The book of obits and martyrology of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church, Dublin / Edited from the original manuscript in the library of Trinity college, Dublin, by John Clarke Crosthwaite ... With an introduction, by James Henthorn Todd.

Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of obits and martyrology of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church, Dublin / Edited from the original manuscript in the library of Trinity college, Dublin, by John Clarke Crosthwaite ... With an introduction, by James Henthorn Todd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    101/434
    is noticed both in the Calendar and in the Martyrology, at the 6th of February (8 Id. Feb.) He is said to have been the son of Darerca, who is called the sister of St. Patrick, i. e. as Lanigan thinks, not his real sister, but his sister in religion, according to “ the very ancient practice of de- signating religious women by the name of sisters;” which, he adds, was probably “ the cause of mistaking some pious ladies, who lived in the time of St. Patrick, for real sisters of hisr.” Certain it is, that St. Patrick, in his epistle against Coroticus, plainly intimates that none of his relations had accompanied him into Irelands; so that we must either doubt whether Darerca was his actual sister, or else deny the truth of what Jocelyn tells us, that Mel, Moch [an error forRiocli], and Munis, the sons of his sister Darerca, attended St. Patrick in his missionary labours'. The tradition, however, is, that St. Mel was the nephew of St. Patrick, and that he was by him consecrated bishop of Ard Achadh, now Ardagh, about the year 454, where he built a monastery, over which he presided himself11, in the double character of bishop and abbot, according to the custom of the primitive Irish Church. Many legends of him, from the lives of St. Patrick and St. Brigid, have been collected by Colgan in his life of St. Melv. In the life of St. Brigid, attributed to St. Ultan, Mel and Melcliu are spoken of as having been bishops before they arrived in Ireland, and as having come from Britain . They are said by some authorities to have been brothers, r Eccl. Hist, vol.i. p. 126. locis diversis pontificalem dignitatem sor- s“Numquid sine Deo, vel secundum tiebantur.”—Yit. S. Patr. c. 50. carnem Hiberione veni? Quis me com- u Colgan, n. 29, ad Act. S. Melis, ad 6 pulit, alligatus spiritu ut non videam ali- Feb., Acta SS. pp. 259, 263. quern de cognatione mea?—Ep. ad Corot. v Act. SS. loc. cit. 1 “ Hi similiter in proedicatione, et iti- w “ In illis autem diebus, Deo insti- nere, B. Patricium comitabantur, et in gante, duo sancti episcopi ex Britannia