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December 23 · Virgin

St. Mazota

St. Mazota

Traditional feast

December 23
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Virgin

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Keep their day. Remember them on December 23 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 0 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Aberdeen Breviary, Dec. 23; Dempster on Dec. 22; and the “Elevatio” on Dec. 23. Authority: — The Legend in the Aberdeen Breviary.] S. Mazota, or Mayota, was a holy maid living with S. Brigit in Ireland, not the great S. Brigit, but another, a contemporary of S. Columba. Graverdus, son of Domath, king of the Piets and cousin of S. Brigit, whilst fighting against the Britons, was supematurally warned to send to Ireland for S. Brigit. The saint obeyed his summons, and brought with her nine virgins, of whom Mazota was one, and settled at Abemethy, where she erected a church to the V. Mary, in which the king and all his family were baptized. Mazota followed S. Brigit in all holy living, and died at Abemethy. According to the Aberdeen Breviary, Brigit was the great Brigit, and S. Patrick himself consecrated her church. But this is a mistake.

Feast days

Feast: December 23

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Mazota's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on December 23
St. Thorlac of Skalholt

St. Thorlac of Skalholt

December 23 · Bishop
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.