Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/433

419 ST. ITA 419 same time an angel appeared in a yision to her father, and said, '< Why prevent Ita from taking the yeil and going where she pleases ? She shall serve Grod in a distant part of Ireland and he the patron saint of the people who dwell there, and an advocate for many at the day of judg- ment." Eennfoelad accordingly urged his daughter to take the veil ; which she did that very day in a church in the neighhourhood of Nan Desi. She was directed hy an angel to go to Cluain Credhuil ni Hy Conail, now called Eileedy or Eilita, near Newcastle, in Limerick. There she was joined by many women who shared her holy pur- pose, so that in a few years she was at the head of a large community of nuns. The prince of Hy Conail offered her a large tract of land round the monastery, but she would only accept four acres to be cultivated as a vegetable garden. The prince then declared that the monastery would be more richly endowed after the death of the founder than during her life. That might well be, for Ita rejected all valuable gifts and would never touch money. Beoan or Bevan, a warrior as well as an artificer in wood and stone, was obliged to flee from his own country of Cen- nanght: Colgan says he was killed in battle and raised to life by St. Ita. He came to Hy Conail, and while living there made some additions to St. Ita's monastery. She had a beautiful young sister Nessa, who had joined her with the intention of becoming a nun, but Ita persuaded her to marry Bevan, and gave him an estate. In answer to the prayers of St. Ita, this marriage was blessed with a saintly son, Mochoemoc or Pulcherius, whom she brought up. At twenty she sent him to Bangor. After some years' training there, he returned to Munster and fotmded the monastery of Liathmore in Kin^B County. The Abbess Ita assisted the poor by finding work for them, especially by em- ploying them in the building of her monastery. It was probably as a work of charity in the first instance that she employed the exile Bevan to make additions to it. Besides St. Nessa, Ita had another sister whom she educated ; her name was FiNA. But especially did she devote much care and time to the instruction of the young Brendan of Clonfert, called the Navigator because he made a seven years' voyage in search of the earthly Paradise. She brought him up from the time he was one year old until he was six. It is supposed they were relations, in any case there was great friendship between them. He consulted Ita on points of duty, and once she advised him to go to Brittany, as a penance, for having involuntarily helped to cause the death of a person who was drowned at sea. Some authorities say the little Brendan was brought up in the nunnery, but according to others, Ita's part in his training was before she took the veil, certainly before she became Abbess of Cluain Credhuil ; it is this which throws back the date of her birth so early as 480. Brendan was brother of St. Briga (4), and died 577. Ita had so great a reputation for wisdom as well as holiness that persons often went to her for advice on matters of difficulty. Among those who visited her were an abbess and some nuns who came from a neighbouring monastery to refer a difficult question to her decision. The saint became aware of their approach by supernatural means, possibly by second sight, and so prepared baths and a feast for them. As soon as the visitors arrived, all the sisters exchanged the kiss of peace with the Abbess Ita, except one. She hesitated on account of being suspected of theft. She was quite inno> cent, but as yet had not been able to clear herself. Ita, however, held out her hands to the poor nun, saying, ''Come and kiss me, for I know you are not the guilty one." All the guests wondered at Ita's knowing anything of the a£fair, and concluded that as she knew so much she would be able to tell them who really was the thief, and besought her to do so. The prompt answer was, " She who is in penance for another fault has also done this," directing them where to find the stolen article, and foretelling the per- dition of the unworthy nun. She soon