Caillech/calliagh: nun, but also wife, old woman, hag, witch

Céli De (Irish): literally, “clients of God.” A religious movement of particular importance in the eighth century which emphasized austerity and asceticism. The singular is céle De. It is often anglicized “culdee/culdees.”

Cell: church, monastic community

Cult: religious veneration

Currach: an early Irish kind of boat, also a name given to Mag Liffey, or the field of the Liffey, the countryside surrounding Kildare.

Doctissima abbatissa (Latin): exceptionally educated abbess. Said of Darerca.

Extant: surviving

Familia (Latin): literally family; monastic community as well as the community protected by the patronage of a given saint.

Fine (Irish): family, a subset of túath (tribe or clan)

Gregorian Reform: eleventh- and twelfth-century reform of the Catholic church which emphasized the moral reform of the clergy and the centralization of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Hagiographer: biographer of saints

Hagiography: biography of saints

Hiberniae (Latin): of Ireland

Hypocorism: nickname

Mag (Irish): field, plain

Magister (m)/Magistra (f) (Latin): master/mistress, teacher, head of community

Muimme (Irish): foster-mother

Paruchia (Hiberno-Latin): affiliation of monastic communities, deriving from parochia (Latin)

Penitentials: texts which systematically calculate penances to atone for sins

Penitentialists: authors of penitentials

Peregrinatio (Latin): pilgrimage; exile undertaken for the love of God

Peregrina (f)/peregrinus (m): pilgrim, someone who has undertaken voluntary exile for the love of God

Pre-Patrician saint: saints said to work in Ireland before Patrick's arrival (Ibar, Ciarán, Abbán, Declan)

Sanctae (Latin): saints, female. The singular is sancta. The masculine is sanctus (plural sancti).

Sanctarum (Latin): of the saints, female. The masculine equivalent is sanctorum.

Syneisaktism: profound partnerships between unrelated religious men and women, whose mutual commitments to each other and Christ required them to sacrifice or sublimate their sexuality.

Túath (Irish): tribe or clan; extended kin-group

Vitae (Latin): literally, Lives, meaning biographies. The singular is vita.