Heather,

Whether Brigid was more Goddess than St or not, two of the only other three
female saints of Ireland with extant vitae also went out and "set up shop"
on their own.  Ita was told by an angel to leave her homeland (near Tara)
behind and to found her own community in Limerick.  The angel also told her
father, who tried to prevent her from becoming a nun, "Not only will you
allow her to receive the seal of virginity, but you will give her leave to
go wherever she wishes to serve Christ.  Then amid another clan she will
serve God, and she will be their patron." Her sister apparently came with
her or joined her later, as Ita later gave her in marriage to a craftsman,
which resulted in St Mochaomhóg, whom Ita raised and educated, as she did
many other saints of Ireland, most famously Brénainn (the Navigator).  Some
of her cousins also visited so that she could help them pray their father
out of hell, which she did.  Other than that, her family doesn't figure in
her Life at all after she left them.

So many women came to join Darerca in her religious life that she realized
she and her community had to leave her parents' home, but there were no
monasteries for women in her homeland (the field of Murthemne in Louth) at
this time (like Brigid, she was a fifth-century st).  Thus she crossed the
island to hook up with Bishop Ibar, who lived in the western isles.  Many
travels about the island ensued (including one stay with Brigid at Kildare
without Ibar) until she left Ibar once and for all in SE Ireland.  She then
returned north and founded at least 3 communities.

The third saint, Samthann, is not credited with setting up any shops of her
own, but she lived later than the other two (7th/8th cen), at a time when no
new monasteries were founded, or so it would seem from what evidence exists.
According to her Life, she left her first community, Urney, for Cluain
Brónaigh at the request of Fuinech, Cluain Brónaigh's founder.  Fuinech then
promptly disappears from the Life, probably because she is believed to have
lived in the fifth/sixth centuries and served here as the symbol for her
monastery.  Fuinech has no Life of her own and little more is known about her.

Separating fact from fiction in early Irish hagiography is an exceptionally
daunting task--admiranda easily overshadows imitanda, and the history is
most ambiguous.  Only four sanctae Hiberniae have extant vitae, although
hundreds were celebrated in martyrologies, litanies, vitae, etc.  I would
imagine that belief in the miraculous at least partly depended on what it
does today--faith--and the miraculous was intensified by the heavy influence
of "pagan" myths and legends on sts' Lives.  Setting up one's own shop is a
common feature in the vitae sanctarum Hiberniae--whether or not they did
Evilpaganthings in their communities is of course an extremely loaded
question, but, as the sts' Lives, and particularly Brigid herself, indicate,
the pagan and the Christian often blended without an explicit awareness of
any contradiction or tension.

There is a fourth st, Lasair, whose Life you might find very interesting (I
sure do), but her Life (in Irish) survives only in a late 17th-cen
manuscript.  It tells of how her parents sent their six daughters and one
son to be educated,  "and after three months Lasair's learning was greater
than the learning of [the people] who had been in the [school] two years
before her, and her wisdom and learning exceeded at the end of that year
that of the rest after seven years"--wisdom and learning pointedly
attributed to the Holy Spirit rather than her teacher, St Molaise.  After
she left him, she returned home and before too long devised a way to set up
her own shop:
"After Lasair had been a period and space in company of her father and
mother, she spoke to them and said that it was time for her to obtain from
them a patrimony and estate, for she was accomplished in all learning,
ingenious in each art, and ready in all wisdom, and that she had been seized
with a jealousy and envy of all lands and noble estates possessed by her
other sister, even Damhnad daughter of Ronan, who was inferior to her in
learning and craft, and she said to her father and mother angrily,
resentfully and passionately, that of their children none should be better
in management of lands and usages of an estate than she herself.  And never
did a fit of jealousy nor deadly sin seize Lasair from the night that she
was born till the night of her death save only the envy she then conceived
against Damhnad." 
The Life quickly recounts the sisters' reconciliation and their agreement to
share their parents' lands equally "in companionship and friendship with
each other."  In these lands, she set up her own church (as did Damhnad) and
later led a "congregation of holy scholars" composed of both men and women.
Though her hagiographer acknowledges Lasair's culpability in envying her
sister, he makes no judgment concerning her claims of superiority, claims
made wholly on her intellect, skill, and learning--not her virtue or piety,
and certainly not her humility!  She may have been the same Lasair who,
according to the Life of the most renowned teacher of all Ireland, Finnén of
Cluain Iraird, was sent to Cluain Iraird by his sister, Rignach, to further
her education.  Finnén, however, does not figure in Lasair's Life.
Incidentally, her sister Damhnad has been identified with St Dymphna, who
appears from time to time on this list.  The twists and turns of that
dubious connection would greatly lengthen this already lengthy e-mail
(apologies).  Suffice it to say, however, that Dymphna ties into the
histories of many women who were believed to have left Ireland to set up
their own shop on the Continent.  If you're interested, Lasair's Life has
been published (in Irish and English) in Eriu vol. 5, pgs. 73-109.  One of
Darerca's Lives has been translated by the Ulster Society for Medieval Latin
Studies, in Seanchas Ard Mhacha 9 (1978-79): 250-73, and 10 (1980-2): 117-41
and 426-54.  Her more reliable (at least in my humble opinion) Life has not
yet been published in English, nor have Ita's or Samthann's, but if you can
read Latin, I'll gladly send you the references.

Hope this helps,

Maeve

At 11:57 PM 7/7/99 +0100, you wrote:
>
>>And the existence (or not) of independent nuns who (like the story of
>>the 4th-c. St. Brighid) just sort of went out and "set up shop" on their
>>own? 
>>
>>Thank you very much for any help, and for that lettuce story and source,
>>Heather Law
>>
>
>As you probably know there are grave doubts as to the historicity of St
>Brigid.  See, for example , Liam de Paor, 'Ireland and Early Europe', Four
>Courts Press, 1997.
>
>best wishes
>
>Steve Rouse
>
>
>
>
>***********************************
>Steve Rouse                               
>Phone 00 44 (0)1372 372650   
>Fax       00 44 (0)1372 818698
>                      
>***********************************
>
>



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