Monenna of Killeavy

Saint Monenna of Killeavy (also called Moninne or Darerca) was one of the earliest women saints of Ireland, abbess and founder of the convent of Sliabh Cuillin (Slieve Gullion) in County Armagh. She reposed around 517 or 518.

According to tradition, she was born around 435 in the Donaghmore district of County Down, the daughter of King Machta. It is said that Saint Patrick, passing through her parents' house, baptized her and foretold that her name would be remembered through the ages; he is also said to have veiled her as a nun. She was also said to have been brought up by Saint Brigid of Kildare. The name Moninne comes from the Irish for "my daughter", and a legend says she received it when she healed a mute man whose first word was "Ninna".

She founded several convents, among them one at Faughart in County Louth, dedicated to Saint Brigid. But the noise of a wedding feast in the village below the hill disturbed the sisters, and they resolved to seek a place better suited to their life. Monenna took her nuns to the island of Begerin, to her uncle Saint Ibar, one of the first Irish bishops, to be guided in the monastic life. They then returned to the north and settled at Faughart and finally at Killeavy, "the church of the mountain". The community began with eight virgins and a widow with an infant boy, Luger, whom the sisters raised lovingly and who later became a bishop. The nuns led a hermit's life, modeled on the prophet Elijah and Saint John the Baptist. Tradition also credits her with founding convents in Scotland and England.

Monenna was buried at Killeavy. A large granite stone covers the place believed to be her grave, and pilgrims prayed there and at her holy well higher up the mountain. Her feast, 6 July, was kept with a pilgrimage until the laws against the faithful banned such gatherings; the well, forgotten after 1825, was found again in 1880, and the pilgrimage was revived in 1928. She is commemorated on 6 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.