Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moinenno

1322051Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 38 — Moinenno1894Mary Bateson

MOINENNO, Saint (d. 570), suffragan bishop of Clonfert, was a disciple of St. Brendan of Clonfert [q. v.] His name also appears as Monnennio, Moinnend, Maoinenn, or Moenu, and in Latin as Moinennus. He must be distinguished from Mo-nennius [q. v.], bishop of Whithorn; but whether Moenna or Moena, a bishop and disciple of St. Brendan, has a separate identity is not so clear. The bishop of Clonfert's feast is celebrated on 1 March, Moenna's on 26 Feb. Colgan distinguishes the two by making Moenna identical with Moenus, Mainus, who lived near Dol in Brittany, but the Breton saint's feast is 15 June (Todd, Book of Hymns, fasc. i. 104). St. Moinenno died in 570. The feasts of St. Monan [q. v.] and Moinenno both fall on 1 March, and Skene suggests that the two were confused in the accounts which represent St. Monan as the companion of St. Adrian, afterwards bishop of St. Andrews in his missionary efforts among the Picts of the ninth century. According to Skene, the monastery with which Moinenno was associated at Clonfert was broken up between 841 and 845, when St. Adrian's expedition was leaving Ireland for Fife, and St. Adrian possibly carried with him the relics of the dead St. Moinenno, and not the living St. Monan.

[Colgan's Acta SS. Hibern. 1 March; Skene's Celtic Scotland, ii. 314.]

M. B.