CONCERNING SAINT MODAN, ABBOT IN SCOTLAND.
PrefaceModan, Abbot in Scotland (Saint)
By the author I. B.
[1] Concerning the feast day, age, and rank of dignity of Saint Modan, there is a question — his Acts being either lost or still hidden. The Acts of Saint Modan. He who compiled the Aberdeen Breviary around the year of Christ 1509 seems to have briefly touched upon them, unless perhaps he followed only popular report. David Camerarius had other documents from the monastery of Scone on the river Tay, as he indeed cites them. Hector Boece seems to have expressed only the lists of names, or titles and brief summaries of narratives. Leslie, Conaeus, and others copied from Hector, all carelessly. Hector's words are, at the end of book 8: "In the place of Congall, his brother Conran was made King, with the great applause of all, in the year of the Virgin Birth 501, He is said to have lived around the year 500. which was the fourth of Ambrose's reign and the twelfth of Anastasius, Prince of the Romans. In this time, or certainly not far removed from it, there were men powerful in holiness and learning: Remigius, Bishop of Reims... Maxentius the Abbot, Leodegarius, Arnulphus... Among our own people, Colman the Elder, with other Saints, Medan, Modan, and Euchinus, Bishops, pious preachers of the doctrine of Christ throughout the fields of the Scots and Picts."
[2] Leslie rendered these things thus in book 4 of the Deeds of the Scots, under King Conran: "At this time, besides Saints Colman, Priscus, Medan, Modan, and Euchinus, Bishops and Confessors, (whose deeds are elsewhere hyperbolically inflated, Scotland produced an outstanding alumnus, called Winfred by some, who was worthy of all the greater praise because he was the son of the King of the Scots," etc. George Conaeus adds something further about the state of religion among the Scots, book 1, page 30: "Saints Colman, Priscus, Medan, Modan — Bishops illustrious for true piety and steadfast confession of Christ — besides their outstanding merits, are commended by the notable education of Saint Winfred, the King's son, whom both sacred and profane philosophy imbued so deeply that, leaving Scotland — where royal lineage was held in greater honor than his own moderation of spirit could endure — he set out abroad to propagate the Gospel."
[3] But those who examined Hector's words carelessly, who wrote that Colman (whom he said flourished at the beginning of the sixth century after Christ by the fame of his virtue) was called "Priscus" — that is, "the Elder" — in reference to another Colman who is said to have been created Bishop of Lindisfarne after Saint Finan in the year 661: names corrupted) they, however, made two persons out of Colman and Priscus, both Bishops. The same was done with Modoc. Hector had written in book 6: "Among our own people, at nearly the same time" (of Constantius Chlorus Caesar and King Crathlinthe, around the year of Christ 300), "there were men powerful in sacred learning: Amphibalus the Bishop, Modoc the Elder, Calan, Ferran," etc. He calls this Modoc "Priscus" (the Elder), if one compares him with Modoc, or Medoc, or Aidan, Bishop of Ferns, of whom we treated on January 31. But Leslie in book 3: "At about these times there flourished among the Scots: Amphibalus, Modoc, Priscus, Calan, Ferran." Conaeus referred them to the times of Constantius, son of Constantine the Great: "Contemporary with this King Crathlinthe among our people were Modoc, Priscus, Calan, Ferran." Nor does Thomas Dempster hesitate, in book 15 of his Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish People, citing Hector and Leslie, to consecrate two Saints named Priscus, and to assert that both were celebrated in writings — the one for a published book against the superstitions of the pagans; the younger for a book of homilies on the Saints.
