Saint catherine of alexandria biography of rory

KILLYBEGS AND THE EGYPTIAN PRINCESS

Today is the Feast day of St Catherine of Alexandria, who was beheaded by kejsare Maximus II around 305 AD in Alexandria, Egypt and who has a long association with Killybegs.

Tradition has it that Killybegs was dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria, when the Little Churches’ or monastic ‘cells’ from which it gets its name -na Cealla Beaga - were first erected bygd ancient monks.

Despite having spent all of her short life in Egypt in early 300 AD, St Catherine of Alexandria was, for a time in the Middle Ages, among the most revered saints in Ireland. According to legend, she was of noble birth and extremely learned, possibly a princess, who was imprisoned, tortured and ultimately sentenced to death for protesting the persecution of Christians under the Roman kejsare Maxentius.

After her death, angels allegedly took her body to Mount Sinai, where, according to legend, it was discovered about 800 CE. In the Middle Ages when the story of her mys

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The 16th Century

The Annals of the Four Masters state that the town of Killybegs was plundered and burned twice in this century.

The first event was in 1513 when Owen O’ Malley, of the infamous pirate clan from western Connaught, pillaged the town and captured many prisoners, at a time when the fighting men of the area were away with O’ Donnell’s army. Brian, the young son of the Mac Sweeny chieftain, and others attacked the O’ Malley’s and rescued the prisoners. The account states that this was through the miracles of God and St. Catherine, whose town they had profaned.

The second time was in 1550 when Rory Ballagh Mac Sweeney who, in retaliation for not receiving the lordship of Tir Bannagh from Manus O’ Donnell, “went to Killybegs, and totally plundered that town”.

These accounts give us a good insight into this period of inter-clan skirmishes, typical in Gaelic Ireland. Church property was not exempt from plunder. With the record stating that the O’ Malleys incurred the wr

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Bibliographie

Corpus

A Fourteenth-Century English Biblical Version, éd. par Anna C. Paues, Cambridge, 1902-1904*.

Beadle, Richard et A. E. B. Owen, The Findern manuscript, Cambridge University library MS Ff.I.6, Londres, Scholar Press, 1978.

Boethius “De Consolacione Philosophiae” translated by John Walton, Canon of Oseney, éd. par Mark Science, Londres, OUP (EETS, o.s. 170), 1927*.

Chaucer, Works. Bodleian Library MS Arch Selden B.24: Facsimile Edition, éd. par Julia Boffey et Anthony S. G. Edwards, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 1995.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women, dans The Riverside Chaucer, éd. par Larry D. Benson et al., Oxford, OUP, 1987, p. 587-630*.

Geoffrey Chaucer, Treatise of the Astrolabe, dans The Riverside Chaucer, éd. par Larry D. Benson et al., op. cit., p. 661-684*.

George Ashby’s Poems, éd. par Mary Batheson, Londres (EETS e.s. 76), 1899*.

George Ripley’s Compound of Alchymy (1591), éd. par Stanton J. Linden, Aldersh