Mochua Cuanus

ON SAINT MOCHUA, OR CUANUS, ABBOT IN IRELAND.

[1] Certain Irish Martyrologies record the holy Mochua, or Cuanus, of Laegsie, in the month of April, Saint Mochua died January 1; by others he is celebrated April 2. but he migrated to heaven on the Kalends of January, on which day we also give his Life, communicated to us by the Reverend Father Hugh Ward, Guardian of the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Padua of the Order of Saint Francis at Louvain, transcribed from trustworthy Irish codices.

[2] It contains many admirable portents, but of the kind customary among that simple and holy people, as is clear from the acts of other Saints; nor are they repugnant to sacred doctrines or to the most sweet providence of God toward His elect. There are, however, perhaps some things corrupted or amplified through the fault of unskilled copyists. That this should be noted in the deeds of their countrymen, Henry Fitzsimon, a Theologian of our Society, endowed with excellent practical experience, has taught us. The Lives of Irish Saints are admirable but should be read prudently. Which things, however, ought to be so judged as added, it is not easy for us, ignorant of the profane history of the Irish, to determine. It suffices to have warned the reader to read with discretion those things that commemorate prodigious and frequently similar miracles, unless they were written by wise authors. We have, however, resolved to expunge nothing unless it be repugnant to right faith or good morals, or be of such a kind that we can clearly refute it.

LIFE

FROM ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

Saint Mochua, from a soldier becomes a monk.

[1] The homeland and lineage of Saint Mochua. He follows the military life. There was a man distinguished by birth, named Mochua, son of Lonanus, tracing his origin from Lugne. In his early age he was a very warlike man, always gaining victory over his enemies. He lived thus as a layman for thirty years before he took up the warfare of Christ.

[2] He becomes a monk. But when those thirty years were completed, admonished by divine inspiration and struck by the dart of the fear of the Lord, he was converted to the faith of Christ and, becoming a monk, assumed the clerical habit. His uncle donated a certain estate to him, He orders the estate donated to him to be burned. which Saint Mochua ordered to be burned with all its goods, lest a servant of Christ have any portion from the alms or possessions of a sinner. After this the man of God came by divine promise to the place which today is called Teach-Mochua, which is his principal seat. This place he built in the name of... and adorned it with many signs and miracles.

CHAPTER II.

The miracles of Mochua. The spirit of pride expelled from Saint Colman. Fire divinely kindled.

[3] He is distinguished by miracles. Among the notable miracles of this same Saint, the following is famously commemorated. For a certain noble and wise Cleric named Colman-Ela, while one day he was walking around his cell at Glernssen, Saint Colman-Ela, growing proud of his learning, is deprived of it. then puffed up by the spirit of pride concerning his station, the beauty of his body, and the profundity of his knowledge, he thought worldly things about himself. But after he sat thus elated in his chamber, he delivered all his knowledge to complete oblivion, as if he had known nothing before. Astonished therefore at this and marveling not a little, on the following night he fasted, humbly beseeching God that He would deign to remove from him the spirit of ignorance and restore his former knowledge. To him an Angel appeared in his sleep and said: "Colman, why do you fast? What do you ask that God give you?" Colman answered: "I ask that the knowledge which I had before be restored to me by God." And the Angel said: "What you seek you shall have." And Colman said: "To whom has God committed the care of me?" And the Angel said: "Go to Saint Mochua, He is sent to Saint Mochua. who will free you from your pride and ignorance."

[4] Colman therefore, with fifteen other honorable Clerics, undertook the journey and came by a direct route to the cell of the man of God. He found holy Mochua dressed in rustic attire, carrying branches upon his shoulders, outside the estate. Seeing Colman, Saint Mochua greeted him; and when they had thus greeted each other in turn, behold, suddenly a little bird, perching on the top of those branches, sang one verse as if chattering. Hearing which, Saint Mochua asked what that little bird had sung. Colman answered that he did not know. Saint Mochua said: "You tell me a strange thing, since I, who never studied the Scriptures, understand what it sang." And he said again: "This is what the bird says: No word of the knowledge that you had now remains in your mind." Then Colman said: "I confess that I know nothing, and therefore God sent me to you that I might be healed." Then Saint Mochua said: "The unclean spirit Mochua expels the demon from him, and thus restores the use of his learning. that dwells in you, let it depart from you. For thus it was permitted for a time to dwell in you." Immediately, upon hearing the command of the man of God, the demon departed from Colman, and his knowledge was fully restored to him. For when he recognized the fault of his own pride, and the light of grace illuminated his heart, the prince of darkness was put to flight.

