The very last day of September sees the commemoration on the Irish calendars of a Saint Brigid, who is otherwise left unidentified. Canon O’Hanlon identifies the two main candidates who may claim to be commemorated on this day. The first is a holy woman mentioned in the Life of Saint Senan (feastday 8th March) and the second an unknown female saint associated with a holy well and church at Kilbreedy (literally ‘Brigid’s church’) in County Laois (or Queen’s County as it was called in O’Hanlon’s time). I am not sure that he really proves either case convincingly, but this mystery Saint Brigid is a good example of the large number of Irish saints who are recorded in our martyrologies without any further clues to their identity.

St. Brigid, of Cluainfidhe, or perhaps of Kilbreedy, Queen’s County.

In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, the feast of St. Brigitta is thus simply recorded, at the 30th of September. In the Book of Leinster copy, at this day, there is a similar entry. Without any further designation, Brigit is entered in the Feilire of Marianus O’Gorman, at this day. In the Martyrology of Charles Maguire, as in the Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Marianus O’Gorman, the feast of a St. Brigid is entered at the 30th of September.

Among the holy women, who are recorded as having flourished in the Irish church, there is a St. Brigid, who was daughter to Conchraid, and she belonged to the family of Mactail. Colgan says, this family seems to have been derived, from the Kings of Munster, having issued from the race of Oengus, King over that province. From this line, St. Mactail the Bishop was descended. Or perhaps, the family of Mactail was derived from the O’Brien sept. Cassius, surnamed Tallins, had several sons, among whom were Blodius, Cassius, Sedneus, and Delbatius. Hence it happens, that some one of these, or of their posterity—especially Blodius’ children, who inherited the chieftainship—might be considered as belonging to the family of Mactail. The word itself signifies son of Tallius. If Colgan’s conjecture be correct, those circumstances connected with the family and place of her residence point out St. Brigid, who is venerated on the 30th of September, as the one mentioned in St. Senan’s Second Life. From it we are able to procure the following account of her. We are told there, how St. Brigid, a holy virgin, had established herself in a cell, on the banks of the river Shannon, and at a place, called Clain in fidi, or Cluainfidhe. Whilst there, she had prepared a cloak or chasuble for St. Senan, which she desired sent to him, but had not the necessary means for transport. However, she covered the vestment with hay, and having placed it, with some letters, in an osier basket, which floated out on the river, the result was committed to a providential issue. The letters were directed to St. Senan, and contained a request, that he would send the Most Holy Sacrament to her. By a miracle of Divine Providence, and without any human direction, the basket floated out into the bed of the Shannon, which at this point was very wide; and, at length it landed on the Island shore, near the church of St. Senan. This circumstance, being revealed to the holy man, he called one of his disciples, who was a Deacon. He was desired to bring the basket, which lay on the shore, to the monastery. Having fulfilled such orders, Senan took the vestment and letters contained in the basket. He then placed therein, as we are told, two portions of salt and a pixis containing the Sacred Host. He next ordered, in the name of God, to whom every creature owes obedience, that the basket should return by the same way it had come, and restore to St. Brigid one of the lumps of salt and the pixis it contained ; and that it should bear the other portion of salt, to St. Diermit, who dwelt in the monastery of Inis-clothrand. According to St. Senan’s mandate, the basket returned to St. Brigid. She took out therefrom the pixis, and one of the salt portions. Before she had time to remove the other, the basket was carried off by motion of the water; and it sailed, by a direct course, against the river’s current until it arrived at Inisclothrand. Having understood what had occurred through a Divine revelation, St. Diermit went forth, and brought the basket to his monastery with much joy. He gave thanks to God, for the wonder wrought through his holy servant, St. Senan.

Of the thirteen saints bearing this name, as mentioned by our Irish Martyrologists, Colgan supposed the circumstance already related can only apply to that St. Brigid, who was venerated on the 30th of September. However, in the Third and Fourth Lives of St. Brigid, such anecdote was transferred to her, with this variation, that the basket or box was entrusted to the ocean, and had to pass over a very great round and extent of sea. Such a transaction—in which there is nothing improbable—was transformed into a marvellous story, which has probably helped to give rise to the opinion, that Senan was established at Inniscatthy before the death of St. Brigid.