[4] We do not inquire here whether those whom Hector commemorates in both passages, besides Modanus and Medanus, existed, and in what age. The same author, in book 10, folio 191, under Achaius — or around the year 800 a King of the Scots who was a contemporary and friend of the Emperor Charlemagne — writes that Modanus and Medanus, being brothers devoted to the monastic life, presented themselves as examples of virtue to be imitated by posterity. Leslie follows Hector as usual in book 5, page 177. Dempster (who would have it that the Winfred mentioned by Leslie is Saint Fridolinus, of whom we shall treat on March 6) thinks they are the same persons whom Hector had previously assigned to the times of Conran and then to those of Achaius: Neither is established. he himself judges that the time at which they lived is uncertain. The Royal Scottish Calendar of Adam places them under Conran.
[5] The same Calendar, as well as the Aberdeen Breviary, records the feast of Saint Modan on the day before the Nones of February; Medanus, or Middanus, on November 14, as does David Camerarius. Hermann Greuen, in his Additions to Usuard, has Modanus the Abbot on both days. He is venerated on February 4. Colgan, under February 4, reckons Modanus the Abbot among the Irish, though he produces nothing about him beyond the words of Leslie, Boece, and Camerarius. John Wilson, in the first edition of the English Martyrology, records both under April 26, not April 26 and says they were celebrated in Scotland and Ireland when the Catholic religion flourished there, and that many altars were dedicated to them; in the later edition, he places both on May 14. But Ferrarius, in his General Catalogue of Saints, inscribed Medanus under April 14; nor May 14 and Modanus and Midanus, brothers, under the 26th.
[6] We have, therefore, the feast of Saint Modan. Concerning his age, the matter is unclear. For as to what Camerarius writes — that around the year 522 at Dryburgh (near the river Tweed, not far from the ancient monastery of Melrose, on the very borders of England) he became a monk and then an Abbot — we fear he cannot prove that a monastery existed there at that time, since those places were subject to the Angles, or if to the Picts, he preached in Stirlingshire, to the west of the Forth: certainly both were still pagans. It is far more likely what is said in the cited Breviary: that he imbued the Scottish people dwelling on the western side of the river Forth, or the Scottish sea, with sacred doctrine; for the Scots first occupied and then held the western tract of modern Scotland. We treated of the Forth, that noble estuary or Scottish sea, on January 13 in the Life of Saint Kentigern, chapter 4, note f, where it is called the river Fordense. Camerarius agrees, and says that in the Stirling district and in Falkirk (a place not far from the Forth) his memory is still celebrated. Finally, near Dumbarton, broken by old age and labors, he died. He died near the fortress of Dumbarton: We said in the cited Life of Saint Kentigern, chapter 6, note a, that Dunbritton, and by metathesis Dunbarton, is the name of a most strongly fortified citadel, which was formerly called Arcluid — that is, "above the river Clyde" — called by Bede and by Adomnan in the Life of Saint Columba the Rock of the Clyde, or of the Cloithe, because it lies at the confluence of the rivers Clota (or Clyde) and Leven. We also treated of Arcluta on January 29 in the Life of Saint Gildas, who was born there, section 3, number 27. Beyond the Leven, venerated at Rosneath and Brechin: surrounded by various estuaries, Rosneath is to be seen, where the church and relics of Saint Modan once were. Dempster reports that at Brechin, an episcopal city in the province of Angus, his name was celebrated.
[7] He whom some call a Bishop, others a monk, we name an Abbot on the authority of that ancient Breviary. Whether he was of the Benedictine Order, as Wion and Wilson would have it, is not something we are prepared to declare. If he lived at the beginning of the sixth century, He seems to have been an Abbot: as Hector, Leslie, and Dempster — though somewhat uncertain in their opinion — and more expressly Adam Royal, have written, he was a monk before the institution, or certainly before the propagation outside Italy, of the Order of Saint Benedict: trained, that is, in that discipline whether of the Benedictine Order? by which very many monks at that time among the Scots, Britons, and especially the Irish were formed. But if he flourished around the year 800, when not only the Angles and Scots but also the Picts worshipped Christ, and the religion of Saint Benedict had been widely propagated throughout Britain, it is entirely credible that he bound himself to that Order, whether at Dryburgh — as Camerarius would have it, if a monastery existed there — or at Melrose, or elsewhere.
