ON SS. DARIA AND DERBILIA, VIRGINS IN CONNACHT, A PROVINCE OF IRELAND,
IN THE SIXTH OR SEVENTH CENTURY.
COLLECTION.
Daria, virgin in Cornacia, a province of Ireland. (S.)
Derbilia, virgin in Cornacia, a province of Ireland. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ single. The royal race of Fiachra; intercourse with SS. Cormac and Columba; the places of the cult; St. Derbilia of Erris.
In the 5th century and also thereafter there flourished in Ireland, in the province of Connacht (Connaught), St. Daria and St. Derbilia are of the race of the Fiachrii; the most noble family of the Hy Fiachrach, formerly still more powerful and celebrated; whose history Philip Mac Dermott collected from Irish books and reduced to a brief compendium [Owen Connellan and Mac Dermott, The annals of Ireland translated, p. 98 and following.]. For from the stock of Fiachra, who was son of Eochaid Muigmedon, king of Ireland, and father and founder of this family, there came forth two kings of the whole of Ireland and many of Connacht, and very many men conspicuous for the praise of sanctity Colgan, Acta SS. Hiberniæ, p. 244.; of whom sixteen are recorded in the genealogical Menology and two others are added from other documents by Colgan Ibid., p. 248.. There come among these St. Daria, also called Soidhealbh, that is, the Beautiful, daughter of Cathir, son of Lugaid, son of Sedna, son of Amalgaid, son of Fiachra, and St. Derbhilia, daughter of Cormac, son of Brecc, son of Eochaid, son of David, son of Fiachra; both of whom are announced on the present day in the Irish calendars.
[2] the former of whom was visited and blessed by St. Cormac That the name of St. Daria, namely, is indicated on this day in the Martyrology of Tallaght is stated on the authority of Colgan Ibid., pp. 248 and 755.; but neither in our copies, nor in the edition of Matthew Kelly Cf. Martyrology of Tallagh, p. XXXVIII., does it occur today; so that what the immortal Irish hagiographer had read in the Martyrology of Marianus Gorman he seems by mistake to have transferred also to the Tallaght lists
. Nor do I find whence the same man knew that the St. Daria venerated on this day was a widow Trias thaumaturga, p. 545, number 67.. But the blessed virgin is excellently praised in the Irish Life of St. Cormac the abbot, which the same Colgan turned into Latin from the codex of Lecan. So that holy abbot, born of a most illustrious house of Munster, had betaken himself, in pursuit of a more severe life, to the more remote borders of Connacht, visiting there many holy men and shining everywhere with the spirit of prophecy. After, then, he had gone in the region of Kera to St. Finan, abbot of Rath, withdrawing thence the holy man came to a place afterwards called Magh-gamnach: where he met a certain virgin devoted to God, the mother of that monastery, by name Daria; who was, by Cathir his son, the granddaughter of Lugaid, a chief man in those parts: who, gathering the holy man in hospitality, received him most kindly with heartfelt charity. Whence the holy man, grateful for the benefit, withdrawing thence, blessed the holy virgin and her place, praying and in praying foretelling that that place, a true home of charity, would abound in cows, herds and milk products. Which oracle, afterwards proved true, left its name to this place. For it is thereafter called Magh-gamnach, which is interpreted the plain of cows that have calved or are giving milk In Colgan, Vitæ SS. Hiberniæ, p. 752.. For Magh, in which so many names of Celtic cities end (as Neomagus, Caturigomagus etc.), signifies a plain; and Gamhnach a cow that has calved or a milch cow, or (as O'Brien Focaloir etc., p. 271. and O'Reilly Irish-English Dictionary, under Gamhnach. turn this word) a stripper or unbulled cow.
