OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Female Saints

  • Saint Lasair of Killesher and Aghavea, November 13

    On November 13 we celebrate the feast day of the last of the handful of Irish female saints who has an extant written Life. The Life of Saint Lasair, however, is the least known and also the latest written, dating as it does to the 17th century. Our saint shares her name with over a dozen others, most of whom are completely obscure. A list of them can be found on the page dealing with homonymous saints here. To introduce our holy lady, below is an account from a diocesan history which refers to the sources. As you will see, Saint Lasair is associated with more than one locality in the lakeland county of Fermanagh, she is also associated with a County Roscommon site, Kilronan, named after the man identified as her father in the sources:

    On the south-eastern shore of Lough Mac Nean, and in County Fermanagh, is the ruined church of Killesher, which has given its name to the parish. Its Gaelic form is Cill Laisir, which has given its name to the parish. Its Gaelic form is Cill Laisir, i.e. the church of St. Laisir who is patroness of the parish. In the Martyrologies we find the entries of no fewer than fourteen saints of the same name, and it is not quite easy now to determine with certainty which of them is here intended. Lassar of Achadh Fada appears in the Martyrology of Donegal on January 6th. O’Donovan, who visited Killesher in 1834, records that there is a Tobar Laistreach beside the ruined church; also the cell of St. Laisir is pointed out in the same town land. But he did not establish the particular saint to whom the church and well were dedicated. 

    In Brother Michael O’Clery’s work on the Genealogies of the Kings and Saints of Ireland – Genealogiae Regum et Sanctorum Hiberniae – in the Franciscan Library, there is a reference to St. Lasair which, however, establishes her identity. The entry concerning her genealogy is as follows: 

    Lasair ingen Ronain m Ninnedha m Aodha m Feargosa m Nélline m Muircertoigh m Muireadhoigh m Eogain m Nell [i.e., Niall] Naoighiallaigh. 

    O Achadh Beither agus o Cill Lasair for bhrú Loca mic nEn, 13 Nou. 

    This identifies St. Lasair, or Laisir, of Cill Lasair beside Loch Mac Nean, with the daughter (ingen) of Ronan, son (m) of Ninnedh, etc., descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, monarch of Ireland, who died A.D. 405. Her festival is entered on Novemebr 13. It may be accepted without further question that the Cill Lasair for bhrú Loca mic nEn is identical with the present Killesher. Achadh Beither, of which place she is also mentioned as patroness, is also in Co. Fermanagh; it is now Aghavea. 

    Even a century ago, when O’Donovan visited Killesher, the traditions concerning St. Lasair do not appear to have been well remembered. Further local enquiry may ascertain whether there may exist any collateral evidence, such as the date of the annual pattern, which would verify from traditional sources, the festival date of St. Laisir.

    Philip O’Connell, The Diocese of Kilmore – Its History and Antiquities, (Dublin, 1937), 122-123.

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  • Saint Finntina of Cluain Guithbhinn, November 1

    The Irish calendars record the name of yet another of our obscure female saints on November 1. Alas, the earliest of these, the Martyrology of Tallaght, has a hiatus in the surviving manuscripts and the entire month of November plus the first sixteen days of December are missing. The name of Saint Fintinna, Virgin, of Cluain Guithbhinn, is however recorded in the later calendars of Marianus O’Gorman and of the O’Clery’s. The 1857 edition of The Martyrology of Tallaght produced by Father Matthew Kelly supplements the missing entries with those from the Martyrology of Donegal. It therefore lists: Nov. 1 Finntina Ogh o Cluain Guithbinn and the index identifies Cluain Guitbinn with Cloongefin, County Roscommon.  I can find out no further information on this holy lady but it pleases me to be able to record her name on the day when we celebrate the memories of all the saints. Saint Finntina, intercede for us!

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  • Saint Teca of Rooskey, October 18

    At October 18 the Irish calendars record the name of a female saint, Teca and associate her with the locality of ‘Ruscach, in Cuailgne’. The Martyrology of Donegal records:

    18. D. QUINTO DECIMO KAL. OCTOBRIS. 18. 

    TECA, Virgin, of Ruscach, in Cuailgne.

    The earlier Martyrology of Tallaght, however, gives an affectionate twist on her name and records at the same date:

    Mothecca Rúscaigi  (my Teca of Rúscach).

    The index of places appended to the Martyrology identifies our saint’s locality as Rooskey, County Louth. This place is mentioned in the Life of Saint Moninna, when that saint, originally named Darerca, was first involved with the religious life:

    There were with her at first, as they tell, eight virgins, as well as one widow who had a small boy named Luger. Darerca adopted the child as her foster son and when she had thoroughly accustomed him to the ways of the church, she raised him to the high dignity of a bishop.  He crowned his good works as leader of the whole of his people – the Conaille – by building the church of  Rúscach [Rooskey, Cooley, County Louth] in honour of God.

    Liam de Paor, ed and trans., ‘The Life of Saint Darerca, or Moninna, the Abbess’ in Saint Patrick’s World (Dublin, 1993), 282.
    I have no further information on Saint Teca or at what period she flourished.

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