ST MOCHTA, BISHOP - 19 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 19th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

SAINT MOCHTA, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR IN IRELAND 

Saint Mochta, Mochtae, Mahew, or Macteus died August 20, 535; he lived for nearly 100 years and was the last surviving disciple of St Patrick.

LONGEVITY AND ABSTINENCE

He was remarkable for his longevity and abstinence, both which traits are thus alluded to by St Cuimin of Connor, in his poem on the characteristic virtues of the Irish saints:

"Mochta of Lugh-magh (Louth), loved

By law and by rule,

That no dainty food should enter his body

For the space of one hundred years."

The life of this saint records that, guided by an angelic admonition, he proceeded to Rome, and there applied himself to the study of sacred literature; and it further commemorates the offering of a ceraculum or writing-tablet, which he made to the then ruling pontiff. 

HE GAVE HIM A WRITING-TABLET

When he visited Rome, the memory of the heretic Celestius was still familiar to the faithful of that city.

Some seem to have feared that Mochta might, perhaps, be infected with a similar contagion, and for this reason he was compelled to vindicate the sincerity of his faith, by presenting, about the year 460, to the great St Leo, a profession of his belief, of which a copy, written about the year 700, was discovered by Muratori amongst the precious manuscripts of the once famous Irish monastery of Bobbio, and was published in his Anecdota Ambrosiana.

THE HOLY TRINITY AND THE APOSTLES' CREED

St Mochta, in this formula of faith, dwells almost exclusively on the doctrine of the blessed Trinity and on the Apostles' Creed; indeed it presents a striking similarity with the creed recited by St Patrick in his Confession, whilst scarcely a hint is given regarding any of those heresies which disturbed the Churches of Britain and the continent. 

"IN THE WAY TO TRUTH"

Of his own Church, he says: "We are as yet only in the way to truth" (nos adhuc in fenestra id est, in via lucis); and of himself he adds: "Why do people interrogate me whence I come ? I am a pilgrim" (ut quid quaeritur patria mea? Peregrinus ego sum); and subsequently he thus briefly but beautifully tells us what was his opinion as to the special prerogative of Rome:

NONE OF THEM COULD CONTAMINATE THE CHAIR OF PETER

"If, for the fault of one individual, the inhabitants of the whole country are to be deemed accursed, let that most blessed disciple, too, be condemned, I mean Rome itself, from which hitherto not only one but two, or three, or even more heresies have gone forth; and, nevertheless, none of them could get hold of, or contaminate the Chair of Peter, that is to say the see of faith."

(Information from "Essays on the Origins, Doctrines and Discipline of the Early Irish Church" by the Rev. Dr Moran, 1864 - 📷 A scene from the life of St Patrick)

This saint is commemorated on March 24 as well as August 19.