No More Learning

The date of St. Mochta's death, and also that for his festival, have been set down at the 14th of the September Kalends—August 19th—a. d. 532, in the " Chronicum Scotorum. "3° The old Chronicle of Tighernach and the Annals of the Four Masters record his death at 534. 31 It is said, that St. Mochteus departed to our Lord, on the 19th of August, a. d. 535. 32 His
Secunda S. Columbae, cap. ii. , p. 325.
gal," as edited by Rev. Drs. —Todd and
22
the Life of St. Columkille or Columba, Abbot of Iona, and Apostle of Caledonia,
See what has been set down already in
Reeves, at the 19th of August
" A man of three score, a man of three
chap, i. , and nn. 185 to 191, at the 9th of June, in the Sixth Volume of this work.
hundred,
Blessed be God ! how old the set of
teeth
Not more has the youth under valour
How the ancient tooth. " lasting
23 See "Trias Colgan's
Thaumaturga," Quinta Vita S. Columbae, lib. i. , cap. iii. ,
!
8
PP- 3 9> 390-
24 In his Poem on the Characteristic Vir- tues of Irish Saints occurs this verse : —
CA^Af tnocca tu §mAi§
Cj\e peace if cne piAJAil, 5ah mij\ n-ArmUnrm hia coj\p tlA bocc pr\i j\e cea-o bliadain.
'
Thus rendered into
"
English :
—
The Irish letter y which follows in the original indicates, that the poem is com-
pleted. According to Rev. Dr. Todd : "It is the initial letter of its first word, which,
according to custom, is repeated at the close, as a mark of completion. "
27 See Colgan's "Trias Thaumaturga," Vita Sexta S. Patricii, cap. exxxv. , p. 95.
28
See "Acta Sanctorum Hiberniac," xxiv. Martii. Appendix ad Vitam S. Mochtei, cap. iii. , p. 734.
2? See the Bollandists' "Acta Sancto-
rum,"tomusiii. , Augustixix. DeS. Mocteo
vel Mochteo Episcopo Lugmadensi in Hi- beinia. Vita auctore anonymo, cap. ii. ,
num.
17, p. 746.
3° See William M. Hennessy's edition, pp.
44, 45.
31 See Dr. O'Donovan's edition, vol. i. ,
pp. 1 76, 1 77.
32 See Rev. Alban Butler's " Lives of the
Fathers, Martyrs, and other principal saints," vol. viii. , August xix.
Mochta of Lugh-magh loved,
By law and by rule,
That no rich food his body should
enter,
For the space of one hundred years. "
" Calendar of
—Rev. Dr. Matthew
Kelly's Irish Saints," pp. 160, 161.
25 See Dr. O'Donovan's " Annals of the Four Masters," vol. i. , pp. 176 to 179.
26
Its concluding verse has been omitted by
Colgan, who nevertheless quotes it. The
translation is given, in the lollowing lines, to be found in the "Martyiology of Done-
happily departed.
generally
2 ^ As
:
286 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
[August 19.
death happened in a. d. 534 or 536, as stated in the Annals of Ulster. 33 But, Archbishop Ussher, according to his computation, changes both dates respec-
tively to a. d. 535 or 537. 34 Also, Sir James Ware tells us,35 he governed the See of Louth to a. d. 535, alias 534, when he departed this life. Other accounts have 537,36 as the date for his death.
