OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Saint Teca of Rooskey, October 18

Written by

Michele Ainley

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At October 18 the Irish calendars record the name of a female saint, Teca and associate her with the locality of ‘Ruscach, in Cuailgne’. The Martyrology of Donegal records:

18. D. QUINTO DECIMO KAL. OCTOBRIS. 18. 

TECA, Virgin, of Ruscach, in Cuailgne.

The earlier Martyrology of Tallaght, however, gives an affectionate twist on her name and records at the same date:

Mothecca Rúscaigi  (my Teca of Rúscach).

The index of places appended to the Martyrology identifies our saint’s locality as Rooskey, County Louth. This place is mentioned in the Life of Saint Moninna, when that saint, originally named Darerca, was first involved with the religious life:

There were with her at first, as they tell, eight virgins, as well as one widow who had a small boy named Luger. Darerca adopted the child as her foster son and when she had thoroughly accustomed him to the ways of the church, she raised him to the high dignity of a bishop.  He crowned his good works as leader of the whole of his people – the Conaille – by building the church of  Rúscach [Rooskey, Cooley, County Louth] in honour of God.

Liam de Paor, ed and trans., ‘The Life of Saint Darerca, or Moninna, the Abbess’ in Saint Patrick’s World (Dublin, 1993), 282.
I have no further information on Saint Teca or at what period she flourished.

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