St Surnaí

A Galway Bay Saint

Dara Molloy

November 2023

 

St Surnaí is one of the lesser known of Irish women saints. Nonetheless, she continues to be remembered, especially in counties Galway and Clare. It is no small feat to be still remembered 1500 years after your death!

 

On Inis Mór

 

On Inis Mór, Árainn, the location of St Surnaí’s small hermitage is preserved by the State as a national monument. Situated in the townland of Eochaill, it contains a small oratory, the remains of another building, two broken cross-slabs and a quern stone. A sacred hawthorn tree marks the location of St Surnaí’s holy well, which is nestled under the cliff face. The hawthorn tree is a place to tie ribbons and rags as a prayer or intention.

 

The small oratory is of most interest. Just sixteen feet by twelve, it is tiny. The walls are curved like the bulge of a boat. Typical of chapels and oratories built at this time, the oratory faces east-west, with an altar at the east gable and a narrow window above it.

 

The curved walls may have the following explanation: The more traditional buildings in Ireland at that time were round or oval—witness the ring forts to be found all over Ireland. European architecture however had begun creating rectangular buildings. The influence of Europe caused a change in Irish architecture from curves to straight lines and right angles. Surnaí was in the middle of this transition and managed to combine both styles.

 

In a field to the west of the oratory is St Surnaí’s bed—a stone slab on which pilgrims lay in times past to seek a blessing. It is said to be her grave, although her grave is also marked at Drumacoo, on the south side of Galway Bay. Local legend has it that St Surnaí was a small woman. Her grave or bed is only 4 feet in length. Near her bed is a bullaun stone, said to be used for baptisms.

 

This hermitage of St Surnaí was a popular place of pilgrimage. Even today, it is visited regularly by pilgrims, especially women. As St Surnaí is the only female saint associated with Inis Mór (there are twelve male saints associated with the island) her oratory is a fitting place to honour the sacred feminine and the heroism of women.

 

In Kilcolgan

 

St Surnaí is also remembered in a place called Drumacoo, the parish of Ballinderreen, near Kilcolgan, County Galway. It has a holy well named after her and also her ‘bed’ or grave. To find it, travel the road from Kilcolgan to Kinvara. A mile or two out, there is a turn to the right which leads to the medieval ecclesiastical site of Drumacoo. This site was originally the monastery of St Surnaí and is preserved as a national monument. A church was built here in the 13th century, and later a mausoleum. St Surnaí’s well is located behind the mausoleum. It has been well maintained and is a lovely place to visit and say a prayer or seek a blessing.

 

The Name Surnaí

 

The spelling of Irish names is often a cause for confusion. Variations of the name Surnaí include Sorney, Surney, Sourney, Sarnat, Sarnait, Sárnait, Surnaidhe, and probably a few more. Her holy well has been called Tobar na Sogharnaide in some writings.

 

A record of her existence can be found in the annals. In a book called The Genealogies, Tribes, and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach produced by University College Cork, we get her full genealogy.

 

Of this tribe of Cineal Cinngamhna was Saint Sarnait, the daughter of Aodh Gabhalfhada, son of Seanach, son of Eoghan Aidhne, son of Eochaidh Breac.

 

This genealogy links St Sarnait (Surnaí) with St Colman McDuagh. They were cousins and contemporaries. The dates for St Colman are: born 560 AD, died 632 AD. We do not know the dates of St Surnaí’s birth or death, but we can presume they were close to those of St Colman her cousin.

 

The life paths of Surnaí and Colman are also similar. Both began their early lives as hermits on Inis Mór. Surnaí chose Eochaill for her hermitage, while Colman chose Kilmurvey (about 3 miles apart).

 

Inis Mór at that time was a seed-bed for the nurturing of future founders of Celtic monasteries all over Ireland. St Enda founded the first monastery on Inis Mór in 485 AD. His work and vision led to numerous monasteries and hermitages being founded on the island. Up to 10 of these monastic sites are preserved and can be visited today, including that of St Surnaí and St Colman MacDuagh.

