ST MAUGHOLD, CONFESSOR - 25 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 25th of April

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 MAUGHOLD, CONFESSOR 

[Saint Macull of Ireland; in Latin, Macallius; called by the common people Maughold.]  He was an Irish prince, and captain of robbers, or freebooters, whom St Patrick converted to the faith. 

HE RENOUNCED THE WORLD

By baptism he was so changed into a new man, as to appear at once to have put on perfectly the spirit of Christ. To cut off all dangerous occasions and commerce, he renounced the world, and retired into the Isle of Man, about thirty English miles long, and nine broad, situated towards the coast of Lancashire, in England. 

HE RETIRED TO THE ISLE OF MAN

In the acts of this saint, and in Gildas, it is called Eubonia, by Ptolemy Monoeda, from the British Moneitha, i. e. the further or more northern Mona, to distinguish it from the Isle of Anglesey, on the coast of Wales, called by the ancients Mona. 

St Patrick had before sent to this island St Germanus, whom he had ordained bishop, that he might plant a church there. He is honoured as the apostle of this island, and in his name is the cathedral church in Peel-castle dedicated. 

HE IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BISHOP

 the death of St Germanus, St Patrick sent thither two other preachers, named Conindrius and Romulus. In their time, St Macull arrived there in an open boat, and, after their death, he is said to have been chosen bishop in 498, by the unanimous consent of the Manks nation. 

He had till then led an austere penitential life, in the mountainous tract, which, from him, is called St Maughold, and where a city was afterwards built, which bears the same name, though now scarcely a village, Ramsey being the only town within this tract or parish. 

BY HIS LABOURS AND EXAMPLE, HE EXCEEDINGLY ENLARGED THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST

The saint, by his labours and example, exceedingly enlarged the kingdom of Christ in this island. In what year he died is uncertain. He is honoured in the British and Irish Calendars.   

A FAMOUS MONASTERY

A famous monastery formerly flourished in this island, at Russin, now, from its wonderful castle, called Castletown, the present capital of the island, and residence of the governor.

In Peeling, the ancient capital, besides the cathedral, there is a parish church, of which St Patrick is titular, and the old palace of the bishop. Out of the eighteen parishes of the island, St Maughold gives name to that of the part about Ramsey.

ST MAUGHOLD'S WELL

In the church-yard is St Maughold’s well of very clear water, received in a large stone coffin. The saint’s chair, as it is called, is placed above, in which a person was formerly seated to drink a glass of the water for the cure of several disorders, especially from poison. His shrine was formerly shown there, but was dispersed since the change of religion. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)