Division Historian Johnny McLaughlin gave this report for February:
Saint Gobnait was a medieval saint and virgin active in the 6th century.
Her name translates from Gaelic to either Abigail or Deborah, and so she is also referred to as St. Abigail or St. Deborah.
We know very little about Gobnait’s life. Many saints in the early medieval period had a Life and/or Acts work written about them, but while there is believed to be a Life of St. Gobnait, it is believed to be a lost work. We know of her existence due to her being mentioned in different martyrologies and the life accounts of other saints, such as Saint Abban, her brother according to some sources, and Saint Finbarr, then Bishop of Cork.
We do not know when she was born, but we do know she was born in modern-day County
Clare. We don’t know any stories of her childhood, and there are no tales of her miracles. We
don’t even know when she died. One account says an ambiguous “family feud” caused her to
flee to the Inisheer of the Aran Islands, the monastic home of St. Enda of Aran.
While at Inisheer, an angel appeared to Gobnait. The angel told her that this was “not the
place of her resurrection.”
The angel instructed her to leave Inisheer and find nine white deer grazing. Gobnait obeyed the angel’s orders and traveled throughout Ireland searching for these deer.
Her travels led her to Ballyvourney, in modern-day County Cork. She found nine white deer grazing in a forest. This would be the spot of her convent.
With the help of St. Abban and the permission of St. Finbarr, the convent was built just
south of the wood. Saint Gobnait was made the abbess of the convent. She started a religious
order there and the nuns were dedicated to helping the sick. This forest today is known as Saint
Gobnait’s Wood, and protected by the EU as a “Site of Community Importance”.
Gobnait was also a skilled beekeeper. One amusing legend tells the story of a group of
brigands who attacked Ballyvourney, attempting to steal their cattle. Gobnait defended the
town by summoning a swarm of bees to attack the brigands. One version of the story has each bee transforming into an angelic soldier and the entire host chasing after the group of bandits.
Another landmark associated with Saint Gobnait is her well. Holy wells are a common
tradition in Ireland and are associated with several medieval saints. Today it is a site of veneration.
While the church that Saint Gobnait governed over is disused and in ruins, the site of her well is
a popular place to pray the rosary, as there is a well-defined path around the well where groups
can walk and pray the rosary together. This is often done on her feast day, February 11.
Saint Gobnait is well-represented in art. The aforementioned Saint Gobnait’s Well has a
statue built in 1951 in her likeness. The most famous piece of art dedicated to her is the
Saint Gobnait Window, is a stained glass window designed in 1915 by Irish artist Harry Clarke.
You can view it this day in Honan Chapel, Cork. In the window, Gobnait stands tall in half-profile
with a royal blue robe and silver veil and cloak.
Saint Gobnait is an incredible example of a saintly devotion kept alive entirely through oral
tradition and folk tales. She is beloved in the countryside of County Cork and at Inisheer, though
the only written records of her are as essentially a supporting character in other saints’ lives.
She, along with another Irish saint. St. Modomnoc is the patron saint of bees.
Her feast is February 11 (also two days before Modomnoc’s feast)
Saint Gobnait of Ballyvourney, pray for us!
