Gobnait
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gobnait, also spelled Gobnet, Gobhnet, Gobnaid, Gobnata, and Gobnatae, was a fifth-century Irish saint. The Irish liturgical calendar gives 11 February as her feastday.[1] She is the patron saint of Irish beekeepers, and for that reason her name has sometimes been Anglicized as Deborah, a name that in Hebrew means "bee". A holy well in County Limerick, close to the border of County Cork, is also known as St Debora's Well.[2]
[edit] Life and cult
She was born in County Clare. To escape a feud within their family, her household fled west to the Aran Islands and lived there for some time. A small church on Inis Oírr (Inisheer), called Cill Ghobnait and dating from the 8th or 9th century, is dedicated to her.
According to legend, angels told her that the place of her resurrection (i.e. where she was to die) was not there, but where she would find nine white deer grazing. Other places associated with her in Munster are linked with the story of her search for the nine white deer, which she found in Ballyvourney, County Cork.
The archaeological site in Ballyvourney that is associated with her is described in Selected Prehistoric Monuments in County Cork, by Anthony Weir.
Among the miracles attributed to her in her lifetime were the staying of a pestilence by marking off the parish as sacred ground and the routing of an enemy by loosing her bees upon them.
Her grave in the churchyard at Ballyvourney is decorated with crutches and other evidence of cures obtained through her intercession.
A standing wooden image of her, about 60 cm high, is kept by the Parish Priest. Of unknown age, it was once brightly painted.
Pope Clement VIII honoured the saint in 1601 by indulgencing a pilgrimage to her shrine and, in 1602, by authorizing a Proper Mass on her feast.
