OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Female Saints

  • Saint Deirbhile of Erris, August 3

    August 3 brings the commemoration of some interesting early Irish female saints. Last year I looked at the northern Saint Trea of Ardtrea and this year we can journey to the western county of Mayo for the commemoration of Saint Deirbhile (Derbile, Dairbhile, Derbilia, Derbhiledh). I was pleased to see that there are a number of online local history sites which illustrate a continuing interest in popular devotion to this holy woman. You can see a stained-glass window depicting the story of Saint Deirbhile at the Heritage Centre which bears her name here and a photograph of the ruins of the pre-Norman church here. There are also a couple of videos on youtube showing both the church ruins and Saint Deirbhile’s Well. I noted that like Saint Brigid, Deirbhile too received the attentions of an unwanted suitor and plucked out her eyes to discourage him. The water from her holy well is thus particularly associated with the healing of the eyes. Unlike Saint Brigid, Deirbhile has not left a written Vita, but like Saint Bronagh of Kilbroney her memory is still very much alive in the locality where she once flourished. In his account, however, Canon O’Hanlon does not allude to the popular traditions surrounding our saint but concentrates on her genealogy and the possibility that she was present at the Synod of Easdara convened by Saint Columba in the year 585:

    St. Dairbhile or Derbhiledh, descendant of Eochaidh Muighmedhoin. [Sixth Century.]

    It is mentioned in the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman, as likewise by the Commentator on Aengus, that the feast of a St. Derbile occurs on the 3rd of August. According to the Genealogies of the Irish Saints, Derbhilia was the daughter of Cormac, son to Breech, son of Eochad, son to David, son of Fiach, ancestor of the Hua Fiachrach. St. Derbilia seems to have flourished in the sixth century, and she lived a religious life, in Erris, a remote part of the County of Mayo. She was contemporaneous with the great St. Columkille; for, by allowing the usual number of thirty years to a generation, and taking her as the fourth in descent from King Dathi, she must have flourished about that period. She belonged, also, to the Second Class of Irish Saints. She appears to have sought out one of the most remote parts of Ireland for the site of her retreat; while she is supposed to have erected an oratory, within that double peninsula off the extreme north-west coast of the County of Mayo, and where connected by an isthmus with the mainland the town of Belmullet stands. This peninsula, known as the Mullet, extends from Erris Head on the north, to the entrance of Blacksod Bay on the south; it being washed on the west and north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Broad Haven and Blacksod Bay, and on the south by the entrance to Blacksod Bay and the Sound of Achill. It is a region rarely visited by the tourist or general traveller. There, it is supposed St. Dairbhile established herself, about the middle of the sixth century; and, tradition has it, that she founded there a religious institution. Her antique church is yet to be seen within the Mullet, a district little explored, and in the extensive barony of Erris. It is remarkable for the Cyclopean character of its masonry; and it is of an oblong shape, about forty feet in length, by sixteen in breadth. It is lighted on the east end by a small, unadorned, and semicircular-headed window, splaying considerably on the inside. The walls are constructed wholly of gneiss or stratified granite, while they are two feet and seven inches in thickness. A doorway in the western wall measures about four feet ten inches in height; while it is only two feet in width, at the spring of the arch, and two feet four inches at the base. The lintel or arch-stone, now greatly time-worn, has a rude architrave in low relief, on either face. A very beautiful illustration of the circular-headed doorway of this church may be seen, in the celebrated work of Dr. Petrie. Interlaced tracery is to be found on one of the stones, within the doorway, but at present it is greatly worn.

    [Illustration from George Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion, (2nd edn, Dublin 1845), 321.]

    After the famous convention at Drumceat had been over, St. Columba travelled southwards, and at Easdara, now Ballysadare, he convened a synod, in 585, to which many of the Irish saints were drawn, as well from a sense of religious obligation, as to pay their respects to the great Apostle of the Picts and Scots. To this we have already alluded, in the notices given of St. Farannan; and, it seems to have been an event of great historic and ecclesiastical importance, at that time, when it had been convened. Ballysadare, or the Town of the Waterfall of the Oak, takes its name from the waterfall, or rather the series of waterfalls, over which the River Uncion discharges its waters into the sea, southwards from the town of Sligo. Before the rise of Ballysadare, the spot on which it stood was called simply Easdara, or the Cataract of the Oak, without the prefix Bal, meaning a town. There, a great number of bishops, abbots, priests and religious assembled, together with a vast concourse of lay persons. The names of many distinguished visitors have been recorded. Colgan seems to identify this saint with the Derbilia of Irras, who assisted at that great synod held at Easdra, towards the close of the sixth century. When she departed this life has not been ascertained, but it was probably towards the close of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century. She seems to have died in the house of her foundation, and within the Mullet. In the cemetery attached to it, she was interred. We read in the Martyrology of Donegal that veneration was given at the 3rd of August to Derbhiledh, who sprung from the race of Fiachra, son of Eochaidh Muighmedhoin. According.to some, the present saint is not different from a St. Darbile, who is venerated on the 26th of October, and if such be the case, she had a double festival.

