Feast day of important seventh century Offaly saint to be marked

St. Saran travelled from Clonmacnoise and founded his church on the bank of the river Brosna in Moystown Demesne, near Ferbane, in the seventh century.

The original Gaelic name for this church was “Tigh Saran”, meaning the "House of Saran". It is from this origin that the area of Tisaran in Ferbane parish gets its present day name.

This site is also the burial place of Fr Stephen Daly, a native of the area, who was the first Capuchin priest to serve in Ireland.

St. Saran’s holy well, "Tobar Saran", is also to be found nearby in Moystown Demesne, not far from where the beautiful Moystown House once stood.

These two sites, St. Saran’s Church and St. Saran’s holy well would have been major places of worship and pilgrimage in earlier Christian times.

St. Saran died in 661 AD and his Feast Day is on January 20.

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