 

When their initial period of training and induction on Inis Mór was over, both St Surnaí and St Colman moved back home to their tribal kingdom on the south coast of Galway Bay. St Colman founded the famous monastery of Kilmacduagh near Gort. St Surnaí moved to Drumacoo to found her monastery, less than 3 miles from Kilmacduagh. There she established a community of hermits. That monastic community survived, we believe, for hundreds of years.

 

The Context of St Surnaí’s Life

 

St Patrick has a reference in his writings to the many women becoming ‘monks and virgins for Christ’:

 

The sons and daughters of the leaders of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ! …Their fathers don’t like this, of course. These women suffer persecution and false accusations from their parents, and yet their number grows!

(St Patrick’s Confessio, verses 41-42)

 

From the time of St Patrick, or earlier, an Irish version of monasticism called Celtic monasticism was developing throughout Ireland. Today, wherever one sees a placename beginning with ‘Kil’ or ‘Kill’ (e.g. Kilkenny, Kildare, Killarney) one can be sure there was a Celtic monastery located there. St Surnaí was in this tradition. In living as a monk, hermit, and virgin, she was participating in a movement that had begun at least 150 years earlier.

 

An Important Clarification

 

It is important to recognise that the Irish church at this time was more Celtic than Roman. Rome had no official hold on this version of Irish Christianity. The Christianity that developed in Ireland from even before the time of Patrick was homegrown. It reflected the structure of Irish society, a rural structure of distributed tribal communities and kingdoms. There were no cities in Ireland at this time.

 

Christianity in Europe, in contrast, had taken on the structure of the Roman Empire and was centred mainly in the cities. In European Christianity, bishops played a central role, and Christianity was organised around dioceses and parishes. In Celtic Christianity, abbots and abbesses played a central role, and Christianity was organised around monasteries within tribal kingdoms.

 

Irish monasticism had a structure that reflected the tribal society in which it developed. As Patrick himself says (quoted above), it is the sons and daughters of the kings and queens who are becoming monks and founding monasteries. Usually the abbot or abbess of a monastery was a relative of the king or queen of that place and tribe (as in the case of St Surnaí and St Colman).

 

It is also important to note that Irish monasteries were communities of hermits. They were not similar to monasteries we know today. Each member of the monastery had her or his own beehive hut. These hermits who lived in community were called cenobites. However, each community also had at least one anchorite. This was someone who lived apart from the community in a more isolated place.

 

The most famous example of this structure can be seen today in the buildings on Skellig Michael in County Kerry. Most of the beehive huts are placed side-by-side, but one is placed much higher up on a precipice called The Needle.

 

Many of the early Irish saints began their monastic lives as anchorites, living alone. St Surnaí and St Colman probably initially lived as anchorites on Aran, but then a community of hermits grew around them. Those communities continued on in Aran, long after St Surnaí and St Colman had left.

 

The Galway Connection

 

St Surnaí is a Galway Bay saint. The bay is surrounded on all sides with these saints: Caomhán, Gobnait, Enda, and others on the Aran Islands to the west, Macdara to the north in Connemara, Jarlath and Maccartan to the east, and Surnaí and Colman to the south.

 

Conclusion

 

St Surnaí, and the other saints of this period, ushered in the Golden Age of Ireland. Their chosen way of living inspired creativity, imagination, and heroism in every field of endeavour. Their monasteries were the focal points for developments in writing, grammar, and book illustration, stonework, metalwork, architecture, agriculture, and much more. Monks learned Latin and Greek.

 

Women were as much a part of this revolution as men. Their influence at the time led to the rescuing of Europe from its Dark Ages. Even today their lives continue to inspire us.

 

St Surnaí is not being forgotten. Her monastic locations are in State hands and being well maintained; her name is being given to newborn girls; even a boat has been named after her. However, her life and times deserve further study. St Surnaí and her contemporaries had something which could be very relevant for us today.

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