Cows graze in the lovely green fields across from St. Gobnait's well. Our pilgrims prayed at this Holy Well and blessed one another. The water was ice cold and clear just like I remember it about 14 years ago when I last visited there. The local people still keep their cups near the well.
We visited her monastic site located a short distance up the road from the well. While we were at the monastic site,, several people came by and prayed there, a woman and young girl, a man and a boy, a woman out in a jogging suit. So, it appears that devotion to St. Gobnait is alive and well in contemporary Ireland.
St. Gobnait is the patron saint of bee keepers and oppressed people. According to legend Gobnait saved her people from a local landlord who tried to bully them into giving up their land. See more about her inspiring story in Praying with Celtic Holy Women. Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org
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| Sheela-na-gig, a fertility symbol of the encompassing womb love of God, who in pre-Christian times was identified with the goddess and during Christianity identified with the church stands over one of the entrances to St. Gobnait's Monastery. |
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| St. Gobnait |
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