Aithneann of Killannin
Irish (virgin) saint associated with Killannin in County Galway
Feast: 18 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
The Martyrology of Donegal lists Aithnenn among the saints of Ireland as a female saint in O'Flaherty's country, in County Galway and the diocese of Tuam.
The same entry records that at her church, Cill Aithnenn, there is a bell and a stone that will not bear to receive a lie, that the place has a much frequented station and a holiday, and that miracles are worked daily at the well beside the church.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
The woman saint of Cill Aithnenn in Connemara, with its bell, stone and well.
- The Martyrology of Donegal: A Calendar of the Saints of Ireland, ed. J. H. Todd and W. Reeves (Dublin, 1864)
- Wikidata Q139380063 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.