CatholicaActa Sanctorum, August, vol. V, pp. 737–748 — the dossier on St Mochta (Mochoe) of Louth (d. 534 or 535), disciple of St Patrick and founder of Louth monastery; comprising the Bollandist’s preliminary commentary and the anonymous medieval Life. Translated into modern British English.
Preliminary Commentary #
§ One. The saint’s name, disciples, monasteries; whether he was primate of Armagh. #
In treating of this holy Bishop on this day we keep the promise made at 24 March, where we already discussed him among the Praetermissi in the March volume — matters worth recalling here: St Mochteus, or Mochta of Louth, has this day as his feast in the Irish martyrologies, and Colgan therefore gave his Acts from our Salamanca codex; but since those Acts are neither so full nor so sound as we could wish, and since he is also commemorated on 19 August in the Irish hagiologies — Ussher, Ware and the Four Masters marking that day as his natal day, as Colgan testifies — we deferred treatment to this day. Now therefore the deeds of that saint are to be illustrated and examined by us, mostly drawn from the celebrated notations of Colgan which he subjoined to his Life from page 731, and from the Appendix following those notations at page 76. Let us begin therefore with the various formations of his name, on which that author writes laboriously enough:
The name of this most holy Prelate is variously expressed by various writers. Jocelin in the Life of Patrick, chapters 134 and 135, calls him Moecheus; Pitseus, Possevinus, Baleus, Gesnerus and others cited in the Appendix call him Maccaeus; Gennadius calls him Bachiarius; Honorius of Autun calls him Bachianus; St Adamnan in the Life of St Columba, as edited by Canisius, calls him Maueteus — but in the Biburg manuscript and in the first Antwerp edition he is called Mocteus. By the Irish generally, and by the author of this Life, he is called Mochteus, and sometimes Macteus — and more correctly, for in Irish he is commonly called Mochta and sometimes Machta. What Pitseus, Gesner, Bale and others report — that his proper name was Bachiarius and that he was called Maccaeus as a surname — does not win our approval: we reckon that so many and such various expressions of the same name arose from copyists’ errors. So Colgan, who at once adds other substitutions of letters. But enough of such minutiae; I note, however, that I have expressed the name as Moctei, as I read it throughout our Salamanca manuscript, although Colgan in his printed Life repeatedly has Macteus. Nor do I dislike Mochteus, as I find it written elsewhere, as will appear from what follows.
Concerning our saint’s disciples, the celebrated Colgan makes various observations. As regards their twelvefold number, of which the Life speaks in chapter 1, §3: “See,” says he, “this Apostolic custom of the twelvefold number of disciples, most familiar above all to our truly Apostolic fathers, and first received from the Apostolic See itself — which is read to have sent not only with St Mochta but with St Palladius as many companions for the conversion of our nation, as I showed in the acts of St Suitbert’s Life and its notes at 1 March, where I also commemorated very many other bands of twelve colleagues under one leader sent by our saints for the conversion of the nations.” But who that Edanus was, of whom the Life of our saint just cited treats, and to whom it attributes a great miracle said to have been done at St Mochta’s command — “when the saint came to the Irish sea, forgetful of a certain Edanus separated from the brethren for some cause, he boarded the ship; and when the man cried out to the vessel, he commanded him, a tree-branch being cut off, to use it in place of a ship. He obeys the master’s commands, mounts the branch, crosses the sea, and even reaches the port before the ship and receives his master” — who, I say, was that disciple Edanus or, as Colgan notes at this passage more correctly, Aedanus or Aidanus?
The same author does not conceal that he labours to determine this among so many other namesakes, saying: “Which of the twenty-four saints of the same name whose natal days are observed in our martyrologies and calendars this was, is not easy to define — unless it be, as I think it is, St Aidan son of Aengus, whom the martyrologist Marianus Gorman of Dungal and others record to be venerated in the church of Kill-mor-Aedham in the region of Hua-Meth or of the Metheans on 2 November.” For in that region St Mochta built his first church in Ireland, called Kill-mor, as the Life has it in chapter 4 — which seems also to be supported by what occurs in the Life about the aforementioned St Aidan.
As to the multitude of the saint’s progeny — the number of his disciples issuing from him — a difficulty occurs, on which Colgan expatiates: that a number so great and almost excessive, of a hundred bishops and three hundred priests coming forth, might seem incredible; but the passage should not be doubted, for it is not the most ancient days but the most celebrated school of the master — those frequenting it — from which so great a number could arise, nor do I see anything to detract from his admiration who has read how many disciples of St Finnian frequented the school in that age, as we said in the Acts of St Comgall and St Brendan at 16 May.
But where, you ask, were so many episcopal sees in so narrow a kingdom — in which not forty are found today? I answer that that kingdom in that age was far more flourishing, abounded in far more cities, towns, vills and riches, and that almost every more-celebrated monastery and sometimes villages had their own bishops — as is clear to one reading the Acts of our saints, especially St Patrick, in whom Jocelin at chapter 185 and St Evin in part 3, chapter 95 report that St Patrick ordained with his own hand three hundred and fifty bishops and five thousand priests and founded seven hundred churches. And that St Mochta had so many disciples, St Columba and other grave authors cited in the Appendix below report. Moreover, as so many and great disciples produced a great name for our bishop in Ireland, so the foundations of monasteries, of which I shall now speak, brought him no vulgar praise.
Our biographer in chapter 1, §4: “Mochteus,” says he, “began to build a monastery in the woods of the Metheans, which is called Cella Magna.” Colgan expounds this place thus: “The region of the Metheans, commonly called Hua-Meth, is in the diocese of Armagh in Ulster; and in it today (Colgan was editing the Acts of the Saints of Ireland in 1645) the aforementioned church Kill-mor, that is, ’the great church,’ is seen, sacred to St Aedan — from which also, for distinction’s sake, it is called Kill-mor-Aedain.” And lest what had been rightly begun should fall into ruin — though he was himself rector, himself the rule of the brethren, as the biographer cited testifies — yet lest anything of this religious observance should be neglected by any forgetfulness, and so that it might persist without defect not only among the present but the future, he wrote a rule of holy institution. What manner of rule that was, is not known to us, nor to Colgan, who reports only this: “Note here that St Mochta was the founder of a peculiar rule — as SS Patrick, Brigid, Brendan, Ailbe, Colum Cille, Comgall, Ciaran, Adamnan and many others of our sacred island are also read to have written.”
Moreover the saint built another monastery, as the writer of his Life testifies, who in chapter 1, §6 reports: “He himself directed his steps to the place named Lugmud.” Concerning this monastery Colgan notes: “This monastery, which seems more correctly called Lugmadh or Luthmadh, is today commonly called Machaire-na-gall, and the Cistercian monastery of Mellifont stands there. The town of Louth in the County of Louth derives its name from it — from the monastery built by him.”
Whether he should be called Primate: since, after he had returned from the Pope, he was presented as Pontiff, and St Patrick — as the Life reports in chapter 1, §9 — commended his own family to him when he was departing to Armagh, some have judged him Primate of Armagh; for which Majus of Cluain-eoird, among others, may be adduced at 23 February, who in his catalogue of the archbishops of Armagh puts St Mochta among the primates. But the opinion seems more probable which reckons that he presided not save as priest over the vacant see, until provision was made for a successor of St Patrick; for Benignus was Patrick’s spiritual son and successor, and during those days it seems St Mochta administered the vacant see until the said Benignus was installed in the Armagh see — which is gathered both from this Life and from other documents, so that, established by the consent of so many authors, it should not be called into doubt. It remains that we pass hence to certain points touching St Mochta’s life and sanctity.
