ON ST. MODOMNOCUS, OR DOMINIC OF OSSORY, IN IRELAND.
IN THE SIXTH CENTURY.
CommentaryModomnocus, or Dominic, Bishop of Ossory in Ireland (St.)
By G. H.
[1] Ossory, or Osseria, a region of Ireland on the borders of Munster and Leinster, gave its name to the Bishops of Ossory. Their seat was formerly at Saigir, which today they call Seir-Keran; St. Modomnocus is venerated in Ossory thence, as some hold, it was transferred to Aghaboe in Upper Ossory, and finally to Kilkenny, which is called the Cell of St. Canice. James Ussher, in his On the Beginnings of the British Churches, page 958, relates from the Kilkenny Martyrology that on February 13, on the Ides of February in Ireland the memory of St. Modonoc the Confessor is celebrated. Colgan relates at the same day that the same person is celebrated under the name of Dominic on February 13, from the Cashel Calendar and the Festilogy of Oengus, and asserts that he sprang from a royal lineage.
[2] In the sixth century of Christ, St. David, Bishop of Menevia, flourished in Cambria, which we now call Wales, having died on the Kalends of March in the year 544 in his monastery at Menevia. he was a disciple of St. David of Menevia: In his Life, Giraldus Cambrensis relates that good and reputable men from Ireland were accustomed to go on pilgrimage, and whether going or returning, they desired with eager longing to enjoy the conversation of the blessed David (since his name was as oil poured forth). Among the Irish disciples, instructed over a long period by St. David, were St. Aidan, or Maedoc, afterward Bishop of Ferns in Ireland, whose Life we gave on January 31, and St. Modomnocus, about whom the following is read in the second and principal Life of St. David, from the Kilkenny manuscripts, to be illustrated on the Kalends of March.
[3] A certain one of the disciples of St. David, named Modomnoch, was leveling a certain rough road with the others, so that the passage would be easier for carrying loads. When he saw a certain person working sluggishly, he said to him in a voice of rebuke: the arm of one who wishes to strike him becomes stiff: "Why are you laboring so lazily?" But the one to whom the word was spoken, moved by a fury of anger, raising the iron he held in his hand on high, strove to strike him on the crown of the head. St. David, seeing this in the spirit, raised his hand with the sign of the saving Cross, and the arm of the striker immediately withered.
[4] When St. Modomnoch, disciple of the holy Father, was trying to return to Ireland and boarded a ship to cross the sea, as he departs for Ireland, the bees follow him: behold, the whole multitude of the bees of that land from which he had come, following him, settled in the ship with him. For he had given diligent care to nourishing and keeping the swarms of bees by the command of Father David, so that he might provide to those in need some delights of sweeter food. The disciple, not wishing to deprive the Brothers of so great a benefit, returned to the presence of Father David, with the swarm of bees nevertheless following him, which went to their own hives. When he said farewell to the Brothers a second time to take his journey, behold, the bees, as before, followed him. When he saw this, he returned again to the Brothers, and likewise all the bees accompanied him. When they had repeated this a third time, and the man of God in no way wished to take the bees from the Brothers, on repeated occasions: with the blessing of all the Brothers and of Father David, he received permission to cross the sea with the bees. St. David also, blessing the bees, said: "May the land to which you hasten abound with your offspring, and may your offspring or progeny there never fail; but may our city be free from you in perpetuity, and may your offspring no longer multiply in it." This we see fulfilled even to the present time. For if they are brought from elsewhere to that city, they can by no means survive. But Ireland, an island in which until then bees could not live, afterward flourished with a great fertility of honey and bees. So far the text.
[5] Bede, book 1, chapter 1, calls Ireland "an island rich in milk and honey." From the Rule of St. Ailbe, which they say was written in the fifth century of Christ, Colgan proves that bees existed in Ireland before. One should rather understand some territory of Ireland to which St. Modomnocus brought the bees. In the Life of St. Molagga, which Colgan published at January 20, it is said that a town in Fingal was therefore called Lann-beachaire, because St. Molagga placed the bees brought into Ireland by St. Modomnocus, or Dominic, there. Fingal is a territory of the County of Dublin toward the city of Drogheda, he places them in Fingal: or Pontana, in which there was a noble monastery named Mellifont. Giraldus in the Life of St. David has the same story of the migration of bees from Wales to Ireland, but writes Mondobnaucus instead of St. Modomnocus. But in distinction 1 of the Topography of Ireland, chapter 5, he relates that St. Dominic of Ossory, as some assert, brought bees into Ireland.
[6] The same Giraldus, in distinction 3, chapter 3, asserts that a very high mountain, which overhangs that sea which flows between Ireland and Britain, was once called Salangam; but because long afterward St. Dominic built a noble monastery at its foot, did he build a monastery? it now more commonly has the name "Mountain of Dominic." Ussher, page 954, understands this to refer to the same St. Dominic of Ossory. Colgan on the contrary says that St. Domangard built that monastery, and that the mountain is still called Sliabh-Domhangaird, that is, the mountain of Domangard, after this Saint. Mention of St. Domangart is found in part 3 of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, whose disciple he is said to be; Jocelin calls him Dovengard. Colgan refers his birthday to March 24.