Mernocus

ON ST. MERNOCUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, PATRON OF KILMARNOCK IN SCOTLAND,

AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME.

SYLLOGE.

Mernocus, bishop and confessor, patron of Kilmarnock in Scotland. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

Sole §. The memory of St. Mernocus in the Scottish calendars and martyrologies. Places designated by his name. The name the same as Ernan. Whether St. Mernocus is the same as St. Ernan, son of Crasen.

That the Carthusians of Cologne, or rather Greven, their colleague and companion, [St. Mernocus is praised at this day in the sacred fasti, especially the Scottish.] when in the years 1515 and 1521 he was preparing an edition of the Martyrology of Usuard, used a calendar or other Scottish liturgical books we have more than once observed. It is no wonder, then, if in his additions to the genuine text of Usuard he records St. Marnocus, bishop and confessor. For in the manuscript calendar of Edinburgh, which the Spalding society published seventeen years ago Registrum episcopatus Aberdoniensis, vol. I, p. LXXXVII., one reads: "8th before the Kalends of November, Kilmernoch, St. Mernocus"; and in another of Aberdeen Ibid., vol. II, p. 21.: "8th before the Kalends, of Marnocus, bishop and confessor. Middle lessons of St. Crispin and Crispinian"; in the calendar, moreover, prefixed to the Breviary of Aberdeen, which was printed at London in the year 1854 with the greatest diligence, according to the Edinburgh exemplar of the year 1509: "Of Mernocus, bishop, confessor. Middle lessons of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, martyrs. IX lessons"; and in the Martyrology of Usuard according to the use of the church of Aberdeen, which was written at the beginning of the 16th century for the choir of the cathedral church of Moray * in Scotland and inserted in part by David Laing in the Proceedings of the society of antiquaries of Scotland, these things, a little longer Proceedings of antiquarians in Scotland, p. 269,: "8th before the Kalends of November … On the same day in Scotland at Kilmernoch, of St. Mernocus, bishop and confessor"; then in the Scottish calendar which is prefixed to the Catechism of Adam Regius or King: "St. Marnocus, bishop and confessor in Scotland, died in Cunninghame under King Crathlinthus, in the year 322." From which source Ferrarius took this memory, which he wove into his general Catalogue of the saints at this day: "In Cunningham, of St. Marnocus, a Culdee bishop"; adding in his notes: "He lived about the year of the Lord 322. From him the place Kilmarnoc is named. Cunningham is a region of Scotland to the west between Argyll and the borders of England, reaching from Lismore to XV thousand paces." Moreover in the calendar abridged from King and inserted into Keith's History of the bishops of Scotland Schettish bishops, p. 378, edit. 1824., and thence transferred to the end of the Life of St. Palladius, which is contained in Butler's Lives of the Saints, whether English or French, at the 6th day of July, these things come at the 15th day of October: "St. Marnocus, bishop and confessor, died at Kilmarnock"; and in the English Martyrology, printed at London in the year 1761, these others A memorial af ancient British piety, or a British Martyrology, p. 149.: "In Scotland the festival of St. Marnocus, bishop, patron at Kilmarnock, recorded on this day in the Scottish calendars." Finally his name is found in the index of saints which Harris Nicolas inserted in his chronological history The Chronology of History, p. 160, edit. 1838..

[2] A prayer in his honour and places named from him. There are no proper lessons of St. Mernocus in the Breviary of Aberdeen; but, after the title set before them: "Of St. Mernocus, bishop and confessor, patron of Kilmernoch," there comes this prayer alone: "Almighty everlasting God, who, blessed Mernocus thy confessor and pontiff interceding, in the power of thy name grantest health in various infirmities, grant propitiously that we who ask his help may be given by thee purity of mind and body by the gift of [thy] grace." By which prayer it appears that the sick were accustomed to implore the patronage of St. Mernocus, and that indeed in such a way that it must be judged that Kilmarnock was very much visited by pilgrims. That town, whose name signifies church of St. Mernocus, lies in the district of Cunninghame, in the county of Ayr, and its church is even now called collegiate; which may be a trace of its former dignity; on which see more in the statistical reports of Scotland [Old statistical account of Scotland, vol. II, p. 84; New statistical account, vol. V, Ayr, p. 534.]. In the county of Dumbarton there is another parish, by name Kill-Maronock, which is read to have St. Maronochus or Marnocus as patron Carlisle, topogr. dictionary of Scotland, under Kill-Maronock.. By the side of the island and county of Bute that looks to the winter sunset lies an island which, because there was once a sacred building there, now collapsed, and also a dwelling of monks, having the title of St. Mernocus, was called Inchmarnok, that is island of St. Marnocus [Compare New statistical account, vol. V, part II, p. 104; Origines parochiales Scotiae, vol. II, p. 237 and 238; Fordun, Scotichronicum I, 6 and II, 10.]. In the parish of Glen-Muick, in the district of Kincardine O'Neil and the county of Aberdeen, in the loch of Muick, between the Binchinnin mountains and the river Dee, there was a church of a similar name, namely Inchmarnach [Old statistical account, vol. XIX, p. 296; Histor. Collections of Aberdeen, vol. II, p. 80.]. Finally in the parish of Kilfinan, three miles from the parish church, close to the sea, in the district of Cowal and the county of Argyll, there survive a place and the rubble of a chapel, whose name is Ard-Marnoch, or hill of St. Marnocus [Origines parochiales Scotiae, vol. II, p. 51 and 53; Old statistical account, vol. XIV, p. 258 and 259.]. From which things it is easily gathered that at one time there was great veneration of St. Mernocus among the Scots.

