IfScottish and Anglican Martyrologies. Authorities: — A life by Concubran, an Irish writer of the 13th and 14th centuries. Also the Irish life already mentioned as authority for that of S. Monynna, which Concubran has adopted into his life of Modwenna, causing thereby great confusion. Consequently she is represented as contemporary with Pope Coelestine I. Kevin (d. 618), and King Alfrid of Northumbria [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of northern England and south-east Scotland] (d. 705). If we separate the Acts of Monynna from those of Modwenna it is quite possible to arrive at a consecutive and tolerably reliable history of this saint.] S. Modwenna, or Movenna, belonged to the great sept of the Conalls of Conail Murthemhni (the county about Dundalk) and Clan Conall, in the modern county of Down. Her pedigree can be made out for several generations. 1 Her father was Mochta, prince of that sept, and ruler of an extensive territory, stretching from Iveagh to the neighbourhood of Armagh. She founded a convent at Fochard Brighde, now Faugher, in the county ol Louth, about the year 630; and a hundred and fifty virgins placed themselves under her rule. But one night an uproarious wedding having disturbed the rest, and fluttered the hearts of her nuns, Modwenna deemed it prudent to remove the excitable damsels to some more remote spot, where no weddings took place, or convivial songs were heard; and she pitched upon Kill-sleve-Cuilin, in the county of Armagh, where she erected a monastery. One of her maidens was named Athea, another Orbile. She had a brother, a holy abbot, named Ronan.
In the life of S. Modwenna we are told that about this time Alfrid, son of the king of England, came to 1 Fiach Araidh, d. 236— Cas — Fedlimidh — Inchadh — Ross— Lugaidh — Crunn Badhraoi— Eochaidh — Conall— Lugaidh— Lilcan— Mochta, her father, who married Comao.
Ireland. This is certainly Alfrid the illegitimate son of Oswy, who on the accession of Egfrid (a.d. 670) fled to Ireland, and remained there studying, as Bede [English monk and historian (d. 735)] tells us, for some while. The Irish king, according to Concubran, was Conall. But this is a mistake. Conall, nephew of Donald II., reigned from 642 to 658. Seachnasach was king in 670, but was killed the following year, and was succeeded by Finnachta, who reigned till 695. When Alfrid was about to return to Northumbria, the Irish king wished to make him a present, but having nothing in his treasury, bade a kinsman go and rob some church or convent, and give the spoils to the Northumbrian prince. The noble fell on the lands of the convent of Modwenna, and pillaged them and the church. Then the saint, with great boldness, took ship, crossed over to England, came to Northumbria, and found the prince Alfrid at Whitby (a.d. 685), 1 and demanded redress. The king — for Alfrid was now on the throne — promised to repay all, and placed Modwenna in the famous double monastery of Whitby, founded in 658 by S. Hilda. His own sister, Elfleda, was there, and he committed her to S. Modwenna, to be instructed by her in the way of life. Elfleda was then aged thirty-one. Three years after she succeeded to the place of S. Hilda, and was second abbess of Whitby. Then S. Modwenna returned to Ireland and visited her foundations there. After a while she made a pilgrimage to Rome, and in passing through 1 Concubran says, “Villa qu* rocatur Streneshalc, juxta silvam, quae dicitur Arderne.** Now Streaneshalc (the hill of the beacon) was the early name of Whitby. The came Whitby came into use after the Danish conquest of York* shire in 876; and it completely supplanted the older Northumbrian name, which was forgotten. The name Whitby is first found in the saga of Egill Skallagrimsson, and is of purely Norse origin. When Concubran wrote, he did not know where Streanshalc was, so put it in the forest of Arden, in Warwickshire. In like manner he makes ScealdifF, the Seal’s Cliff, which was near the monastery of Andrcsey, in the forest of Arden I When were seals there ? ft * England founded a religious house at Burton -on -Trent, and left in it some of her nuns. She returned to Ireland, but learning that her brother Ronan was labouring in Scotland, she determined to settle there. She founded there several religious houses in succession, and a church dedicated to S. Michael on the rock of Edinburgh or Dunedin. She made also foundations at Kill-nicase, in Galloway, another on a mountain named Dundenel, a third at Dumbarton, a fourth at Stirling, a fifth at Dunpeleder, and a sixth near the Seal’s Cliff, at S. Andrew’s Isle (Androssan, near Saltcoats). She is said to have died at Longfortin, in Ireland. The Felire of S. Angus has, on July 6th: “ Moninde of Mount Cuillinn A beautiful pillar, Gained a pure glorious victory; She was sister of Muire, Mary.”
It is not difficult to determine what Ronan was her brother. There was a S. Ronan, bishop of Kilmarnock, in Dumbarton, mentioned in the Breviary of Aberdeen, but of his date we know nothing.
There was another Ronan, abbot or bishop of Lismore, but he died about 760, which would throw him too late. As S. Modwenna founded a house in Dumbarton, it is probable that the former Ronan was her brother. He is commemorated on Feb. 7th.
The fact that for a short while S. Morwenna instructed the sister of Alfrid, “ son of the king of England,” has led some writers into strange mistakes. Capgrave supposes him to be Alfred the Great, son of Ethelwolf, and that the sister was Edith of Polesworth, who died in 954. And Dugdale followed this error. He says in his “History of Warwickshire,” — “Of Polesworth, though there be no particular mention in the Conqueror’s surv ey, yet for antiquity, and venerable esteem, needs it not give precedence to any place in the country, being honoured with the plantation of the first religious house therein, that was in all these parts founded by King Egbert, our first English monarch. He having one only son, called Amulf, who was a leper, and hearing by a bishop, which came from Ireland, that the then king of Connaught had a daughter, who was a nun, named Modwen, that healed all diseased people repairing to her, sent his son, at the persuasion of that bishop, into Ireland, where he was cured of his loathsome disease by the same holy woman. Which great favour so pleased King Egbert that he forthwith invited S. Modwen to conje into England, promising that he would found a monastery for her and her convent, which offer she soon after accepted, since the religious house in which she lived was, by wars between the petty kings of Ireland, burnt and laid waste, and she brought over with her two of her fellow nuns. Upon which the king, having a great opinion of her sanctity, recommended his daughter Edith, a young princess of great beauty and remarkable holiness, unto her care, to be instructed in religion after the rule of S. Benedict [father of Western monks (d. c. 547), author of the Rule], giving her a dwelling-place in the forest of Arden, then called Trensale, where S. Edith, together with S. Legne and S. Osithe, lived together in a holy manner, &c.” All this, as will be readily seen, rests on a mistake between the Alfreds. Capgrave probably knew nothing of Alfrid of Northumberland, and that he really was in Ireland in banishment, and that he had a sister at Whitby at the very time when S. Modwenna came there, and Dugdale was misled by him. Alfred the Great never visited Ireland.
The whole of this story is made up by Capgrave out of the life by Concubran, who has endeavoured to give the story an historical colour, and by doing so has confused the chronology. Modwenna had nothing to do with S. Edith of Polesworth, who died in the loth cent.
The body of S. Modwenna was translated to Burton.