A St. Brighit, or Bride, seems to have been venerated in the Parish of Bordwell, Queen’s County. There had been a pattern at a Bride’s Well, not far from the old church and castle of Kilbreedy, and it was held between the close of harvest and the month of November. Of this I was assured by an old man— in 1870 considerably over 80 years of age— but he could not recollect the exact day on which the pattern had been kept. No other saint bearing the name of Brigid seems so likely to correspond with her to whom allusion has been here made. The old church of Kilbreedy lies about a mile from Rathdowney. Measured outside the old walls, it is 50 feet in length, by 24 feet in breadth. The walls of limestone are nearly four feet in thickness, and were well built, but only the lower portions now remain. The church and grave-yard are evidently very ancient ; but both have been enclosed by a modern and well-built wall, with an iron-gate set up for entrance. Many graves and magnificent hawthorn trees are within the grave-yard enclosure. The remarkable fort of Middlemount rises to a considerable elevation, at some little distance, and on the opposite side of the high road. Concentric and diminishing circular fosses surround it, and ascend to the terminating irregular cone.

The festival of Brighit is set down, without further clue for identification, in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 30th day of September.

Canon O’Hanlon’s lead article for September 27 features Saint Lupait (Lupita), a holy woman claimed by some hagiographers to have been the sister of Saint Patrick. Much confusion surrounds the details of her life and her cultus. Saint Patrick’s own writings give only the names of his father and grandfather, but later hagiographies supplied him with an entire family tree. Lupait is one of five sisters attributed to Saint Patrick by later writers and she is portrayed as having shared his experience of being sold into slavery in Ireland. Back in the 1820s Father John Lanigan suggested that the origin of the stories about Saint Patrick’s sisters may lie in a group of women who were part of his Irish mission and whose status as spiritual sisters was transformed into that of biological sisters by later writers. I intend to look deeper into this question, but for now present Canon O’Hanlon’s account of Saint Lupait, which summarizes the traditional view of her:

ST LUPAIT OR LUPITA, ALSO THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN LIAMAIN OR LIEMANIA, SISTER OF ST. PATRICK.
[FIFTH CENTURY]

Colgan promised to treat about St. Lupita, at the 27th of September, but he did not live to redeem that promise. The Bollandists, who have a notice of Lupita at the 27th of September, remark, that while some writers style her a widow and others a virgin, they do not find her name on the Kalendar list of other saints, nor have they indications of her public cultus. As we learn in the various Lives of St. Patrick, this pious woman, Lupait or Lupita, was sister to our great Apostle… The various Lives of St. Patrick contain some accounts regarding her, yet they are of a doubtful and unsatisfactory nature. The earliest account we have of Lupita leads to the inference, that as she was sister to St. Patrick, that her parents were Calphurnius and Conchessa, and that she was born in Nemthor.

A miracle is recorded, on a particular occasion, when with her brother, St. Patrick, both were engaged in herding sheep. This appears to have happened in Nemthur, when they were young. Endeavouring to prevent the lambs from approaching the ewes, they ran swiftly, and the girl falling, her head struck against a stone, which caused a fracture, that endangered her life. Patrick at first wept bitterly; but raising his sister from the ground, he made a sign of the cross over the wound, which immediately was healed. However, in after time a white mark remained, to show where it had been. Both returned home, as if no accident happened. It is said, St. Lupita had been made a captive, with her brother, St. Patrick, when some pirate vessels, conducted by the seven sons of Factmud, a king of the Britons, touched in British Armorica. The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick states, that two of his sisters—Lupita and Tigrida—were taken with him, and sold as slaves, in the northern parts of Ireland. Another Life records only the capture of his sister Lupita, with others, who were sold there, when the Apostle of Ireland was only seven years old. It seems difficult—if not impossible—to reconcile the various discrepancies of narrative in the many Lives of St. Patrick.

