Mochoemoc of Liathmore

Venerable Mochoemoc (also called Pulcherius, about 550 to 656) was an early Irish abbot, later held to be a saint. He was a nephew of Saint Íte of Killeedy, who raised him, a monk at the Bangor monastery under the abbot Saint Comgall, and he founded the monastery of Liath-⁠Mochoemoc (Liathmore), of which he was abbot. He is remembered on 13 March. Our sources show no formal Orthodox canonization and give him no feast in the menaion: he is an Irish saint of the undivided Church, known from the old Irish lives and traditions. The years given for his life would mean more than a hundred years, which the source puts simply as "a great age".

Family and training

His parents were a craftsman, Beoanus, and Nesse, sister of Saint Íte of Killeedy. His father had been born in Connemara, in Connacht, and settled in Hui Conaill Gabhra, in the south of County Limerick, near Killeedy, where Saint Ita lived. It is said that Saint Fachtna of Ross Ailither was healed of an affliction of his eyes by bathing them in the milk of Mochaemog's mother. He was raised by Saint Íte, then, at twenty, was sent to Bangor Abbey, where he was further taught by the abbot Saint Comgall.

Missionary and founder

Comgall sent him out as a missionary, accompanied by the saints Laichtin, Molua mac Ochae and Luchtigern. He built cells for his monks at Anatrim. He reached southern Éile in County Tipperary, where a chieftain granted him a site for a monastery in the forest near Lake Lurgan, since called Liathmochaemog (Liathmore), in the parish of Two-⁠Mile Borris. He quarrelled with Failbe Flann mac Áedo Duib, king of Munster (619 to 634), but all the saints of Ireland appeared to the king in visions and forced him to treat Mochaemog with respect. After Failbe came Ronan, son of Bledin, who was hostile to him but renewed the grant.

Saint Dagán was brought very young to the school of Mochoemoc at Liathmore. There is a legend that, while Dagán was still a boy, some raiders from Osraige killed him. His severed body and his head were taken to Pulcherius, who had promised the boy to give him Communion before he died. Saint Cainnech of Aghaboe, who was present, placed the head in its place on the body and prayed to Christ, who restored life to Dagán. Pulcherius gave him Communion, and Dagán lived many more years, as abbot of a great monastery at Inverdaoile. Dagán of Inverdaoile was known as a violent opponent of the Roman Easter.

Friendships and repose

Mochaemog was a friend of Saint Colmán of Dromore, whose monastery was near, and of Saint Fursey. It is told that the saints Pulcherius, Canice, Molua and Mofecta or Feachtna visited a monk named Mochumb at the church of Tifeachna. The saints stayed there a while, then, before leaving, each placed a stone, one above the other, in memory of the visit. John Francis Shearman wrote in 1879 that, thirty years before, there was at Tifeachna, on the west side of the churchyard, a pyramidal monument, of small truncated cones set loosely one on another, probably the memorials referred to in that chapter. It is said that Pulcherius lived to a great age and died at Liathmore on 13 March 656. A church bears the name of Mochaemog in the Barony of Ida, County Kilkenny.