§ Two. The cult attached to various days; the saint’s synonyms distinct from ours; the time of his life. #
Camerarius, at the day 7 October, announces the saint liberally enough in his manner: “St Mucceus came out of Britain with St Patrick.” Of whom and in what way — see his Life itself. Colgan in the Appendix to the Life of St Mochta, page 732, meets this hagiologist in these words: “But since this author could nowhere have read his Life, nor that he is venerated on that day, nor that he came out of Britain with Patrick — neither in that Life which we gave above, nor in any other author have I found anything of these matters mentioned — I pass to the testimonies of other ancient writers concerning St Mochta and his feasts.” Immediately he digresses to two days of the year’s veneration, and discourses on them thus: “That two feasts of St Mochta at least used to be celebrated in Ireland of old, our festologies commonly report, even the very ancient ones. The first is 24 March, of whom the Martyrology of Tallaght, compiled before the year 785, writes thus: “St Moeteus of Louth: Cuman was the name of his mother.” St Aengus: “Mocteus the faithful and devout.” Marianus Gorman: “Mocteus of Louth, father of an excellent family.” The Cashel Calendar: “Mocteus, bishop of Luginag.” And the second feast is celebrated on 19 August, of which Marianus Gorman says: “Mochteus the bishop, lamp of the men of Louth.” The Martyrology of Tallaght: “Mocteus, bishop of Lugmag.” St Aengus in the Festology: “Mochteus, great, excellent, and long-lived” — the scholiast adding: ‘He is called long-lived on account of the great length of his life.’ And some writers signify that St Mochta lived three hundred years, as the Martyrology of Donegal: ‘St Moeteus, bishop of Lugmag: he lived three hundred years, and migrated to the Lord in the year 534’; and the verses there commemorated. But we have already sufficiently discussed the saint’s almost incredible extended age elsewhere.”
A feast of St Mochta of Inis-mochta, that is, of the island of Mochta, is reported to be celebrated on 26 March by Marianus Gorman, Cathaldus Maguir, and the Martyrology of Donegal — this island being in the County of Louth. And the aforementioned authors and the Martyrology of Tallaght note another on 9 September. But the notations by which some distinguish these two saints — synonyms with ours — are these: “Yet I think more truly,” says Colgan, “that there are two other Mochtas venerated on these days. For him who is venerated on 26 March I reckon to be St Mochta the priest of Armagh — of whose death the Four Masters write in their Annals: “In the year 922, Mochta of the Island, son of Cernachan, priest of Armagh, died” — for this island seems to be none other than that which the before-cited martyrologies call the Island of Mochta. Likewise he who is venerated on 9 September seems to be St Mochta, bishop and doctor of Armagh, of whom in the same Annals at the year 879 it is read: “Mochta, master or supreme prefect of the schools of Armagh, was captured by the Northmen or Danes”; and they report his death at the year 889, saying in the same year: ‘Mochta, disciple of St Fethgna, bishop, anchorite, and scribe of Armagh, died’ — where by ‘scribe’ he means a writer, especially a chronographer. For in most monasteries, at least the principal ones, and in the episcopal sees of Ireland there was of old a certain man held in great honour who was called sometimes perliginn, that is, lector or master or doctor; sometimes scribhnidh, that is, scribe, writer or chronographer.”
Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology writes these things at 11 April in the notes: “On the same day, in the island of Bute, St Maccaeus, disciple of St Patrick, bishop of Ireland.” And likewise in the notes at 5 October: “On the same day, St Maccaeus in the Caledonian castle, disciple of St Patrick.” Colgan saw these things; but because what he has is faultily printed, I preferred to present them here more correctly from Ferrarius himself. And the same Colgan chastises them thus at page 733: “But since he seems to have taken these things from the comments of Dempster, who is accustomed to affix places of cult and feasts to saints at will, they are to me of suspect faith. Dempster may be consulted in the Scottish Menology at 11 April and 5 October.” Moreover, as the often-praised Irish hagiographer just observed, “whether it is the natal feast or another feast of St Mochta which the cited martyrologies report to be celebrated on 24 March is, to me, unascertained. The Four Masters, Ussher and Ware, cited below, indicate his natal day is celebrated on 19 August, inasmuch as they assert he died in the year 534 on 19 August, according to what will be said in chapter 3.”
But no small controversy now offers itself to us concerning St Mochta’s age, which among writers treating of him is commonly extended to three hundred years; in what appearance of truth, I truly cannot quite grasp. The Irish hagiographer, in the Appendix cited, chapter 8, page 738, gathers the foundations of this matter in these words: “That St Mochta lived three hundred years in this mortal life, the author of his Life says above in chapter 19 (in our edition chapter 2, §17), where these words occur: ‘for three hundred years he is said neither to have uttered an idle word nor to have tasted anything fat.’ For this author of the Life are also adduced by Colgan Jocelin in the Life of St Patrick, chapter 35; Maguir at 24 March and 19 August; the Martyrology of Donegal at 16 August; the Four Masters in the Annals at the year 534, according to what will immediately be said; and Keating in his History of the Kings of Ireland — and (what is the chief foundation of this assertion) certain old Irish verses, which Maguir, the Martyrology of Donegal and the Four Masters cite in the Annals — no, and St Aengus himself or his old scholiast — and which the said Keating judges St Colum Cille to be their author. Which verses, rendered in Latin, exhibit this sense: ‘Mochta… in the space of three hundred years spoke not an idle word, nor tasted any dainty within that period — except what at the time of each Mass, after the consecration, he received.’” So Colgan.
But the same author, as it behoves one illustrating the deeds of saints, lest he should seem to detract anything from the saints’ praise or to approve an erroneous statement, weighs the historical truth of so great longevity with more attentive judgement and assails that prodigious length of years with the following arguments. “First,” says he, “the Four Masters in the Annals say St Mochta died in the year 534: “St Mochta, bishop of Louth, disciple of St Patrick, died on the 19th day of August.” They subjoin afterwards certain verses. The Annals of Ulster also indicate the same; from which, because they are faultily printed in Colgan, I have transcribed them: “In the Annals of Ulster, at the year of the Lord 534, or 535 according to others — that is, of our usual era 535 or 537 — the falling-asleep of St Muchti or Mochta, disciple of Patrick, is recorded at the Kalends of September.’” And immediately concerning his age he subjoins this controversy: “Moreover, what Jocelin narrates in chapter 135 — that St Patrick sentenced his life, in penalty of his incredulity, to be extended to three hundred years — is certainly worthy to have a place among the other prodigies, stupendous for their unheard-of novelty, in William Thirault’s Panegyrical Discourses on St Patrick, pages 124–5; consult them if you please. Meanwhile we can argue thus with Colgan: if this saint died in 534 or 535, and is nowhere read to have flourished in the third or even the fourth century, how shall we concede him three hundred years of life?” So he.
