St Fursey's Well
June 12th, 2005
Pilgrimage
to St Fursey's Well
St Fursey's Well is situated in the townland of Killurley West, in the Parish of Caherciveen, Co Kerry, Ireland. It lies at the foot of Knocknadobar (Mountain of the Wells). It got its name from St Fursey who washed his eyes there and was cured from threatened blindness.
St Fursey was Abbot of Lagny, near Paris, and died around the year 650 A.D. He was son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Munster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Bruinn in Connaught. He was baptized by St Brendan the Traveller, his father's uncle.
Fursey founded a monastery at Rathmat on the shore of Lough Corrib. He wished some of his relatives in Munster to join him there and travelled home for that purpose. Near home he was seized with a mortal illness and fell into a trance. He received ecstatic visions of heaven and hell. His reports of these visions were the forerunners of the Renaissance visionary writings such as those of Dante.
After his recovery Fursey preached throughout Munster and it was at this time he visited the eponymous Well. Before then it was known as Cumhar Uisce: Sweet Water.
He then went to East Anglia with his brothers and others, and built a monastery there in 633. He spent some years there converting the Picts and the Saxons, but when war broke out he went on to Normandy in 648. He was invited to Peronne by the King there to set up a monastery wheresoever he wished. He chose Lagny, about six miles from Paris (near present-day Eurodisney) and had very many followers there. As he believed he was going to die he set out to visit his brothers Faolan (after whom Killelin in the Parish of Caherciveen is named) and Ultan, but he died in the village of Forsheim (i.e. the house of Fursey). He was buried in Peronne, and later his remains were translated to Paris. In the "Annals of the Four Masters" Peronne is called "Cathair Fursa" (the City of Fursey).
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