Family and Origins
By tradition Fanchea was born at Rathmore, near Clogher, the daughter of Conall Derg of Oriel and his wife Briga. Her sisters are named as Lochinia, Carecha, and Darenia, the last of whom married Angus of Cashel. Her brother was the future Saint Enda of Aran.
Declining the marriage proposals brought to her, Fanchea chose the monastic life instead. With the help of her sister Darenia she is said to have built the monastery of Rossory on the banks of Lough Erne, where she governed a community of nuns as abbess.
The Conversion of Enda
The best-known episode of her life concerns the transformation of her warrior brother Enda. According to the tradition, Enda agreed to give up his warlike ways on the condition that Fanchea grant him one of the young women of her monastery as a wife.
When Fanchea brought him to meet the woman he had been promised, the young woman had just died. The shock of this loss, together with Fanchea's counsel on mortality and divine judgement, moved Enda to renounce the world and enter monastic life. During his later training, when he was tempted to return to secular conflict, she directed him to touch his head and remember his monastic tonsure.
Miracles and Traditions
Historically Documented: The surviving material is hagiographic legend rather than documentary record, and no episode of Fanchea's life can be independently verified from contemporary sources.
Traditional Accounts: When Enda's warrior band came to reclaim him, Fanchea is said to have made the sign of the cross so that their feet stuck fast to the ground, releasing them only after they promised to do penance. On a later occasion she visited Enda's monastery on Inishmore with three nuns and watched the monks pray, fast, labour, build, and copy Latin gospels and missals; rather than divert them from their work when it was time to depart, she made the sign of the cross on the water and spread her cloak upon it, and the garment is said to have become firm as a stout board, carrying her party safely across.
Relics and Shrines
Her relics were venerated at Rosairthir in the Diocese of Clogher in Ulster, and also at Kilhaine near Mount Bregh. She is traditionally said to have died around 585 of natural causes and to have been buried at Killane, Ireland.
Commemoration
Fanchea is commemorated on 1 January. Her feast is kept by the Catholic Church, the Church in Wales, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. She does not appear among the saints listed in the Orthodox Church in America synaxarion for that date, which is dominated by Basil the Great.
