Fintan

This name derives from the Proto-Celtic “find > fionn” plus the element “tan,” meaning “fair-haired, white fire.” There have been seventy-four saints with this name, including St. Fintan of Clonenagh in County Laois (~600 AD), who lived the life of a hermit on a diet of bread and water. Before he established his monastery, Fintan sought the advice of his mentor St. Colmcille. When Colmcille looked out from the mountain, Slieve Bloom, over the wood-covered foothills to the south-east, he saw the angels of God coming and going over Clonenagh, and he told Fintan that this was to be the place of his monastery. In Irish mythology, Fintan mac Bóchra (modern spelling: Fionntán), known as “the Wise,” was a seer who accompanied Noah’s granddaughter Cessair to Ireland before the deluge. Bóchra maybe his mother, or perhaps a poetic reference to the sea.