Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/95

Mochaei holy scriptures, in due time baptised him, and eventually ordained him. This occurrence has been doubtfully dated in 433 by Bishop Reeves; it probably belongs to a later year. On his ordination St. Patrick presented Mochaei with a book of the gospels and menistir, apparently the case containing a chalice and paten. Another gift of the saint was the Eitech Mochaei, or Mochaei's winged crozier, which is said to have fallen from heaven while Mochaei and Patrick were conversing on sacred things. Mochaei seems to have been the first in Ireland to whom St. Patrick gave a gospel and a crozier. The gift appears to have been made on the occasion of the foundation of Mochaei's church of Aendruim. This church, called in the 'Acta Sanctorum' Nendrum, and in the 'Monasticon' Neddrum, was situate thirteen miles N.N.E. of Downpatrick, on an island in Strangford Lough—now known, after Mochaei's name, as Mahee Island. Mahee Island contains the remains of a round tower, about nine feet high, and the ruins of a church enclosed by three ramparts or cashels, evidently for the security of the community. The ruins are not those of the original church built by Mochaei, as that was of wattles plastered over. According to the 'Martyrology of Donegal,' Mochaei went into the forest with sevenscore young men to cut wattles, and a legend states that while thus engaged an angel in the shape of a bird sang so sweetly to him that 'three fifties' of years passed over like an hour. When the song ceased and he awoke from his trance, every one he knew was dead, and an oratory had been built to his memory. The 'Calendar of Oengus' says: 'Of the members of the saint's congregation, nothing remained but the skulls.' Bishop Reeves suggests that the legend may be explained by the fact that another Mochaei is recorded as having died in 664, a hundred and thirty-eight years later, with whom our saint has been confused. The elder Mochaei's monastery was also a school for the education of the clergy, and among the pupils received there were St. Finnian of Moville, and St. Colman of Dromore. 'A shaven pig' was annually presented by Mochaei's community, in commemoration of the saint's original occupation as a swineherd, to the church of Down, which was popularly associated with the name of St. Patrick. Mochaei died on 23 June 497. [The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, by Whitley Stokes, D.C.L., Rolls Ser. i. 40; Reeves's Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, pp. 144, 187-97; Martyrology of Donegal, p. 177; Calendar of Oengus, p. cvii.]  MOCHAEMOG or (d. 655), was the son of an artisan named Beoan, who left his native place, Comnaicne (now Connamara), in Connaught, and settled in Húi Conaill Gabhra in the south of the county of Limerick. Nessa, who lived with her sister Ita in the neighbourhood, at Cill-Ita (now Killeedy), became Beoan's wife. By Ita's intercession a son was born after long delay. Before his birth St. Fachtna [q. v.] of Ross Ailither is said to have been cured of an affection of the eyes by bathing them in the milk of Beoan's wife. Ita first named Nessa's son Caem-ghin, 'a fair offspring,' but afterwards substituted og for ghin and prefixed mo, thus forming Mochaemog, 'My-fair-youth' (in Latin, Pulcherius). On attaining the age of twenty Mochaemog proceeded to Bangor in Ulster, where he studied under St. Comgall, and was in due time sent forth as a missionary by St. Comgall, his companions being SS. Laichtin, Molua Mac Ochai, one of the Findbarrs, and Luchtigern. Arrived at southern Ely in co. Tipperary, he was granted by the chieftain a site for a monastery, in a retired part of a forest near the marsh of Lake Lurgan; it has since been known as Liathmochaemog or Leamokeavogue, and is in the parish of Twomile Borris, barony of Eliogarty, co. Tipperary. Subsequently, when Failbhe Fland, king of Munster (619-634), who lived at Cashel, sent his horses to pasture on the lands of the monastery, the saint drove them away, and the king straightway ordered the chieftain of Ely to expel Mochaemog. The saint went to King Failbhe to remonstrate, but the latter was obdurate, and taunted Mochaemog with baldness. Thereupon Mochaemog is said to have caused the king's sight to fail, while St. Patrick and all the saints of Ireland, male and female, threatened him in visions with immediate death unless he treated Mochaemog with respect.

Failbhe's successor, Ronan, son of Bledin, although hostile to Mochaemog, renewed the grant to him, and the saint commended his soul on his death to God, and defended this act of charity against the adverse criticism of a scribe. Many other stories prove Mochaemog's influence with local kings or chieftains. In the 'Calendar of Oengus' his name is associated with that of Cuangus, a student of science, who is termed 'the blind youth.' He himself, his mother, and aunt, are all credited with curing blindness. They doubtless possessed some knowledge of ophthalmic science. Among his friends were St. Colman of Doiremor, whose monastery was only four miles off, and St. Fursa [q. v.] of Peronne in France. He was the tutor of Dagan of 