St. Fin Barre was the son of Amergin, of the tribe of the Hy Briuin Ratha of Connaught, who were descended from Eochaidh Muidmheadoin, brother of Olioll Olum, king of Munster.
Amergin, the father of St. Fin Barre, having left Connaught, came to Munster, and settled in the territory of Muscraidhe (Muskerry), in the county of Cork, where he obtained an inheritance and land at a place called Achaidh Durbchon, near the spot afterwards known as Gougane Barra, at the sources of the river Lee.
He was chief smith to Tighernach, king of the Hy Eachach of Munster, who lived at Rathlin, in the neighbourhood of Bandon. In the king's household was a young woman whom Amergin married in defiance of the king's prohibition, and the couple, being summoned before him and admitting the fact, were ordered to be burnt alive, but a storm of thunder and lightning, with heavy rain, preventing the sentence from being carried, was regarded as a divine interposition and they were set free.
A child having been born from this union they returned to Achaidh Durbchon where the boy was baptized by a bishop named MacCorb, who gave him the name of Luan, or Lochan. When he was seven years old three clerics of Munster - Brendan, Lochan, and Fiodhach - returning from a pilgrimage to Leinster, happened to stop at the house of Amergin, and, admiring the boy for the grace of the Holy Spirit which seemed to them to shine in his face, were allowed by his parents to take him away to be educated.
When he arrived at a place called Sliabh Muinchill it was thought suitable that he should read his alphabet (or elements), be tonsured, and have his name changed. The cleric who cut his hair is said to have observed, "Fair (finn) is the hair (barra) of Luan." "Let this be his name," said another, "Barr Finn, or Finn Barr."
The three clerics proceeding on their journey arrived at Pilach Gathran, now Gowran, in the county of Kilkenny, where he stayed, and diligently pursued his studies. Parting at length from his tutors he went to Cuil Caisin, in the barony of Galmoy, county of Kilkenny, where he founded a church, and thence to Agaboe, where he blessed the church and stayed for awhile.
He departed at the request of his predecessor, St. Canice, and went to MacCorb, by whom he had been baptized, and with whom, it is said, he read the Gospels, the Ecclesiastical Rules, and the Epistles of St. Paul.
Coming now to his own country lie founded a church at Achaidh Durbchon, and there lie established his hermitage. "Near this," says the Irish Life, "is the grotto (cuas) of Barra, and there is a lake, or tarn, there from which a salmon was brought to him every evening." "This appears," says Olden, "to be the lake of Gougane Barra, at the source of the river Lee, which derives its name from the Gougane (probably cuadhan, 'the little cavity') of Barra, that is, the grotto above referred to.
Warned, as we are informed, by an angel not to stay at Achaidh Durbchon, as his resurrection was not to be there, he set out, and crossing the Avonmore (Blackwater) proceeded in a north-easterly direction until lie arrived at Cluain, where he built a church. "This place," says Olden, "which has been strangely confounded with Cloyne, near Cork, is stated by Colgan to have been situated between Sliabh Crot (the Galtees) and Sliabh Mairge, and appears to be Cluain Eidnech, now Clonenagh, a townland near Mountrath, in the Queen's County
Leaving this church to two pupils of St. Ruadan, he went on to Corcach Mor, or the "great marsh," now Cork, where he was granted the site of the present Cathedral, and finally settled.
A long time after this Barra, with Eolang, David, and ten monks, is said to have gone to Rome to be consecrated a bishop, but the Pope refused to consecrate him, saying he would be consecrated by a greater, even by Jesus Christ himself. On which Dr. Lanigan observes that many a Roman journey of this kind, that never took place, is spoken of in the lives of the saints of those times.
At this time, MacCorb having died, Barra desired to have Eolang of Aghabulloge as a soul-friend, or confessor, in his place, but Eolang declined, saying, "You have a true soul-friend and confessor even Christ, He will take your hand from mine and hear your confession." Which accordingly took place, and from that day forth it was reported that Barra wore a glove on the hand which Christ had touched to hide its supernatural brightness.
Seventeen years after the foundation of Cork, feeling that his death was near, he went as it were to pay a visit to Cormac and Baithin at Clonenagh, and there, having received the sacrament he yielded up his spirit. His remains were brought to Cork, and honourably interred. His pastoral character is thus described:-" The man of God abode there (at Cork), building up not so much a house of earthly stones as a spiritual house of true stones, wrought by the Word and toil through the Holy Spirit."
"Barra's travels," says Olden, "are scarcely referred to in his Life." He is said to have gone to Britain with St. Maidoc, and his reported visit to Rome has been already mentioned. In Reeves's edition of Adamnan's St. Columba reference is made to his repeated and, perhaps, protracted visits to St. Columba at Hy, though no reference to them is found in his Life. There is an extraordinary story in the Rawlinson MS. of his having borrowed a horse from St. David, in Wales, and ridden over to Ireland, in memory of which a bronze horse was made and kept at Cork, but there is nothing of this in the other lives. He is the patron saint of Dornoch, the episcopal seat of Caithness, where his festival is performed riding on horseback, a usage which seems to have some connection with the legend just mentioned. The island of Barra, in the Hebrides, also claims him as patron, and probably the island of Barry off the coast of Glamorganshire, from which the family of Geraldus de Barre, or Geraldus Cambrensis, derived its name, is called after the Saint In the parallel lists of Irish and foreign saints in the Rook of Leinster he is said to have been like Augustine, the bishop of the Saxons, in his manner of life He died on September 25th and most probably in the year 623."