Divine Providence shall carry you, be prepared to live there and obey the divine commands.' "And Maccuil said, 'I will do as you have said; but respecting the dead man, what shall we do?' And Patrick said, 'He shall live, and rise again without pain.' And Patrick restored him to life in that hour, and he revived quite sound.

"And Maccuil departed thence very speedily to the sea. The right side of the plain of Inis is reached; having his confidence unshaken in the faith, and binding himself on the shore, casting the key into the sea, according to what was commanded to him, he then embarked in a little boat, and north wind arose and bore him to the south, and cast him on the island called Evonia, and he found there two men very wonderful in faith and doctrine, who first taught the word of God and baptism in Evonia; and the men of the island were converted, by their doctrine, to the Catholic faith, whose names are Conindrus and Rumilus. But these, seeing a man of the same habit wondered, and pitied him, and lifting him out of the sea, the spiritual fathers received him with joy; he, therefore, after finding himself in a region believing in God, conformed himself body and soul to their guidance, and spent the remainder of his days with those two holy bishops, till he was appointed their successor in the bishopric.

"This is Maccuil Dimane, abbot and bishop of Arddæ Huimhbonii.”

We glean some additional circumstances connected with the episcopate of St. Machaldus, from the other ancient records of St. Patrick's life. Thus in the "Vita Tripartita" we read:"St. Machaldus being freed from his chains gave thanks to God, and increasing in holiness he merited the episcopal grade on the death of the aforesaid holy bishops, and he closed his life there, illustrious for his virtues and miracles. There was a city in that island called after him, of no small extent, the remains of whose walls may yet be seen; and in the cemetery of its church there is a sarcophagus of hollow stone, out of which a spring continually exudes, nay, freely floweth, which is sweet to the palate, wholesome to the taste, and affording a sure remedy to divers infirmities, and to the deadliness of poison, for whosoever drinks thereof receives either instant health or instant death. In that sarcophagus the remains of St. Machaldus are said to have been deposited, but nothing is now found therein save the clear water only; and though many have oftentimes endeavoured to remove the stone, and

Dimane is evidently a corruption for De Mania; Arddæ Huimhbonii is "The Hill of Eubonia," or Man.

especially the King of the Norwegians, who subdued the island, and was anxious to have at all times such clear water at sea, yet they all have failed in their attempts; for, the deeper they dug to raise the stone, so much the more deeply and firmly did they find it fixed in the heart of the earth."

The "Vita Quarta," which is referred by Colgan to St. Aileran the Wise, also states that Machaldus, being wafted by the winds to the Isle of Man, "Found there two wonderful men named Conindrius and Romulus, under whose guidance the inhabitants of the island had grown up in the love of God, and in the Catholic faith, and who instructed him in the doctrine of life, and in the grace of baptism. He remained with them in the pursuit of divine wisdom, and passed the remainder of his life there, till he was chosen their successor in the episcopate. This was, indeed, a change effected by the right hand of God, and in this the compassionate clemency of our Saviour and his benign mercy are made known, that he who had been a lawless robber should become a holy bishop."2

The Irish annalists place the death of St. Machaldus in the year 554,3 and by his sanctity of life and evangelical labours, during his long episcopate of sixty years, he not only atoned for his former reckless career, but, moreover, won for himself the title, which all subsequent ages have awarded him, of Apostle and Patron of the Isle of Man.

The memory of St. Machaldus was honoured by "many churches" erected in Man under his invocation, as the "British Martyrology" assures us. Jocelyn adds, that "There was in former times a large city in the island, the ruins of whose walls may still be seen, and which bore the name of St. Machaldus."4 In the "Chronicon Manniæ" a fact is mentioned which proves that in the twelfth century the memory of the saint was still cherished in the island. A band of pirates, it is said, had plundered the church of St. Machaldus, in Man, and carried away its treasures; that night the saint appeared to their chief, and, reproaching him for his crime, said, “I am Machaldus, the servant of Christ, whose church you have

3 Dr. Oliver, "Churches of Man," p. 75, says, "The 'Annals of Ulster' place his obit in A.D. 488." This is an error. The Annals of Ulster" in that year, or rather in 489, place the death of St. Maccaille," who gave the veil to St. Brigid, and whose church was in Cruachan of Brigh-ele, in the region of Hifalgia." (Maguire, ap. Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 525). This saint was wholly different from the Apostle

of Man.

