Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/107

This page needs to be proofread.
95
95

ST. MONEGUND dS MxDANA, Edina, Etaoin,' Ethan, Msmme, Gk»LiNiA). Modwenna is made oontem- porarj with persons living centuries apart, from St. Patrick to Alfred the Great. Whenever her legend crosses that of any other saint the resnlt is con- tradiction and a general mnddle of dates and places. (Compare Atea, Osith, Edith (3).) One legend speaks of Modwenna as the virgin whose name was Dareroa and whose surname was Moninna, and says that she died the day that St. Columkille was horn: this is generally said to be in 521. This early Modwenna received the nun's veil from St. Patrick, and was soon at the head of a small community which rapidly in- creased. They lived at one time on an island in Wexford harbour ; afterwards, at Faughart, where she ruled over a hundred and fifty nuns. She removed for greater quiet to a desert place called Sleabh Cuillin or Slieve Gullion. (Com- pare Dabbbca (2) Modwenna lived to the age of one nundred and thirty, or some say one hundred and eighty. When she was at the point of death King Eugenius sent a bishop to bargain with her to prolong her life for a year: he was sure she could obtain this &vour from Gk)d if she would pray for it, and he offered to redeem her '* life by a free maiden." Modwenna said that if he had asked this favour " two days ago or even yesterday " it would have been granted, but St. Peter and St. Paul had come to fetch her and she must go. At the same time, that which he and the Bishop had offered to give for her, they must now give for their own souls. Then she blessed the people and departed. She crops up again in 685, when she vints Aldfrid, king of Northumberland, at Whitby, and he requests her to in- struct his kinswoman, the Abbess El- fleda. Modwenna's career is prolonged into the 9th century, by a mistake of Oapgrave, who supposes this Aldfrid to be Alfred the Great, and substitutes for St. Elfleda, St. Edith of Polesworth. Whatever her true date was,Modwenna left traces of her influence both in Eng- land and Scotland, and went three times to Bome. She is said to have founded seven churohes in Scotland, one of which was on the site now occupied by the Castle of Edinburgh, one on the Castle Hill of Stirling, one at Longforgan in Perthshire. In England she founded the Monasteries of Burton-on-Trent, Stramshall in Staffordshire, and Poles- worth in Warwickshire. At Polesworth her memory is eclipsed by that of Edith (3), for whom the establishment was restored in the 9th century. At Burton the name of Modwenna is preserved in the dedication, and it is one of the places where she is said to have died. Mr. Gammack thinks there were two Modwennas ; Sir Thomas Duffns Hardy considers there must have been three ; Bishop Forbes holds that there was only one; that it is quite credible that she established a Christian colony in Ireland, then penetrated to different parts of Scotland, then — like many famous early saints — made the pilgrimage to Bome ; afterwards founded tv?o religious houses in England, and eventually returned to die in her own land. Her brother St. Bonan and her adopted son St. Luger are said to have crossed from Ireland to England with Modwenna, Atea, and perhaps Osith. Luger^s mother, as a young widow with a babe in her arms, became one of Modwenna's first nuns. Forbes. Gummack, in Smith and Wace. Capgrave. Butler. Broughton. Lanigan. Amold-Forster. St. Moico. (See Anna (7).) Ste. Molac, or Molaooa, Jan. 20, morte en la Momie. Guerin. St. Molnagund, Moneound. St. Molveda, Ermenbuboa of Men- strey. St. Momna, June 4, M. in Silesia, or Cilicia, or Sicily. AAJSS. St. Monacella, Melangrll. St Mondane, Mundana. St. Monegund (l) or Mechtund. (See Cuneqund (1).) St. Monegund (2), Monoon, or MoLNAQUND, July 2, + 570. Patron of Chimay. Overcome with grief for the death of her two daughters, she tried to resign herself to the will of God. With the consent of her husband she shut her- self up in a little cell and had the scantiest and coarsest food, given her