CLONFERT, Diocese of. – In Ireland, a suffragan of Tuam. The name derives from the Gaelic *Cluain Fearta Breanaina* (= meadow of Brandan’s grass). The origins of the diocese go back to about 550, when St Brendan, known as the Navigator, founded a monastery and a school, whose fame can be judged from the fact that it had as many as 3,000 pupils. Brendan was not a bishop, but his assistant was St Moinenn, a bishop, who later succeeded him. The legend of St Brendan’s seven-year voyage in search of the Promised Land was widely known in medieval Europe. The rare example of an Italian prelate occupying an Irish see is found in John, who was bishop about 1266–96. Later he was transferred to Italy, to Benevento.
The old cathedral of Clonfert, a fine example of Irish Romanesque, was occupied during the Reformation by Protestants, who still hold II.
In the diocese there are 24 parishes, 48 churches, 56 diocesan priests and 27 regular clergy (Discalced Carmelites and Redemptorists), 8 convents of nuns, one seminary. Catholics number 38,434 out of a total population of 38,869 (1948).