St Moling

Today is the third Sunday after Pentecost. As feast days go, it doesn't really make the eyes light up and say "howdy". It does have the Good Shepherd Gospel and the "...quia adversarius vester diabolus, tamquam leo rugiens circuit quærens quem devoret!" Epistle, though. So the preacher has a good choice of stem-winders for the sermon.

In the old Irish calendar the 17th of June was the feast of St Moling. He was founder and abbot of the monastery of Techmolin and eventually was made Bishop of Ferns. He was a writer of classical Latin and Irish. More poetry in the ancient Irish was ascribed to St Moling than any other saint except St Columcille. He was once kidnapped by bandits and then released when they discovered he was the poet. (What an interesting place the ancient Gaelic lands must have been. Not only a higher class of bishop but a higher class of bandit.)

In the picture above you can see something of the ruins of St Moling's old monastery and the Church of Ireland parish church built near it.