Eithne and Sodelb

Who is Eithne and Sodelb?

Eithne and her sister Sodelb are two relatively obscure Irish saints from Leinster who are supposed to have flourished in the 6th century. They are commemorated together in the Irish martyrologies on 29 March, though 2 and 15 January were also marked out as feast-days. The 17th-century scholar John Colgan believed that a Life written for them had been witnessed in c. 1490 by Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa, whom he regarded as the author of additions to the Félire Óengusso. Although nothing of the kind has come to light, they do make cameo appearances in the Lives of two better known 6/7th-century saints, Áedan and Moling, both bishops of Ferns.

Ever since their first appearances in the two earliest Irish martyrologies, the Martyrology of Tallaght and Félire Óengusso, the sisters are typically referred to as the daughters of Baite or Baithe. They appear anonymously by that description in the Félire Óengusso, while a late commentator to the text, often identified as Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa, names them Eithne and Sodelb.

As Colgan already noted, the Genealogies of the Saints of Ireland describe them as daughters of Cairbre, king of Leinster, son of Cormac, son of Ailill, son of Dunlong, and sisters to one Cumania. The Life of St Áedan of Ferns, on the other hand, makes them daughters of Cairbre's son and successor Áed. Based on the entry for Cairbre's death in 546 in the Annals of the Four Masters, Colgan dates their floruit to the mid-6th century or later.