Then against the verses — the chief foundation of the asserted age — he advances another argument, proving an error of time crept into them: “The second,” says he, “is that St Cummene of Condere, in his little work reciting the singular virtues and ages of certain principal saints of Ireland, assigns to the years which St Mochta lived — at least after embracing religion or the monastic institute — only a hundred years, as an old Irish verse composed by him testifies; rendered in Latin by Colgan: “Mochta of Louth had from his life this and no more, that he tasted no dainty in the space of a hundred years.” From which the editor of the Irish Acts rightly concludes: “We have therefore from a faithful and ancient writer, who flourished nine hundred and more years ago, that St Mochta lived only a hundred years” — against the authors who say three hundred.”
Colgan answers in the margin: “It seems to me that in the aforementioned verses a certain error crept in — a fault of writing, to be sure — offering two reasons; and immediately exhibits another. First: that the reading signifies he lived a hundred years after his conversion, or after he began to lead the religious life; whereas those who follow the faulty reading think it signifies only a hundred years of life altogether — which is refuted by what precedes and what follows in the Annals cited above.” And concerning the second, that St Mochta lived more than a hundred years: “Yet I would not deny that our saint lived more than a hundred years,” says Colgan, “since St Aengus in the Festology, cited above, calls him long-lived; and if he flourished in the time of St Augustine before the year 430 — as the Bachiarius question makes him assert — then he seems to have lived only the space of a hundred years after embracing so great a manner of life or the religious institute. So it must be allowed that he was born thirty or more years before he began so strict a manner of living; and thus most of the things asserted of him can hold good in this sense.”
A confirming argument for this is that, of the innumerable saints who flourished in the sixth and seventh centuries in the neighbouring regions of Ireland, none at all records that he lived beyond the time cited above by the Annals. Add that the Life of St Dega, in the words of the chapter cited before, reports that St Daga — who died long-lived in the year 586 — ministered the viaticum to him dying; and Keating reports above that he died in the time of king Tuathal, who died in 538. And these are the things which it seemed good to transcribe here from Colgan’s collection and faith; on which matters I shall now speak briefly what observations occur to me.
His opinion pleases me by which he rejects that chronological paradox of three centuries — yet in this I do not assent to him, that he extends that age rather liberally to a hundred and thirty or even to more years. For why should our saint not truly be called long-lived even if he survived only to the twentieth year above his hundredth? And why should not the other arguments Colgan advanced subsist in this way — that St Daga gave him the viaticum, that he died in the time of king Tuathal, and so, according to what was said, before the year of Christ 538? But if it were established that he flourished in the time of St Augustine before the year 430, then, I confess, the increment of thirty or even more years above the hundred would have to be conceded him with Colgan, because he is said to have departed this life in the year 534 — as the chronological catalogue excerpted from the Annals of the Four Masters reports, edited by the said Colgan in the Appendix, where these words are read: “In the year 534 Mochta, bishop of Louth, disciple of St Patrick, died on 19 August.” Others, as we noted before, mark another year, differing only a little from the one stated. But that it is doubtful whether our St Mochta was famous in the time of St Augustine, we shall see when we treat of his writings. Meanwhile let us discuss the famous prophecy said to have been uttered by St Patrick concerning him — the long-lived old age being inflicted by him as punishment for the saint’s incredulity.
§ Three. The prophecy said to have been uttered by St Patrick concerning ours appears of more doubtful faith; our saint’s own prophecies. #
In the Life of St Patrick by Jocelin, published by us in the March tome, day 17, chapter 135, the matter is related in these words: “Some days having elapsed, while the book of Genesis was being read before St Mochta — hearing that the holy fathers before the flood lived in a space of nine hundred years or more, and that after the cataclysm several lived three hundred years — he did not easily give faith to the sacred history, asserting that the clay tabernacle of the human body, clothed with flesh so frail and skin, compacted of bones and sinews, could by no means endure so long a time. When this became known to St Patrick, he approached the man to remove every scruple of this kind from his mind with true assertions of reason. For St Patrick said that the whole canonical Scripture was dictated and written by the finger of God, and therefore nothing in it was to be derogated or disbelieved. He also asserted that it is no harder for the Maker of all to prolong a man’s life for the space of a thousand years than for one day, if He willed — since, as the Psalmist witnesses, ‘a thousand years before His eyes are as yesterday which is past.’”
And over these things said by St Patrick, the man still wavering, the holy Pontiff is said to have pronounced — sentencing, or rather prophesying: “Because you have been incredulous of those things of the sacred Scripture which are contained in it, by your own experience you shall learn them to be true: for your years shall be prolonged upon the earth for three hundred years, nor shall you enter into the joy of the Lord your God until so great a space of time is consummated.” And the servant of the Lord afterwards repented of his error of doubt; but the sentence brought forth from Patrick’s mouth, the Holy Spirit dictating, proved irrevocable: for St Mochta lived three hundred years, and so, paying nature’s debt and resplendent with virtues and signs, passed from the world to Christ. These are the things said to have been done between those two saints — if that prophecy deserves full historical faith; which I add because there are some things which seem to militate against it. Let us weigh them singly for a little.
First. St Patrick flourished in the fifth century; but Jocelin undertook to compile his Life only after the year 1180, as we said in our preliminary Commentary on that saint’s Acts, page 521 — so that so great a distance of time does not much commend that compiler’s authority, especially in a fact so paradoxical in its circumstances. Moreover, that the Life which circulates under Jocelin’s name is interpolated and sprinkled with fables, we already indicated elsewhere in our notes to it, tome cited, pages 556 and 576, and likewise in the Appendix after the Life, page 574. Second. Concerning St Mochta’s age — prolonged by St Patrick to three hundred years in penalty of his incredulity — we indicated in the cited notes, page 569, for readers’ caution: “How fallacious Irish numbers are we have already seen (see the preliminary Commentary §6–7) and shall see further in the Appendix.” But there is no need to add more here about that portentous age, since it has already been sufficiently overthrown above. Third. Just as that prophecy is very honourable to St Patrick — and was perhaps devised to this end by someone and thrust into that saint’s Acts — so it seems scarcely probable, not to say indecorous, on St Mochta’s part. For a greater and grosser ignorance, not free from a certain obstinacy of incredulous will, seems to be imputed to that saint than what could befall a man so notable in life and manners and so excellently versed in the sacred letters.
Fourth. We know indeed that this prediction cannot be convicted of certain falsity in substance by us, since it could really have happened; but we also know that it is one thing to ask whether it could have happened, another whether it did happen — and this latter appears less probable to us for the reasons already produced. Fifth. What of the fact that Colgan himself — otherwise no morose censor of Irish wonders — in chapter 2 of the Appendix to the Life of St Mochta, after reciting among other things Jocelin’s text of the aforementioned prophecy, remarks that it is mentioned by Jocelin alone, ingenuously confessing that he finds nothing in St Evin and the other ancient writers of St Patrick’s Acts? Enough and more than enough of that prophecy. See now certain testimonies of our saint drawn from various writers.
