Virtually everyone in the western world has heard of St Patrick, many have heard of St Brigid, but St Darerca is relatively unknown outside of the ruins of her most lasting community, Killevy (Cill Sléibe, meaning church of the mountain) in south Armagh. Yet her Life may be the oldest known biography of an Irish saint, although it survives only in much later recensions. As Liam de Paor has noted, of all hagiography, including the Lives of Patrick and Brigid, Darerca's provides the most accurate glimpse into the earliest history of the Irish Church. It reveals a world of powerful women with a range of options available to them, of close associations between the sexes while prioritizing sisterhood, and of the commitments for which Ireland became famed as the land of saints and scholars. The oldest of Ireland’s female saints with an extant medieval vita, Darerca died at an advanced age in 517 or 519 and is said to have been consecrated by Patrick himself. She was a pioneer for women's right to pursue the religious life and established the first monasteries for women in her homeland in Counties Louth and Armagh, which may have been among the earliest examples of monasticism of any kind in Ireland. In addition to her piety, humility, generosity, and compassion, Darerca is particularly celebrated for her intellectual abilities, rigorous asceticism, and arduous manual labour.