 Saint Fintan founded a monastery at Clonenagh , Ireland , in the sixth century and it had a spring beside it . This was considered holy and was visited by pilgrims . In the nineteenth century , a Protestant land owner , annoyed at people visiting the site , filled the well in , whereupon the water started to flow into the hollow interior of a sycamore tree on the other side of the road . Filled with amazement , people hung rags on the tree and pressed coins into its trunk as votive offerings and it became known as the " Money Tree " . Some years later , it fell down , but new shoots appeared from its base , and the water still welled up . It remains a place of veneration on St Fintan 's day , February 17 . 