The Irish Calendars, at the 24th of March,37 and at the 19th of August, have two festivals, as already mentioned, to commemorate St. Mochta or Mochteus. In the "Feilire" of St. ^Engus,38 the feast of this saint is com- memorated, at the 19th of August. 39 At the 19th of August, likewise, the
Martyrology of Tallagh 4° simply records the name, Mochta of Lugmadh. 1
Marianus O'Gorman places his festival at the same date,* and with a eulogy whichexpressesthelocalvenerationinwhichhewasheld. IntheMartyro- logy of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, the feast of this holy
man is entered at the xiiii. Kal. Septembris, as follows
sandi Mocthei confessoris. "43 He is described more fully, in the Martyro- logy of Donegal,43 where his feast is entered at this date. This holy man was commemorated, likewise, in the Scottish Kalendars. His feast, at this date, is entered in the Kalendar of Drummond. 44 Also, at the 13th of the Sep-
45 6 tember Kalends, both Archbishop Ussher and Sir James Ware/—have
Cjvoch intMAfvcij\ marm Cocleirx combu4i'obl<xiche niochcA tnop maich pchbe enAii Oj\oni4 tlAichne.
" The cross of the martyr Magnus, with a
train victorious, blooming, Mochta the great
— chieftain, Enan of Druim Roithne. " good
"Transactions of the Royal Irish Aca-
demy," Irish Manuscript Series, vol. i. , part i. On the Calendar of Oengus, p. cxxiv. An explanatory scholion is found
nostrse sene nxxxv. vel
dxxxvii. ")
cap. xvii. , p. 445.
35 See " De Scriptoribus Hibernise,"
to have committed a mistake
they appear they
placed his festival
should have noted xiv. Kal. Septembris, a date which corresponds only with the 19th of August. In the Circle of the Seasons,47 the festival of holy Mochta
33 Thus we read
discipuli Patricii, xvi. Kal. Sept. sic ipse scripsit in epistola sua, Mocteus [Macutenus- Ann. Ult. ] peccator prespiter, sancti
Patricii
:
;
but,
" Dormitatio Moctai
in Domino salutem. "
34 To the Annals of Ulster account he
discipulus,
adds within a parenthesis (" hoc est, usitatse
— " Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates,"
lib. ii. , cap. i. , p. 105.
36 See Bishop Challoner's " Britannia attached. See ibid. , p. cxxxii.
Sancta," part ii. , p. 89.
57 At the 24th day of March, Colgan thus
39 Differently translated from the Feilire is Colgan's version referring to this saint,
writes: "Duo ut minus H. Mochtafesta viz.
:
olim in Hibernia solere celebrari tradunt
nostra communiter, etiam per antiqua Festi-
logia. Primtim here 24 Martii : quo de ipso
sic scribit Martyrol. Tamlact. ante annum
783 compilatum ; S. Mocteus Lugmadensis :
Cumainnomenmatrisejus. 5. SEngussius.
Mocteus fidelis et deuotus. Marianus
Gorm. Mocteus Lugmadensis, Pater egregiae
familire. Calend. tassel. Mocteus Episco- Trinity, commonly called Christ Church, pusLugmadensis. Deeoetiamsimiliahabc—nt
Metguir et Martyrol. Dungall eodem die. "
" Acta Sanctorum Hibernne," xxiv. Martii.
Appendix ad Vitam S. Mochtei, cap. i. , p.
In the " of published Martyrology
Trinity College, Dublin, Rev. Dr. James Ilcnthorn Todd, p. 147.
732.
Donegal," however, there is no notice of this saint, at the 24th of March. See the edition of Rev. Drs. Todd and Reeves.
43 Edited Drs. Todd and Reeves, by
pp.
—
In the Leabhar Breac copy is the Mochtai etEnain. " Bishop
38 " "
Forbes' "Ka- lendars of Scottish Saints," p. 22.
45 See " Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Anti- quitates," cap. xvii. , p. 445.
following stanza, with its equivalent trans-
lation into English, by Whitley Stokes, LL. D. :—
:
" Mocteus, magnus, egregius et longcevus. "
40 Edited by Rev. Dr. Kelly, p. xxxii. At the xiv. Kal. of September, in the Book of Leinster copy we find nioccA lu^mAiT).
41 Thus
:
" Mochteius episcopus lucerna
Lugmadensium. "
42 See " The Book of Obits and Martyr-
ology of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Dublin,"editedfromtheoriginalManuscript
in the Library
of
by John Clarke Gosthwaite, M. A. , and
222, 223.
