Thursday 21 August 2014

Saint Celba of Kilbeg, August 21

Last year on August 21 we looked at the commemoration of Saint Senach, a bishop associated with the famous monastery of Clonard in County Meath. We are staying in the royal county to look at another saint also commemorated today on the Irish calendars, Celba or Caelbadh. Canon O'Hanlon summarizes the little that is known of him:

St. Celba, or Caelbadh, of Cill-Caelbadh, probably Kilbeg or Kilmainhambeg, County of Meath.

The published Martyrology of Tallagh, registers Celba, at the 21st of August. In that copy, contained in the Book of Leinster, this name is united with that of another saint, at the present date. From the following account of his locality, lying on the north side of Ceananus, now Kells, in the County of Meath, it may be possible to identify his church. The Martyrology of Donegal mentions Caelbadh, of Cill Caelbaidh, on the north side of Ceananus, as having been venerated, at this same date. Kilbeg or Kilmainham-beg,a parish in the barony of Lower Kells, and in the County of Meath, seems to be the most probable identification for the site of this saint's former church. It appears also to have given name to that place.

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