AD'AMNAN, SAINT (625-704). An Irish abbot, properly Adam, of which Adamnan is a diminutive. Be was born at Drumhome, south west Donegal, the extreme northwest county, about the year 025, but entered the monastery of lona. Ills father. Ronan, was the great gi eat-grandson of the uncle of St. Columba, and also claimed kin with many Irish kings. The paternal grandfather va s Tinne. from whom came the patronymic Tint-, or eTandson of Thine, sun apiadlative which is oma siomallv foetid coupled with Adanman's name. Ronnat. the mother of _Waltman, was descended from Enna, son of Niall, whose rope, Cincl Enna, pos.e:sed themselves of the tract lying be tween the channels of the Foyle and S•illy, which was called the Tit. Enna, or Land of Enna, to the modern barony of Ilaphoe. In the year (i97 he was elected abbot of Iona. Ilis rule over that community was not, hinVeVVr, destined to be peaceful and fortunate. The Irish Church then held the Oriental views about dates for observing Easter and the form of the tonsure. In his intercourse with the Saxon Church. Adamnan had adopted the Roman or orthodox views, as they are termed, and endeavored to put them in practice in his own community. Tie was thwarted in this object, and it is said that mortification at the failure caused his death. lie died in Iona,
September 23, 704. Ile left behind him an ac count of the Holy Land, containing matters which lie says were communicated by Ar•ulfus, a French ecclesiastic 51110 had lived in Jerusa lem, which is valuable as the earliest informa tion we possess of Palestine in the early ages of Christianity. But far more valuable is his rita Nandi Columba-, his life of St. Columba, the converter of the Picts, and founder of Iona. Along with miracles and many other stories palpably incredible, this book reveals a great deal of distinct and minute matter concerning the remarkable body to width both the author and his hero belonged. The standard edition of the book is that of William Beeves, DD., edited in 1857 for the Bannatyne Society of Edinburgh, and the Irish Archreological Society ( Dublin, 1857). which, with an English translation, forms the sixth volume of Historians of N•ottand (Edinburgh, 1874), reissued with additional notes by .1, T. Fowler (Oxford, • Nearly all the information to be had about the early Seotodrish Church is comprised in that volume.