Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mochaemog
MOCHAEMOG or Pulcherius, Saint (d. 655), was the son of an artisan named Beoan, who left his native place, Comnaicne (now Connamara), in Connaught, and settled in Húi Conaill Gabhra in the south of the county of Limerick. Nessa, who lived with her sister Ita in the neighbourhood, at Cill-Ita (now Killeedy), became Beoan's wife. By Ita's intercession a son was born after long delay. Before his birth St. Fachtna [q. v.] of Ross Ailither is said to have been cured of an affection of the eyes by bathing them in the milk of Beoan's wife. Ita first named Nessa's son Caem-ghin, 'a fair offspring,' but afterwards substituted og for ghin and prefixed mo, thus forming Mochaemog, 'My-fair-youth' (in Latin, Pulcherius). On attaining the age of twenty Mochaemog proceeded to Bangor in Ulster, where he studied under St. Comgall, and was in due time sent forth as a missionary by St. Comgall, his companions being SS. Laichtin, Molua Mac Ochai, one of the Findbarrs, and Luchtigern. Arrived at southern Ely in co. Tipperary, he was granted by the chieftain a site for a monastery, in a retired part of a forest near the marsh of Lake Lurgan; it has since been known as Liathmochaemog or Leamokeavogue, and is in the parish of Twomile Borris, barony of Eliogarty, co. Tipperary. Subsequently, when Failbhe Fland, king of Munster (619-634), who lived at Cashel, sent his horses to pasture on the lands of the monastery, the saint drove them away, and the king straightway ordered the chieftain of Ely to expel Mochaemog. The saint went to King Failbhe to remonstrate, but the latter was obdurate, and taunted Mochaemog with baldness. Thereupon Mochaemog is said to have caused the king's sight to fail, while St. Patrick and all the saints of Ireland, male and female, threatened him in visions with immediate death unless he treated Mochaemog with respect.
Failbhe's successor, Ronan, son of Bledin, although hostile to Mochaemog, renewed the grant to him, and the saint commended his soul on his death to God, and defended this act of charity against the adverse criticism of a scribe. Many other stories prove Mochaemog's influence with local kings or chieftains. In the 'Calendar of Oengus' his name is associated with that of Cuangus, a student of science, who is termed 'the blind youth.' He himself, his mother, and aunt, are all credited with curing blindness. They doubtless possessed some knowledge of ophthalmic science. Among his friends were St. Colman of Doiremor, whose monastery was only four miles off, and St. Fursa [q. v.] of Peronne in France. He was the tutor of Dagan of Inverdaoile, who is mentioned as a violent opponent of the Roman Easter, in the letter written in 609 by the bishops Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus (cf. Bede, Ecclesiastical History). Another church bearing Mochaemog's name is in the barony of Ida, co. Kilkenny. His death took place on 13 March 655, at an advanced age. Lanigan suggests 106 years, but this is far exceeded by a poem quoted in the 'Four Masters' and the 'Martyrology of Donegal,' which prolongs his life to 413 years. O'Donovan, however, agrees with Colgan that this is due to a scribal error, and that the true reading is 'ar coem ċéd,' 'over one hundred,' instead of 'four hundred.'
[Vita S. Mochoemoci seu Pulcherii Abbatis, xiii. Martii, ii. 281 seq,; Lanigan's Eccles. Hist. ii. 310, 358, iii. 23–8; Annals of the Four Masters, i. 267; Martyrology of Donegal, at 13 March; Calendar of Oengus, pp. lvi, lxiii.]