Miracles were granted him from his earliest years according to his legends. His mother died right after his birth, but after his infant hand touched her, she was restored to life. Also, it is recounted a holy hermit who lived in the Galtee Mountains saw a light over his parents dwelling the night he was born and foretold that the child was destined to do great things for God. It is said as a child he once fell onto a hard rock, but inside of splitting his head and killing him as the hard fall should have done, the rock immediately softened like soft wax and left an impression where his head fell. Water taken from the depression in the stone brought miraculous cures.
Due to his piety he was sent to the monastic school of Lismore under the patronage of St Carthage where he excelled. He later became headmaster of the school and afterwards became abbot of a nearby monastery named Shanrahan, the ruins of which still exits today in Clogheen near the Glen of Aherlow. While still in his native land he converted many still caught in the darkness of paganism with his preaching and miracles.
Eventually he desired to see the Holy Land. As he was returning from this pilgrimage circa 667 AD, he was shipwrecked in a storm at Taranto, Italy and stayed to minister to the natives who had relapsed into paganism after being converted by St Mark the Evangelist. He stayed in the region for the rest of his life and the people there encouraged him to be their Bishop. It appears he later became an Archbishop. He died c. 685 AD.
When a new cathedral was being built in 1071, the workers uncovered his marble tomb in which lay his incorrupt body in archbishop's robes with a gold cross of Irish craftsmanship inscribed "Cathaldus of Rahan". "Rahan" refers to Shanrahan. Many miracles are associated with him, including calming a storm, curing cases of plague and mitigating drought. He is often invoked against plagues, droughts and storms.
As Our Lord said, 'a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country'. St. Catalus is so well known and loved in Italy, yet he receives virtually no recognition in his native Ireland. He is venerated in almost 200 churches in Italy, and on the islands of Sicily and Malta.
His feast day is May 10.
A prophecy concerning the Great Monarch was made by St. Cataldus:
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“The Great Monarch will be in war till he is 40 years of age: a King of the House of Lilies, (i.e France, the Fleur-du-lys) he will assemble great armies and expel tyrants from his empire. He will conquer England and other island empires. Greece he will invade and be made king thereof. Colchis, Cyprus, the Turks and Barbarians he will subdue and have all men worship the Crucified One. He will at length lay down his crown in Jerusalem….”
(Image: depiction of a vision of St. Cataldus dressed in his Archbisopric robes that occurred circa the 1500s. During the reign of King Ferdinand I of Naples, St. Cataldus appeared to a newly ordained priest in the dead of night and ordered him to retrieve a small hidden book in which he had written prophecies concerning the realm when he was alive and give it to the king. The priest ignored the visions which continued, until St. Cataldus appeared to him in the church one morning and warned to obey him under pain of punishment. The priest assembled the people and went to the place where St. Cataldus said he would find the book. The book was found in 1492 enclosed in plates of leads and clasped with iron hooks. He and handed it King Ferdinand, who immediately threw it into the fire upon reading it. According to tradition, it contained a prediction of the end of his reign and the destruction of the realm, which occurred under the siege of Charles VIII. It is quite possible this is the book that contained the Great Monarch prophecy.)
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