In Colgan’s Trias Thaumaturga, in the seventh or tripartite Life of St Patrick attributed to St Evin, part 3, page 162, our holy prelate is praised in these words: “St Patrick remaining in the aforementioned monastery of Ard, St Mochta, a Briton by birth, fixed his seat and built a monastery in a neighbouring place commonly called Lughmhagh: between whom and St Patrick there were frequent conversations, mutual visitations and many other offices of spiritual friendship. For they were custom often to come together at a certain stone commonly called Leach-Mochta, that is, Mochta’s stone, and confer of the things which pertain to God. And on a certain day, when they sat in that place, an angel of the Lord appeared and offered a letter for both to read; which Patrick reading, found in it a reminder — or rather a command — of the Lord, whereby he was bidden to leave the place he had built, with all its appurtenances, to St Mochta, and himself to go to Macha or, as we now say, Armagh, there to build a cathedral church and the metropolis of the kingdom. And the servant of God did what was commanded; and twelve lepers, to whom he had devoutly ministered for Christ in that place, he left to St Mochta to be sustained, and commended them to him.” Jocelin’s Life of St Patrick may also be consulted at the place cited above.
In the second Life of St Columba or Columbanus the abbot — given in the aforementioned Trias Thaumaturga, whose author is thought to be St Cummene — from page 325, it is said near the beginning of the Life: “The most holy Mochta also, bishop of Louth, foretold the same Columba sixty years before, the Holy Spirit revealing it.” In the preface to the fourth Life of the same saint, page 4, St Adamnan, the author of that Life, makes mention of the same prophecy in these words: “A certain British proselyte, a holy man, disciple of St Patrick the bishop, named Mauctaneus, thus prophesied concerning our patron, as is held proved by tradition handed down to us from the ancients: “In the last times of the world a son is to be born whose name, Columba, shall be made known through all the provinces of the islands of the ocean, and shall brightly illumine the last times of the world. The little fields of my and his two monasteries shall be separated by one fence only. He shall be a man very dear to God and of great merit before Him.’” Various other prophecies of our saint are noted in the Life of St Dega, edited by us at the 18th of this month — which may be read there in chapter 1 of that Life, §1. Hence it is sufficiently indicated that he deserves the title of prophet, given him by those cited.
Moreover that these are true predictions, the cited Life of St Dega, §4, shows — for it says he was full of the prophetic spirit.
§ Four. The saint’s writings and his Life are examined. #
Since the various formations of his name stand, certain lucubrations are attributed to our saint — truly, though as doubtful, they are ascribed to him by Colgan in the Appendix assigned above, chapter 4, in which he weaves a catalogue of them from various bibliographers. It is fitting to hear him discoursing on this subject: “Above,” says he, “in the notes §1 we observed that St Mochta’s name is variously expressed by writers: now they call him Mocteus, Macteus; now Bachiarius, Baitharius, Batchianus, Batchanus; and sometimes Mauctanus, Maucteus, Mochta — and Pitseus in On the Writers of England §37, Bale centuria 1 §46, Gesner in the Bibliotheca and others add that he is called Bachiarius Maccaeus. But I read those names expressed a little differently in the said authors: in Pitseus he is called Bacherius Maccaeus; in Bale, Bachiarius Macceus; in Gesner, Barchiarius Macceus — whom, as he adds, others call Bacciarius, others Bacchianus. Ussher in On the Primordia of the British Churches, chapter 17, calls him Macceus the prophet — and so, from what was said above, our saint; and he affirms that he was wrongly confused with Bachiarius by John Bale (and those following him, Nicholas Harpsfield and John Pitseus) — whose letter to Januarius On the Reception of the Lapsed is extant, and whose other book On the Faith Gennadius says he had read. Ware also holds this confusion in On the Writers of Ireland, book 2, chapter 1; but neither proves it there.”
“And indeed I do not see,” says Colgan, “on what ground the cited authors presumed to distinguish St Macteus by both names — unless they had read it so in certain ancient writers or in the titles of his works, or at least noticed that the same work was entitled now under Bachiarius’s name, now under Macceus’s or Macteus’s. Nicholas Harpsfield in the Ecclesiastical History of England, century 1 (or rather among the things he records of century 6), chapter 9, bears this out — where he says Baccianus was a Briton by birth, St Patrick’s disciple, and wrote “a certain book in which he renders account to Leo the Roman Pontiff against the calumnies of his pilgrimage, and certain other things pertaining to theology” — from which it seemed good doubtless to enumerate among his works those which are ascribed to Bachiarius or Macceus or Mochta, or by both names.”
There is a true doubt concerning the letter written by our Mochta. Understand the matter from the words of both authors already cited. For Ussher reports: “We have a letter of our Mochta bearing this inscription: “Mauchteus (elsewhere Moctheus)…’” — and the Ulster Annals at the year 634 record that the same Mochta wrote a letter, says Ware, “which Bishop Cuanus transcribed,” and that the first Saxon archbishop died in that year — so that the reader may mark that the Mochta here meant is not our saint the bishop and master of Louth, but the Mochta of Armagh who died in 889, as was said above in chapter 1 — for he should note that Cuanus who transcribed it was the scribe and bishop of Louth who died in 922, as will appear from what will be said in the next chapter. (For there is cited there a Chronicle of the church of Louth and its prelates, in which these things are noted: “In the year 922 Cuana or Cuanus, the wise bishop of Louth, rested in the Lord.”) And so Colgan immediately concludes: “From where, since he died many years before Mochta of Armagh, he seems to cite the Chronicle not of that man nor of another but of his own patron and predecessor.”
“But the other works mentioned under one or both of the different names, I review from the bibliographers. Gennadius of Marseille, who flourished in the fifth century, in Miraeus’s Ecclesiastical Library, chapter 40, page 50, writes thus: ‘Bachiarius, a man of Christian philosophy, planning to devote himself naked and unencumbered to God, chose pilgrimage for preserving the integrity of his life. He is said to have published pleasing little works; but of them I have read only one, a little book on the faith, in which he satisfies the Pontiff of the City against the querulous defamers of his pilgrimage, and shows that he undertook that pilgrimage not through fear of men but of God — that going out of his land and his kindred he might become co-heir of Abraham the patriarch.’
“Honorius of Autun, who flourished in the twelfth century, in the same Miraeus, the second booklet subjoined from Gennadius, chapter 24, page 117, says: “Bachiarius, a man shining and unencumbered in Christian philosophy, published pleasing little works on the faith.’ Observe in passing that nothing is said by these two writers of Macceus — from which then did the later writers draw it? From where so many other writings, of which I shall now speak? The later writers have recorded these things. In the supplement to the epitome of the Gesnerian Bibliotheca these things occur: “Barchiarius Macceus, disciple of St Patrick, a Briton by nation, wrote to Januarius On the Repair of the Lapsed or On the Fruit of Penitence, one book; On Persevering Faith, one book; Prognostics of Nativities, one book — which last he published as a youth while he applied himself to mathematics. He flourished in the year of salvation 410. Some call him Bacciarius, others Bacchianus.” The book On the Reception of the Lapsed is printed in tome 1 of the Basel Orthodoxographi. Pitseus at §37 speaks thus: “Bacharius Macegeus, a Briton by nation, disciple of St Patrick, gave himself to good letters in the academy of León; a notable prophet and most skilled mathematician” — and then enumerates his writings. By the idioms he adds he seems to indicate our St Mochta of today; but when he affirms that he gave himself to good letters in the academy of León — which perhaps he drew from Bale — he does not seem to speak fittingly enough to his Life, which says thus: ‘An angel of the Lord taught him the elements of letters, and bade him, saying: Go to Rome and learn the sacred Scripture there… And he went, and arriving there happily applied himself to divine studies.’