44 Thus at xiv. Kal. Sept. : "Apud
Hiberniam Natale Sanctorum Confessorum
" Et in Hibernia;
August 19. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 287
is entered, and at this day. Evidently confounding a Maccseus Vates, and a
disciple of St.
Patrick, with the present holy man, Thomas Dempster has a
festival for at the nth of 8 where he is connected with the Island him, April/
of Bute in Scotland. 4? He is followed by Ferrarius. 50 But, as Colgan
observes, taking the liberty of fixing saints, with their places and festivals, to suit his own fantasies, Dempster is not to be trusted in such a statement.
Again, a festival has been assigned to him, at the 5th of October, yet on
no better grounds of probability.
According to Ussher, this holy man's memory was celebrated to his own
day, in the counties of Louth and Cavan. 51 Moreover, —in the western part of Louth County, there were ruins of St. Motti's chapel as the place was designated by the peasantry—and these were within half-a-mile from Ard- patrick. The remains measured twenty-seven feet in length, by seventeen in width. We are informed, that St. Mochta, the last survivor of St. Patrick's disciples, was patron of the old church at Clonsilla,52 a few miles west of Dublin City. The church was a plain building, surrounded with trees. His memory has been preserved there to the present century, and a well, dedi- cated to him, is shown in that locality. 53
The successors of St. Mochta at Louth are called abbots, in the Irish
Annals, until the ninth century. At this period, bishops begin to appear amongthem. 54 However,Colganstates,thataSeewasestablishedatLouth, from the time of our saint ; not alone as appears from his Life, but as shown
from the Register of the Apostolic Camera, in which it is represented as one of the suffragan dioceses, belonging to the Archbishopric of Armagh. He
appends a chronological Catalogue of the many Abbots and Bishops, noted down in reference to this place, and to be met with in the Annals of the Four
Masters, as also other incidents of a local character. Having first noticed the erection of a noble church at Louth, by Bishop Edan O'Kelly, and by Donagh O'Carroll, chief of Orgiel, in 1148,55 when it was consecrated by St.
Malachy O'Morgair,56 Archbishop of Armagh ; he ends this account with an interesting allusion to some relics, which had been there preserved, in the thirteenthcentury,5? andformerlybroughtfromRomebySt. Mochta,accord- ing to the received tradition. 58 The subsequent Annals of this celebrated Priory are interesting, down to the period of the Reformation ? * its Priors were Barons of Parliament ; while its possessions and endowments were very considerable, as shown by the Inquisitions.
46 See " De Scriptoribus Hiberniae," sect, xii. , n. 125, p. 310.
lib. ii. , cap. i. , p. 105.
47 See p. 232.
48 See the Fourth Volume of this work,
55 An endowment of land was attached to it. —This church stood on the hill of Knock formerly known as Cnoc-na-sean- gan—near the town of Louth ; but scarcely
at the nth of April, Art. xii.
49 See Bishop Forbes' " Kalendars of a vestige of it now remains. See Dr.
O'Donovan's "Annals of the Four Masters,"
Capitulum 52 This townland, in a parish bearing the seruatur Lugmagiae per Archiepiscopum
Scottish Saints,'*' p. 196.
i0 In rum. "
"
"
Catalogus
Generalis
Sancto-
vol. and n. ii. , pp. 1082, 1083,
51 See
quitates," cap. xvii. , p. 445.
(s).
56 See his Acts, at the 3rd of November in the Eleventh Volume of this work, Art. i .
"
Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Anti-
same name, and in the barony of Castle-
Ardmachanum et Abbates Canonicorum Regularium Hiberniae : in quo elevatae sunt multae Sanctorum reliquke, per S. Moch- teum olim Roma asportatse. "
58 See Colgan's "Acta Sanctorum Hiber-
niae," Martii xxiv. Appendix ad Vitam S.
Mochtei, cap. v. , pp. 736, 737.
