St. Gobnait

St. Gobnait was born in the sixth century in Ireland. During a family feud, she fled home and took refuge on an island in Galway Bay. According to tradition, an angel appeared to her there and told her that this was “not the place of her resurrection.” Gobnait was instructed to go find a place where nine white deer were grazing.

She found such a place on a hill in County Cork. She and St. Abban (who may have been her sister) founded a convent there. The religious order there cared for the sick.

As abbess of the convent. Gobnait began beekeeping and was said to love her work with the bees. She used the honey as a medicinal aid, and was credited with saving local villagers from the plague. One tradition claims that after a man stole cattle, she directed a swarm of bees after him until he returned the stolen cattle.

St. Gobnait's feast day is Feb. 11. She is the patron of bees and beekeepers.