January 15: Another Saint in the Family

6th-century hermitess and foster-mother of saints,* Ita (Ida) of Killeedy in Southwest Ireland, was born into the ruling clan of the regional kingdom of Decies in Munster Province (Irish Deise Mumhan), which at its height covered roughly County Waterford and much surrounding territory. (Killeedy is actually in County Limerick, well northwest of The Decies.)

Weirder yet, I stumbled across the icon depicted at the OCA link, at the bookstore at St. Tikhon's Monastery and Seminary in Pennsylvania, while visiting there once. Never know what you'll find ... or what will find you! ["In Russia, Party find you!" Sorry, I couldn't resist!]

(*--Most prominent, St. Brendan the Navigator, leader of the first known / recorded / semi-legendary voyage from Europe/Africa/Asia to the Americas, half a millennium before the Vikings and a millennium before Columbus, who researched Brendan's voyage in Ireland before "sailing the ocean blue" himself.)