Legend has it that St. Fin Barre was the son of Amergin, whose tribe was descended from Eochaidh Muidmheadoin, brother of the king of Munster. Amergin settled in the territory of Muskerry, in the county of Cork, where he obtained an inheritance and land at a place called Achaidh Durbchon, near the spot afterwards known as Gougane Barra, at the sources of the river Lee.
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| He was chief smith to Tighernach, king of the Hy Eachach of Munster, and he married a young woman of the king's household. As this was in defiance of the king's wishes, the couple was summoned before him and he sentenced them to be burned alive. A storm of thunder and lightning, with heavy rain, prevented the decree from being carried out. This was regarded as a divine interposition and they were set free. A child was born from this union and they returned to Gougane Barra, where the boy was baptised Luan, or Lochan. When he was seven years old three clerics of Munster, returning from a pilgrimage to Leinster, happened to stop at the house of Amergin. |
When his friend MacCorb died, Fin Barre desired to have Eolang of Aghabulloge as a soul-friend, or confessor, in his place, but Eolang declined, saying, "You have a true soul-friend and confessor even Christ, He will take your hand from mine and hear your confession." Which accordingly took place, and from that day forth it was reported that Fin Barre wore a glove on the hand which Christ had touched to hide its supernatural brightness.
St. Fin Barre's pastoral character is thus described:-" The man of God abode there (at Cork), building up not so much a house of earthly stones as a spiritual house of true stones, wrought by the Word and toil through the Holy Spirit."
He is said to have gone to Britain with St. Maidoc, and to Hy to visit St. Columba. There is an extraordinary story of his having borrowed a horse from St. David in Wales, and having ridden over to Ireland, in memory of which a bronze horse was made and kept at Cork. He is the patron saint of Dornoch, the episcopal seat of Caithness, where his festival is performed riding on horseback, which seems to have some connection with the legend just mentioned. An island in the Hebrides and one off the coast of Glamorganshire also claim him as patron.
Some time after his death his bones were taken up and enshrined in a silver casket, but under date 1089 the Annals record: "Dermot O'Brien plundered Cork and carried off the reliques of St Fin Barre which were enshrined in the cathedral in a silver case."
The island of Gougane Barra, where St. Fin Barre fixed his hermitage, is still a place of pilgrimage, and still retains the ruins of an ancient oratory.