Image source: Iconography by Melissa Strickler
Material distilled from diverse sources: Irish Heritage News; Hanna’s Bees; Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae in two diverse blogs
St Gobnait lived in the 6th century and she is mentioned in the Life of St Abbán. There are two extant versions of St. Abbán’s Life 1) Vita Sancti Abbani and 2) Betha Abáin). Now in the area of Muscraige, Abbán, a male saint built his foundation, then called ‘Huisneach’, presently called Ballyvourney (Baile Bhuirne = Town of the Beloved). St. Abbán then surrendered his Huisneach monastery to the virgin St Gobnait.
St Gobnait is referred to in the Martyrology of Tallaght, and the Book of Leinster as well as the Martyrology of Gorman. The Martyrology of Oengus mentions Gobnat from Muscraige Mitaine, as a sharp-beaked nun. The calendar of Cashel, makes references to her as being a nun of aristocratic lineage. Patterns are held in her honour on her feast day in Kerry. The term “pattern” (deriving from “patron”) refers to rituals of devotion.
Gobnait’s story
This female saint was kind and generous with the poor to a fault; at a very young age, she took meat from her father’s table to give to the needy. Her father strongly objected to such practices. One day he figured he caught Gobnait in the act of subtly spiriting away food in a basket. He demanded to know what she was carrying. Her hand was forced, but when she opened her basket, her father found it full of flowers instead of the expected meat. It was one of those miracles, lucky for the young Gobnait.
Tradition holds that Gobnait sought refuge on the Aran islands, away from some family feuding in Co. Clare. She travelled to the island of Inis Oírr, the smallest Island. Today it is host a small ruin church called Kilgobnet (Cill Ghobnait = Gobnait’s Church). On Inis Oírr, an angel appeared to Gobnait and instructed her to leave for the mainland. She would find her resting place when she would find nine white deer grazing at the place of her resurrection. Gobnait travelled south of the country and leaving her mark throughout Munster. Her name and appellations abound in the form of Deborah (Hebrew for bees), Derivla, Abigail and Abby.
St. Gobnait stopped in Co. Waterford for example. In the parish of Kilgobnet. Here we can find a medieval church dedicated to her and a holy well formerly called Tobergobnet. St. Gobnait later made her way to West Muskerry in Co. Cork looking for the white deer. She found three white deer near Clondrohid, and six deer in the townland of Killeen. Alas in God’s time, she found the nine white deer together, as prophesised by the angel. They were grazing in Ballyvourney. St. Gobnet settled in a place along the River Sullane, a tributary river that begins in the rock of the Derrynasaggart (oak of the priest) mountains.
Traditions abounds about St. Gobnet and her nuns at Ballyvourney. For example, an imposter tried to build a castle in the glen to lay claim to the valley. Gobnet resisted him, by throwing a stone ball at his construction site knocking down the rising walls. The ball returned to Gobnet like a boomerang; eventually the imposter tired of his wily schemes, went away empty handed; the miraculous stone ball is still venerated at Ballyvourney.
We have another anecdote of a robber who came to herd away all the Ballyvourney people’s cattle. Now St. Gobnet was an experienced bee-keeper and she set her bees on the robber who fled for his life empty handed. Each of Gobnait’s bee turned into an armed soldier in defence of the vulnerable cattle. From such traditions, St. Gobnet is represented in art as a bee keeper, or beachaire in Irish. Honey and beeswax were co-natural goods to the native Irish during St Gobnait’s epoch. The Beeswax came in handy for candle making for the church. Honey is sweet and used in the making of mead, a popular Celtic drink. Honey also has healing properties and St Gobnait used honey for this reason. Raw honey, for example has antibacterial properties and promotes wound healing.
Another anecdote on the saint is that she held back the plague spreading into the district, by her prayers and by drawing a line in the valley; the local inhabitants did not have problems with the plague as a result. If illness did surface, Gobnait proved a good nurse. One of her nuns was unwell and Mother Gobnait took her to a quiet corner of the glen to recuperate. Gobnait prayed that no noise or disturbance would upset the nun. To this day Ballyvourney is a very tranquil place even when the country is beset by storms and thunder…
Today, a short distance south of the village of Ballyvourney is an early medieval ecclesiastical site featuring a late medieval parish church (Teampall Ghobnatan), surrounded by an enclosed graveyard (Reilg Ghobnatan) believed to mark St Gobnait’s final resting place. Across the road from the graveyard is a stone-built circular hut structure approximately 10m in diameter. It is called St Gobnait’s House or St Gobnait’s Kitchen.
Her house was excavated in 1951 by MJ O’Kelly, Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork. The excavation also revealed numerous iron-smelting and metal-working pits, crucibles and large amounts of charcoal and slag waste from the iron smelting. Gobnait is the patron saint of ironworkers. Her name combines the pet name Gobba, which derives from “gobha” or “gabha” meaning “smith”, and the feminine suffix -nait/-naid.
St Gobnait’s medieval wooden statue
Significantly, a 13th or 14th-century wooden statue of the saint is presently kept in Ballyvourney. A rare artefact, made of oak, it is 690mm tall, which is about the height of your kitchen chair. It is hollowed out from behind, a common feature of medieval wooden statues. The face is now featureless. Her left arm is folded across her chest and her right hand is by her side. The wooden statue is safely stored in the Catholic parish church in Ballyvourney and is put on display twice a year: 11 February and Palm Sunday.
We celebrate St. Gobnait’s feast day on 11th February
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