Dabheog

Saint Dabheog is the patron saint and a founder of a monastery on an island in Lough Derg, a lake in County Donegal, Ireland, near the town of Pettigo and shouldering the border of counties Donegal and Fermanagh. His feast day is 16 December.^[2]

Saint Dabheog
Saint Dabheog depicted in a stained glass window of Monaghan Cathedral, created by Franz Mayer & Co.^[1]
Abbot of Lough Derg
Born	5th century? Wales
Patronage	Patron saint of Lough Derg

Biography

Little is known about his biography but local records mention his existence as an abbot of Lough Derg in the 5th century. Healy states that Dabheog was born in Wales. He was the son of King Breca (or Brychan), the great father of a host of Welsh saints.^[3]

Dabheog is considered to be a disciple of Saint Patrick who became responsible for caring for the site known as St. Patrick's Purgatory, which was on one of the islands in the lake known as Lough Derg. He took charge of the church and hermitage in Tirhugh.^[4]

There is a firmly established tradition regarding St. Dabheog, who presided over, and possibly established, the monastery on the site during the lifetime of Patrick.^[5] His name has been associated from early centuries with several places in the area: St. Dabheoc's Chair on the south bank of Lough Derg, the townland of Seedavoc (St. Dabheoc's Seat), and a mountain in that townland, Seavadog Mountain. One of the islands in Lough Derg was also named after him: St. Dabheoc's Island, which may have been Saints Island.^[6]

Many of the modern Catholic pilgrimage rituals at Lough Derg are focused on devotion to St. Dabheog: including the short hike to a pre-Christian Bronze Age burial site (known as Dabheog's Chair or Seat) on a hill overlooking Lough Derg, and the meditation upon one of the beehive cells on Station Island which is dedicated to the saint.^[7]

One of the boats which transports pilgrims to Station Island is named after Dabheog, as well as the valley overlooking Lough Erne. The Clan McGrath, who were the Coarbs (hereditary overseers) of Lough Derg from the 13th-17th century, consider Dabheog as their patron saint. Dabheog is also known by the following aliases: Dabeoc, Davog, Davoc, Daboc, Beoc, Mobeoc, Mobheog, Daveoc, Daveog. This variation is due to the lack of standardization in the Irish language and the ambiguity of the saint's historical origins.

The plant name Daboecia has been given to St. Dabheog's heath.

References

1. see p. 78 in Duffy, Joseph (1998). "The Stained Glass". In Griffin, Eltin (ed.). A Cathedral Renewed: St Macartan's, Monaghan. Blackrock: The Columba Press. pp. 75–84. ISBN 1856072517.
2. Saint Dabheog of Lough Derg
3. Healy, John. The Life and Writings of St. Patrick, M. H Gill & Son Ltd., 1905
4. Saint Patrick; Aeterna Press (10 August 2016). Saint Patrick Collection [2 Books]. Aeterna Press. p. 363. GGKEY:GZW8BL31F9D.
5. Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland: The Monuments and the People. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
6. Archdall, Mervyn. Monasticon Hibernicum, W. B. Kelly, 1873, p. 206
7. McGuinne, Joseph: "St. Patrick's Purgatory: Lough Derg", page 18. Columba Press, 2003