In that Book on the Mothers of the Irish Saints, attributed to Aengus the Culdee, it is stated that Lupait, the sister of St. Patrick, was the mother of seven sons, named respectively Sechnall, Nechtan, Dabonna, Mogornan, Darigoc, Ausille, and the Priest Lugnath or Lugna. It has been asserted, that Lupait is an error for the true name of Liemania or Liamain. This is sought to be verified, owing to the discovery of a very ancient tombstone, which bears an inscription supposed to identify it with one of her sons named Lugnad or Lugna. This St. Lugna or Lugnath is set down as the luamaire or “pilot” of St. Patrick. It is thought, that while the Apostle was in the western part of Connaught, with a sister named Nitria and fifteen disciples called Franks, he may have appointed one of these, and he, Lugnat, to a station on Lough Mask, in the immediate neighbourhood of Inchaguile, where the tomb to which allusion has been made was found. As already stated, in the Life of St. Patrick, Liemania’s husband was called Restitutus Hua-Baird or Longobardus, because he belonged to the nation of the Lombards; yet it is supposed from her parentage, she could not have been the Sister of St, Patrick. Neither is the name or feast of Liemania to be found in our Irish Calendars, if she is distinguishable from Lupit or Lupita.

She was sold in the district known as Connallia Murthemnensis or Conaille Muirthemne, now that part of the County Louth, extending from the Cuailgne or Cooley mountains to the River Boyne. The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick states, that while he had been sold to Milchon, son to Buan, the dynast of Dalaradia, his two sisters Lupita and Tigrida were sold in the territory of Conall Murthemne. Nevertheless, St. Patrick knew not of his sisters’ captivity; neither did they of their brother’s servitude. A curious romantic legend is told about her being brought as a spouse by Milchuo, to her brother St Patrick, who owing to the white mark caused through the wound already alluded to recognised her as his sister. According to one account, St. Patrick had five sisters, and of these Lupait, who is first named, is said to have been a virgin.

While in Ireland, Lupita lived for a time with her nephew, St. Mel, Bishop of Ardagh, so that she might profit by his teaching and example, in the exercise of a spiritual life. Although this was in accordance with a custom of the primitive church, it gave scandal to some; and while St. Patrick was in the southern part of Teffia, he resolved on visiting St. Mel, to ascertain whether any truth could be in the rumours spread abroad, which however the Irish Apostle did not credit. A miracle wrought in their favour satisfied him regarding the innocence of his sister and her nephew. Nevertheless, he deemed it advisable, that both should live in separate houses, saying: “Men should dwell apart from women, lest occasion of scandal arise for the weak, and lest our Lord’s name be injured through us, which God avert.” Whereupon he ordered that Mel should live at Ardagh, and Lupita at Druimheo, to the east of a mountain called Brileith, which separated both places.

Lupait founded a monastery for religious women on the eastern side of Armagh, but at what period is not stated. It seems probable, the selection of such a site was owing to a desire she naturally entertained, that it might have the advantage of St. Patrick’s supervision and direction. From him also, it is said she received the veil. There was a church, called Temple na fearta, near the city of Armagh, and, according to Harris a nunnery was there founded by St. Patrick, in the fifth century. It is said, St. Patrick employed his sister Lupita in weaving or embroidering vestments and in arranging linens, for altar purposes. In this work she was assisted by other holy virgins.

In Ussher’s Tripartite version, it is said, that St. Lupita was buried at the eastern side of the city of Armagh. By some writers, the place has been called Temple na Fearta. Others place her remains at Armagh. But, as the former place is very near the latter, this difference of statement can be easily reconciled. The following curious account is given by Ward, that about the middle of the seventeenth century, the body of St. Lupita was found in an upright position, and between two crosses, one before and the other behind, while these remains were buried under the ruins of the old church of Temple Fartagh. Her festival was held, on the 27th of September—although not set down in the O’Clery’s Calendar—at Innis-Lothair. This place is said to be identical with Inish-Lirroo, or Inish Lougher, on Lough Erne. It lies within the parish of Devenish, in the barony of Magheraboy, and in the County of Fermanagh. At the 27th of September, the feast of Lupita, a virgin, is recorded in Thomas Dempster’s “Menologium Scoticum,” although in his allusion to her in another work, while stating that she flourished in 592, he says the day for her cultus is uncertain. We are informed by Ferrarius, that the holy Virgin, Lupita, was venerated in Ireland, on the 27th of September. Arturus and Castellan enter, at this date, the celebration of Lupita’s feast.