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  • Saint Lutt of Tigh Luta, July 27

    One of the purposes of this blog is to bring before us the names of long-forgotten saints and today in Saint Lutt of Tigh Luta we encounter one of the many obscure Irish holy women listed on our calendars. Reading Canon O’Hanlon’s account below there is only a single sentence  of information directly relevant to the saint and that is the recording of her name and locality in the Martyrology of Donegal. The rest of the paragraph is taken up with a discussion of the history of possible locations where she may have flourished and with a refutation of ‘Maria Monk’ style contemporary prejudices:

    St. Lutt, Virgin, of Tigh Luta, in Fothartha Mora.

    From the earliest times in Ireland, holy women sought to escape from the snares of this world, by retiring to institutions where they could live together in a holy and peaceful state of society. Yet, even when the rights of conscience were partially recognised in these Islands, and when nunneries began to increase, some intolerants outside the Church imagined that these convents required regulation and inspection. It was foolishly asserted, that moral if not physical restraint was often used, to retain religious ladies within their beloved walls of enclosure. Such charges and suspicions were alike insulting to the nuns, and even to their outer-world relations and friends. Veneration was given, at the 27th of July, according to the Martyrology of Donegal, to Lutt, a virgin, of Tigh Luta, in Fotharta Mora; Where that district or place was situated does not seem to be known. The people called Fotharta were descendants of Eochadh Finn Fuathart, brother to Conn of the Hundred Battles, and who settled in Leinster Here they acquired lands in the counties of Carlow and of Waterford. The territory of Fothart Osnadhaigh—comprised in the present barony of Forth, in the county of Carlow—was so called from Cill Osnadha, now Kellistown. It was more frequently known as Fotharta Fea, from the plain of Magh Fea, in which that church was situated. The O’Nuallains, Anglice, O’Nolans or Nowlans, were the chief inhabitants of this district. The chief family of the Fotharta, in the county of Wexford, commonly called Fothart an Chairn, now Carnsore Point, took the name of O’Lorcain, or Larkin, but shortly after the Anglo-Norman invasion, the O’Lorcains were dispossessed. There were other territories of the name in Leinster, such as Fothart Airbreach, around the Hill of Cruachan Bri Eile, now Croghan, in the north-east of ihe King’s County; and Fothart Oirthir Life, in the present county of Wicklow.

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  • Saint Lassar, July 23

    One of a number of Irish female saints with the name of Lassar (Lasair, Lasre, Lassara) is commemorated on July 23.  Canon O’Hanlon in his Lives of the Irish Saints initially seeks to associate this one with the locality of Killasseragh in County Cork. Lassar of Killasseragh is one of a trio of sisters whose memories are preserved in folk tradition within County Cork, where each was assigned the patronage of neighbouring parishes. One popular story was that angels made a road between the parishes so that the sisters could more easily communicate with each other. However,  in his Dictionary of Irish Saints, Pádraig Ó Riain argues that the County Cork Lassar is commemorated in the Martyrologies on May 7, the day after her sister Inneen of Dromtarriff. Thus although Canon O’Hanlon has plumped for Killasseragh as the locality associated with today’s Saint Lassar in the heading of his account, he has no firm basis for doing so, a fact he later concedes. Such are the complexities of dealing with homonymous saints that we may never know the precise identity of the holy woman commemorated on this day:

    St. Lassar, or Lasre, of Killasseragh, Parish of Kilmeen, County of Cork.

    At the 23rd of July, the name of Lasre is met with, in the Martyrology of Tallagh. St. Lassar’s day, although marked in the Calendar at the 23rd of July, seems to have been commemorated by stations at the 24th. The townland of Killasseragh, in the parish of Kilmeen, and barony of Duhallow, county of Cork, is called after this saint. It seems very probable, also, that another townland so called, in the parish of Ballynoe, barony of Kinnatalloon, in the same county, has derived its name from the present holy virgin. In the south-west of the county of Fermanagh, the ruins of an old church, with a holy well, dedicated to a virgin called St. Lassara, are still to be seen. It is now called Killassery. In the glen of the Marble Arch, where there are very remarkable caves, and on its western side—upon the brow of a hill not difficult of access—is shown St. Lasser’s cell. This is a souterrain. It has, however, no further connexion with a church in the neighbourhood, dedicated to the patron St. Lasser. Some inconsiderable remains of this old building yet exist. We do not undertake to say, that the foregoing localities are in any manner connected with the present St. Lassar; for, there are other saints bearing her name, and not distinguished by any special locality; but, we thought it not amiss, to place upon record here, information which may somewhat help towards a future identification, regarding one or other of the Lassars or Lassaras mentioned in our Calendars. The Martyrology of Donegal notes Lassar simply, at the 23rd of July.

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