59 See Archdall's " Monasticon Hiberni-
cum," pp. 469 to 479.
knock, is shown on the
"
Ordnance Survey
Townland Maps for the County of Dublin," sheet 13. The parish is marked on sheets
13 and 17.
53 See John D'Alton's "History of the
County of Dublin," p. 574.
54 See Rev. Dr. Lanigan's " Ecclesiastical
History of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, vi. ,
57 At A. D. 1242, it is noted :
%V
288 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
[August 19.
Passing away from life, this holy man slept sweetly in the Lord, with other honoured pastors of the Church, who had laboured strenuously to pro- mote God's honour and man's salvation. For this purpose, Mochta left country and kindred. Hence, he is variously called a proselyte, a pilgrim, a stranger, or a convert to the true religion. His actions and words gave edification in the land of his adoption, where many profited through his
labours,zealandedifyingexample. Thissaintwasspeciallyadmiredforhis purity of life and conversation. Therefore, being under angelic tuition while young, the Angels received him with rejoicing, when the term of his earthly career had come to a close.
Article II. —Festival of St. Cummin, or Cumianus, a Bishop, and
a Monk at Bobbio, in Italy.
[Seventh Century. ']
The acts of this holy
man have been
ciently certain, that such was really the feast of this Cumianus ; neither can the present date be assigned for it, unless we interpret a line on his tomb, as
2
specially referring to his death or deposition, but this seems to be the correct
reading. As much as is known about the present history of St. Cummian
hasbeenalreadysetdown. Thepresentday,however,isthoughtbysome to have been that of his death, and as a consequence, for his proper feast. At the 19th of August, the Bollandists3 refer to a Scottish or Irish bishop, said to have been venerated, likewise, at the 9th of June, but whose name is not found inscribed on the regular calendars. They refer, likewise, to a Cemianus, a monk in Scotia,* noted by Ferrarius,* at this day. They incline to an opinion, however, that he may not have been distinct from the present holy man. The Rev. Alban Butler has entered a somewhat lengthened notice of this St. Cummin, or Cumin,6 whom he styles a bishop, in Ireland, at the 19th of August. According to that author, he was son to Fiachna, king of West Munster, and born in the year 592. 7 Then, he is said to have embraced a monastic state early in life, and after some years to have become Abbot of Keltra, an island in Lough Dearg, upon the River Shannon, sixteen miles from Limerick. Moreover, he is held by some writers to have been the same Cumin, who wrote an epistle to Segienus, the fourth Abbot of Hy, who died a. d. 651. That Epislola Paschalis has been preserved for us by Archbishop Usher. 8 The tract manifests not alone a very thorough study of the Sacred Scriptures and of the early Christian Fathers, but a learned knowledge of the cycles and epacts. 9 The leading idea conveyed in it is to induce the monks of Iona, whose authority bore great weight in the Irish and Pictish Churches, to join with the Roman and universal Church, regarding the time for celebrating Easter. Such conformity he urges with strength of reasoning, and with admirable persuasiveness and piety. However this may
already recorded,
at the
9th
of
June.
1 it is not suffi- Yet,
Article ii. —'See the Sixth Volume of this work, at that date, Art. iv.
6 See " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and
other Principal Saints," vol. viii. , August xix.
7 This account appears to have been taken
a
of his epitaph, thus : —
It occurs in the last Latin hexameter line
<t«. « v
xiv. Kal. Septemb. Feet Joannes.
" Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria," &c,
o * -»*. t? ^;» TTM n „*c
This, however, has been read, as referring to the date, placed by the artist for complet- ingorerectingthetomb.
3 See "Acta Sanctorum," tomus iii. , Au- gusti xix. Among the pretermitted saints, p. 697.
4 See ibid. t p. 698.
5 In " Generalis Sanctorum. " Catalogus
f ,orn tnat found in Cave's
1
»
Scriptorum
"
seu Comminus—, cognomento Fota, seu Fada%
where at a. d. 640, he is called
Cumianus,
i. e. ,Loftgus. " Vol. i.
ticum, p. 584. 8"
Sseculum Monothela-
See Veterum Epistolarum Hibemica-
rum Sylloge," Epist. xi. , pp. 24 to 35.
