O'Rmhhy—OId Chuyche>i of Dalknj Toirn and Island. 201 



" Docs Mr. D'Alton mean to say that ' Bcgnet ' and 'Benedict* 

 were one and the same ? In Alan's Register (folio 9 b) there is an 

 exemplification of an Act of Parliament held in Dublin on the Friday 

 next after the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, 22nd Edward IV., 

 where it is. enacted in favour of the Archbishop of Dublin : ' Ordeyne 

 est, et establie par auctorite du dit Parlement, que le dit Erchevasque 

 poet auer un marchee al dit ville de Dalkey annuelement, chescun 

 raaresdye per ane, de Sepmaine en Sepmaine, et nn jour de faire 

 Cestassauere le jonr de Seyncte Begnet la Yirgine, continnuaunt III. 

 jours annuelment,' &c." 



Starting from the statement that the St. Begnet in question was 

 a virgin, and presuming that the termination of the name is a dimi- 

 nutive, it may be asked what was the original form of the name of 

 the saint. The simplest would be Beca or Bega, and such a name is 

 found in Smith and Wace's "Dictionary of Christian Biography" 

 (1877). Thus it gives (p. 300) Becffcc or Begga, daughter of Gabhran, 

 virgin ; her festival on the 10th February. It is said (Colgan, " Tr. 

 Thaum.," 121) that when St. Patrick was in East Meath, he left at the 

 Church of Techlaisran, in that county, two of his disciples, Bega, a 

 virgin, and Lugaidh, a priest (Ap. 17th), probably brother and sister, 

 the children of Gauran, the latter (place) having the name of Eeart- 

 Bige or Bega's Tomb. The same Dictionary gives (p. 304) the follow- 

 ing : — "Bega, Beza, Beya, Begga, Bee, St. A Cumbrian saint of 

 whom nothing is clearly known, and whom the endeavours of the 

 hagiographers have only succeeded in investing with a history that 

 ■ belongs to several other saints. According to Alban Butler, she was 

 an Irish saint (September 6th) and virgin who lived as an anchoret 

 in the seventh century, and founded a nunnery in Copeland. He also 

 mentions a place in Scotland called Kilbees after her. This is the 

 most reasonable account. According to the life of her, seen by Leland 

 (coll. iii., 36), after founding her monastery in Cumberland, she 

 removed into Northumberland and founded another north of the Wear ; 

 then to Hert, where she becomes identical with St. Heiu (Heiu), and 

 then to Tedcaster, winding up her career at Hackness, as identical 

 with St. Begu (Mon. Ang. iii. 575)." 



" Begu and Heiu are well known from Bede, and were two different 

 persons, neither of them possibly identical with the Cumbrian saint. 

 Yet Suysken, in his commentary on St. Bega (AA. SS. Boll., Sept. 2, 

 684-700), accepts this version as true. In default of an English 

 reer for the saint, she is next sought in Ireland and Scotland, and 

 the Aberdeen Breviary contains lessons of two saints with either of 



