Saint Kilian

Saint Kilian
Statue of Saint Kilian (with Fortress Marienberg in the background)
Irish Franconian
Born	640
Died	8 July 689
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast	July 8
Attributes	wearing a bishop's mitre and wielding a sword
Patronage	sufferers of rheumatism

Saint Kilian, also spelled Killian (or alternatively Irish: Cillian; Latin: Kilianus), was an Irish missionary bishop and the Apostle of Franconia (nowadays the northern part of Bavaria), where he began his labours towards the end of the 7th century. His feast day is July 8.

There are several biographies of him. The oldest texts which refer to him are an 8th-century necrology at Würzburg and the notice by Hrabanus Maurus in his martyrology. The name has several variations in spelling (e.g. Chillian, Killian, Cilian, Kilian). In Ireland, the preferred spelling is Cillian; the name appears thus in the Irish liturgical calendar.

According to Irish sources, Kilian was born to noble parents in approximately the year 640 in Cloughballybeg, near Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland. Some records state that Kilian served as a monk in the celebrated monastery at Hy, Hy being an early name for what was later known as Iona. He began his education in Rosscarbery (the School of Ross), County Cork and completed it in Tuosist in County Kerry.

In the summer of 686 Kilian, with eleven companions, travelled through Gaul to Rome to receive missionary faculties from the pope, arriving in late autumn and meeting with Pope Conon. From there they traveled to the castle of Würzburg, inhabited by the Thuringian (Frankish) Duke Gozbert, who was, like his people, still pagan.

The original group separated  — some departing to seek other fields of missionary work, while St. Kilian with two companions, the priest Colmán (also called Colonan or Kolonat) and the deacon Totnan, remained in Würzburg. Kilian made this town as the base of his activity, which extended over an ever-increasing area in East Franconia and Thuringia, and converted Duke Gozbert with a large part of his subjects to Christianity.