Malchus

ON ST. MALCHUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT LISMORE IN IRELAND.

From the Life of St. Malachy.

XII century.

Malchus, bishop and confessor, at Lismore in Ireland (St.)

J. B. S.

I assign the source whence those Martyrologists who have treated of St. Malchus confess that they received what they say, Marked by Molanus on the X of April, and among these Molanus, who, I know not on whose lead, when he marked him on the X of April in the appendix of his first Usuardine edition, speaks thus expressly: Of Malachi (for Malchi), bishop of Lismore and confessor, concerning whom in the Life of St. Malachy. Him there followed Canisius in the Martyrology of his name, and Ferrari in the general Catalogue: and this last indeed so far that, after he had noted Malachy, bishop of Lismore, at the day already mentioned, he wrote at this X of August: In Ireland, of St. Malchus the bishop, whom certainly he had not found in Molanus, wrongly cited for this day: for he in none of the three editions announced him on this day, and indeed in the two later ones he plainly passed him over even on the X of April itself. The cause indeed I cannot discover, since in all the printed Catalogues of the Irish Saints he is constantly reported, if not in the order of months, at least in the alphabetical tables, in which he is most expressly marked, Malchus, from the Life of St. Malachy, on the X of August.

[2] Those tables our Elders do not seem to have consulted, by others better on this day. at least at this day, when among the Passed Over at the X of April they treated of St. Malchus as though in some manner they neglected him, referring him to St. Malachy on the III of November. Wilson seems to have judged better in his English Martyrology, proclaiming him a true Saint with a eulogy such as Ménard gave nearly in Latin, thus announcing concerning him on this day in the Benedictine Martyrology: At Lismore in Ireland, of St. Malchus, bishop and confessor of that same city, a man of great sanctity and illustrious with the glory of miracles. Further, in the observations, book 2, he teaches whence knowledge of St. Malchus is to be fetched, namely from the said Life of St. Malachy, which you have in Surius in its place, and in Messingham on the Saints of Ireland from page 350. The words of St. Bernard, the writer of that Life, faithfully copied thence, demonstrate the Man's sanctity, though briefly, yet certainly solidly and wonderfully. Hear St. Bernard just now praised:

[3] His brief eulogy. It came into his mind to go to bishop Malchus, who might more fully inform him of all things. He was an old man full of days and of virtues, and the wisdom of God was in him: an Irishman indeed by nation, but he had lived in England in the habit and purpose of a monk in the monastery of Winchester; from which he was taken to be bishop in Lismore, a city of Munster, and that the nobler among the rest of that kingdom. There so great grace was conferred upon him from above that he shone not only in life and doctrine, but also in signs, of which two, for example's sake, that it may be known to all what a teacher Malachy had in the knowledge of the Saints. A boy who had lost his mind, of those whom they call Lunatics, he healed while confirming him with the sacred unction. This was so known and certain that he presently made him the doorkeeper of his house, and the same boy lived sound in that office to the age of manhood. To a deaf man he restored hearing, in which the man confessed a certain marvel, that when the Saint had put his fingers into both ears on this side and that, he felt as it were two little pigs come out of them. For these and such things, his fame increasing, he obtained a great name, so that the Scots and Irish flocked to him, and he was venerated by all as though the one father of all.