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Concept
Begnet
Summary
St. Begnet (7th century?), also Begneta, Begnete, Begnait or Becnait is a patron saint of Dalkey, Ireland. She is noted as a "virgin, not a martyr." Her feast day is November 12. Two ruined churches in Dalkey are named for Begnet, one on Dalkey Island, and the other near the 15th-century stone townhouse now serving as Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre, in the area known as Kilbegnet. A holy well located near the martello tower on the island is also associated with her; as the Irish playwright Hugh Leonard observed:
A few yards away are the ruins of a church supposedly built by the town's patron saint, St. Begnet. Like St. Patrick himself, St. Begnet may never have existed: There is even uncertainty as to whether he or she was male or female. No one bothers to argue about this: In Dalkey, when it is a question of sainthood, sex is hardly likely to have much relevance.
The name has been incorrectly understood as a corruption of St. Benedict. The stories associated with her suggest that she has also been identified with Saint Bega or other virgin saints named as Begha or Becga in Irish calendars.
Begnet is named in the calendars of two manuscript breviaries which in the 19th century were held by the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. One had belonged to the church of Clondalkin, and the other to the parish church of St. John the Evangelist, Dublin, but she is not mentioned in the Martyrology of Oengus.
According to one source on the history of the church in Dalkey, Begnet's father was Colman, the son of Aedh in the parish of Kilbegnatan (Kilbegnet or Cill Becnait). Like many other female virgin saints, she is described as beautiful and desirable, but she refused her numerous suitors in favour of religious devotion. Her social status is sometimes given as "Irish princess", and thus she would have been a valuable bride. She is said variously to have lived as an anchorite or to have served as the first abbess of nuns on a small island off the coast of England.
Begnet may not have come from Dalkey, despite the genealogical note on her origin.
Official source
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