Saint Fursey, an Irish monk, born in the west of Ireland in 575.   According to St. bede he was of noble Irish blood.  Brendan the Navigator was his uncle and it was on Brendan's Island of Inchiquin that he trained for the religious life.  He was important in the conversion of England.  Baronius assigns merit for the conversion of East Anglia to Fursey.

St. Bede gives an account of Furseys visions of the just made perfect.   From D'Arcy:  Bede heard of the visions from "an old East Anglian monk, who had heard the saint decribe his trances.  Their character was such that this wonderful man, though but poorly clothed in thin garment during the rude winters of that English coast frozen by the east winds, was covered with persperation at the bare recollection of the moving and frightful ordeals through which his spirit had passed.  As long as he lived, recollections of what he had seen so ordered Fursey's thouoghts and actions that an incomparable grace was said to pervade everything he did."

It is well known that Fursa founded his monastic settlement at Killursa, which means Fursa's church, and we are told that his monastic establishment flourished energized young men drawn to the religious life.