27 MARCH

. . . .is the feast of St. Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. It was his misfortune to preside over the Irish Church during the time of the alleged Donation of Ireland by the English Pope Adrian IV to King Henry II of England, the arrival of the first Anglo-Normans, and the replacement of the old Irish ecclesiastical customs with those of England.

Gelasius (in Irish Giolla Iosa, Servant of Jesus) was abbot of Derry for 16 years, 1121-1137. His father was the foremost bard of his time, a man of learning and probably a professor at Derry where Gelasius is believed to have been educated. [D'Arcy's The Saints of Ireland] The details in D'Arcy are too extensive to re-produce here. A precis of the same facts can be found here.