CONCERNING ST. MOCHELLOCUS OR KELLENUS OF KELLOCIA IN IRELAND.
ABOUT THE YEAR 650.
CommentaryMochellocus or Kellenus, of Kellocia in Ireland (St.)
In the part where Munster, the southern portion of Ireland divided into four, is washed by the western sea, the Desii, that is, the Western-dwellers, are spread over four, so to speak, peninsulas, separated by the wide estuaries of as many rivers discharging into the sea: of which the largest, His cultus flourishes among the Desii, called Hicarbria by the ancients, retains relics of its old name in the castle of Carbry even today, and among other places of ancient celebrity has Kellocia, perhaps called Kellona by Spedo, in the innermost recess of the bay of Mares. As it took its name from St. Mochellocus, so it venerates the same as Patron, as Colgan testifies, and retains his feast, even now in living observance: by which name he is also listed by Henry Fitz-Simon in his catalogue of Saints of Ireland on this day, and his name is read in various calendars: corruptly written Mottelogus, which Canisius and Ferrari also followed. Colgan makes him both Bishop and Abbot, of which perhaps one title only was applied by various persons, giving occasion to the author of the manuscript Florarium to inscribe the memory of Mottallegus the Abbot, also of St. Metallock the Bishop, as of two distinct persons in his Calendar: Hermann Greven in his additions to Usuard mentions only Mohallock the Bishop and Confessor.
Colgan thinks that this is the one mentioned in the Life of St. Finan, to be given on April 7, with the honorific appellation of Holy Elder. perhaps the same one to whom St. Finan diverted? We have the Life of the same St. Finan, and in it we read thus: At another time St. Finan came to a religious man who was called Mohelloc, who lived in a certain place having with him two cows with one calf: for the calf of the other cow had been devoured by wolves. In which things and the rest that follow, there is nothing that even by a shadow makes it probable that there is here a discourse about a Bishop or Abbot. Therefore, leaving as uncertain the indication of the time when St. Mochellocus lived, which Colgan draws from that source, we prefer to follow the opinion of Severinus Ketennus praised by the same, About the year 650, who in the second book of his history, treating of Conall and Kellach, sons of King Molcobba, reigning jointly from the year 639 to 656, says thus: At this time died St. Furseus and St. Mochellocus, who built the church of Kil-mochelloc or Kellocia; omitting the particle Kil, used for church, and mo prefixed to the name out of veneration: which name, if it is also written elsewhere as Kellenus (as Cathald Maguir received it, and Marianus Gorman inscribed it in his Martyrology, using elsewhere the same words as the most ancient Tamlacht Martyrology on this same day), it might perhaps seem that mention of him is made even on this day in the very ancient Arras Martyrology, where is recorded the Birthday of St. Killian.
Mochellocus's lineage is traced by the aforesaid Severinus Ketennus from the stock of Conarius, son of Ederschelius: he dies in the Lethana forest, the two already mentioned Martyrologies call him the Son of Tulodhran, which in the Cashel Calendar is more corruptly read as de Kil-odhrain, and everywhere is added the place of cultus, Cathuir-mac-Conchaid: which was
a city of the Desii in the forest called Lethan, that is, broad in the Irish language, as Cathald Maguir teaches in his annotations on the festology of St. Aengus; placing the forest itself near Lismore. Where you should take care not to understand Lismoria, a city still frequent and noble on the River Mor in the County of Waterford, far from the Desii: but either conceive the lake which the River Lyx forms, called Catherloug by Spedo, from the place where St. Mochellocus is said to be venerated, as already mentioned: near Lismore of the Desii, or Listor, situated beside the same lake, perhaps more correctly to be written Lismor. The named places are distant from Kellocia to the north partly fifteen, partly twenty miles, so that when St. Aengus in his metrical festology says that St. Mochellocus perished in Letha after many days of life, it is understood that he died not far from the church he himself had built, and that those who, following the aforesaid Cathald Maguir, thought he had died at Rome, were deceived by the ambiguous meaning of the word leatha (sometimes signifying this forest, sometimes Armorican Britain, sometimes Italy or Latium), and the more celebrated veneration of him there in that place to the present day persuades that his body was perhaps brought back to Kellocia. translated to Kil-mochelloc or Kellocia, to which he had given both its beginning and its name.