Saint Kevin Lived to be 122 and was a Hermit and Slept in a Cave
Saint Kevin was reportedly born in 498, and he died on June 3, 618. Saint Kevin is an Irish saint, known as the founder and first abbot of Glendalough in County Wicklow. The most notable things about him were that he lived to be 122 years old and was a hermit who lived in a cave. The place where he slept is a major tourist attraction. Not much is known about him as little material from his life survives. There is a late medieval vita that contains some details about Kevin’s life. Do you believe Saint Kevin lived to be 122 years old?
Saint Kevin Biography
Saint Kevin’s life is not well documented. However, there is a late-medieval Latin Vita, edited by John Colgan as part of the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae. According to that account, Kevin was of noble birth, the son of Coemlog and Coemell of Leinster. It says he was born in 498 AD. His given name Coemgen (anglicized Kevin) means “fair-begotten”, or “of noble birth.” A tradition cited in the seventeenth century makes Saint Kevin the student of Petroc of Cornwall, who had come to Leinster about 492.
The Vita also contains several legends which, according to Colgan’s co-editor Francis Baert, are of “doubtful veracity,” but were kept in the seventeenth-century edition because they were assumed to date to the medieval period. For example, the text includes an infancy legend involving a white cow, said to have come to his parents’ house every morning and evening, which supplied the milk for the baby.
Bishop Lugidus ordained Kevin. Following his ordination, Kevin moved on to Glendalough in order to avoid the company of his followers. He lived as a hermit in a partially man-made cave, which is now known as St. Kevin’s Bed, to which he was led, in the account of the Vita, by an angel.
Saint Kevin lived as a hermit with an extraordinary closeness to nature. His companions were the animals and birds all around him. He lived as a hermit for seven years, wearing only animal skins, sleeping on stones, and eating very sparingly. He went barefoot and spent his time in prayer. Disciples were soon attracted to Kevin, and a further settlement enclosed by a wall, called Kevin’s Cell, was established nearer the lakeshore there. By 540, Kevin’s fame as a teacher and holy man had spread far and wide. Many people came to seek his help and guidance. Glendalough, where he was, grew into a renowned seminary of saints and scholars and was the parent of several other monasteries.
Until his death around 618, Kevin led the monastery in Glendalough, living his life by fasting, praying, and teaching. The church of Saint Kevin (Caoimhghin) contained a well-equipped writing room which produced the famous Book of Glendalough in the 12th century. The book is now located at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Saint Kevin is one of the patron saints of the Diocese of Dublin.
Saint Kevin Veneration
Saint Kevin was canonized by Pope Pius X on December 9, 1903. Saint Kevin is the subject of a famous poem. Seamus Heaney, a Nobel prize-winning poet, wrote ‘St Kevin and the Blackbird’, which relates the story of Kevin holding out his hand and a blackbird builds a nest in it, lays eggs, the eggs hatch, producing chicks. There is a corresponding series of paintings by the Welsh artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, around 2009, that depict the story of Saint Kevin and the blackbird.
Saint Kevin is remembered in popular culture as a hermit. There is a folk song about him, called “The Glendalough Saint,” which describes a legend claiming that he drowned a woman who attempted to seduce him. This was recorded and made popular by the group The Dubliners. The opening verse goes like this and alludes to Saint Kevin: “In Glendalough lived an auld saint, renowned for his learning and piety, his manners were curious and quaint, and he looked upon girls with disparity.”
The independent filmmaker Kevin Smith refers to his namesake “Saint Kevin” and the key events of his life in the introduction to Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith, his 2008 live question and answer show. Kevin is referenced several times in “Finnegans Wake” by the famous writer James Joyce. The longest episode is found in Part IV, pgs 604–607, in the Faber & Faber, Viking editions.
Conclusion
Saint Kevin was one of the most unusual saints in the history of the Catholic Church. He is reported to have lived to the ripe old age of 122. He was also a hermit who lived in a cave, which has become a major tourist destination. While he lived as a hermit, he communed with many birds and animals. He is depicted in many poems and songs.
