) claim that his foster father was Carthach mac Fianáin, that is Carthach the Elder, whose period of activity can be assigned to the late 6th century. Mo Chutu first became abbot of Rahan, a monastery which lay in the territory of the southern Uí Néill. He composed a rule for his monks, an Irish metrical poem of 580 lines, divided into nine separate sections, a notable literary relic of the early Irish Church. According to the Annals of Ulster, he was expelled from the monastery during the Easter season of 637. The incident has been connected with the Easter controversy, in which Irish churches were involved during the 7th century. Through his training in Munster, Mo Chutu may have been a supporter of the Roman system of calculation, which would have brought him into conflict with adherents of the 'Celtic' reckoning in Leinster. Following his expulsion, Mo Chutu and his monks journeyed to the Déisi, taking refuge along the river bank at the monastic site of Ardfinnan on Déclan's pilgrim path between Cashel to Ardmore. He was confronted by the King of the Déisi but came to a peaceful land agreement here, establishing monastic cells at what became Ardfinnan Abbey, and at Lismore further south on the pilgrim path, where he founded the great Lismore Abbey (in modern County Waterford).