St. Gobnait of Ballyvourney (SAE 003) Photo Block

St. Gobnait (aka Deborah or Abigail), a 6th-century Irish saint, is the female patron saint of bees and beekeepers par excellence. Though popular in Ireland, St. Gobnait does not appear to be well known in the United States except by Christians of Irish descent and beekeepers. Her various names are not insignificant: In Irish, Gobnait means ‘honeybee’ or ‘little smith‘; in Hebrew, Deborah means ‘honeybee‘; and, also in Hebrew, Abigail means ‘gives joy’ or ‘my father’s joy‘. However, to avoid confusion with two Old Testament women--Deborah the Prophetess, the fourth (and only female) Judge in pre-monarchic Israel, and Abigail, a prophetess and a wife to David before he became king—we will be using the name Gobnait (pronounced GAAB-NEYT) here throughout. Variations on the Irish version of her name include Gobnata, Gobnet, Gobeneta, and Mo Gobnat. + According to tradition—and tradition is almost all we have--St. Gobnait was born in County Clare. Troubles at home forced her to flee to the Aran Islands in Galway Bay where she studied monasticism under St. Enda (d. c. 530). On Inisheer, the smallest and most eastern of the three Aran Islands, a ruined church bearing her name (Kilgobnat or Gobnait’s Church) recalls her sojourn. At Inisheer, she received a vision of an angel and a message: Go back to Ireland proper and establish a convent at the place where there are nine white deer grazing. St. Gobnait began to wander the Irish countryside. Wherever she went, the names of churches and holy wells preserve her memory. But, it was not until she reached Ballyvourney (Baile Bhúirne), County Cork, that she saw the long-awaited sign. With the help of St. Abban of Kilabban, County Meath, who already had a monastery in the area, St. Gobnait founded a religious community for women and was installed as abbess. At her foundation, she kept bees, worked iron, treated the sick, and fought off brigands, thieves, and the plague. Medicinal honey figured in her cures and she once set a swarm of bees after cattle rustlers. + Feast: February 11 + Here, against a golden yellow and white honeycomb pattern, we have placed our image of St. Gobnait. Our figure, a Saints_Aplenty Exclusive, is a pastiche—head and shoulders from a 19th-century costume bookplate, body and hand from 19th-century devotional prints, bees and hive from a mediaeval manuscript via Wiki Commons, etc.—framed in a large hexagon. She wears a belted grey robe and an emerald green, hooded cloak fastened by two brooches reminiscent of sunflowers. In her left hand, she holds a crosier emblematic of her office of abbess; in her right, a skep or beehive. A rabble of bees surround her and crawl over the hive she holds. + Image Credit (SAE 003): Pastiche by Saints_Aplenty. + Special Acknowledgement (Bees and Hive): The bees and beehive have been extracted, adapted, and repurposed from a mediaeval manuscript painting by an anonymous 14th-century artist. The manuscript entitled the Tacuinum Sanitatis is a mediaeval handbook for healthy living. From WikiMedia Commons, Public Domain. The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights.