OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Female Saints

  • 'Gem of Our Church, Fair Ita'

    F. Anger, St Itha (1901)

    January 15 is the feast of Saint Ita, ‘the Brigid of Munster’ and patroness of the Diocese of Limerick. A post on her life can be found here, but below is the text of a late nineteenth century poem in honour of the saint. It was published in the periodical founded by Father Matthew Russell S.J., The Irish Monthly.  The poem is typically Victorian in its sentimental piety, but still worth reading on the feast of this great Irish woman saint. The illustration is a near-contemporary one taken from the work of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, Virgin Saints and Martyrs, published in 1901.

    ST. ITA.
    Patroness of the Diocese of Limerick
    [Jan. 15]

    SING, sing ye a maiden holy,
    And pure as the driven snow,
    A saint of our sainted island
    Serving God long ago.
    Oh, she had riches and suitors
    Where royal Decies stood,
    But gave up all for a lover
    Who shed for her His Blood.

    Sing, sing ye a maiden holy,
    And pure as the driven snow,
    A saint of our sainted island
    Serving God long ago.

    “Depart”, cried a voice, “from kindred,
    And from thy father’s lands;
    Make haste to a distant region,
    Where dark-browed Loochar stands.
    Wild warriors there shall build thee
    A home by the mountain side;
    Hy-Connaill bloom as a garden,
    And bless thee far and wide. “

    Sing, sing ye a maiden holy,
    And pure as the driven snow,
    A saint of our sainted island
    Serving God long ago.

    And clansmen and maidens gathered
    Around that white-robed dove;
    And the land served God as a virgin,
    All, all of that virgin’s love.
    O, gem of our Church, fair Ita,
    Maid of our worship and love,
    Pray for our priests and people,
    Saint of the heavens above.

    Sing, sing ye a maiden holy,
    And pure as the driven snow,
    A saint of our sainted island
    Serving God long ago.


    R. O. K., St. Ita,  The Irish Monthly,  Vol. 23, No. 259 (Jan., 1895), p. 26.

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  • Saint Kentigerna of Inch Cailleach, January 7

     

    An Irish saint who became celebrated as a hermitess in eight-century Scotland is commemorated on, January 7. Saint Kentigerna is also known as the mother of another famous Scottish saint, Fillan, whose feast we will celebrate in two days time. The following account has been taken from the work of the Scottish Episcopalian Bishop Alexander Forbes (1817–1875) on the Scottish Calendars:

    KENTIGERNA. January 7, A.D. 733.—Kentigerna, styled also Quentigerna and Caentigerna, is known to us as the recluse of Inch Cailleach on Loch Lomond, as the sister of S. Congan, and as the mother of S. Fillan. She was the daughter of Ceallach Cualann (ob. 715), a regulus of Leinster, whose pedigree from Fedhlimidh Fiorurglas is known to us through Macfirbis.—(Genealog. MS. p. 461a.)

    Ceallach was the forefather of the O’Kellys (Ui Ceallaigh Cualann), who possessed Rathdown in the County Dublin till the fourteenth century.

    The legend of this saint in the Aberdeen Breviary, which is evidently drawn from some Irish life of her distinguished son, states that she was of the royal family of the Scoti, being daughter of Tyrennus, chief of the Laynenses (Kellenus- Colgan), and married to Feriacus, Prince of Monchestree (Feradach—Colgan). She had for brother-german the devout Congan, and a son approved for gravity of manners, Faelanus. Then follows the legend of S. Ibar rescuing him from the waters when he was seen at the bottom playing with angels. Leaving Ireland, the three betook themselves to Straphilane, where they remained some time. In the end, when deprived of the society of her son and brother, Kentigema went for the sake of contemplation to Inch Cailzeoch (Inchelroche — Camerarius) in Louchloumont in Levenax, where, after living as an anchorite, her soul ascended to Christ. The parochial church of the island is dedicated to her.—(Brev. Ab. pars hyem. foL xxv. ; Colgan, Acta SS. Hib. p. 21.) The Annals of Ulster record her death in 734 (733).—(Skene, Chron. of Picts and Scots, p. 356.) For an account of Inch Cailleach, see O.S. A, vol. ix. p. 12 ; N. S. A, Stirling, p. 90.

    Alexander Penrose Forbes, D.C.L. Bishop of Brechin, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, (1872), 373.

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  • Saint Tuililatha of Kildare, January 6

    January 6 is the feast day of a group of three female saints, collectively known as the ‘Daughters of Nadfrac’. Often with such groups of saints we do not have the names of the individuals who comprise it, but in this case the sources preserve the identities of  three distinct holy women- Muadhnat, Tuililatha and Osnat- albeit that that they are all commemorated on the same day. The three sisters are associated with monastic foundations in different parts of Ireland. Canon O’Hanlon starts with Saint Muadhnat, but as I have come across some further research on this saint at the last minute, I will start instead with the middle sister, Saint Tuililatha (also known as Tallula, Tuilach and more recently, Tuilclath), a successor to Saint Brigid as abbess of Kildare. At the end of his short piece Canon O’Hanlon follows the authority of the seventeenth-century hagiologist, Father John Colgan, in telling us that she flourished about the year 590, having been somewhat less impressed by the eighteenth-century Anglican antiquary, Mervyn Archdall, author of the famous survey of Irish religious houses, Monasticon Hibernicum (1786):

    St. Tallulla or Tulilach, Virgin, and Abbess of Kildare, County of Kildare. [Sixth Century.]

    The spouse of Christ leaves her home with its comforts, its joys, and its happy associations, as the bird leaves earth beneath it, soaring upward towards the skies, where it feels exposed to less danger and enjoys truer liberty. A sister to the aforementioned holy Virgin [i.e. St. Muadhnat] was St. Tallulla or Tulilach. By Archdall she is incorrectly called Falulla, and apparently without authority he assigns her rule over a community to A.D. 580. Tallulla, Abbess of Cill-Dara, or Kildare, occurs in the Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman and of Donegal, on this day. The epithet, Virgin, is affixed to a nearly similar entry in the Martyrology of Tallagh at the 6th of January. Here she is called Tuililatha. It cannot be ascertained, whether she preceded or succeeded St. Comnat in the government of nuns at Kildare for we only learn that the present holy abbess flourished about the year 590.

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