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Born in Northumbria, England; died in Galway, Ireland, 732. Saint Gerald became a monk at Lindisfarne and probably followed Saint Colman to Innisbofin Island, Galway, Ireland, when the Celtic liturgical practices were displaced in Northumbria.

He became a monk, then abbot, of the abbey known as Mayo of the Saxons, which Colman founded for the English following a quarrel between the English and Irish monks. The abbey flourished and was so well known for the erudition of its monks that Blessed Alcuin (f.d. May 19) corresponded with its abbot and monks. He lived to a great age and may have witnessed the introduction of Roman observances into his abbey. Gerald is sometimes said to have been consecrated bishop, but this is uncertain.

He is believed to have founded the abbeys of Elytheria, or Tempul-Gerald in Connaught, as well as Teaghna-Saxon, and a convent that he put under the care of his sister Segretia. He was buried at Mayo, where a church dedicated to God under his patronage remains to this day (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).


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