[3] Nevertheless his deeds lie altogether hidden, so that no one knows in what place or at what time he lived; for that he is said by Regius or King to have died in Cunninghame, and indeed about the year 322, The name is the same as St. Ernan, with particles of love prefixed and affixed. Crathlinthus being king, relies on no authority, since it is now manifest to all that what was formerly related by the Scots of that age is for the most part fables and fictions. The learned man William Reeves judges Life of St. Columba, p. 26. that he is the same as Erneneus, son of Crasen, who is excellently praised in the Life of St. Columba; certainly the name is the same, as Colgan long ago observed Acta SS. Hiberniae, p. 8, n. 1 and 3., and as Reeves has singularly shown of this very saint Life of St Columba, p. 26., reciting at the 18th day of August the Irish words of Marianus Gorman and of the Martyrology of Donegal; namely in Latin: "Ernin, that is Mernocc, of Rath-Naoi, in Ui Garrchon, that is in Fotharta of Leinster"; of the Festilogium of St. Aengus: "Son of Cresine, Mernocc"; and others of the kind. For Mernoc is contracted from Mo-Erninn-occ according to the custom of the Scots or Irish. Mo, which is meus in Latin, was formerly prefixed by the Irish to names out of a certain affection of soul; which was also done by the Latins, as may be seen in the Lexicons; likewise by the French, by the Spanish, by the Italians and similarly by all the nations of Germanic stock in the words Messire, Monsieur, Monseigneur, Monsignore, Meinherr, etc.; and the pronoun mon, mein coalesces with the following word into one. In no other way the commoners use the words Mon père, Ma mère, Mon oncle, Ma tante; so that one sometimes hears Son monpere, etc. Occ is a diminutive form, having nothing singular in the names of saints. For nearly all the nations of Europe use diminutives to declare love; but this is observed daily among the commoners, that veneration is easily changed into love; and indeed the Flemish or Germans who inhabit Belgium similarly pronounce the names of the saints, even those whom they pursue with the greatest veneration, like Jesus and Mary, often by diminutives: so much so that Father Poirters himself, formerly a popular poet, wrote a poem in which the names of the divine Saviour and of St. John the Baptist are read only in diminutive form. And examples of this matter occur also in Italy and France; as may be seen in this our work at the 16th day of October in the Commentary on St. Gurdanius or Gurdinellus. Among the Irish or Scots, however, this was much more in use; so that in almost infinite places the Irish hagiographer Colgan has had to speak of this matter. And since we have turned aside somewhat to etymology, let us add this by way of a crowning touch, that, since by the old word iern and the more recent iarann iron is signified, it was remarked by St. Adamnan himself, biographer of St. Columba, that the name can also be expressed as Ferreolus, but in Scots Ernene In Reeves, ibid., p. 237..

[4] [It is doubtful whether St. Mernocus, venerated today, is the same as St. Ernan, son of Crasen, venerated on the 18th day of August.] From this head, therefore, no difficulty arises;

nor yet from the fact that St. Mernocus is venerated in Scotland today and is held to have been a Scot. For long ago Ferrarius Catalogus generalis sanctorum, Admonitio. with full right called the Scots ἁγιοκλεπτους; who also venerate many other Irishmen as their compatriots. But St. Ernan, son of Crasen, is praised in the Irish Martyrologies not on the 25th day of October, but on the 18th of August, as, the way it could be seen above, the most outstanding Reeves himself Life of St Columba, p. 25 and 26. demonstrated with his accustomed diligence and learning. In very truth that argument is not certain and firm, since the same saints are often venerated on other days, not only in different regions, but sometimes in the same ones. But though it is so, it nevertheless has some force, especially as there are several other heavenly ones called Ernan or Mernoc, who by the same right as St. Ernan or Mernoc, son of Crasen, or even a better one, since it is established that they were bishops, could be said to have been formerly venerated by the Scots on the 25th day of October: I use the past tense, since they now omit all cult of St. Mernocus, even the Catholics. But if that conjecture should please anyone, which the authority of a most excellent man commends above all, let him go to the Life of St. Columba, where he will meet the highest praises of St. Mernocus, son of Crasen. For my part I neither disapprove of it nor approve of it; sorry that, since I owe most of the things that have been inserted in this Sylloge to the kindness of the most praised biographer of St. Columba, I cannot firmly agree with him in this matter.

* Murray