ST MODOMNOC, BISHOP, PATRON SAINT OF BEES - 13 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 Saints celebrated on the 13th of February

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.

ST MODOMNOC, BISHOP

(Saint Modomnoc, or Dominick, of Ossory, Bishop and Confessor.) St Modomnoc is said to have been of the noble race of the O’Neils, and passing into Wales, to have studied under St David in the Vale of Ross. 

After his return home he served God at Tiprat Fachna, in the western part of Ossory. He is said to have been honoured there with the episcopal dignity, about the middle of the sixth century. 

The see of Ossory was translated from Seirkeran, the capital of this small county, to Aghavo, in the eleventh century, and in the twelfth, in the reign of Henry II  to Kilkenny.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PATRON OF BEES AND MODOMNOC'S DAY

[After he had finished his studies with St David in Wales, it was time to put the holy knowledge into practice for the benefit of the faithful in his native country. The bees he kept in Wales for the monastery supplies of honey were so attached to their caring beekeeper that they followed him home to Ireland. He is therefore said to have introduced bees to the Emerald Isle. - Saint Modomnoc's Day is celebrated in Ireland on the 13th of February.]