OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Female Saints

  • Saint Dymphna: 'Lode-star of the Lost Ones'

    Saint Dympna – or Davnet of Ireland may belong to legend or
    mythology; Saint Dympna of Gheel to a holy tradition: Saint-Dympna-of-Today belongs to us all. She is part, as it were, of
    our national innocence…

    …While the secret of
    Creation remains hidden from the wise and the prudent, it does seem to
    be revealed from time to time through this little saint whose century
    and nationality is quite obscure.

    Rejected from the
    acta of saints, she is paradoxically become the lode-star of the lost
    ones and has quietly but firmly established herself as their advocate.

    “Saint Dympna!” They cried long ago – AND THEY STILL DO – 

    “Saint Dympna – pray for us”. 

    Angela Verne, Fugitive Saint (Farnworth, 1961), 201-202.

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  • Saint Mettán of Túaim Átha, March 7

    On March 7 the Irish calendars record the name of Saint Mettán, yet another of Ireland’s enigmatic female saints. As Canon O’Hanlon explains in Volume III of his Lives of the Irish Saints it is not known when or where this holy virgin flourished. All of the calendars record her name at this date and associate the locality of Tuaim-Atha with her. The index of places appended to the Martyrology of Gorman suggests that Túaim Átha might be Tooma, a townland in the barony of Mohill, County Leitrim and that the name Mettán is a diminutive possibly derived from meta ‘timid’:
     

    Article V. St. Metan or Meattan,Virgin, of Tuaim-atha. 
     
    The entry, Metan o Thuaim athi, appears in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 7th of March. Marianus O’Gorman has a like notice, while the Bollandists allude to the circumstance, that her place and history are unknown. The Martyrology of Donegal mentions, likewise, Meattan, Virgin of Tuaim-atha, as having a festival on this day. The word, Tuaim, usually Anglicised, Toom, enters into the composition of many local denominations, in Ireland. 
     
    Note: This post was first published in 2014 and revised in 2022.

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  • Saint Medhbh of Ardachadh, November 22

    November 22 is the feast of Saint Caecilia, the martyr now regarded as the patroness of music and honoured throughout the universal Church. Indeed the Martyrology of Oengus devotes its entire entry for the day to her with this lyrical tribute, as translated by Whitley Stokes:

    22. After suffering in martyrdom, O Mary! a shining light, Caecilia beautiful, radiant, ran to the angelic Prince.

    But other Irish calendars record the feast of a native holy woman at this date, Medhbh (Medb, Maeve) of Ardachadh. The late twelfth-century Martyrology of Gorman notes:

    Medb of Ard-achad

    whilst at November 22 the early seventeenth-century Martyrology of Donegal  lists:

    Medhbh of Ardachadh

    Stokes identifies the locality Ard-achad, ‘high field’ with Ardagh, County Longford. Much has been recorded of the patron of the Diocese, Saint Mel (feast day February 6), but alas, nothing more is recorded of Saint Medhbh. The most famous bearer of this ancient Irish name is the legendary queen of Connacht, but sadly the saint is one of many Irish holy women who remain shrouded in obscurity.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2021. All rights reserved.