ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS DECEMBER 18, St. Flannan, 7th century, St. Winebald, 761 A.D, St. Samthan, 6th century.

ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS DECEMBER 18 St. Flannan, 7th century, Bishop. Son of an Irish chieftain, Turlough he made a pilgrimage to Rome where Pope John IV consecrated him. On his return he became first bishop of Killaloe and also preached in the Hebrides. St. Winebald, 761 A.D. Benedictine abbot and missionary. The brother of Sts. Willibald and Walburga, he was born in Wessex, England, and went on a pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land with his brother and father. When their father died at Lucca, the brothers proceeded to Rome. Winebald remained in the Eternal City while his brother went on to the Holy Land. Winebald studied in Rome for seven years, went back to England, but then returned to Rome determined to enter the religious life. At the invitation of St. Boniface, he gathered together a group of English missionaries and went to Germany in 739. Winebald was ordained, labored in Thuringia and Bavaria, and then joined Wilibald in his missionary enterprise in Eichstatt, Frisia, Holland. With his brother, he founded the monastery of Heidenheim, Germany, where he served as abbot with his sister as abbess. He struggled against the local pagans and strove to make the monastery one of the leading ecclesiastical centers in Germany. St. Samthan, 6th century. Irish abbess and foundress of the convent of Clonbroney, County Longford. She was revered for her patronage of culture and spiritual perfection in the monastic traditions.