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{{Short description|Third abbot of Iona}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Lasrén (''also'' Laisrén, Laisrán) mac Feradaig''' or '''Lasrén of Iona''' (''d''. 605) was an Irish monk and the third abbot of Iona (''c''.600-605), in succession to [[Baithéne mac Brénaind|Baíthéne]]. Lasrén worked during the abbacy of St [[Columba]] and administered the [[monastery]] of [[Durrow, County Offaly|Durrow]] for the saint in the years before attaining Iona. Like Baíthéne before him, he was a kinsman of Columba from the royal dynasty of the [[Cenél Conaill]].<ref name="ftn4">Charles-Edwards, “Iona, abbots of (''act''. 563-927).”</ref> His father, Feradach meaning 'woodsman', was a cousin of the saint.<ref name="ftn8">''Biographical Dictionary of Dark-Age Britain, ''p. 169.</ref>

[[Lasairfhíona (Irish name)|Lasrén]] (meaning flame) first appears in [[Adomnán]]'s ''Life'' of St Columba'' ''as one of Columba's close companions as he travelled through [[Ardnamurchan]] in Argyll, perhaps in 572.<ref name="ftn3">Adomnán, ''Vita S. Columbae'' i.12; Sharpe, ''Adomnán of Iona. ''p. 274.</ref> Later, when he had been appointed prior of Columba's monastery at Durrow (Co. Offaly, in the midlands of Ireland), which was probably founded in the 580s or 590s,<ref name="ftn4"/> he is said to have overseen the building works there. Columba, himself at Iona, started to weep, having learned through his visionary power that Lasrén was wearing out the monks as they erected a large building. Suddenly “as if kindled with an inward fire”, Lasrén suspended all labour for the rest of the day, gave the monks a meal and would do the same on similar occasions in the future. For that reason, Columba ceased to weep and blessed Laisrén as “the consoler of the monks” (''monachorum consulator'').<ref name="ftn0">Adomnán, ''Vita S. Columbae'' i.29.</ref> Lasrén appears to have been remembered as a benevolent man, but the story is also likely to have been designed to show that Lasrén was destined for the abbacy of Iona.<ref name="ftn4"/>

The ''Annals of Ulster'' record his death in 605.<ref name="ftn7">[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A/index.html ''Annals of Ulster'' s.a. 605.4]; [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100016/index.html ''Chronicon Scotorum'' s.a. 605]; cf: [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100004/index.html ''Annals of Innisfallen'' s.a. 608.2].</ref> According to the ''[[Martyrology of Tallaght]]'', his feast-day was observed on 16 September.<ref name="ftn4"/> The fifth abbot of Iona, [[Ségéne mac Fiachnaí|Ségéne]], was a nephew of Lasrén and the seventh abbot, [[Cumméne]], was a great-nephew.<ref name="ftn6">Sharpe, ''Adomnán of Iona. ''pp. 35 and 41.</ref>

==Notes==
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==References==
*Charles-Edwards, T.M. “Iona, abbots of (''act. ''563–927).” ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51141, accessed 9 Feb 2009].
*Adomnán, ''Vita Columbae'', ed. and tr. Alan Orr Anderson and Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, ''Adomnán’s Life of Columba''. Edinburgh and London, 1961.
*Sharpe, Richard. ''Adomnán of Iona: Life of St. Columba''. London, 1995.
*Williams, A., A.P. Smyth and D.P. Kirby. ''A Biographical Dictionary of Dark-Age Britain: England, Scotland and Wales c. 500-c. 1050''. London: Seaby, 1991.

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{{succession box | before=[[Baithéne of Iona|Baithéne]] | title=[[Abbot of Iona]]  | years= 600-605| after=[[Fergnae of Iona|Fergnae]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lasren Mac Feradaig}}
[[Category:605 deaths]]
[[Category:Abbots of Iona]]
[[Category:7th-century Irish abbots]]
[[Category:6th-century Irish Christian clergy]]
[[Category:Irish expatriates in Scotland]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:7th-century Christian abbots]]

Lasrén mac Feradaig - Revision history

imported>Frietjes at 23:42, 23 April 2025