“Possevinus in the Apparatus Sacer distinguishes Bachiarius from Maccaeus: for he names the former’s writings, but says the latter is unknown to him, using these words: “Maccaeus, who is said to have been St Patrick’s disciple and a Briton by nation and a prophet — since he has not come to my hands, I ought not to pass judgement on him. But as for what they assert, that he published a book On Persevering Faith and another On the Judgements of Nativities — if he rightly proved the former and condemned the latter, he could have written fittingly and orthodoxly; but in an unknown author I pronounce nothing. He is said to have lived in the year 460.” Muratori in tome 1 of the Anecdota drawn from the codices of the Ambrosian Library, and illustrated with notes and disquisitions — at page 1 and following he prefixes Prolegomena on Bachiarius, whose little work On the Faith or Apology he then caused to be edited in type from a most ancient codex of the Ambrosian Library, which he affirms was written at least a thousand years ago, as he notes at page 8, the form of the characters witnessing it without doubt. In the said Prolegomena, therefore, disputing on Bachiarius’s country — after various arguments he adduces — he concludes that he was not a Briton by country; whose country it was, he leaves to others to define. Then he discourses on the time when Bachiarius lived; and the opinions of Bale, Pitseus, Possevinus and Oudin being adduced, he signifies that they indulged conjectures too much, and that he cannot concur with their view that the author wrote to Leo the Great. I do not transcribe here the reasons he proposes — from which he concludes thus: “I should therefore believe that Bachiarius prepared this Apology for himself about the year of Christ 290 or thereabouts.”
“Then proceeding to the other things ascribed to him by various writers: “Moreover,” says he, “what Bale reports of Bachiarius beyond Gennadius’s authority seems to me wholly fictitious and affirmed without warrant: “Bachiarius’ (says he) ‘disciple of St Patrick, a Briton by nation (others call him Macceus the prophet), after various studies of the good arts in the gymnasium of León, devoted himself wholly to the mathematical disciplines in youthful age; then coming to riper years, planning to devote himself to God naked and unencumbered through Christian philosophy, undertook a long pilgrimage to preserve the integrity he had conceived. For in those days (as Gildas, Geoffrey and Bede teach in the histories) the Huns, Picts and Scots oppressed the Britons weakened by king Maximus with unheard-of tyranny, and for this reason some suspected that Bachiarius fled his country etc. That most eloquent man composed to Januarius On the Repair of the Lapsed — elsewhere On the Structure of Penitence — one book; On Persevering Faith, one book; Prognostics of Nativities, one book; etc. Some call him Bacciarius, others Bachianus.’” So Bale the heterodox, apostate from his own Order and from the Catholic region — for whom it was more a concern to vomit virulent and pestiferous bile upon the orthodox than to inquire the truth.
“These words of his — or rather his dreams, as Muratori observes — Pitseus in On the Writers of England at the year of Christ 460, Oudin in On the Ecclesiastical Writers, Nicholas Harpsfield, William Cave in the Literary History of the Ecclesiastical Writers and others almost transcribed. But, as I said before, since these things are brought forward without any witness, they will obtain no credit. And Muratori, speaking of two copies of the letter to Januarius On the Repair of the Lapsed collated by him together, confesses he recognised one and the same author in them throughout — though the different inscription of one copy had first injected doubt whether the same Bachiarius was the author of both. He adds that the letter exists in the last edition of the Bibliotheca Patrum, and is ascribed by all writers to that Bachiarius of whom he treats; but whether truly enough, according to the premises from Muratori — since the writers report this beyond Gennadius’s authority? What the same author discourses of his dignity, I do not report. Let these things suffice and more than suffice concerning Bachiarius — occasioned by our St Mochta, whose name the later writers, under the notion of Macceus, joined with that of Bachiarius or Bacchianus in the ancient records, beyond Gennadius’s authority.”
From these things premised we deduce two corollaries. The first: that those writings indicated above under the name of Moctheus, Mauchteus or Mauchtei seem to be attributed to our saint of today not without probability. The other: that those writings which come under the name of Bachiarius etc. appear to us wholly uncertain, obscure and apocryphal — save the little book on the faith which Gennadius says was the only one he had read; and though he is said to have published other pleasing little works, since Gennadius determines none of them — no, Honorius of Autun himself in the twelfth century marks nothing but his “pleasing little works on the faith” — we do not seem obliged to recur to Bale and the other recent bibliographers to learn of other works ascribed to him while antiquity is silent on them. The same judgement holds concerning those idioms “Bachiarius Macceus, disciple of St Patrick, Briton, prophet” which we saw above joined together by the later writers and understood of St Mochta — Gennadius having nothing of them.
Nor should certain observations on our saint’s Life be passed over. That a greater fulness and sincerity in it has long been desired among us, the words related at the beginning of our preliminary Commentary witness. And indeed we seem able to require greater fulness and sincerity not disjunctively but copulatively: fulness, because the author is almost wholly occupied in heaping up the saint’s prodigious deeds, while in recounting his virtues singly he is very sparing and jejune; sincerity, partly because he is written to have lived three hundred years — an age beyond belief, rejected by us above — and partly because so many and great marvels are conglomerated in that Life: which character of writing is familiar to the genius of the Irish biographers, and of which we complained at the 18th of this month in the preliminary Commentary on the Life of St Dega Macayrill — consult it in this tome at page 658. See also the Annotata to chapter 2 of this our St Mochta, lit. d. We would form a greater estimate of our biographer if he had been contemporary with St Dega — as Colgan indicates but does not prove in the said Annotata, lit. l. Then another difficulty: even if he lived then, whether that Life was not afterwards corrupted or interpolated by others. Meanwhile take it, such as it is, from our codex immediately to be designated, and divided by us into two chapters.
The Life — by an anonymous author. From our ancient parchment manuscript in Salamanca, marked P. Ms. II. #
Chapter One. #
The apostolic pontiff Mochta, sprung from Britain, is freed from shipwreck by foregoing signs of future sanctity; learns letters from an angel; studies at Rome and is there consecrated bishop; founds a monastery and prescribes a rule to his brethren; a concourse of disciples to him; comes to Louth, a little spring going before him; St Patrick, admonished by an angel, departs from him.
The holy bishop Mochta, sprung from Britain, was born in that place where the signs of future sanctity went before him. For at the regular hours he exulted in his mother’s womb. And that great Provider of all things prepared him from the very rudiments of infancy for the illumination of the Irish sitting in darkness — and He prepared him thus. A druid named Hoam, of great name and honour in Britain, by divine counsel proposed to go to Ireland to dwell. So with Mochta’s parents (for they were of his household) and the rest of his people he entered the sea — and see, the winds raged, the waters boiled, the waves rose like mountains, fear and trembling seized the sailors, certain of destruction. Then the druid said to Mochta’s mother: “Cast your infant into the sea as quickly as possible; for it will devour us all unless we give it one to devour.” She arose to do what was bidden — for she could not resist her lord. But inspired by a spirit of counsel (for she knew the boy was of great protection), she immersed his hand in the wave: at once the fury of the winds ceased, the seething of the waves subsided, and the whole sea was levelled to a plain; and with favourable breezes they arrived in Ireland and began to dwell in the field of the Conalli. And Mochta was nurtured in the druid’s own house.
