ON ST. MUNDUS ABBOT,
IN ARGYLL A PROVINCE OF THE SCOTS.
TENTH CENTURY.
CommentaryMundus, Abbot, in Argyll, a province of the Scots (St.)
G. H.
Argyll, famous for its most noble County, reaches the far end of Loch Fyne toward Ireland in an elongated peninsula, Location of Argyll: and now in the Irish tongue, which is in use throughout this whole district, is called Cantyre, that is "head of the land." In this province St. Mundus lived, and in the Aberdeen Breviary is adorned with this brief notice: Sacred cult of St. Mundus: Of St. Mundus Abbot and Confessor in Argyll, under King Kenneth II, in the year 962, April 15. He could in the said year have been made Abbot, and afterwards, under King Kenneth (whom John Leslie reports to have reigned from the year 978 until the year 1000 of Christ), have ended the last day of this life, and so it is read more correctly in another manuscript Catalogue of the Saints of Scotland on April 15: St. Mundus Abbot and Confessor, lived in Argyll in the year 962. David Chambers in his Scottish Menology celebrates him with a longer encomium. "On the 15th day," he says, "St. Mundus Abbot, famous for sanctity of life and miracles to these our own times, in the province of Argyll: where also many churches dedicated to his name may be found. Churches dedicated to him. This Saint had various disciples in the spiritual life, not unlike their master: to whom he is said very often to have commended that they should keep their heart pure and burning perpetually in sincere love of God. Precepts given to his disciples. Second, that of God and divine things only should they speak with outsiders: for secular men, oppressed by the multitude of miseries of this world, rightly expect this from the religious: but the religious by the nature of their institute owe this very thing to seculars: and since speech reveals what sort of person each is (for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks), such ought the religious to be in life and word as he desires to be esteemed by seculars. Third, that the time and the manner of speech should be determined alike by the very necessity and utility, either one's own or another's, since there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence. Fourth, to do nothing which they would not dare to do before the eyes of the divine gaze and of all men, since God is in place of all a witness and judge, who can neither be deceived nor deceive. Fifth, that this should most of all be at heart, to love one another with sincere, unfeigned love, and to thrust from themselves as quickly as possible those things which would tear them from mutual and brotherly love, ever mindful of the divine precept: 'By this all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.' John 13:35 This servant of God raised up very many monasteries in the province of Argyll. He passed from this life about the year 962. Of him Rex in the calendar and others." Thus far Chambers, by whom had the others from whom he drew these admonitions of St. Mundus been named, he would have come into greater favor with us. The same things from Chambers Simon Martin published in French in his Sacred Relics of the Desert, page 298.
[3] Thomas Dempster, citing the same Calendar of Rex, has these things in his Scottish Menology: On April 15, in the Orkneys, of Mundus Abbot, wondrous in sanctity. But he seems to make Mundus one and the same with St. Magnus, the Apostle of the Orkneys, who is venerated on the following day; whom the same Dempster better distinguished in the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation book 3 chapters 854 and 855, He is confused with St. Magnus. where he treats of each in these words: "St. Mundus, Abbot in Argyll, of a most austere and continent life, is thought to have written many things: among these, a disquisition on the evil eye and sorcery, book 1. These had wondrously harmed the best prince King Duff and had fastened him to his bed. He lived in the year 962, is venerated on April 15, Scottish Breviary." Duff reigned from the year 968 to 972 of that century. Then concerning St. Magnus the same Dempster writes thus: "St. Magnus, by nation a Scot, sent to the Orkney islands … was subjected to martyrdom by wicked pagans … is venerated on April 16. Writings attributed to him." Meanwhile in his Menology he transfers him to September 6. Concerning St. Magnus we give more illustrious monuments on the following day April 16. Ferrari, using Dempster's papers, also on this day places St. Mundus in the Orkneys. Perhaps both thought that Argyll was situated among the Orkneys. His writings which Dempster enumerates we no more believe to have ever existed than the many other books, for which he assigns as authors individual Saints of his nation, and of which we judge that most are neither anywhere to be had nor ever seen by any man. Dempster seems in this to have wanted not so much to obtain for his nation the praise of many authored books, as to seek the first place among fabricators of lies.