Mochaoi of Nendrum

Saint Mochaoi of Nendrum (also called Caolan, this being his first name) was abbot of Aondruim, today Nendrum, on the island in Strangford Lough in Ulster, in Ireland. The Martyrology of Donegal says that his mother was named Bronach, daughter of Milchu, son of Buan, the same with whom Saint Patrick had been in captivity. Other lists count him a bishop.

Tradition tells how he went with a hundred and forty young men to cut wattles for the building of a church. He had his load ready before the others and kept it beside him when he heard a wondrous bird singing on a blackthorn. The bird, proclaimed an angel of God, spoke to him and Mochaoi stayed listening. The story says that three hundred years went by, yet to him it seemed no more than an hour, and the wood was no more withered than before. It is also said that Patrick gave him a gospel book and a staff. Mochaoi was also the teacher of Saint Colman of Dromore, around the year 500.

He is remembered on 23 June (the date of the martyrologies, in the Julian calendar). He is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured locally, without synodal canonization.