0206 St Mel d. 487

Jack and Thom,
Good morning, I love you
110117, 1143

I recommend brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com for your inquiry into the lives of Irish Saints. And her original source, John O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints.

February 6

St Mun 5th century
Saint Mel of Ardagh is how brigid-undertheoak brings the saint to us.

So, Mel is a real name with an extraordinary history. Another something new I’m learning today. But Mel Brooks? I bet the saint had a good sense of humor. He must have to hang with Patrick – someone in Patrick’s contingent must have made people laugh.

From brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com and catholicireland.net

Today the Irish calendars commemorate a saint very much linked to Saint Brigid, Bishop Mel of Ardagh.



Mel is also linked to Saint Patrick, with a number of sources claiming that he is the nephew of the apostle to the Irish, being the son of his sister Dareca. This woman was reputedly a mother to no less than seventeen early Irish bishops and saints, which has led some scholars to speculate that she may have been a mother in the spiritual rather than the biological sense.



St Patrick came to Ardagh, now a picturesque village in Co Longford, where he established a church. Mel, however, seems to have worked as a travelling missionary and evangelist.

Saint Mel figures most prominently in the life of Saint Brigid by being the bishop who conferred not merely the veil of the religious life upon her but, 'intoxicated by the spirit of God' bestowed the rite of episcopal ordination.



O'Hanlon's Lives of the Irish Saints for an account of Saint Mel's life:

This renowned saint is classed among the primitive fathers of our Irish Church. He was a contemporary, and, it has been asserted, a near relative to the great Apostle, St. Patrick.



At the very dawn of Christianity in our island, an illustrious champion and preacher of the Gospel had been already prepared, for a strenuous encounter, with the spirit of darkness. He is named Mel. A special Life of this holy man is not known to exist.



The recorded actions of the holy Bishop Mel, the special patron of Ardagh diocese…. He seems to have been born, in the earlier part of the fifth century. It is said, Saint Mel was a nephew to the great Irish Apostle Patrick, and whose sister Darerca is named as Mel's mother.

St. Mel built a famous monastery at Ardagh. He exercised the jurisdiction both of abbot and of bishop. Among other celestial endowments, our saint received the gift of prophecy, whereby he was enabled to predict future events.

Mel’s prophetic gift was exemplified in St. Brigid's case soon after he had arrived in Ireland from Britain.



Mel foretold the greatness and sanctity of that holy virgin, Brigid, while yet carried in her mother's womb. Some time subsequent to St. Brigid's birth, St. Mel administered to her the Sacrament of Confirmation. In conjunction, probably, with his disciple St. Machaille, Mel likewise bestowed the religious veil on that youthful spouse of Christ. Afterwards, the greatest friendship existed between our saint and the future abbess, as recorded in St. Brigid's Life. St. Brigid seems often to have visited St. Mel, when she resided not far from Ardagh.

At one time, the king of that district entertained both Mel and Brigid; and, a remarkable miracle was wrought by the illustrious abbess, at a banquet, given in their honour. The kindness of St. Mel, interceding with the king for a supposed transgressor, on this occasion, pleasingly illustrates the holy bishop's character. St. Mel and St. Moelch are stated to have accompanied the abbess, to a synod, which was held at Tailten, in Meath.

It is said, that St. Mel wrote the Acts, virtues and miracles of his uncle, St. Patrick, while this latter holy man had been living for, the great Apostle of Ireland is supposed to have survived our saint five years. For his death, a.d. 466 has been assigned. Mel departed this life, at Ardagh, however, about the year 487 or 488.

Mel is regarded, as the first bishop over the see of Ardagh, and, he has been constantly venerated as the special patron saint of that diocese.

The Catholic cathedral in Longford is dedicated to St Mel, as is the nearby diocesan college. A crozier believed to have belonged to St Mel was found in the 19th century at Ardagh, near the old cathedral there. It is now kept in St Mel's College.


From CatholicEncyclopedia Online --

St. Darerca, of Ireland, a sister of St. Patrick.

Much obscurity attaches to her history, and it is not easy to disentangle the actual facts of her history from the network of legend which medieval writers interwove with her acts. However, her fame, apart from her relationship to Ireland's national apostle, stands secure as not only a great saint but as the mother of many saints.

When St. Patrick visited Bredach, as we read in the "Tripartite Life," he ordained Aengus mac Ailill, the local chieftain of Moville. Whilst there he found "the three deacons," his sister's sons, namely, St. Reat, St. Nenn, and St. Aedh.

St. Darerca was twice married, her second husband, Chonas, founded the church of Both-chonais, now Binnion, Parish of Clonmany, in the barony of Inishowen, County Donegal. She had families by both husbands, some say seventeen sons, all of whom, according to Colgan, became bishops.

From the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick" it is evident that there were four sons of Darerca by Chonas, namely four bishops, St. Mel of Ardagh, St. Rioc of Inisboffin, St. Muinis of Forgney, County Longford, and St. Maelchu.

St. Darerca had two daughters, St. Eiche of Kilglass and St. Lalloc of Senlis.

Her first husband was Restitutus the Lombard, after whose death she married Chonas the Briton.

By Restitutus she was mother of St. Sechnall of Dunshaughlin; St. Nectan of Killunche, and of Fennor (near Slane); of St. Auxilius of Killossey (near Naas, County Kildare); of St. Diarmaid of Druim-corcortri (near Navan); of Dabonna, Mogornon, Drioc, Luguat, and Coemed Maccu Baird (the Lombard) of Cloonshaneville, near Frenchpark, County Roscommon. Four other sons are assigned her by old Irish writers, namely St. Crummin of Lecua, St. Miduu, St. Carantoc, and St. Maceaith.

St. Darerca is honoured on 22 March, and is patroness of Valencia Island.

I’ll come back to this later for more stream of consciousness.

I love you,
Dad
1239