OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Female Saints

  • Saint Breacnat, July 3

    Another of the many completely obscure Irish female saints is commemorated on the Irish calendars at July 3. As is so often the case, all we know of the holy lady, Breacnat, is her name, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    St. Breacnat, Virgin.

    It is mentioned in the Martyrology of Donegal, that veneration was given at the 3rd of July to Breacnat, a virgin. The Bollandists a note this entry, likewise, but through a typographical error, they write “Breenada virgine victoriosa,” at this same date.

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  • The Daughter of Mionghar, June 25

    The name of one of the many obscure Irish female saints is found on the earliest of the surviving Irish calendars at June 25. This holy lady is even more enigmatic than most, given that we do not have her Christian name, only that of her father. Canon O’Hanlon can only bring us a couple of lines:

    The Daughter of Mionghar.

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh, we find the entry, Ingena Ninguir, at this date. The daughter of Mionghar was venerated at the 25th of June, as we find recorded, in the Martyrology of Donegal.

     

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  • Saint Faelan and the Daughters of Moinan, June 23

    Canon O’Hanlon has an interesting notice of a Saint Faelan and the Daughters of Moinan at June 23. They are mentioned together in the Martyrology of Tallaght, yet mention of the holy ladies disappears from the later calendars. Nothing much seems to be known of any of the parties, although reference is made to a Saint Brigid, daughter of Monan in the Martyrology of Oengus and in Keating’s History of Ireland, published in the seventeenth century:

    St. Foelaine, or Faelan, and the Daughters of Moinan.

    Such is an entry found in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 23rd of June. Nothing more is known, regarding this St. Foelaine and Moinan’s daughters. There is a St. Brigid, said to have been daughter to Monan or Moenan, according to Aengus the Culdee, and Dr. Jeoffry Keating. Whether she was one of the daughters to the Moinan here mentioned must be altogether conjectural and uncertain. In the latest of our great Calendars—that compiled by the O’Clerys—we have no entry regarding these religious ladies, who are noted on the 23rd of June. But, at this same date, in the Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman, and of Donegal, merely the name Faelan or Foilan occurs.

     

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