Saint Finnian Lobhar ("The Leper")

Tomorrow we will be wearing green and we all become Irish for a day (my mother is a Reilly) but I would like to tell you about another Irish saint of whom we celebrate today. A native of Ireland, Finnian was ordained to priesthood in the south of the country by Bishop Fathlad. Finnians's holiness and the miracles wrought through his prayers drew many of the faithful to seek his assistance. When the mother of a leprous boy came to Finnian in hope of a cure, the priest prayed intently for him. He then experienced a revelation that he could only obtain the child's healing by consenting to take the leprosy upon himself. Finnian readily accepted this sacrifice, and the boy was cured, while he himself became leprous from head to foot. On one occasion Finnian was enjoying a boook beside a lake, he inadvertently dropped it. The book plunged into the watery depths, and seem irretrievable, but amazingly it resurfaced. Finnian found the book undamaged by the water. It was at this site that he subsequently erected a church and established a cemetery. He spent his later years as abbot of an Irish monastery. (courtesy of the Magnificat)
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam - For the Greater Glory of God