OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Female Saints

  • Saint Fiadhnat, January 4

    Another of the many obscure Irish female saints is commemorated on January 4. All we know of Saint Fiadhnat is the recording of her name in the Irish calendars, and in the absence of anything else to say Canon O’Hanlon sounds wonderfully Victorian as he complains about the number of females ‘addicted to idle or frivolous pleasures’:

    St, Fidnatan, or Fiadhnat, Virgin. 

    Numberless females are found in society addicted to idle or frivolous pleasures. Their
    lives are spent as a taper that wastes away its substance, giving little or only a very flickering light. The name of Fidnatan, virgin, is mentioned in the “Martyrology of Tallagh,” on the 4th of January. Besides this entry, Fiadhnat, the same virgin, is recorded on this day in the “Martyrology of Donegal.” The distinction of sanctity accorded her proves the genuine merits of her well-ordered life.

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  • Saint Sarbile of Faughart, September 4

    September 4 sees the commemoration of Saint Sarbile from the Faughart district of County Louth, which some hagiographical traditions claim to be the birthplace of Saint Brigid of Kildare. The Faughart area is also hailed as the birthplace of Saint Monnina of Killeavy. The Irish sources agree that Monnina was not the original name of this holy woman and most record that she was originally called Dareca. This comment on the Leabhar Breac copy of the Feilire of Oengus, however also notes “Moninne of Slieve Gullion, and Sarbile was her name previously. Or Darerca was her name at first…” So it seems there may be some confusion here. In Volume IX of his Lives of the Irish Saints Canon O’Hanlon provides the few details on the life of Saint Sarbile:

    St. Sarbile, Virgin of Fochart, County of Louth.

    As Mary, mentioned in the Gospel, loved to sit at the feet of Jesus, so do holy virgins desire that calm and rest, in which His voice is best heard speaking to their hearts. We find set down in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 4th of September, that veneration was given to Sarbile, Virgin of Fochairde, or Fochart, in the old district of Murtheimhne. This is now a level country in the present County of Louth. It extends from the River Boyne to the Mountains of Cuilgne, or Carlingford. The Martyrology of Donegal simply records the name Sarbile, of Fochard, at the same date. This may have been the St. Orbilia, Virgin, whose Acts Colgan had intended to produce at the present day, as we have gathered from the list of his unpublished manuscripts.

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  • Saint Masse, August 21

    One of the many obscure Irish female saints is commemorated on August 21, but as is so often the case all we know of Saint Masse is the recording of her name on our calendars. For some reason the Martyrology of Tallaght links her name to that of another saint with whom she shares her feast day, Celba of Kilbeg.  Canon O’Hanlon also reports that in the later Martyrology of Donegal the word species is appended to her name. In a footnote he adds that one of the original translators of this seventeenth-century calendar, the Anglican scholar Bishop William Reeves, gave this explanation: ‘Dr. Reeves interprets this word as the Latin equivalent for her name, Maisse, which in Irish signifies beauty. Speciosa occurs in the Martyrology of Molanus, at the 18th March’. So, here is O’Hanlon’s brief account of the beautiful Saint Masse, taken from Volume VIII of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    St. Masse, or Maisse, Virgin.

    Sheltered from the baneful influence of a corrupt world, this holy Virgin grew each day in goodness, unconscious of evil, and in innocence like the angel who watched over her. The name of Masse occurs in the Martyrology of Tallagh at the 21st of August. Both in the published and unpublished copies, this name is united with that Celba, already noticed. Nothing, however, seems to be known, regarding her place or period. The name of Maisse, Virgin, appears in the Martyrology of Donegal, at the 21st of August. In the table, superadded to this latter work, after her name, we find the word species occurring.
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