9 See Fabricius' "Bibliotheca Mediae et
Infirmoe
Latinitatis,"
vol.
i. ,
lib. iii. ,
p. 1237.
August i 9. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAIA TS. 289
be, the St. Cummin, or Cumianus, venerated on this day, appears to have been consecrated as bishop, in some part of Ireland.
This holy man probably resigned the episcopal dignity, to become a monk at Bobbio. 10 It is now a town of good size, and the capital of a
province so named, in Sardinia. It is romantically situated on the Trebbia River, at the foot of the Apennines, and about forty-five miles north-east
from Genoa. It is also the seat of a
bishop.
11 Sometimes, the wide bed of
the River Trebbia spreads out to a great extent, after floods come down from
the mountains, while, at other times, a tiny stream only flows. The mountain
torrent of Bobbio joins that river, near the town so called. This place has
peculiar claims on the veneration of Irishmen, its history being so intimately
connected with the great St. Columban. 12 The town was situated, within
the ancient of J 3 The banks of the Trebbia are lined with
territory Liguria.
rows of tall poplar trees. The Cathedral and the Church of San Colombano
are the two buildings of greatest interest in Bobbio. A treatise known as
Liber de Pceniteniiarum Mensura J * has been written by one Cummian x s ;
but, whether he is to be regarded as identical with the present holy man or otherwise has not been determined. The present church of St, Columban
The Church of San Columbano, Bobbio.
standsintheupperendofBobbio. Thedesertedmonasticbuildingsare now grouped around it. That church is a Lombardic building, restored in the seventeenth century. What remains of the more ancient buildings are, the bell tower, the subterranean church or crypt, the sacristy, the old refectory, the wood-house and the cellars. Like most of the Lombardic buildings, it
10 "
See Ughelli's Italia Sacra," tomus iv. ,
sea-shore, it presents a southern aspect, and it is now known as the Riviere di Genova.
14 It has been in " Bibliotheca preserved
Patruum," &c, tomus xii. , p. 41.
'5 The reader is referred to what has been
already written regarding it, in the Sixth Volume of this work, at the 9th of June, Art. iv.
16 The accompanying illustration, copied, T
Bobienses Abbates, col. 959.
11 See "Gazetteer of the World," vol.
p. 787.
12
ii. ,
His Life may be read, in the Eleventh Volume of this work, at the 21st of Novem- ber, Art. i.
*3 This extended from the Apennines, in northern Italy, to the Tuscan Sea. On the
290 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [August 19.
has a porch, the atrium, or Paradise, as it was called. 16 The interior of this
church is very beautiful, and a descent is made to the crypt, by two flights of
stairs passing by the right and left of the choir. They meet on a landing
place under the sanctuary. Thence a broad staircase leads down to the
lower church, called the Tuburio or Scurolo. In the centre of the crypt is
the stone, which formerly covered the grave of St. Cummian. Formerly, it
was laid horizontally on the floor. At present, it is fixed erect into that wall,
which stands to the left of the altar, in cornu evangelii. ^ The inscription on
the stone may be divided into two parts : the first portion, in rude Latin
hexameters, contains a eulogy of the saint ; the second, in three lines, gives
the date for the entombment, called the Deposition, and the name of that
artist who sculptured the work. 18 It would seem from the eighth line of the
inscription, that Cummian spent seventeen years at Bobbio, and not twenty,
as has been stated in the Chronicle ot Bobbio, as well as in the office lesson,
still recited in the diocese. If the period of seventeen years be accepted as
true, then the saint must have been seventy-eight years of age, at the time of
his arrival there, since he reached the extremely advanced term of ninety-five
years when he died. The inscription on St.