03/06/2026
Today we celebrate the feast of St Kevin of Glendalough.
Kevin grew up in Kilnamanagh in Leinster, where Bishop Lugaid ordained him to the priesthood. He settled as a hermit in remote Glendalough but disciples gathered around him and eventually a monastic settlement grew up. Kevin died in 618.
Like many Celtic saints, Kevin was close to nature and had a great love of animals. When he was a boy, every morning and evening a white cow would come to his parents’ house with milk for him, perhaps symbolic of the wisdom, poetry and brightness associated with the boy.
But at an early age he wandered off into the Wicklow Mountains and spent time in solitude at first at Hollywood near Blessington and finally in Glendalough. Legend says his place of solitude was revealed when the owner of a cow that strayed into the area discovered that she began to produce great quantities of milk. His three teachers came and took him back to the monastery where he continued his studies.
Kevin was ordained priest by Bishop Lugidius and founded a monastery at Cluainduaich, though the location of this is unknown.
He soon was back again at Glendalough in search of solitude and the ascetical life. He first settled near the upper lake, and lived in a narrow cave in a rock above the lake still to be seen today and called ‘St Kevin’s Bed’. The cave is accessible by boat, but involves a steep upward climb.
A community of monks gathered round him, so he set up and ran a monastic settlement in the lower valley. After his death this became a monastic city. He also established a hermitage near his cave at the upper lake at Templenaskellig, dividing his time between his hermitage and the community. As an abbot who founded a monastic city, Kevin chose to remain as a priest rather than become a bishop. He spent most of his life at Glendalough, unlike some of his fellow saints who travelled widely on missionary journeys. Despite this remaining in one place, his influence and fame spread far and wide.
