Born: Unknown, Ireland (assumed)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Der Lugdach
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Ailbhe Mac Shamhráin. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Darlugdach (Der Lugdach) (6th cent.?), abbess of Kildare, was a saint in the Irish tradition. Her genealogy is not preserved, but she may well be identical with Darlugdach of Lemdruim (Lorum, Co. Carlow) mentioned in the Book of Leinster tract on Irish saints and places. In that event, it is possible that her church came under the authority of Kildare.
Darlugdach is represented as a protégée of the patroness of Leinster in the ‘Vita Prima’ of St Brigit, in which she is portrayed as a model of chastity. In one episode (§97), it is related that she filled her wooden shoes with hot coals in order to banish worldly desires. Subsequently, she is represented as an intermediary in Brigit’s miraculous healing of a mute girl. It is claimed that, when Brigit was approaching death, Darlugdach wished to depart this life in the company of her mentor, but was instead accorded the privilege of dying on the first anniversary of Brigit’s death.
It is generally accepted that Darlugdach succeeded Brigit at Kildare. Her own successors are not documented; the first historical record of a Kildare abbess is that of Gnáthnat (d. 690), although Comnat and Tuilelaith, noted in the later martyrologies at 1 and 6 January respectively, may have held that office during the preceding century. It is alleged by Nennius that Darlugdach was present at the court of Nechtan, king of the Picts, when the latter donated Abernethy to the familia of Kildare. If the same individual is intended, there is confusion regarding her chronology, as King Nechtan flourished in the early seventh century. Darlugdach of Kildare is commemorated in the Irish martyrologies on 1 February; her cult, as John Colgan and James Ussher both observed, was carried to Freising in Bavaria.
The following is excerpted from the Dictionary of National Biography, originally published between 1885 and 1900, by Smith, Elder & Co. It was written by Thomas Olden.
DARLUGDACH, Saint (d. 522), second abbess of Kildare, was St. Brigit’s favourite pupil. Ultan, in his ‘Life of Brigit,’ says that Darlugdach had fallen in love, and one evening when she was to have met her lover she left the bed in which she and St. Brigit were sleeping. In her peril she prayed to God for guidance; placed burning embers in her shoes and then put them on. ‘Thus by fire she put out fire, and by pain extinguished pain.’ She then returned to bed. St. Brigit, though apparently asleep, knew everything, but kept silence. Next day Darlugdach told her all. St. Brigit then told her she was now safe from the fire of passion here and the fire of hell hereafter, and then she healed her feet. When St. Brigit’s death approached, Darlugdach wished to die with her, but the saint replied that Darlugdach should die on the first anniversary of her own death.
Darlugdach succeeded St. Brigit in the abbacy of Kildare, and assuming that the latter died in 521, her death must be assigned to 522. Like St. Brigit’s, her day is 1 Feb. In the Irish Nennius there is an impossible story of her having been an exile from Ireland and having gone to Scotland, where King Nechtain made over Abernethy to God and St. Brigit, ‘Darlugdach being present on the occasion and singing alleluia.’ Fordun places the event in the reign of Garnard Makdompnach, successor to the King Bruide, in whose time St. Columba preached to the Picts; but both saints were dead before St. Columba began his labours in Scotland.
Archbishop Ussher states that Darlugdach was venerated at Frisingen in Bavaria, under the name Dardalucha, but there is no reason to suppose she laboured in that country. Dedications to Irish saints on the continent were often the result of the pious zeal of members of their community, who extolled the holiness and dignity of their patron and led their foreign adherents to expect his special favour when they established a new foundation in his honour. Such was probably the case of the people of Frisingen.
IW note: The love between Darlughdach and Brigid can be interpreted as romantic.