March 13th - St. Mochoemoc, Abbot

[Rich]

March 13th - St. Mochoemoc, Abbot
7th Century

The accounts we have of St. Mochoemoc are overladen with fantastic legends. Perhaps all that we should be justified in asserting is that he was the nephew of St. Ita, who had charge of him in his youth, that he entered the monastery of Bennchor (Bangor) in County Down, that he was afterwards commissioned by St. Comgall to found a settlement at Arderin, that he eventually established a flourishing community at Liath-mor, where he became the teacher of St. Dagan and St. Cuanghas, and that he died at a very advanced age.

Tradition, however, declares him to have been the son of St. Ita's sister Nessa and of Beoan, whom Ita had so marvellously raised to life. The boy was so hand some that he was named Coemgen (Pulcherius), but his aunt called him by the pet-form Mochoemog, and by that name he was always known. His father and mother came to St. Ita and said, "Lady, the grace of God shines wonderfully in your little favourite, our son: we are earthly, and he is so spiritual that he cannot live with us." She at once replied, "Bring him hither and I will rear him myself." So she watched over him until he was twenty and superintended his studies. Then she blessed him and sent him to St. Comgall at Bangor, where he was ordained. Recognizing his sanctity the abbot said one day to him, "My son, it is necessary that you should become the spiritual father of others, and that you should erect a house for God's service wherever He may decree."

So Mochoemoc set out with other monks and settled first at Arderin on Slieve Bloom, but later he departed to the country of Eile. There the chieftain offered to give him a lonely wooded place, and this the saint willingly accepted. Now when Ita had parted from her nephew she had given him a little bell, saying, "Here is this silent bell for you: it will not sound till you have reached the place of your resurrection." As soon as Mochoemoc had reached the land granted him, the bell tinkled, and the saint gave thanks to God because he knew it was to be the place of his resurrection. There also he found a great wild hog, which greeted the monks, and Mochoemoc exclaimed, "As the colour of that hog is liath--grey--so shall it be the name of this place for ever." Here then at Liath he founded his principal church, which was called Liath-mor or Liath-Mochoemoc, but the place is now known as Leamokevoge in County Tipperary. Round the holy man gathered a number of disciples, and St. Mochoemoc built for them a great monastery in which they lived in peace. At last, when he had founded many monasteries, the saint was warned that his time was come, and having blessed his monks and Liath he went to his reward a very old man.

There was formerly venerated in Scotland, particularly in the district about Glasgow, a maiden St. Kennoch whose history is wrapped in great obscurity. We are met first with the difficulty that while in the text of the Aberdeen Breviary the name is printed Kenoca, the form in the calendar of the same book, as well as in the Aberdeen Martyrology and in the Arbuthnott calendar, is Keuoca or Kevoca. On the other hand, "Kennocha" appears among the virgins and widows in the ancient Litany of Dunkeld. Forbes, in his Kalendars of Scottish Saints, suggests that an ancient Irish monk--no other than Mochoemoc of Leamokevoge--has here through some confusion been transformed into a woman. The Kevoge, in fact, which we find in Leamokevoge is simply the saint's name, and it may obviously be identified with Kevoca. No certain conclusion is possible. The statement that St. Kennoch lived in the time of King Malcolm II (1005-1034) rests apparently only on the authority of Adam King (1588), which is quite worthless in such a matter.

There is a Latin Life of St. Mochoemoc and an Irish text, which is the translation of it. The Latin was printed by Colgan, and also in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii. It has been re-edited in VSH., vol. ii, pp. 164-183 ; see also LIS., vol. iii. For St. Kennoch, see the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii, and KSS.


Bible Quote:
Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human: and God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Cor. 10:13) DRV

Saint Quote:
O Holy Mary! My Mother; into thy blessed trust and special custody, and into the bosom of thy mercy, I this day, and every day, and in the hour of my death, commend my soul and body. To thee I commit all my anxieties and sorrows, my life and the end of my life, that by thy most holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my actions may be directed and governed by thy will and that of thy Son.
-- Saint Aloysius Gonzaga


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Excerpt from sermon of St. Alphonsus Liguori

All holiness and perfection of soul lies in our love for Jesus Christ our God, who is our redeemer and our supreme good.

Has not God in fact won for himself a claim on all our love? From all eternity he has loved us. And it is in this vein that he speaks to us: "O man, consider carefully that I first loved you. You had not yet appeared in the light of day, not did the world yet exist, but already I loved you. From all eternity I have loved you."

Since God knew that man is enticed by favors, he wished to bind him to his love by means of his gifts: I want to catch men with the snares, those chains of love in which they allow themselves to be entrapped, so that they will love me. And all the gifts which he bestowed on man were given to this end. He gave him a soul, made in his likeness. He endowed him with memory, intellect and will; he gave him a body equipped with the senses. It was for him that he created heaven and earth and such an abundance of things. He made all these things out of love for man, so that all creation might serve man, and man in turn might love God our of gratitude for so many gifts.

But he did not wish to give us only beautiful creatures; the truth is that to win for himself our love, he went so far as to bestow upon us the fullness of himself. The eternal Father went so far as to give us his only Son. When he saw that we were all dead through sin and deprived of his grace, what did he do? He sent his beloved Son to make reparation for us and to call us back to a sinless life.
-- from a sermon