#StCiarán of #Saighir is depicted in a window in #StBrendan's #Church, Birr, Co #Offaly. Picture by Andreas Franz Borchert
#St #Ciarán of Saighir

Reputed to have been the #first saint #born in #reland, #Ciarán was a native of #CapeClear #Island off the #coast of #Cork.

He became the bishop of Saighir (Seir-Kieran) in the foothills of the #SlieveBloom #mountains in modern-day Co Offaly and remains the patron saint of the Diocese of #Ossory.

Lives of the saint relate #how he #lived in a #forest surrounded by #animals and wearing nothing but skins.

This corresponds to the image of him as a western John the Baptist, and thus like St Ibar, a precursor of the national apostle.