Agnetha Ní Máelshechlainn
Died1196
NationalityIrish
Other namesAn Caillech Mór

Agnetha Ní Máelshechlainn ( – 1196), was Abbess of the St Mary's Augustinian Abbey, Clonard during the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.

Biography

Ní Máelshechlainn was the daughter of Muirchertach, a King of Mide from 1105 to 1106 and his wife Dubchoblaig. His family were from the Clann Cholmáin. Her uncle Murchad Ua Máelshechlainn deposed her father. Her maternal grandfather was Donnchad Mac Murchada, from the Uí Ceinnselaig, king of Leinster. Her uncle, Conchobar Ua Máelshechlainn, was the Abbot of Clonard and a cousin Derbfhorgaill founded a house at Clonmacnoise. Ní Máelshechlainn had several siblings from her parents other marriages. Donnchad, her half-brother was appointed king of Mide in 1144. Her cousins Domnall Bregach (d. 1173) and Art (d. 1184) were also kings of Mide during her lifetime.[1]

Ní Máelshechlainn entered the convent, probably while her uncle was there. By 1175 she was Abbess of St Mary's, the Augustinian head house in Ireland.[2] She defended the property during the Anglo-Norman invasion of the kingdom. When the Anglo-Norman Adam de Feypo was allocating the lands she demanded that the Church of St Mary near Skryne and its holdings remain the property of the nuns. She got Pope Celestine III to back up her position with a letter dated 26 February 1196. The letter also included their houses at Lusk, Termonfeckin and Clonmacnoise. She was in her sixties or seventies when she died, not long after gaining the protection of the pope's letter. Ní Máelshechlainn was known as An Caillech Mór or the great nun.[1]

Sources

  1. 1 2 Mac Shamhráin, Ailbhe. "Ní Máelshechlainn, Agnetha ('An Caillech Mór': 'the great nun')". www.dib.ie. Dictionary of Irish Biography.
  2. ↑ Flanagan, Marie Therese (1980). "St. Mary's Abbey, Louth, and the Introduction of the Arrouaisian Observance into Ireland". Clogher Record. 10 (2): 223–234. doi:10.2307/27695808. ISSN 0412-8079.

See also

  • M. C. Dobbs, ‘The Ban-Shenchus’, Rev. Celt
  • Sheehy, Pontificia Hib., i, 83–6, §29
  • Gwynn & Hadcock, Med. relig. houses, 314
  • John Brady, ‘The nunnery of Clonard’, Ríocht na Mídhe, ii, no. 2 (1960), 4
  • N. Hadcock, ‘The origin of the Augustine order in Meath’, Ríocht na Mídhe, iii, no. 2 (1964), 124
  • E. Hickey, Skryne and the early Normans (1994), 77
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