[5] Then, this miracle having been shown, Saint Mochua led Colman with his companions to his cell, and ordered that fire and a bath be brought to them by his people. To him a certain one of the Clerics of Saint Colman said: "We are not accustomed to be warmed by earthly fire, nor is our bath usually prepared with it." Fire is kindled from heaven by his prayers. Hearing which, Saint Mochua, extending his clean palms toward heaven, sought fire from heaven, and his prayer was heard, because a fiery stone, falling from heaven through the top of the house where he was, fell into the hearth, from which an abundant fire was built up for the needs of the brothers.

CHAPTER III.

The pride of Saint Fintan is punished with leprosy. Mochua drives it away.

[6] An Angel appears daily to Saint Munnu, or Fintan. At another time, a holy man named Munnu, while he was staying in his cell for three days, was for that same time deprived of the Angelic vision by which he was visited daily. * When the Angel of the Lord presented himself to the man of God after three days, and was asked by him why he had delayed so long, he answered: "The holy dwellers of heaven held a common assembly and council, waiting for the soul of a certain holy man named Many Angels await the departing soul of Saint Molua. a Molua, who was about to enter the way of all flesh; and this was the cause of my delay in coming to you at the usual time." To him Saint Munnu said: "In what merits did that man excel my life, that I was so neglected?" The Angel answered: "He did, while he lived, what you do not do: for as long as he lived on earth, he never cursed anyone present, nor ever detracted from anyone absent. Moreover, he bore the disposition of every season according to the divine will, whether in fair weather or in storm, with equanimity, and commended it. You also are proud, and your Lord wishes you to be humbled." To him Saint Munnu answered: "I will willingly suffer, if what I myself choose is granted to me by my God." The Angel said: Saint Munnu asks that leprosy be sent upon him by God, and obtains it. "What you ask from God is granted to you." Then Munnu said: "Among bodily infirmities I choose leprosy." By the word of the Angel, therefore, Saint Munnu was made a leper, and he endured that leprosy for up to seven years.

[7] When those seven years were completed with great patience of spirit, behold, the same Angel, returning to him, consoled the man of God, saying: "Because you have patiently endured your infirmity until now, therefore it is now granted to you by your God both to put an end to your labors and to obtain cleansing from your leprosy." To him again Saint Munnu said: He is sent to Saint Mochua to be healed. "To whom has the Lord committed the care of recovering my health?" And the Angel said to him: "To Saint Mochua." Having said these things, Saint Munnu set out on his journey and hastened to the cell of the man of God. When he had arrived at the place of Saint Mochua, he entered a lodging there, and entering the house and finding no one there, but only a bare vestibule, His remarkable ardor for suffering. he placed beneath himself a little skin that he found there, and lying upon it, he gathered back with a broom the worms that were crawling from his body across the floor, and returned them to the place whence they had come. He is honored by Angels. When Saint Mochua was then absent, learning by revelation of the spirit, he hurried to his cell, and seeing the Angelic ministration above the house in which the man of God was sitting, he sent ahead without delay the servant who was accompanying him to see who was at home. When he had entered the house and seen a bald man, a leper, horrible with ulcerous sores, struck with fear and astonished, he hastened out of the house and described to Saint Mochua the one he had seen in the house. Hearing the man's description and understanding him to be Saint Munnu, the man of God said: "Truly, it is Munnu, the man of God, who has been sent to me by God to be cured of his leprosy." [Saint Mochua licks the leper and sucks the mucus from his nose, which is turned into gold.] Then, entering the house, he embraced the man of God, and licking him with his tongue from the crown of his head, he restored him to his former health. And what was more difficult for others, blowing his nose three times in succession and taking the three pieces of phlegm in his sacred mouth, by the merits of both, as I believe, these three pieces of phlegm were turned into three talents of refined gold, which were hidden in his chest like three golden apples. After the man of God was thus miraculously cured, he returned to his cell praising his God. But after blessed Munnu was cured of the leprosy, when he had reached the middle of his journey, the foot of one of the horses drawing his chariot was broken. When Saint Mochua perceived this, he called a stag from the nearby mountain, A stag, at Saint Mochua's command, takes the place of the horse. which willingly submitted itself to the chariot and, performing the service of a tame horse, the man of God Munnu was safely conveyed to his home.

\* Munnu is celebrated October 21.

a Otherwise Luanus, whom Saint Bernard in the Life of Malachy calls the Founder of a hundred monasteries. He is celebrated August 2.

CHAPTER IV.

Fair weather and a miraculous river crossing, by Mochua's prayers.