[8] Dempster reports that he wrote very many works, of which, 150 years ago, there survived three books On the Office of a Bishop. Where were they, or by whom were they then read? That author seems to think it impious if any of those ancient Saints should not also be adorned with the praise of learning and of published books. Whether he wrote anything?
LIFE
from the Aberdeen Breviary
Modanus, Abbot in Scotland (Saint)
BHL Number: 5979
[1] Saint Modan, a venerable Father and a most revered and most devout Father of very many monks. From the earliest beginnings of his infancy he lived all the days of his life under a rule and in the monastic habit, in poverty, Saint Modan was a monk from his earliest age, chastity, and obedience, as a vigorous and warlike soldier of Christ, continually warring against the devil, the flesh, and the unstable world — armed with the breastplate of faith, virtue, and justice, and the example of his life — overcoming them, leaving all things, following Christ and the Apostles in preaching, with the display of miracles; having cast aside riches, royal lineage, and earthly inheritance, he clothed himself in a humble cowl, that he might make himself an heir of Christ.
[2] In frugality and parsimony of food he everywhere mortified his body, sometimes content with bread and water; nor did he use wine, just as he abstained from the eating of flesh. Sometimes, satisfying himself with small herbs and spring water to overcome hunger austere in diet, and thirst, he restrained and rendered emaciated the nature of the flesh, so that by the chastisement of the body he might overcome the vices of the flesh by subduing it, and so that among all those of his religious order he might be called a mirror and pattern on the way of truth, virtue, and holiness of life.
[3] O how often did Blessed Modan here restore lost sight to those wandering from the light of faith, and repair that gaze by which he brought them back to Christ! He converted many: Into ears that were deaf and condemned by the hardening of unbelief, he poured the precious hearing of the word of truth for perceiving the voice of the heavenly commandments, so that when the Lord called them to mercy they might respond through obedience. Those who were bound through long negligence by the stain of sin, he, by castigations and exhortations, purifying them — the power of God working in him — loosed and set free.
[4] Rightly, therefore, upon this holy man dear to God, Modan, is that excellent name bestowed, as though meaning "one who hates vain ways," or "empty motions," or "one who possesses angelic manners"; to whom nothing of heavenly grace was lacking when he asked according to his vow. For the gravity of his character and the austerity of his life made that holy, chaste, and modest man manifest to all. His ears, he restrains his own senses: eyes, and the other five exterior senses, which he was accustomed to call the windows of Death, he so subdued that they should in no way perceive anything illicit or any kindling of sin. For he barred shut those five windows with the bolts of divine fear and love.
[5] From the hearts of many sons of iniquity he put luxury to flight by chastity, cast down wrath by patience, extinguished envy by love, prostrated pride by humility, he leads others to the pursuit of perfection, overcame sloth by diligence, vigils, and prayers, and checked each of the other vices by the opposing virtues — to such a degree that the entire Scottish people dwelling along the western side of the river Forth, or the Scottish sea, and at Falkirk, was imbued by his teaching.
[6] When the aforesaid Scottish nation had been converted to the inviolate faith of Christ, as described above, by the merits, miracles, and preaching of Blessed Modan and of his disciples who accompanied him, Blessed Modan — exhausted by excessive labors, vigils, and the occupations of divine studies on behalf of the said nation and his own salvation, wearied by the great number of his years, in old age he withdraws to a secluded place: and with his natural strength thus failing, so that he could scarcely move himself from place to place on foot — yet always having a mind prompt and ready for preaching, withdrew to more secluded places, and near the ocean of Scotland, not far from Dumbarton and Lochgarloch, in a place sequestered from all men, famous for miracles, he dies: surrounded by seas and lofty mountains, he fell asleep in the Lord, illustrious for many miracles. In that place there exists a parish church of Rosneath dedicated in his honor, where the most holy relics of this man his relics rest and are venerated with the greatest reverence in a certain chapel of the cemetery of that church.