ON ST. MUNESSA, VIRGIN,
OR MONESSA, IN IRELAND
More probably after 454.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's various names, her cult, the age in which she lived.
Munessa or Monessa, virgin, in Ireland. (S.)
BY C. S.
This Saint is found named in quite various ways among the hagiophile writers of Ireland. Jocelin in the Life of St. The Saint variously called by writers. Patrick, chapter 159, in Colgan's Triadis thaumaturga, page 100, calls her Memessa; Probus in the same, page 59, calls her Muneria; the author of the Life of St. Patrick published by Colgan in the third place, whom he supposes to have been St. Benignus, names the same woman at chapter 78 Munessa. This last appellation the praised Colgan prefers to the rest at page 34, writing thus in Note 74: She is called Memessa by Jocelin, and Muneria by Probus, corruptly: more rightly (as it seems here) Munessa. For by these authors she is reported to be venerated as a saint, and a church dedicated to her name: but I do not find the feast of any Muneria, Mumessa, or Memessa observed by our hagiographers; but certainly that of St. Monessa, or, which is the same thing, for the reason often given, of Nessa, on the IV of September. With these we call her Monessa or Munessa.
[2] Probus, book 2, chapter 26, in the Life of the aforesaid Apostle of Ireland, which the praised Franciscan published in the fifth place, seems to refer the cult of this holy Virgin to the fifth century; The Saint's cult, from Probus, for he says thus: In that very place (where St. Monessa, whom he calls Muneria, died and was buried) St. Patrick foretold that there should afterwards be a little cell, in which virgins about to serve God should be gathered: which also was done not long after that time. For the memory of the same holy Virgin is venerated in the same place unto the present day. He seems, I say, to refer her cult to the fifth century by these words: Which also was done not long after that time — whether that time is to be referred to the holy Virgin's death or to the prediction made by St. Patrick. For the holy Apostle of Ireland made an end of living in the year 460, as Papebroch shows in volume 2 of March, page 525: but how long before his death he uttered this prediction is uncertain. Nevertheless, within those 40 years which ran from the saint's death to the beginning of the sixth century, this little cell must have been built, in honor certainly of St. Monessa, if it was truly built not long after that time. But what time the same author means when he asserts that the memory of Monessa continued in the same place unto the present day is plainly uncertain, since nothing certain is had about Probus's own date; the praised Colgan may be consulted at page 61, and our own Papebroch at the place cited, page 521. Would that Probus, of whatever age he was, had indicated the place of the cell that was built: for so perhaps it might have been possible to find something more certain about this indication of a cult. Of the same place and cell Jocelin too keeps deep silence; the other Lives of St. Patrick are silent, and so is Colgan himself, who illustrated them with notes.
[3] Upon the authority of Probus alone, therefore, this cell rests, by Colgan for whose trustworthiness I should not dare to answer, especially since, on Colgan's testimony, it contains not a few things contrary to all the other writers of Patrician matters, some of them perhaps in part inserted by the copyists concerning the names of places and regions, plainly contrary to the truth — about which see the praised Franciscan. Yet the author of the aforesaid Triadis thaumaturga intimates at page 311 that the body of our Saint was preserved at Armagh, where under the following title, Of certain other saints resting at Armagh, is reckoned St. Munessa, or Monessa, daughter of the king of the Britons … who is venerated on the IV of September. But in the same place he cites only the authors and Lives reported above; and of these Probus alone, whose words we have given, calls her a saint; the third Life asserts that she, having received baptism, gave up her soul into the hands of angels; and the sixth adds that the clay of her sacred body was, after praises given to God, honorably committed to the earth by St. Patrick and the rest who stood by. But of these things there will presently be speech again: I pass on to others.
[4] Among the many things which Father Stephanus Vitus of our Society, professor at Dillingen, sent to Father Rosweyde at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and in the Catalogues I find various catalogues of the saints of Ireland, of which two contain the Saint of whom we are treating. One, preserved among us under the wrapper ✠ Ms. 167 D, under the title The names of certain holy women of the stock of the kings of the Scots of Ireland, thus mentions her: St. Muneria (according to Probus, or Munessa according to my Manuscript) daughter of the king of the Britons, baptized however by Patrick and dead in Ireland. The other, under the wrapper ✠ Ms. 167 F, thus begins: The eighth Catalogue of the saints who either died in ancient Scotia or Ireland itself, or after death were translated thither. Of whose very many I shall here give the names of the fewer that follow, as found here (at Dillingen, it seems) where I dwell. Then, after many have been reckoned, is written: Muneria, who is also Memessa, virgin, daughter of a king, baptized by St. Patrick, who saw her soul ascending into heaven about the year of salvation CCCCL. Of the year of her death we shall treat from number 6.
[5] of the Saints of Ireland. To these is added Father Henry Fitzsimon, likewise of our Society, who in the Catalogue of the chief Saints of Ireland published in the year 1611, and revised and reprinted in the year 1619, also places St. Memessa, though he is to be corrected in this, that in the same place he also recites Muneria as though distinct from Memessa. I do not doubt that among others, perhaps not a few, the memory of this holy Virgin
may be found: for Colgan plainly hints at this, who, as was said above, testifies that the feast of St. Monessa or Nessa is observed by his hagiographers on the IV of September. Whether those hagiographers are published or unpublished is wholly hidden from me: certainly I have turned and turned over again all whom I had found to have written sacred histories about the Britons and the Irish, but with entirely fruitless effort, so that I could not sufficiently wonder at so constant a silence about this saint among writers who otherwise are known to have passed over nothing, so that with wholly praiseworthy zeal they might bring forth into the light, dug out of the darkness, their fellow-countrymen Saints, or those who in any way made Ireland illustrious by their virtues. We wrote also to the Reverend Irish Franciscan Fathers of Louvain, entreating that, if they preserved anything about this Saint among the papers of Colgan (for he it was who there wrote the Acts of his fellow-countrymen Saints), they would deign to communicate it to us. We received a most courteous reply; but nothing found.
