The monastery of Lismore was founded by St Carthach (Mo-chuda) in 636, and became one of the great religious centres of Ireland. A diocese of Lismore or Waterford was established at the synod of Rathbreasail, and two bishops of Lismore are recorded in the next few years: Mac Aeducain (d.1113) and O Daigthig (d.1119). In 1127 St Malachy moved to Lismore from Bangor, and Cormac Mac Carthaig entered the monastery of Lismore. Malchus (Mael Iosa O h-Ainmire) was the major figure in the monastery at this time, and died at Lismore as Bishop of Waterford in 1135. In 1151 Christian O Conairche, who had been consecrated Bishop of Lismore at Clairvaux, came to Ireland with Cardinal Paparo, and remained as papal legate in Ireland after Cardinal Paparo's departure, from 1152-79. In 1166 Christian held a synod at Lismore, and the cathedral was consecrated in the same year. There is a reference to the great church of Lismore in 1173, when the city was pillaged by the Normans. In 1363 the see of Lismore was united to Waterford, but it retained its own cathedral until the Reformation. The cathedral was razed to the ground in 1579, restored in 1633 and rebuilt in c.1680.