It came to pass on a certain day, while he sat in the field, that an angel of the Lord, a waxen tablet being brought, taught him the elements of letters and bade him, saying: “Go to Rome and learn the sacred Scripture there; for through you very many shall be instructed, and you shall be for many to imitate.” And he went, and happily arriving there, applied himself to divine studies — gracious to God and men; and he became daily wiser and holier than himself, edifying others by life and speech. And disciples flocked to him who, drinking the waters of health-giving wisdom from his sacred breast, were made fathers in faith, word and work.
And when he adorned the fulness of letters with all honesty of manners, he was raised to the episcopate by the supreme Pontiff. Afterwards, strengthened by the apostolic blessing and an angelic waxen tablet offered by the Pope, he returned with twelve companions. And when he came to the Irish sea, forgetful of a certain Edanus, separated from the brethren for some cause, he boarded the ship; and when the man cried out to the vessel, he commanded him, a tree-branch being cut off, to use it in place of a ship. He obeys the master’s commands, not distrusting his merits; mounts the branch, crosses the sea, and even reaches the port before the ship and receives his master.
Mochta then began to build a monastery in the woods of the Metheans, which is called Cella Magna [Kilmore]. He himself was rector, himself the rule of the brethren — for they could see in his life how they should be conversant, and he went before them all in justice and sanctity before God; besides the common institutes, doing many things singularly in which he surpassed all, and none of the others could follow him to such heights. But lest anything of this religion should be neglected by any forgetfulness, and that it might persist without defect not only among the present but the future, he wrote a rule of holy institution — from where, deservedly having the forename of his sanctity, he is rightly called “the Religious” by all. But after a little time there, the inhabitants of the land compelling him to depart, he remained; and when about to depart he sent holy men, whom he foresaw would be shepherds of Christ’s flock, to found the places God had indicated — and dividing the monastery’s goods among them, said: “My portion shall be the little spring of this place: it shall follow me itself, to profit the brethren and those who shall come after me.” And he himself directed his steps to the place named Lugmud — a great possession then. For he had long foreseen this place given him by God; and the said little spring, gliding through the earth’s hidden channels, burst forth there.
First the blessed father marks out a cemetery; then the aforementioned waxen tablet is restored to him by angelic ministry. Then he kindled a fire — which the druids, seeing, said: “Unless this fire be at once extinguished, ours will fail and his will endure for ever.” And so they hastened to pour water on it; but the more they poured, the more it burned — for the water gave it nourishment, not harm. And they, confounded, fled; and Mochta began to build, and built a most noble monastery.
Now the fame of his eminent life, running through all the bounds of Ireland, shone like a star glittering at the rising of the light. And very many flocked to him from various parts, like bees to a flowery garden; whom, instructing in the exercises of the heavenly life with the unrelaxed rigour of discipline, he ever provoked to higher things by his own example. For he himself ascended so great a grace of perfection that, full of all virtue, he was eminent over all revolving things, and thought of nothing but heavenly things. Growing therefore the more, he became a great nation — great in number and in merits. For, to say nothing of the rest whose number was beyond counting, he is said to have had a hundred bishops and three hundred priests as disciples. From where, swarms of saints being sent out like bees, he became the father of many monasteries. He went and came out to exercise the work of an evangelist: he extirpated gentile rites, sowed Christian ones, and the idolatrous nation, sanctified by the sacred font, became Christ-worshipping. What manner of man he was, and of what merits, the signs of his miracles attest.
The supreme pontiff Patrick once began to dwell near his monastery; and as they talked together one day, an angel was sent to them bearing a letter — which Patrick reading through said to Mochta: “I shall not dwell here; for through you God has visited the inhabitants of this land: in your fountain of light they shall see light and obtain eternal life. For David aptly speaks to you in their person: ‘For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light.’” Mochta said: “If it please God that we should serve Him separated from one another, I shall depart.” Patrick answered: “The word of the Lord cannot be changed.” Then Mochta said: “When I depart from this light, I commend my family to you.” And Patrick said: “And I commend mine to you, if I go to the Lord before you.” And so it was done; and Mochta ruled the see after him for some days, and enthroned Benignus, his disciple, in his place.
Annotata. #
a. The formation of this saint’s name is manifold, as may be seen in the preliminary Commentary §1. b. By “waxen tablet” the biographer seems to mean wax tablets on which the ancients used to form characters and compose testaments and public instruments — as Colgan observes here, confirming the matter with examples. Consult what was said at the 5th of this month in the Annotata under the word “ceras,” page 23, lit. b. c. Since the author does not designate the time of the deed, it is not easy to determine that Pontiff’s name. d. On this number see the cited Commentary §1, no. 3. e. On Edanus, ibid., no. 4. f. This place is determined ibid., no. 7. g. See the Commentary ibid., no. 7. h. What manner of rule that was I have not at hand to determine, according to what was said ibid. i. On the name and site of this monastery, see no. 8. k. So great a multitude of bishops and priest-disciples almost exceeds belief; what is to be answered to this difficulty, see ibid., nos. 5–6. l. He was therefore not properly bishop of the see of Armagh, as was observed in the Commentary, no. 9.
Chapter Two. #
Miracles wrought by the saint; prophecies; his happy death.
Let us resume the order of the narration. Hoam, of whom we spoke before, had a virgin daughter whom blessed Mochta made a Christian, and to whom he gave his girdle; when she girded herself with it, the pleasure of the flesh was extinguished in her. She was unwillingly betrothed by her parents to a certain noble — for she wished to show herself a chaste virgin to Christ; and God, willing to keep her vow of virginity intact, she was found dead on the wedding night before they came together. And the seven days of the funeral rites being performed, as was the custom of the gentiles, when they were about to bury her they said: “If Mochta could raise this one, we would give her to him and to his God.” Hearing which, he went to the dead woman, prayed — and the life of the deceased followed his prayer; who at once offered herself and all her goods to him and to God, and lived afterwards thirty years, making garments for the monks.
Meanwhile, amid these and suchlike deeds, blessed Mochta was also illustrious with the spirit of prophecy, as is manifest from what was said above. To the often-named Hoam, a certain druid, a virgin named Brigita was betrothed — with whom, before he should sleep, he lay a whole year prostrate with grave infirmity. And she ministered to him like a lawful wife and earnestly persuaded him to receive the faith, saying: “If you believe and art baptised, you shall live and be saved.” At last he assented; Mochta is called, teaches him; he believes and is washed in the saving water. Then he added: “Believe,” said he, “for after this you shall obtain salvation — not temporal but eternal. For this is the life and salvation which your virgin bride Brigita promised you: for on the seventh day you shall depart this life.” Meanwhile he did penance most devoutly and died at the foresaid term. And Brigita gave herself and her dower-field to the man of God, and wished to dwell near him. To whom he said: “In your country shall be your resurrection; there, beside the house of your parents, you shall found a cell in a place surrounded by dense thorns — and there is a tree in the middle of it, at whose roots a certain wild boar, hitherto most fierce, lies tame, which shall be prepared as food for those building your cell.” Not one jot passed unfulfilled.
