Saint Íte of Killeedy
Today in the Orthodox Church is the feast-day of a beloved Irishwoman, Saint Íte of Killeedy, whose importance in præ-Schismatic Celtic Christianity is second only to that of Saint Brigid, to whom she is often compared. Indeed, she has been called by her hagiographer ‘the white sun of Munster’ and is known as the ‘foster mother of the Irish saints’, because she was an inspiration and a direct teacher of an entire generation of Irish saints including Saint Breandán the Navigator.
Saint Íte [also Deirdre or Míde] was born around the year 480 near what is now Waterford, near Munster, in southeastern Ireland. Her high-born parents were both Christian, and she was given the baptismal name of Deirdre. From a very early age she exhibited a passion for the Church and a particular love for Christ; as a child she had a particular meekness and kindness that distinguished her from her fellows in age. Her parents were amazed to see that she kept the fasts even as a toddler, and for some time her room was filled with a holy fire which did not burn hot, and by which her parents knew it for the grace of God.
Therefore, it surprised no one when, on reaching the age of maturity, Deirdre decided to move out of her home and pursue the life of an anchoress. Her father – who had sought to match her with another nobleman for political reasons – was displeased at first, but he soon came to accept and bless her decision, and he offered her to Bishop Declán of Ardmore so that she might take the veil. It was Declán who gave her the monastic name of Íte (meaning ‘thirst’ in Gælic), by which he signified her thirst for the love of God.
Saint Íte went out with her sister Fiona, who too became a nun. Together they followed the sign that took the form of pillars of light – a sign which echoed the pillar which guided the Hebrews in the desert – into Limerick, where at last they stopped at a place suitable for a small hermitage. They asked of the ruler there, and the ruler granted them a large tract of land. Saint Íte refused, however, all but four acres of his offering: the four acres which had been shown to them by the three pillars of light.
This four acres of wilderness in Limerick would become the convent of Killeedy, where Íte became the first abbess. The stead sat at the foot of the mountains, and was the first religious community of its kind in that part of Ireland. Íte’s little cloister had a vegetable garden to attend to the simple needs of the body for the women in her convent. She also encouraged music and singing among her nuns, and even herself composed melodies which still exist in the Western tradition of church music. But the chief accomplishment of her monastery was not in composing airs or in tending vegetables, but in growing another and much more precious sort of crop.
Íte’s passion was for education. She established a school for children, which welcomed both girls and boys. Many parents who desired for their children the best of learning both sæcular and religious sent them to Saint Íte, who in her time taught not only Saint Breandán at her school for boys but also the holy men Mochoemoc, Cumian, Fachanan and Columbán. In this way she earned the epithet ‘foster-mother of the Irish saints’. What is truly amazing is that this mere girl of sixteen, the daughter of a local chieftain who did not possess so much as the rudiments of an education by books let alone great erudition in the matters of sæcular life, was given the wisdom to teach children who would themselves become known among the wisest of men in the Christian West. Saint Íte was elevated among the wise not through books or through travels or through first-hand observation, but precisely through the spirit of humility and devotion to Christ that she cultivated in her small anchorage.
So great indeed was Saint Breandán’s love and awe for his tutor that he often came to visit Saint Íte between his farings by sea, when he found himself in need of spiritual advice or direction. One time her pupil asked her what things Christ loves best, and Saint Íte answered him: ‘faith in God with a pure heart; a simple life with a religious spirit; and love and generosity to the least of His brothers and sisters’. When Breandán asked her what things He most detested, she told him: ‘a hateful heart; an obstinate life persisting in sin; and reliance on money’.
Saint Íte herself did her best to exhibit in her own life all three of these qualities Christ loves best. She taught not only by words but by example. She drew many women of all ages from every corner of Ireland to her little corner of Limerick, and when these women understood the faith of her heart they followed her in imitation of her life. She lived a very simple life indeed – she was quite stable, and never left her convent. Instead she spent all of her waking hours singing the glory of God, nursing her vegetables and her pupils. And she gave of whatever substance she had in assisting the needy, the elderly, the sick and infirm, and infants.
Saint Íte was unfortunately given to some of the extremes of austerity exhibited among the Celts in their occasional giddy self-assurance, and had to be warned by the angels of God on more than one occasion not to tax her body too heavily with strict fasting and strenuous toil. On other occasions, also just as with the Hebrews in the desert as they were led by Moses, food would appear to her from the heavens and the ministers of the Most High would bid her to eat. However, her holiness of life was never in doubt, and her Christ-given meekness and humility guided her in these visions. She gained a reputation as a wonderworker in life, and performed miraculous healings including one man from among her kin, whom she raised from the dead after he was slain in battle.
Saint Íte was gifted with a long span of years, and lived to the age of ninety. She was given to know when her end was approaching before it happened, and prepared herself accordingly. She gathered her sisters around her and gave them her blessing, and exhorted them to the way of life she had done her best to exemplify. She reposed in the Lord on the fifteenth of January, 570. The site of her monastery (which was raided and destroyed by Danish pirates in the ninth century) and her gravesite are still destinations of pilgrimage, and it’s customary for pilgrims to honour her grave with posies. She is still a particular patron of schoolchildren and pregnant women. Holy mother Íte, gentle tutor of the Irish saints, we beseech your intercessions with Christ our God!
Casting aside thy royal rank, and embracing the godly monastic life,
Thou didst found a renowned school of piety,
Wherein thou didst nurture the souls of saints
In reverence and the knowledge of God;
And having thus labored to please thy Bridegroom and Master,
Thou hast moved all the land of Erin to cry unto Him:
Have pity on us, O Lord of all,
And grant that we may ever stand with Íte at Thy right hand!
St Íte’s Cemetery, Killeedy
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