strictness and asceticism. The pupils of Finnian who became the founding fathers of monasteries are described as leaving Clonard bearing a book or crozier or some other object, suggesting that a working scriptorium and craft workshops were established at Clonard at an early date. The Penitential of Finnian prescribes penances with a view to correcting sinful tendencies and cultivating the contrary virtue. The document shows wide learning and draws on the teaching of John Cassian on overcoming the eight evil tendencies – gluttony, fornication, covetousness, anger, dejection, accidie (laziness), vainglory and pride (The Institutes, Books 5–12). Later life and death In the Office of St. Finnian it is stated that there were no fewer than 3,000 pupils getting instruction at one time in the school in the green fields of Clonard. The master excelled in exposition of the Sacred Scriptures, and to this fact must be mainly attributed the extraordinary popularity which his lectures enjoyed. Finnian's gift for teaching and his absolute dedication to the ascetic ideal inspired a whole generation. Clonard drew students from various parts of Europe. Ciarán of Clonmacnoise and Columcille of Iona are among the many who trained under him. They and many others took seeds of knowledge from Finnian's monastery at Clonard and planted them abroad with great success. Finnian died of the plague in 549. Hickey (1996) says: "If we consider his achievements in life, rather than the fabulous age attributed to him by his biographer (140 years), we may guess his age at death as perhaps sixty or sixty-five." His burial-place is in his own church of Clonard. Finnian's sister, Regnach, was Abbess of Kilreynagh, near the present town of Banagher. Veneration Clonard became an important school because of the number of its students who went on to found other monasteries. For centuries after his death, the school continued to be renowned as a seat of Scriptural learning, but it suffered at the hands of the Danes, especially in the eleventh century, and two Irishmen, O'Rorke of Breifney and Dermod McMurrough, helped to complete the work which the Northmen had begun. The relics of Finnian himself were enshrined at Clonard until 887, after which the shrine was destroyed. With the transference by the Norman Bishop of Rochfort, in 1206, of the See of Meath from Clonard to Trim, the glory of the former place departed forever. Finnian of Clonard's feast-day is 12 December,