gave to Ita in fosterage when he was a year old. St. Ita kept him until he was six. The great Navigator visited her between his voyages and always deferred to her counsel. Brendan is believed to have asked her what three things God loved best. "True faith in God and a pure heart, a simple life with a religious spirit and open-handedness inspired by charity," she answered. The three things God most detested were a scowling face, obstinacy in wrongdoing, and too great a confidence in the power of money. She dedicated herself to prayer, fasting, simplicity and cultivating a gift for spiritual discernment. She was also endowed with the gift of prophecy and was held in great veneration by a large number of contemporary saints, men as well as women. Ita was said to have a gift for guiding people in holiness. She was much sought after as a spiritual director. During this period of Christianity, the Celtic Church was more advanced than other churches at the time in recognising qualities of spiritual leadership in women and in encouraging women in this role. It is thought that Ita may have been abbess of a double monastery of men and women. Her legend places a great deal of emphasis on her austerity, as told by St. Cuimin of County Down, and numerous miracles are recorded of her. She is also said to be the originator of an Irish lullaby for the infant Jesus, an English version of which was set for voice and piano by the American composer Samuel Barber. She probably died of cancer, though contemporary chroniclers describe how her side was consumed by a beetle that eventually grew to the size of a pig. When she felt her end approaching she sent for her community of nuns, and invoked the blessing of heaven on the clergy and laity of the district around Kileedy. Ita died sometime around 570. Veneration Her grave, frequently decorated with flowers, is in the ruins of Cill Ide, a Romanesque church at Killeedy where her monastery once stood. It was destroyed by Viking invaders in the ninth century. A Romanesque church was later built over its ruins, but that too failed to survive. The site, however, remains a place of pilgrimage today. A holy well nearby, almost invisible now, was known for centuries for curing smallpox in children and other diseases as well.