Saint Tola : Short Biography

Naomh Thomhla aka Tolanus aka Saint Tola of Clonard was an Irish "good soldier of Christ" in the seventh-century. 

He established a monastic community near the Burren in northwest Co. Clare. His original church is no longer extant but portions of its foundations (an perhaps more) were incorporated into the 11th-century Romanesque Church near the village of Corofin (now in ruins). 

He was Abbot and Bishop of Diseart Tola

Later, he became Bishop Tola of Clonard Co. Meath until his death circa 735. In the Roman Catholic tradition, St. Tola is best known as the patron saint of toothaches. The Irish calendar celebrates the feast of St. Tola on March 30th (his assumed date of death).

In the year 1034, a miracle ascribed to St. Tola took place. Coirten Ua Maebuain, Lord of Dealbhna, was killed by some of his clansmen, on the threshold of Disert Tola church. In punishment for this sacrilegious and unnatural murder, the perpetrator of the crime was massacred, within that very same hour, he perpetrated the treacherous act.

In the 11th or 12th-century, Saint Tola was venerated by the erection of a High Cross at the Dysert O'Dea monastery. One of the figures on Tola's Cross aka Crusha Baunala, depicting a bishop, is understood to represent St. Tola.