Tag: Female Saints

  • Saint Coppa, January 18

    A female saint with possible Patrician associations is commemorated on January 18. Canon O’Hanlon records the speculation of the seventeenth-century hagiologist, Friar John Colgan, that Saint Coppa may have been associated with the church of Elphin and was one of those whom he listed as having received the veil from Saint Patrick:

    St. Coppa or Cobba, Virgin, Daughter of Baedan.

    [Possibly in the Fifth Century.] 

    The silence of history has obscured many a career, which if better known must command the respect of the good. A festival in honour of Cobba, daughter to Baetan, is recorded in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 18th of January. Nor do we find further notices of her in the later calendars. Coppa, virgin, and a daughter of Baedan, is entered in the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day of the month. In the acts of St. Patrick, it is said he left a Cipia, the mother of Bishop Bite, at the church of Elphin. Colgan seems to doubt whether this holy woman—whom he classed among those veiled by St. Patrick—was not identical with the present St. Coppa or Cobba.

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  • Saint Mica, January 17

    We have the name of another of our obscure Irish female saints recorded on the calendars at January 17. The name and feast day of Saint Mica are the only details known, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Mica or Micca, Virgin. 

    Added in a more recent hand, and traced in Roman characters, on the authority of the Martyrology and on that of Marianus O’Gorman, we find the name of a St. Mica or Micca, virgin, set down in the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day. A nearly similar entry occurs in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 17th of January, as also in the unpublished one. More we cannot find regarding this holy virgin.

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  • Saint Suibhsech of Tirhugh, January 9

    The name of an otherwise obscure Irish holy woman, Suibsech of Tirhugh, is recorded in the Irish calendars at January 9. Canon O’Hanlon begins on a pious reflective note in his account below and places our saint in County Donegal:

    St. Suibhsech or Suabseg, Virgin, of Tirhugh Barony, County of Donegal.

    Virgins are purchased from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. Undefiled those virgins follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Suabseg, a virgin, is mentioned simply in the Martyrology of Tallagh, as having been venerated on the 9th of January. Again, Suibhsech, in Tir-Aedha, occurs in the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day. The old name of the territory has been converted into the modern denomination of Tirhugh barony, in the county of Donegal. There probably we must look for the exact locality where this saint was venerated as patron.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2016. All rights reserved.