BAEDAN, saint, abbot of JONA. - He was the most illustrious of the numerous Irish saints of this name (at least some fifteen). Son of Brennan, of the royal family of Connal Guban, born in 536. He was a cousin of St. Colomba and the foremost of his twelve disciples. With him he came in 563 to Scotland, to the kingdom of Dalriada, founded by the “Scoti” of northern Ireland. He was first abbot of the monastery on the island of Tir-itha (Tyree), and when St. Colomba died in 597, B. succeeded him in governing the monastery of Jona or Hy, a noted island north-west of Scotland, the centre of St. Colomba’s apostolic activity. The date of his death varies between 598 and 600. He is commemorated on 9 June.
BIBL.: La Vita in Acta SS. Iunii, II, Paris 1867, pp. 233-235; numerous biographical notices are also found in the life of St. Colomba, written by Ademanno (d. 704), ibid., pp. 197-236. - C. de Smedt, Acta SS. Hiberniae, London 1888, pp. 871-878; A. Potthast, Bibliotheca histor. M. Aevi, II, Berlin 1896, p. 1191; F. Kenney, The sources of the early history of Ireland, I: Ecclesiastical, New York 1929, p. 434; F. O'Brian, s. V. in DHG, VI, col. 160. Alberto Ghinato