[8] Meanwhile the most holy man Kienanus began with fervent spirit to build a stone church for the Lord, The first stone church in Ireland. because before this there had been no custom in Ireland of building churches from stone. At that time it happened that the work was delayed and impeded because the masons and other workers said that if rain or showers ever flowed between the two surrounding hills, they would immediately cease from it. Hearing which, Saint Kienanus went to each of the Saints, both men and women, of Ireland, asking them to obtain fair weather from God for the completion of the work. Fair weather divinely obtained for this work. And when he obtained from each some period of fair weather -- a week from one, a month from another, and three months from yet another -- and still needed the space of one year for completing the work, one night the man of God, fasting, asked God to reveal to him to which of the Saints he should turn to obtain that year. And He who reveals mysteries taught him to hasten to the cell of Saint Mochua, which is now called the House of Mochua, to obtain his petition. And when he came there with fifteen Clerics, he was received with honor and obtained what he had sought. For when Saint Mochua prayed and fasted, he obtained from the heavenly Giver fair weather for a year and a half for the completion of that work.

[9] This gift having been granted, Saint Mochua asked Kienanus that when the work was completed, he be notified so that he might come to the consecration of the church, and that he should provide provisions for those who would arrive for the first night's entertainment. When these things also were done, Saint Mochua led blessed Kienanus with his companions as far as the river whose name is Lyncorchaygi, which is a very impetuous stream at that time. When the Clerics saw that violent and rapid water, they judged it impassable without a boat at that time. Then Saint Mochua, Mochua transports Kienanus with fifteen Clerics across the torrent on his cloak. in the power of Him who dried up the waters of the Jordan with the cloak of Elijah, cast his cloak upon the waters, and in it transported Saint Kienanus with his fifteen disciples across the river as if in the safest raft. And so, with Saint Kienanus and his companions hastening to their cell, the broad cloak of Saint Mochua's charity, not folded in any way nor dampened, returned to him.

CHAPTER V.

Stags, slain and eaten, restored to life by Mochua's merits.

[10] When the work of Saint Kienanus was therefore completed, he sent a messenger to Saint Mochua that he should come to consecrate his church, as he had promised. Then, hearing the message, the holy man set out on his journey, and passing through the mountain called Mairg, he led with him twelve stags, He brings twelve stags laden with wood. which he found there, as if they were domestic oxen, loading each with wood, and thus led them to the Church of Saint Kienanus. When the wood was being unloaded from the stags, the man of God ordered water to be brought upon them for cooking their meat. Which was also done. After this Saint Mochua ordered all those stags to be killed, but their bones to be preserved unbroken until the next day. When the crowds of the poor and others who were present were therefore satisfied by the miraculous hunt of Saint Mochua, He feeds many with their meat. on the next day the bones of the stags were collected before the men of God. Saint Mochua commanded them to rise again in their proper form, in the power of Him who recalled the stinking Lazarus to life by a single word. By the power of God he restores them alive and whole. And immediately those dry bones put on flesh and skin, and took on the life-giving spirit, and stretched out their limbs in the movement of their former vigor. When these things were done in praise of God and the church itself was consecrated, Saint Mochua returned with those miraculously resurrected stags to the mountain whence he had taken them. And there, releasing them, he reached his cell. And these twelve stags, as is reported by many, Those stags lived very long. are still seen on that mountain at certain times.

CHAPTER VI.

Mochua's buildings and death.

[11] He builds many churches and cells. The holy Confessor of Christ Mochua, remaining firmly in the aforementioned church called Teach-Mochua, having founded thirty churches in Ireland and built one hundred and twenty cells, disturbed by earthly glory and the frequency and conversation of friends, deliberating with himself and judging that unless he abandoned that earthly glory, he would by no means become a participant of celestial glory, He flees from glory. seeking the desert, therefore, he directed his steps toward the north toward Saint Patrick.

[12] But having traveled through many places where he would have wished to remain if it were granted from above, he came at last by divine direction to the land of the Ergithiallenses. Having also surveyed that land, He builds a church in a foreign land. he finally arrived by divine arrangement at a certain place called Dayrinis. In this place, when the aged traveler struck the little bell which he carried in his hand, its tongue fell to the ground. Seeing which, the man of God was greatly grieved, because the place was temporary and almost uninhabitable. But for his consolation an Angel was sent to him, who said to him: "It has been told you by the Lord your God to inhabit this place and to build a church here." Conforming himself in all things to the divine command, he inhabited that place and there built a church in the name of the Lord, which he adorned with many miracles both in life and in death. He himself persisted there for thirty years, and in the ninety-ninth year of his life, on the Kalends of January, he happily rested, He dies January 1. our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom be praise and dominion through infinite ages, Amen.