Baring-Gould’s sources: Irish Martyrologies. Reverenced as patron of the Isle of Man. Authorities: — Mention in the life of S. Patrick.] When S. Patrick was at Sabhall, or Saul, his favourite retreat, he met with one Maccald, Maugold, or Machaldus, a man of profligate life, and a captain of robbers, who harassed the country with their continual plunderings and murders. This man, seeing S. Patrick walking along a road, entertained a design of killing him, and said to his comrades, “ Behold that impostor who has led the people astray; let us try whether his God is strong or not” Then one of them, named Garvan, pretending to be sick, lay down under a cloak, and, when the saint came near them, the others said to him; “ One of our party has been taken ill, pray sing over him some of thy incantations, that so he may be restored to health.” The saint went to him, raised the cloak, and the man was dead. His companions were so struck with this prodigy, that they cried out, “ This is truly a man of God.” Maccald was converted, and afterwards baptized. On asking what penance he should undergo for his crimes, S. Patrick ordered him to quit Ireland without taking anything with him except a coarse garment, and, entrusting himself in a leather coracle, to land in the first place whither the wind wafted him, and there to serve God. He obeyed, and was carried by the winds to the Isle of Man, where he was kindly received by two bishops, Conindrus and Romulus, who directed him in his penances, and with so much spiritual advantage, that he succeeded them as bishop of the island, and became renowned for his sanctity. He is called Maughold in the Isle of Man, and probably lies buried in the church that bears his name, which is remarkable for some ancient sculptured crosses in the churchyard. To him is attributed the division of the bland into seventeen parishes. 1 “On the N.E. side of that magnificent headland which forms the southern limit of Ramsey Bay, is a little spring bursting out of the chinks of the uplifted and twisted grey schists. Immediately above rises the pile of rock, which fetching up with a fine sweep from the valley extending between Port-le-Voillen and Port Mooar, sinks down again precipitously nearly 500 feet into the salt water. Round about the spring, a soft green-sward clothes a few roods of ground, and for a few yards, where it trickles down the face of the steep, a crop of rushes luxuriates. Where the spring gushes forth, the rock has been hollowed into a small basin, and over it has been erected a simple shed of rough unhewn blocks of the rock immediately at hand. Hither the saint is said to have resorted; nor is it at all improbable that 1 In an old Manx ballad of the early part of the 16th cent, there is a traditional statement that oratories or qnartcrland chapels were built by S. German, (d. 447), but that afterwards S. Maughold threw several into one, and so formed the seventeen parishes.

…nearly 1,400 years ago, at the very font, he administered the baptismal rite. Certainly it was for many ages in great repute for its medicinal properties, and was resorted to on account of its sanctity by crowds of pilgrims from all parts. Nor is it yet forgotten. The first Sunday in the month of August calls forth the neighbourhood to their annual visit to the well, and bottles of the water are there and then procured, carried away to the homes of each, and preserved for any emergency with scrupulous care. The peculiar sanctity of the church of S. Maughold and its immediate precincts has just been alluded to. There is a 1 -‘gend detailed in the “ Chronicles of Man,” 1 which seems worthy of being given “in extenso.” Somerlid, Jarl of Argyle, had taken up arms against Godred Olafson. A sea-batde was fought between them on the eve of the Epiphany (1156), with such doubtful success to either, that the next morning they came to a compromise to divide between them the sovereignty of the Isles. Under this compromise Somerlid acquired all the Isles, excepting Man, south of the point of Ardnamenchan. From that period the sovereignty of the Isles ceased to be vested in one single person.

“In the year 1158 Somerlid again with a fleet of fiftythree ships came to Man, where encountering Godred, he defeated that prince, who then fled to the court of Norway to have assistance. On the approach of Somerlid to the Isle, the Manx people conveyed their money and valuables to the sanctuary of S. Maughold's church, in hopes, says the chronicler, that the veneration due to S. Machaldus, added to the sanctity of the place, would secure everything 1 “The Chronicle of Man and the Isles/' beginning at the year 1000, and ending after the Scottish conquest of Man, In the year 1266, was written by the monks of Rushen Abbey, in Man, and seems to have been conveyed to Furness, and found a resting place in the British Museum, where it now is. Published in the Anti* q itates Celto-Normannicae, by (.Johnstone, Copenhagen, 1786. April •$.] S. MaccalcL within its precincts. After the battle in which he was victorious, the fleet of Somerlid lay at Ramsey, and one of his captains, Gil Colum, made a proposal to surprise the church of S. Maughold, and at least drive off* the cattle which were feeding round the churchyard. With much reluctance Somerlid consented, pronouncing at the same time these words: ‘ Let the affair rest between thee and S. Machaldus; let me and my troops be innocent; we claim no share in thy sacrilegious booty.' Gil Colum laid his plan accordingly, arranging with his three sons to effect the surprise at daybreak of the following morning; but as he lay asleep in his tent at dead of night, S. Machaldus appeared to him arrayed in white linen, and holding a pastoral staff in his hand, with which he thrice struck him in the heart Awaking in great terror of mind, he sent for the priests of the Church to receive his confession, but they had no words of comfort for the dying wretch. One of them even proceeded to pray that S. Machaldus would never withdraw his hand till he had made an end of the impious man, and immediately he was attacked by a swarm of flies, and about six in the morning expired in great misery and torture. Somerlid and his whole host were struck with such dismay on the death of this man, that as soon as the tide floated their ships, they weighed anchor, and with precipitancy returned home." 1 It is stated in Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, that the ancient armorial bearing of the see of Sodor [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)] and Man was azure, S. Columba [Irish abbot of Iona (d. 597), apostle of Scotland] at sea in a cock-boat all proper in chief, over head a blazing star or. If these were really the arms of the united bishoprics of Sodor and Man, and not of Sodor alone previous to the union, the figure in the cock-boat or coracle is probably that of S. Maughold rather than that of S. Columba, as it bears so 1 Camming*s w Ruins and Monumental Remains of the Isle of Man/* p. 93a close a resemblance to the legend of his arrival upon the island; and he was the senior saint, and held by the Manx in special repute.