A certain infamous robber, giving himself up for his parents on account of his malice, was sought by the father of the afflicted from king Ailill. But he, by no means acquiescing, commanded the man to be cast alive into the sea, a huge stone being hung on his neck. Wonder to tell! He was seen with a glad countenance in the deep — the ministers awaiting his death and seeing that the water troubled him no more than a fish. Yet the impious king did not give him up to the one seeking him. What more? For three days and nights he was thus in the deep; and still he is refused. Mochta therefore permitted him to die, that his body might be brought for burial — for his soul, which he had retained in the body, could not go out without his command. At last, being carried by the brethren, he ordered it to be set down on the way; he prayed — and the man arose, followed Mochta, and became a perfect monk.
At another time also, when blessed Patrick was warring against the diabolic battle-lines on mount Cruachan and celebrating the Lenten fast — his disciple Fintan, thrust down the rocks into the depth of the deep valley and cut into many pieces by the adversaries, he revived whole, his members being gathered, so that not even a scar appeared on him. He afterwards became abbot of the monastery which in Latin sounds “the Church of the East” [Cella Orientis / Kill-Oirtbhir].
The priest Corban came to blessed Mochta on the sacred night of the Lord’s Nativity and found the brethren rejoicing at his coming. And while they celebrated the night-praises, a certain boy of clear voice was in one choir; but in the other, where Mochta was, there was no boy. For this reason Mochta said to Corban: “If your boy has read the alphabet — let him come here.” Who came; and signing his mouth, he said to him with a clear voice: “Pray like that boy — the psalms.” And without delay his voice began so clearly to sing that it filled the whole church: he is bishop Ibar.
Certain brethren arriving, when there was no food, he caused a calf to be killed for their need; but when morning came it was found with its mother — a prodigy. Again: in the land of the Metheans, beside the house of a certain hospitable man, he converted to the monastic conversation certain gentile homicides carrying the heads of the slain. At last, asked by him, he entered his hospitality with his disciples and the rest accompanying him. They being joyfully received, the man ministered with his wife, and they set on butter abundantly from the vessel they had. Mochta, seeing their liberality and charity, blessing a little of the butter said to the woman: “Put this little into your vessel — but let none know or see save yourself — and distribute it generously to Christ’s poor and all the needy. For the more it is distributed, the more it shall be increased.” He spoke, and the effect followed the word: for that butter lasted four years, copiously distributed. Then others seeing it with vain curiosity, so great a grace ceased.
Once, making a journey, wearied he passed the night under the open sky with his company. And thieves coming upon them stole their horses — who, thinking they had gone far by riding all night, were found near at hand when day returned. Seeing which they wished to release the horses, but could by no means dismount. Then he, conscious of the absent, said to the brethren: “Go into that part of the land and bring back your horses wearied with useless labour; and those you find clinging to their backs, release the wretches.” They therefore, coming to the man of God, did penance; and converted under his yoke, served God for the rest of their days.
At another time, when the king — namely Aed son of Colcan — offered him a field, he refused to receive it, saying: “There shall be born in the northern part of Ireland a saint named Columba, God’s elect and beloved, to whom this field is given by God — whom not only Ireland but also Britain shall serve.”
On a certain day, looking aside in a journey, he said: “Go,” said he to the brethren, “and bring here to me the infant whom you shall find alone in that little house.” They go and find, and bring as he willed. Whom the man of God called Luchar on account of his beauty. And in process of time, he being greatly instructed in knowledge and sanctity, he promoted him to the episcopate; and sending him to seek a place fit for him, said: “Where between mountain and sea a wolf, its ferocity laid aside and gentle, shall meet you — there build yourself a cell.”
To these and suchlike things, for the accumulation of merits, there was added the ministry of angels — who, where human faculty sufficed less, at once delayed not to be present. In testimony of which matter, one example among many: going round the sacred cemetery at Easter with the brethren early in the morning, praying, he rebuked a certain little boy playing there. Who said: “you ought rather to fulfil what you promised to Treanan — namely, to celebrate Easter with him.” Then the man of God, lifted up by angels across long spaces of lands, was brought to Treanan; and when the solemnities were finished, was restored to his own — who meanwhile had remained in the place from which he had been lifted.
So this man, burning and shining, sweated out his whole pilgrimage in prayers and fasts, meditating the law of God days and nights. He is said to have lived three hundred years — and never to have uttered an idle word nor tasted anything fat. What kind of man he was, God working in His beloved — no one can describe him singularly.
The blessed pontiff and martyr Daga bore such testimony of him, preaching to the Bangor brethren: “I give thanks to my God,” said he, “that I see you like to the company of St Mochta. For you have three kinds of monks succeeding one another: the first of angelic purity; the second apostolic in works; the third, like holy martyrs, prompt to shed blood for Christ.” So Daga.
Blessed Mochta therefore, the day he had watched for drawing near, received the saving viaticum from St Daga; and full of days and merits, happily fell asleep with the rest of the shepherds of holy Church, to rise again in the glory of Christ — to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Annotata. #
a. Colgan, weighing this passage, writes: “There flourished in the time of St Patrick and St Mochta three virgins of this name in Ireland. The first and chief is Brigid of Kildare — of whom there is no question here, since she was neither any druid’s daughter nor betrothed to anyone. The second, St Brigid daughter of Darius son of Ferguss son of Endeus Niad, of the royal blood of Leinster — of whom the genealogical Sanctilogium chapter 20, Marianus and others treat at the days 24 May. The third, St Brigid daughter of Aid son of Eochaid son of Colla son of Coelbad, of the Dal-Araidhe family — of whom the same Sanctilogium chapter 23. Of this third it might seem there is question here — the martyrologies treating of her at 30 September; for her parents were then living in the region of Dal-Araidhe near the monastery of Louth in St Mochta’s time. Yet I doubt whether it is not rather of the second — since Patrick had a disciple, a holy man named Fintan, son of the aforementioned Ferguss, who seems to have been St Mochta’s disciple according to what is immediately said.” b. Who this was among the many other namesakes noted on various days in the Irish martyrologies, Colgan confesses in the notes he cannot easily discern — adding this conjecture: “But since he is said to have flourished while St Patrick fasted on mount Cruachan-Aigle, the reckoning of time can be an argument for conjecturing that he is St Fintan son of Ferguss son of Endeus Niad — of whom the genealogical Sanctilogium chapter 20. For he flourished in St Patrick’s time, as is gathered from his genealogy and the catalogue of the kings of Leinster — from which we gather that Endeus Niad his grandfather lived about the year 480, and Illann son of Dunlang, his father’s brother, king of Leinster, died in 506. The cited martyrologies seem to treat of him at 19 September or October.” c. This is doubtless he whom the Four Masters in the Annals call Cerban — of whose death they write at the year 499: “St Cerban, bishop of Fert-Cerbain near Tara, died.” Of him also St Aengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght seem to treat at 20 July, where he is called Curbinus. A church stands in County Galway dedicated to him and named Kill-Cerbain from his name. So Colgan. d. This does not seem to be, as Colgan notes, St Ibar the bishop son of Lugneus, who preached the faith in Ireland before Patrick’s coming — as is established from the Lives of St Ailbe and St Declan and from other things to be said of him at 23 April. Perhaps it is he of