OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Female Saints

  • Saint Sciath of Ardskeagh, September 6

     

    There are a number of interesting saints commemorated on September 6, but below is an account of a lesser-known Irish female saint, Sciath of Ardskeagh, taken from Volume 9 of The Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Sciath, Virgin, of Fert-Sceithe, now Ardskeagh, in Muskerry of the Three Plains, County of Cork.

    Veneration was given, at the 6th of September, according to the Manuscript copy, as also in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, to Scieth of Fiort Sceith, in Muscraithe tre Maighi. Immediately afterwards is mentioned, The Arrival of the Relics of Scethi, daughter of Mechi, at Tamlachta, or Tallagh. Although in a separate line, we can hardly believe it is intended to commemorate a different feast from the former celebration. The festival of Sciath is to be found in the Feilire of St. Oengus, at the 6th of September. Already we have noticed a feast for this holy virgin, at the 1st of January.

    She descended from the race of Conaire, monarch of Erinn, who sprung from the seed of Heremon. Eilhue, daughter of Concraidh, was her mother, according to the O’Clerys. The Muscraighe Tri Maighe, or Muskerry of the Three Plains, in which the saint’s place was situated, had been regarded as the territory of the O’ Donnegan’s. The Church of Fiort Sceithe, which is placed by the Calendars of Marianus and the O’Clerys at September 6th, in Muscraighetri-maighe, is known at present by the name of Ardskeagh. This is a small parish, in that part of the barony of Fermoy, bordering on the baronies of Orrery and Kilmore. In the ancient taxation of the diocese of Cloyne, there is a rural deanery, called Muscry-donnegan. It contains the parishes now comprehended in the baronies of Orrery and Kilmore, with small adjacent portions of Duhallow and Fermoy. Among the Churches in this deanery, Orwerg, (i.e. Orbraidhe or Orrery) and Fersketh, (i.e. Feart Skeithe,) called Ardskagh are two. This latter is now known as Ardskeagh. Thus, the identity of Muscraighe-tri-maighe and the barony of Orrery is proved to a demonstration. Ardskeagh is now a parish, in the barony of Condons and Clongibbons, in the County of Cork. This Parish, also called Ardskreagh, is separated from the main body of the barony in which it is included, by the intervention of the northern part of the barony of Fermoy. Some remains of its old Church yet exist in the burial ground. In the Martyrology of Donegal, at this same date, the patroness is recorded as Sciath, Virgin, of Fert Sceithe, in Museraighe of the Three Plains, in Munster. This saint was venerated, likewise, in Scotland, and at the 6th of September, she is entered as Scetthe, in the Calendar of Drummond.

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  • Saint Lassar of Cill Arcalgach, August 20

    August 20 is the feastday of a Saint Lassar associated with the area around Lough Lene in County Westmeath. She is alas, one of the many Irish saints about whom nothing much is known apart from the remembrance of her name and locality in the Irish Calendars. Canon O’ Hanlon has this to say:

    St. Lasar, or Lassar, Virgin, of Cill Arcalgach, near Lough Lene, County of Westmeath.

    …A festival in honour of Lasar, of Chill Arealgaich, is registered in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 20th of August. Again, at the 13th of the September Kalends [i.e. August 20], that copy in the Book of Leinster spells the entry in a manner somewhat different [as Lassar o Cill Archalgach]. At this same date, the Martyrology of Donegal mentions Lassar, Virgin, of Cill Arcalgach,on the brink of Loch Lebenn, in Meath. Her place of residence must be sought for within or on the banks of the present Lough Leane—known in our ancient annals as Loch Lephinn or Loch Leibhinn. It is now called Lough Lene, about two miles and three quarters of a mile in length, by one mile in width and for its extent, it is one of the loveliest of the numerous lakes in Westmeath. It contains two wooded islets; and, on one of these, it is said a monastery formerly existed. Lough Leane lies about one mile south of Fore Village, in the barony of Demifore, and in the northern part of Westmeath County… The Irish Calendar now preserved in the Royal Irish Academy has a notice of this person as Lasar, Virgin of Cill Arcalgach, on the border of Locha Leibhean. We cannot attempt further to identify her, nor to know the period in which she lived.

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  • The Daughters of Carpre, August 15

    The earliest of the Irish calendars commemorates a group of holy women known collectively as the daughters of Carpre on August 15. How many sisters this group comprised is not recorded, indeed apart from a notice in The Martyrology of Tallaght appended to the name of the male saint Saran, also commemorated on this day, nothing more is known of them as Canon O’Hanlon explains:
    Feast of Carpre’s Daughters.
    In addition to the Festival and veneration observed at this date, as we read in the published Martyrology of Tallaght, for Firdacrioch et St. Saran, the Daughters of Carpre are likewise commemorated. In that copy, contained in the Book of Leinster, they are also noticed, at the 15th of August. Further light we cannot obtain, regarding these holy women, who are not mentioned at this date, in the Martyrology of Donegal.
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