Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Modwenna
MODWENNA or MONINNE, Saint (d. 518), was the daughter of Maucteus (Mochta), king of Iveagh in Uladh and of the territory round Armagh. He was of the race of Irial, son of Conal Cearnach, the original possessors of Iveagh. Modwenna's mother, Coman, was daughter of Dallbronach, ruler of a terriority in Magh-Breagh (Meath), whose fort, 'Fossa [i.e. Raith] Dallbronig,' is mentioned in the ' Tripartite Life of St. Patrick.' She is said to have been originally called Darerca, and Ussher doubtfully identifies her with a so-called sister of St. Patrick of that name. But St. Darerca's festival was held on 22 March,while that of Modwenna was dated 6 July. The name Moninne, by which the saint is generally known in Ireland, was believed to have some connection with that of Nine the poet, who was cured of dumbness through her prayers. When St. Patrick was in her neighbourhood she visited him, and he 'blessed her [which appears to mean that he baptised her] at the little fishpond of a Hospitaller,' which was thenceforward credited with healing virtues. Taking up her abode at Fochart, now Faugher, in the county of Louth, she was joined by seven maidens and a widow with an infant son, who afterwards became a king.
Finding herself exposed to the depredations of robbers, and too much occupied with secular engagements, she removed to one of the remote Aran islands, where her kinsman, St. Ibar, was then settled. Subsequently she accompanied the saint to another of the islands, and finally to that of Beg Eire in Wexford harbour. Returning to Faugher with her maidens, now 150 in number, she was disturbed by the coarse language and boisterous singing at a wedding feast near, and moved away to the north, arriving at Slieve Cuillinn in the barony of Orior and county of Armagh. Here they were reduced to living on the bark of trees, while the king was considering whether to permit their settlement or no. Modwenna succeeded, however, in converting to Christianity a robber chief named Glunsalach, of the same race as herself, who infested a waste territory near, and plundered those who travelled by the great road from Tara to the north, known as the Slighe Midluachra. He and his nephew Aiffen left their companions and came to her church at Killevy. There they were baptised and she taught them the psalter, and they became holy bishops. St. Kevin or Coemgen [q. v.], whose place in heaven she is said to have conferred on the robber chief, at the latter's earnest entreaty, is represented as being instigated by the devil to destroy her monastery. But she disarmed St. Kevin's wrath, brought him with her to Killevy, and dedicated to him, under the title of St. Kevin's Bath, a pool on the mountainside, to which she led the water miraculously with her crozier, and in which she used to stand up to her breasts all night chanting the psalter. 'The Martyrology of Donegal' gives a somewhat different account of the relations between St. Kevin and Modwenna's robber convert, who is represented merely as one of St. Kevin's disciples, and as having been buried at Glendalough.
According to Conchubran's early life of the saint, Alfred, son of a king of the Angli, who entered the service of Conall, an Irish king, was cured by Modwenna of a dangerous illness; but Conall, wishing to make him a present before his return to England, and not having the money, ordered the sack of Killevy, that he might bestow the proceeds on the English prince. In great trouble at the ruin of her monastery, Modwenna made her way to England in search of the English prince, taking with her SS. Brigit and Luga. She found him at Streneshalen, near the wood of Arden in Warwickshire, and on hearing her story he made restitution of all her goods, and she and Brigit then returned and rebuilt the monastery. She also set up one at Arden, in which she was joined by Ita and Ositha. But it is very uncertain if this story can apply to the Modwenna of the sixth century. The English prince referred to was doubtless Ailfrid, son of Oswy, king of Northumbria, who succeeded to his father's throne in 671, and had, according to St. Cuthbert's biographer, spent much time previously in Ireland in an endeavour to obtain the cure of an illness, but as another saint of the same name flourished in Ireland in 630, the relations with the English prince must be assigned to her.
The earlier Modwenna doubtless travelled to England and Scotland in the course of her missionary labours, and founded several churches there, among which were Chilnacase in Galloway, one on the summit of Mount Dundevenal in Laudonia, one on Dunbreten, another at Castle Strivelin, a fifth at Dunedin, now Edinburgh, one on Mount Dunpelder, and one at Lanfortin, near Dundee, where she died in 518. In Ireland she founded churches at Faugher, Killevy, Cheveglas. Surde (Swords), Armagh, and Meath. A contest is said to have taken place among the English, Irish, and Scots for the possession of her remains. She is believed to have been buried at Burton-on-Trent. Some ruins of her church, near which formerly stood a round tower, are still to be seen at Killevy.
[Vita Moduennse seu Monynnse ex codice MS. Bibliothecse Cottonianse; Bollandists' Acta Sanct. vol. ii. Julii 6; Ussher's Works, vi. 248, 347, 604, with extracts from Conchubran's life of the saint; Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 518; Martyrology of Donegal, 3 June, 6 July; Calendar of Oengus, p. cxvi; Eeeves's Columba, p. 182, note 1.]