Saint Ita. Fine art print.

Description

Saint Ita.

Inspired by the lives of the Early Irish Saints.

Fine art print.

A4. 8.3 x 11.7 inches.

All prints are signed by the artist.

Saint Ita, also known as Saint Mida, is a revered figure in Irish Christian history. Born in the sixth century, she was known for her piety, humility, and dedication to serving God. Ita was a noblewoman who renounced her wealth and lived a life of prayer and contemplation. She is said to have founded a convent in County Limerick, where she dedicated herself to teaching and caring for the poor.

As a symbol of holiness and virtue, Saint Ita is often associated with miracles and acts of charity. She is believed to have possessed the gift of prophecy and healing, and many people sought her intercession for various ailments and troubles. Ita was known for her compassion and generosity towards those in need, and she was greatly respected by both the clergy and the laity for her devout life and exemplary faith.

Despite facing many challenges and hardships in her lifetime, Saint Ita remained steadfast in her faith and devotion to God. She is remembered as a beacon of light and hope in the early Irish church, inspiring many to follow her example of selflessness and service to others. Today, Saint Ita is venerated as a patron saint of Ireland and continues to be revered for her spiritual wisdom and compassion towards all.

Saint Ita of Killeedy, often called the “Foster Mother of the Saints of Ireland” and the “Brigid of Munster,” embodies a profound and nurturing spirituality whose symbolism centers on divine nourishment, sacred mentorship, and the holiness found in hidden, humble service.

Her primary symbol is the breast and maternal nourishment. Legend holds that she miraculously sustained herself and her monastic community on nourishment from heaven, often depicted as milk. This establishes her as a spiritual wet nurse, a symbol of the soul’s sustenance directly from God. She did not merely teach the great saints like Brendan the Navigator; she was said to have breastfed them spiritually, feeding them with divine wisdom and forming their inner character. This makes her a powerful emblem of the Church itself as a nurturing mother and of divine grace as essential, life-giving sustenance.

Her oratory and school at Killeedy (“Church of St. Ita”) in County Limerick symbolizes the sacred feminine academy. In a patriarchal age, her community was a renowned center of learning for both boys and girls, where the curriculum was the cultivation of virtue. Ita herself was a poet and sage, and her most famous surviving teaching—her fosterage of young boys—outlines a spiritual diet: “Faith in God with purity of heart; simplicity of life with religion; generosity with love.” Her monastery thus symbolizes the heart as a school, where the soul is educated in divine love.

Further symbolism is found in her complete detachment and trust. She owned nothing, relying utterly on Providence. Her life symbolizes the freedom of holy poverty and the belief that God provides directly for those dedicated entirely to Him. Her quiet, persistent influence from a relatively remote corner of Munster also symbolizes the hidden, generative power of contemplative life. Unlike the traveling missionary or the powerful abbess, Ita’s power was rooted and radiating from a fixed point of prayer and instruction, shaping the very foundations of Irish monasticism from the inside out.

Thus, Saint Ita symbolizes the soul’s first and most essential sustenance. She is not the sword-bearing warrior or the voyaging navigator, but the quiet, indispensable source. Her legacy is the milk of divine wisdom, the formative embrace of spiritual motherhood, and the proof that the greatest influence often flows not from public conquest, but from the sacred, hidden well of nurture and prayer.