[6] The time of her life is inquired into I find the Saint's Life written professedly by no one: only in brief, on occasion of the baptism conferred upon her by St. Patrick, do the author of the third Life, Jocelin, and Probus in Colgan's Triad treat of her, one however a little more fully than another. Their words I shall here transfer in such a way that I shall give notice what each author has added differently from the other. But first I have judged that a few things about the time in which these things were done should be tasted beforehand. That St. Patrick was sent into Ireland in the year 432, Papebroch shows in volume 2 of March, page 524. His most holy death he fixes at the year 460, page 525. Hence it follows that the things which the praised writers have set forth about our holy Virgin happened between the years 432 and 460; for the baptism conferred by St. Patrick in no way permits us to wander outside these limits. It must therefore be further considered whether this history is to be attached to the earlier or to the later years of his apostolate. To me indeed it seems most probable that it is to be referred to one of the last 5. Take the reason. There was published by the same Papebroch, from a most ancient Manuscript codex of the monastery of St. Vedast of Novalese, the Confession of St. Patrick concerning his own Life and manner of living. He supposes it to have been written by the Saint himself after the erection of the see of Armagh, and therefore after the year 454, as he gathers from conjectures at page 519, number 14.
[7] and of the Saint's death, Now indeed in this his confession, reckoning up at chapter 4, number 18, the abundant fruits of his apostolate, he commemorates with a sign of vast joy the virgins brought over by himself to Christ, and yet makes no mention of St. Monessa. Let us hear him speaking. The sons of the Scots and the daughters of the petty kings are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ. And there was also one blessed Scottish woman, noble, most beautiful, grown up, whom I baptized: and after a few days she came to us on a certain business: for she made known to us that she had received an answer from a messenger of God, who admonished her to remain a virgin of Christ, and so to draw near to God. Thanks be to God, on the sixth day from this she most excellently and most eagerly seized upon that which all the virgins of God likewise do.
[8] Thou seest, learned reader, how sweetly the apostle of Ireland glories in the Lord over his harvest. and it is more probably placed between the years 454 and 460. Who would believe that St. Monessa would have been passed over by him unpraised, if the things related about her had already then happened? For if he mentions so expressly that Scottish woman, because she was noble, most beautiful, grown up, and baptized by him, and had resolved to keep her virginity — how much the more would he have commemorated among the fruits of his apostolate Monessa, who not only was noble, but, the daughter of the king of the Britons and still a heathen, had spurned marriage, had burned to see God, after a long struggle with her parents had been led by those very parents to the Saint, and, baptized by him and refreshed with the body of Christ, had so wonderfully undergone the death of the Saints, and as a Saint had been honorably entombed. Truly he seems by no means about to pass over so illustrious an example of a royal Offspring, if it had then already happened: especially if, as Papebroch surmises, he wished to leave this his confession to his disciples as a kind of testament, on occasion of certain persecutions stirred up against him. And this reason has moved me to place her death, as more probable, between the year 454 and 460. Now receive from the praised writers what I have found handed down to memory about our Saint.
A LIFE
Such as it is, by Probus, in Colgan, in the fifth Life of St. Patrick, book 2.
Munessa or Monessa, virgin, in Ireland. (S.)
A. By Probus.
[St. Muneria, a king's daughter, not yet baptized, suffers herself by no threats to be moved from her purpose of virginity:] For the daughter a of a certain king, of excellent countenance and perfect virtue, whose name at that time was Muneria b, was suddenly filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit: whose wedded embraces many nobles and rich men sought, and she did not consent to them, although she was not yet baptized nor imbued with the faith c: for she could not be compelled by her parents to that which she did not wish: who indeed, amid stripes and frequent rebukes d, would ask her mother and her nurse whether they knew the maker of that wheel by whose light the world is illumined. And when she received answer from them that the maker of the sun was he whose seat is heaven, she asked that she might be joined in the marriage bond e to him who had so comely a light in heaven. For the aforesaid Virgin understood the maker of the whole creation through nature f, herein following the example of the patriarch Abraham. But her parents knew not what to do or whither to turn.
[10] [Wherefore, being led by her parents to St. Patrick, she is baptized, dies piously, and is honorably buried.] At length, taking counsel given them by God, they caused St. Patrick to be summoned g, that they might consult him upon this matter h. But he, being taught all things by the Holy Spirit, straightway came to the aforesaid Virgin, and with lifted voice said to her: "Dost thou believe in God with thy whole heart?" The maiden answered: "I believe." Then Patrick, the man of the Lord, regenerated her by the sacred laver of the Spirit and of water i. And without delay, prostrate on the ground, she gave up her spirit into the hands of angels: and where she dies, there also is she buried k. In that same place St. Patrick foretold that there should afterwards be a little cell, in which virgins about to serve God should be gathered: which also was done not long after that time. For the memory of the same holy Virgin is venerated in the same place unto the present day l.