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420 420 ST. ITA afterwards abandoned the roligious life, and discarded the habit. Once when St. Ita prayed that she might receive the Holy Commnnion from the hands of a worthy priest, she was instantaneously led by an angel to Clonmacnoise, a great distance from her own monastery, and there received the Sacrament from a very good and vener- able man. The priest and his assistants were not aware of her presence, and did not know what had become of the sacred elements until it was revealed to them by an angel, nor did any one miss the abbess from her place at home. When the holy man discovered what had hap- pened, he and some of his fellow monks took the long journey to Cluain Credhuil to receive Ita's blessing. By some accident one of those monks became blind on the way, but they all trusted that his sight would be restored by St. Ita, which hap2>cned accordingly. She requested the aged priest from whom she had received the Sacrament at Clonmacnoise to say Mass before her. Afterwards she ordered her nuns to present him with the vestments he had worn in her church, and which were made by her and the sbters. However, he declined the gift, on the plea that their abbot Eneas, or Angus, had forbidden them to receive any present from Ita but her prayers and blessing. Her answer was, "Tell him that when he visited the monastery of the holy virgin Chinrcacha Dercain she washed his feet and I helped to dry them with a linen towel, then he will not be angry, but will do me the favour to accept my gift." So they took the vest- ments with the abbess's blessing and returned home. When Eneas was told of the circumstance he remembered it, was satisfied, and accepted the present. (See Kaibeciia.) On the death of Ita*s uncle in the Nan Dosi country, she sent for his eight sons, and told them that their father was suffering in the other world for his sins in this ; she enjoined that each of them should daily give bread with meat or butter to the poor, and also lights, in order to gain repose for their father's soul. After two years of this, Ita told her cousins that their father was now released frx>m his great snfFeringB, but was without clothing, becanse in hii lifetime he had given no clothes to the poor in Christ's name. So they gave alms in clothing during one year, and then Ita told ^em that their fktker enjoyed rest, through their alms and her prayers, but especially through (jod'e mercy, and after giving her eight consinf a strong warning not to lose their 8Dali» through covetousness or love of the world, the abbess blessed them and parted from them. About 546 or 551, St. Ita obtained by her prayers, a victory for the Hy Conail Sept among whom she dwelt, over an enemy from West Mnnster, who had • force far more numerous than their own. This great saint is held in deep venera- tion, not only for her own holiness, hot on account of the vast influence for good she exercised on so many othen. Amongst those whom she taught in their youth were many holy women besidei St. Nessa and St. Fina. She was the intimate friend of St. Gumine, bishop of Clonfert, of the Abbot St. Congan (Feb. 27), of St Luchtigem (April 28) and St. Susrean (Oct. 25). The virtues and miracles of St. Ita are told in the lives of several Irish saints of her time (see St. Bethna) ; many of them are cures of blindness and diseases of the eyes. The Decies saints of her family are numerous, and are given in Colgan's appendix to her life, but a more ancient life of Ita than his own was known to Colgan, and was believed to have been written during the lifetime of Pulcherius. St. Ita died Jan. 15, 569, of a painful disease. She has been constantly vene- rated at Eileedy, otherwise Kilita or Eilardy, and throughout Hy ConaiL Her well may still be seen in the burial- ground of Eileedy, a little to the north of Ballagh Gortnadhy mountains. Her church has unfortunately been in some measure modernized; but a portion of the nave is in the ancient Irish style, and may well be part of the ori^nal church built by St. Ita. She is also venerated at Rosmiden, her native place in the Decies country, and at Eilmide, in the barony of upper Camello in county Limerick. The Protestant Church (^