Moninne
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Saint Moninne or Modwenna of
Killeavy Killeen"Killeen" is the official name of the townland. or Killean () is a small village and townland in the civil parish of Killevy, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about four miles (6.5 km) south of Newry, near the border with Cou ...
was one of
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
's early female saints. After instruction in the religious life, she founded a community, initially consisting of eight virgins and a widow with a baby, at Slieve Gullion, in what became
County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...
. They lived an
eremitical A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...
life, based on that of
Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...
and
Saint John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
. Moninne died in 517. Her feast day is 6 July.


Life

Moninne was born around 435 in the Donaghmore area of County Down. Her father was Machta, King of the territory stretching from Louth to Armagh and her mother was Comwi or Coman daughter of one of the northern kings. It was said that she was baptised and confirmed by Saint Patrick. When he was passing through the lands of Machta he stopped at her parents' house and predicted that Moninne's name would be remembered throughout time. It was said that she was veiled by Saint Patrick also. There are a couple of versions of the name Moninne, for example, Darerca, Blinne or the spelling Moninna which means in Irish "My Ninna" or "My Daughter". A legend says that she got the name "Moninna" when she cured a dumb man and the first word he uttered was "Ninna Ninna". It was also said that when she was a baby the first word she said was Ninna. She is said to have been brought up by St.
Brigid of Kildare Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland (; Classical Irish: ''Brighid''; ; ) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish ...
. Monenna founded a number of convents in Scotland and England and also founded a nunnery in Faughart, County Louth,"St. Morinne's Well", Armagh Archdiocese
/ref> One night the nuns were disturbed by sounds of profane merriment from the homesteads lower down the hill, and when they enquired the cause were told that there was a wedding party in one of the houses. Moninne and her sisters found this a distraction and determined to seek for themselves a place more suited to their way of life. She took her Sisters west to the island of Begerin to be guided in the ways of monastic life by her uncle, one of the first Irish bishops, St. Ibar.Duffy, Patrick. "Saint Moninne of Killeavy", CatholicIreland.net
/ref> The community eventually returned from Leinster to the north of Ireland, settling first at Faughart, then at Killeavy. Faughart Church was founded by Saint Moninne in honour of Brigid. The nunnery at Killeavy (meaning "church of the mountain"), initially consisting of eight virgins and a widow with a baby boy. The lad, whose name was Luger, was lovingly raised by the sisters and in time became a bishop. She died around the year 517 and was buried at Killeavy.


Veneration

A large
granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
stone covers the supposed grave of St Moninne and on days when the Pattern (which was the anniversary of the day on which a church had been dedicated to a saint) was celebrated, prayers were said at this spot and the pilgrims continued to her Holy Well further up the slopes of Slieve Gullion, returning to this gravestone for the final prayer. The Pattern Day of St Moninne was 6 July, but with the coming of persecution to the Catholic faith, these religious ceremonies were banned by law. After the suppression of the Pattern in 1825, the existence of the Holy Well was forgotten about but it was re-discovered by Father James Donnelly, C. C., Meigh in 1880. Saint Moninne's Well is marked by a large white cross. The Pattern was revived in 1928 and appears to have survived until 1934. A shrine was placed over the well with a statue Of the Virgin Mary. The inscription on the well reads "Tobhar Naoimh Blathnaidh". The scene was a historical setting for the Holy Year Pilgrimage on 4 August 1974. Monnine's feast day is celebrated on 6 July and is marked by pilgrims visiting her well. The
Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...
club founded in Killeavy in 1888 is
Killeavy St Moninna's GAC Killeavy Saint Moninna's Gaelic Athletic Club () is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in Killeavy, County Armagh, near Newry, Northern Ireland. Killeavy won the 2012 Armagh Intermediate Football Championship and participates in other Ar ...
.


See also

*
Darerca Darerca may refer to any one of four Irish saints: * Darerca of Ireland, 5th century sister of Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (; or ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British culture, Romano-British Christian missionary and Archbishop of Armagh ...


References


External links


Reade, George H., ''Cill-Sleibhe-Cuillinn, Founded by St. Darerca, alias Moninne, about 518'', 1868
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moninne 432 births 518 deaths 5th-century Irish abbots 6th-century Irish abbots People from County Armagh 6th-century Christian saints Female saints of medieval Ireland Medieval saints of Ulster Irish-language feminine given names Feminine given names 5th-century Irish women 6th-century Irish women