"Habebatur in illa insula civitas quondam non exigua, cujus murorum adhuc cernuntur residua ex ejus nomine cognominata."-(" Vita S. Patricii," cap. 152.)

sought to profane," after which words the saint transpierced the pirate with his crozier.'

We may now turn our attention to a few of the difficulties which beset the path of the historian when investigating the history of the first Bishops of Man, and which we have hitherto left unnoticed.

In the first place, then, some writers have hesitated to reckon St. Germanus among the first Bishops of the Isle of Man. Thus Mr. Oliver rejects his Manx mission as entirely fabulous, and contends that Conindrius and Romulus with St. Machaldus are the only historic names connected with the first foundations of the Manx Church. Even Dr. Lanigan looked on the connection of a St. Germanus with the Episcopate of Man as an error of later times. The earlier records of St. Patrick's life (he says) are silent as to any one of his disciples bearing the name Germanus; even among the contemporaries of our apostle no one can be found with such a name whom we can assign to Man. Hence, he conjectures, that the cathedral of Man may perhaps have been dedicated under the invocation of the great St. Germanus of Auxerre, and that popular tradition took thence occasion to introduce a saint of that name as the first apostle of the island.-("Ecc. Hist." vol. I, p. 304.)

What renders the matter still more obscure is the patent contradiction between the statements of Jocelyn and Probus ; for whilst Probus expressly styles St. Conindrius and Romulus the first heralds of the gospel, Jocelyn narrates that it was only after the death of Germanus that those other holy bishops were chosen by our apostle to dispense the blessings of faith to the people of Man.

A like uncertainty prevails in regard to Saint Mochaomhog, whose name in Irish traditions was closely linked with that of St. Patrick in evangelizing the remnant of the Tuatha-DeDanaan race. The greatest of our antiquarians, Eugene O'Curry, has merely added to his name the simple note, "not identified."

It would be unfair indeed to suppose that these doubts bear with them no weight, or that every difficulty connected with the first bishops of Man may be readily solved. We may be permitted, however, to lay before the students of Manx antiquities a few reflections which tend, in part at least, to

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"Chronicon Manniæ," edited by Professor Munch, Christiana, 1860, p. 12. 'Jocelinus is the only writer among the medieval historians who asserts the Manx Episcopacy of this prelate (Germanus), an error clearly fallen into through the profundity of his legendary attainments."-("Ancient Churches of the Isle of Man," by J. R. Oliver, M.D., in vol. 1st of "Manx Antiquities," 1868, p. 65.)

reconcile the conflicting statements of our early writers on this head.

And first as regards St. Germanus. It is true that no one of that name appears in the Irish Calendars, in connection with the Isle of Man, and that Jocelyn alone, among the historians of St. Patrick's life, mentions such a saint as his disciple. The lessons in the ancient office used by the Canons Regular on the feast of St. Patrick are almost the only other authority that presents such a Germanus to us: in these lessons we read that, together with St. Patrick, "was consecrated Germanus, a Lateran Canon," who accompanied our apostle to Ireland (ap. Colgan, "Trias," p. 196).

However, among the contemporaries and disciples of St. Patrick, we meet with a Saint Coemanus, the son of a Welsh prince, named Brecan. This prince was by birth connected with the Cruithnean Ulster chieftains, and all his numerous family are famed for their sanctity and reckoned among the saints in the Irish and British records. His territory lay along the coast of Wales, and his son Coemanus is precisely the person whom we should suppose St. Patrick would select to preach the doctrines of faith in Man. The British form of his name is Coemaun, and the transition in the course of centuries to the more classic Latin name Germanus, will not seem strange or novel to those who are at all acquainted with the singular manner in which Irish names are found transformed in the medieval Latin records.2