whom Camerarius treats at 22 March. It is fitting to append here what Henschenius long ago observed at the said 23 April, page 174: “That all things are ascribed to one Ibar, he is reported to have lived three centuries. St Abban was his nephew — who went to Rome to Pope Gregory I, from which we may gather St Ibar flourished in the sixth century of Christ. Consult what was said at 17 March in the Appendix to the Life of St Patrick §1 — from which it will appear of the before-cited Acts of St Abban, in which St Ibar is feigned to have preached in Ireland before St Patrick, how little faith they deserve: which were therefore adduced by us only that even from them the most famous sanctity of St Ibar among the Irish might be established — though obscured by them with many fables and portentous miracles of his nativity and childhood: from which would that the Lives of SS Patrick and Brigid themselves were pure! But the compilers of those Lives have also thrown the whole chronology of the saints into confusion, while they left none of the more celebrated whose name they did not insert into those Lives as contemporaries and familiars of the aforementioned saints — or at least as foreknown by them; as if they were all to come into this light within the number of years determinately marked out.” e. Or “under the open sky,” that is, under the air. f. On the death of this Aed, prince of Oriel, the Four Masters write in the Annals at the year 609: “Aed son of Colgan, prince of Oriel and of the Arthers (that is, of the eastern Ulstermen), died on his pilgrimage at Cluain-inneois.” Verses are subjoined there in the native metre written by a contemporary, indicating that this Aed, abdicating his rule, embraced the monastic institute and was a man of eminent sanctity. This pious prince left his name more celebrated to posterity and ennobled his family not a little — both his brethren’s and his sons’ eminent sanctity being celebrated in the Calendars. For he had two brothers-german, Baetan alias Boetan and Furadhran, and four sons — Magnenn, Tuan, Cobrach and Libren — inserted into the roll of saints, as the genealogical Sanctilogium chapter 13 and Seluacius On the Genealogy of the Saints of Ireland chapter 11 witness. Colgan’s note. g. On this and the saint’s other prophecies we treated in the preliminary Commentary §3. h. This seems, says Colgan, either St Lucharius, whom Marianus Gorman and others report venerated on the 23rd (of which month he does not find added there) in the church of Kill-Elgraidhe; or St Lugair surnamed Lobhar, that is, “the ulcered,” whom they report venerated on 11 May (see the Praetermissi at that day) and of whom the Life of St Moduenna treats in chapter 2. i. Consult what Colgan briefly has of St Trien or Trianan at 22 March, page 720, and at 23 of the same month on Trenan, page 726; and our Praetermissi at those days. k. On this portentous age we argued in our preliminary Commentary §2. l. This hints that St Daga either wrote certain sermons in which the cited words are found, or spoke them in his time before the Bangor brethren. But since none records that St Daga wrote anything, it is more likely that he spoke them in the time of this writer. So Colgan.
Colgan adds: but let me require the proof that this Life’s writer is so ancient that he lived with St Dega, whom we said died in the year 586 — in our preliminary Commentary at the 18th of this month, page 657.
Of St Elaphius, Bishop and Confessor at Châlons in Champagne, Gaul #
The saint’s age, cult, and a compendium of his deeds — that the see was conferred on him by king Sigebert’s prompting; his death on an embassy to Spain for the cause of queen Brunhilde; his cult not to be doubted. #
Of the city of Châlons it was most recently treated in this work, where of St Memmius at 5 August, so that nothing concerning the notice of that city seems wanting. That the saint of whom we treat on this day, named Elaphius — a Limousin by country — was bishop of that city, the seventeenth in order, is read; who is said to have been promoted to that see at king Sigebert’s command or at least suasion in the year 578, and held it until the year 587 — others say until 600. So the writers generally, with Rapin in the History of the Bishops of Châlons. But if we believe Longueval in the History of the Gallican Church, tome 5, page 115, he died in Spain in 580, and his episcopate began much earlier — certainly before 565 — since he himself, with his brother St Leudomir, then deacon, enriched that church with many of his paternal villas and estates, whose donation was made on 9 June 565, the fourth year of Sigebert.
Rapin cites the instrument of the said donation, which he says is found in the Legendary of the monastery of All Saints — but studiously says he passes it over, perhaps lest its chronological errors lie open to the eye. We deem we should adhere to the footsteps of the said Longueval, and fix his holy death at the said year 580 — so that he may be said to have sat about sixteen years; since that donation was made at the very beginning of his episcopate, his german brother St Leudomir also assenting and subscribing — his successor afterwards, as Ægidius archbishop of Rheims testifies. Of the rest of his deeds nothing much remains save the brief compendium immediately to be subjoined.
This only we premise, which was first to be established — that his ancient and legitimate cult is certain, though he is not noted in our ancient martyrologies, which I wonder at; that he has been held for a saint by the Châlonnais from all memory, Rapin sufficiently testifies, and others consent. His notice exists in Molanus’s Usuard in these words: “On the same day, of St Elaphius, bishop and confessor at Châlons.” With much the same phrase, Gallican writers commemorate him from Demochares… [The account continues: that the queen Brunhilde sent him on embassy to Spain; that seized with illness on the return journey he migrated to the Lord; and that his body was carried back to Châlons and rests in the basilica of the princes of the Apostles.]
It may be observed, as the editor’s annotation has it on this saint’s cult, page 8: that time which consumes and devours all things has snatched from us those monuments by which we could have learned the more holy deeds of this most renowned pontiff for our edification. Yet it cites I know not what series of a Life — I believe some composition, itself also unknown to us, so that nothing has reached us save a certain manuscript compendium, from which the Gallican martyrologist seems to have formed his elogium, as will easily appear if our edition is compared with his text. Take therefore the said compendium, transmitted to our seniors from where or by whom unknown, without any further notice. It runs thus:
“Elaphius, born in the city of Limoges of a distinguished family, his father named Leo, had a brother Leudomir who also himself afterwards ruled the people of Châlons most holily. He, destined by his parents to the divine service from boyhood, surpassed all expectation by the greatness of his character. For he learned the sacred letters eagerly, devoted himself to piety, and was so far removed from all levity that nothing boyish appeared in his speech or manners. When therefore the church of Châlons was bereft of its shepherd, Sigebert, son of Chlothar and grandson of the great Clovis, caused Elaphius, summoned from Limoges, to be raised to that see. The episcopal office being at last reluctantly accepted, Elaphius turned himself wholly to the Lord — giving generous alms, constant in prayers, omitting nothing which pertained to the office of a good shepherd. Led by love and longing for so great a brother, Leudomir left his country and went to Châlons. And their fraternal concord profited the church of Châlons much — to which they also gave their hereditary estates near the city of Limoges. And Elaphius, often sent to king Sigebert for the churches’ necessities, exhorted him to believe that justice is the column and foundation of his kingdom. Nor truly did he lose his labour: for the king, hearing him, did many things. It befell at last that the prince, led by pious devotion to the holy martyr Eulalia who had suffered at Mérida in Spain, desired something of her venerable relics. So a most ample embassy being appointed with gifts to Leuvichild, then ruling Spain, he set Elaphius over it — who, with the goodwill of the Spanish king and the clergy of Mérida, was to bring back the sacred pledges. Elaphius, though worn with age, undertook the long journey and accomplished the embassy. But on the return journey he was seized with illness and migrated to the Lord; and his body, carried back to Châlons, rests in the basilica of the princes of the Apostles.”