[3] in Magaunagh, whose site is indicated; The site of these places is now well perceived. In Connacht, namely, which is the western part of Ireland, there extends to the winter sunset the mountainous county of Mayo, where to the summer sunrise there exists the barony of Tyrawley, formerly the region of Tir-Amhalgaigh Colgan, Acta SS. Hiberniæ, p. 248.. There, then, on the road which is paved between Crossmolina and Dunfeeny, you have first the village or parish of Moygaunagh or Magaunagh and then Kilfian [Cf. Carlisle and Lewis, Topographical dictionary of Ireland, under the words Killfyan or Kilfyan and Magaunagh or Moygawna.]; the latter of which is Kill-Finain, in the region of Kera, where St. Cormac visited St. Finan, and Magaunagh is Magh-gamnach, where he found St. Daria. But, as is established from the monuments which the Venerable Mr. John O'Hanlon sent me, no memory of the blessed virgin survives there any longer, nor traces of an old church; although there are there a Catholic and a Protestant building, several old cemeteries, and also remains of the druidic age. The times of St. Daria can be known only from her intercourse with St. Cormac; but in the Life of St. Cormac there are very difficult knots, since it is there said that the holy man lived in the age of the sons of Amalgaid, who were contemporaries of St. Patrick, and of SS. Gerald and Adamnan, who were in Ireland only after the middle of the 7th century Cf. Colgan, Acta SS. Hiberniæ, p. 755, number 1.: which latter mark of time Colgan thought should be neglected. For my part I should refer the blessed abbess to the 6th or 7th century.
[4] and the latter was held in honour by the posterity of Amalgaid, There is mentioned also in the Life of St. Cormac St. Derbilia, virgin, in these words Ibid., p. 753.: The holy man fixed his seat among the sons and posterity of Amalgaid; who with their kindred people, namely the posterity of Dathi, son of Fiachra (for this Dathi was the brother of Amalgaid), honoured their most pious stranger and his successors with great propensity of mind, and increased them with many honours; until in the course of time their devotion toward him gradually cooled; being diverted and drawn off, that is, to other men, and especially to St. Cuimine, surnamed the Tall, St. Monennoc, St. Mutedacius, bishop, St. Ectacia, virgin, St. Mecharius and St. Derbilia, virgin; who was the daughter of Cormac, son of Brecc, arising from the seed of the aforesaid Dathi. And from the time when their devotion toward this most holy man declined, their power also is said to have declined. Hence also it is clear that St. Derbilia originated from northern Connacht, the seat of the Fiachrii.
[5] Further O'Clery in the Martyrology of Donegal, not long ago published in Irish and English by the most learned men Todd and Reeves, [and she is to be distinguished from St. Derbilia of Erris, who accompanied St. Columba.] where he announces at this day St. Darbilia, who was of the race of Fiachra, son of Eochaid, designates her by adding the name of a place, Achadh Chuilinn, namely Darbile, Achadh Chuilinn Martyrologium Dungallense, pp. 284 and 285.; by which she is distinguished from St. Derbilia of Erris, inscribed in the Irish calendars at the 3rd day of August: which latter must have been from Irros or Eirros, now Erris, the barony of Erris, county of Mayo, at the far end of northern Connacht; since, when St. Columba at the end of the 6th century founded a monastery in Druimchliabh, now Drumcliff [Carlisle, Topogr. diction. of Ireland, under Drumcliff; Reeves, Life of St Columba, pp. 279 and 289.], in the barony of Carbury, county of Sligo, province of Connacht, she was (as is read in the Irish Life of St. Farannan Colgan, Acta SS. Hiberniæ, vol. I, p. 337, number VII. and from there in the second appendix to the Life of St. Columba Trias thaumaturga, p. 463, number LV.) among the prelates of the neighbouring regions, and very many other men and women notable for sanctity, who met the blessed man, receiving him with the kiss of peace and jubilation of heart, and who accompanied him beyond the shore called Traigh-Eochuile, and thence to the region of Tyr-Fiachrach. But in what part of the country Achadh Chuilinn is situated who could say? Certainly in northern Connacht; but more accurate things must be awaited from learned Irishmen. And since St. Derbilia of Erris flourished in the times of St. Columba, it remains that her death be marked at the end of the 6th century or the beginnings of the following one; but only by divination can St. Derbilia of Achad Chuilinn be referred to the 6th or 7th century.