There is, however, something more to be said about St. Coemanus. His name is commonly presented to us in Irish records, with the usual Celtic prefixes, under the form of Mochaomhog. Thus Colgan, when speaking of this saint, styles him "Coemanus cognomento Peregrinus qui et Mochomocus," and adds, that his feast was kept on the 3rd of Nov. On that day, in the "Martyrology of Donegal," we find precisely. registered the name of "Mochamhog the pilgrim."3 Thus the one Cambrian name Coemaunus combined the two apparently conflicting forms of Germanus and Mochamhog; and the Latin traditions which link together the names of SS. Patrick and Germanus in the conversion of the Isle of Man, are found to fully harmonize with the Bardic compositions which refer that mission to SS. Patrick and Mochamhog.

We now come to St. Conindrius. In the lives of our apostle

'Colgan, "Trias," p. 177, num. 88, and " Acta SS." p. 311, seqq.

2 It was customary to change the Irish names into Latin ones, which were supposed to have a somewhat similar sound. Thus, Tordealbach became Theodericus; Maithamhoin, Matthæus ; Sidhuil, Sedulius; Ferghal, Virgilius, &c.

The Martyrology of Donegal," edited by Dr. Todd, for I.A.S., 1864, p. 297.

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the name of this saint is indifferently written at times, Conderius, Conindrius, and Connidrius. Colgan tells us that a saint of the name Connidrius is mentioned in the "Martyrology of Tallaght" on the 17th of September; and on that day in the Martyrology of Donegal" we find the same saint under the Irish name Coindre. Archdall, in his "Monasticon Hibernicum," p. 5, mentions an ancient church, Domnachcoindre, which bore his name, and he adds, "the two saints, Conann, are patrons of it." Now this leads us to the old Celtic form of the name, which with the usual prefixes becomes Mochonna. The Bollandists assure us that in early records a St. Mochonna is registered among the first bishops of Man,3 and Colgan also asserts that in our most ancient martyrologies, on the 13th of January, is found the name of St. Mochonna, Bishop of Inis-Patrick, i.e., of the Isle of Man, as he explains it. Surely this is no other than the St. Conindrius of whom we speak. Now, in the "British Martyrology," on the 11th of February, we meet with a Welsh saint named Canocus, who is styled by Giraldus Cambrensis Canaue, and who with the usual Irish inflexions becomes the Mochonoe and Mochonna of our native calendars.5 The life of St. Mochonna is given by Colgan, and from it we learn that he was precisely a brother of the St. Coeman of whom we have just spoken, and like him was a disciple of St. Patrick. The "British Martyrology" has the following entry on his festival:"In Brechin, a district of Wales, the commemoration of St. Canoc, confessor; he was the son of Brecan and the uncle of St. David of Menevia; he was a man illustrious for his sanctity in these parts about the year 492, and his memory is still cherished by the old Britons of this island, especially in South Wales." Giraldus Cambrensis mentions a golden collar called "torques Sancti Canauci," which was held in great veneration in Wales. Colgan also refers to some churches which this saint founded in Ireland.7

1" Vita Tripart." lib. 3, cap. 61; Probus, lib. 2, cap. II, &c.

2 By a somewhat similar change we find St. Cronan also called Mochua.-" Martyrol. of Donegal," 22nd June.

Bolland, "Acta SS." Octobris, vol. 8, p. 887.

"Acta SS." p. 60. Dachonna was another form of this saint's name, and his shrine was rifled by the Danes when they plundered the Isle of Man in the year 798. The following entry of the “Ulster Annals,” ad an. 797, has reference to this event:-"The burning of Inis-Patrick by the Gentiles, and cattle plunder of the country was borne off, and the shrine of Dachonna was broken by them, and the spoils of the sea were taken by them also between Erin and Alba."

5

Girald. Cambr., in "Hiverar Cambriæ," lib. I, cap. 2. Colgan, "Acta SS.," P. 312.

6 Colgan, ad II Feb., loc. cit.

7" Filius fuit Brecani.

vitæ sanctimonia famosus circa an. 492, et

cujus ad huc inter veteres nostræ Insula Britannos memoria est celebris in Australi maxime Cambria."-Ap. Colgan, loc. cit.