362 CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 



It is advisable, before proceeding, to distinguish the saints, 

 a thing that hajDpily can be done without great difficulty. "We 

 will begin with the latest. 



1. S. Modwenna of Whitby. She was an Irish abbess, 

 called in her own country, Monynna. She was visited by Alfrid, 

 son of Oswy, who in 670 fled to Ireland, and, as Bede tells us, 

 remained there some time. Afterwards, Modwenna crossed into 

 Northumbria, and Alfrid, who was now king, placed her over the 

 Monastery of Whitby, that had been founded by S. Hilda, in 

 658. She had charge of Alfrid' s sister Elfleda, but soon left and 

 returned to Ireland. She died about 695. 



2. Modwenna, of Burton-on-Trent, was the instructress of 

 S. Edith of Polesworth, sister of Athelstan, and great-aunt of 

 S. Edith of Wilton. The author of the Life of Modwenna has 

 confounded Alfrid of Northumberland with Alfred the Great, and 

 Elfleda with Edith, Alfred's grand-daughter, and of S. Osyth, 

 grand- daughter of Penda. This Modwenna died early in the 

 10th century. 



3. Monynna, daughter of Mochta, of the diocese of 

 Armagh, received the veil from S. Patrick, and laboured in the 

 North of Ireland. Her princijaal foundation was Pochard, near 

 Dundalk. She can not have lived beyond 520. 



4. Monynna, disciple of S. Ibar, can not have been the 

 same as the preceding ; her sphere was in the South of Ireland, 

 and she lived somewhat later than the former. 



Monynna is really not a personal name, it is Mo-nin, my 

 dear Nun, a term of endearment applied to many holy abbesses. 



We have to entirely reject all that relates to 1 and 2^ and 

 to disentangle the narrative of the several parts that belong to 3 

 and 4. 



According to the "Vita," Monynna associated with herself 

 eight virgins and a widow who joined her along with her little 

 son Lugaid by name, who afterwards became a bishop. She 

 placed herself under the direction of Bishop Ibar, of Begeri in 

 Wexford Harbour. 



Hearing of the virtues of S. Bridget, Monynna visited her, 

 and placed herself with this ^saint for a while, and was constituted 

 portress of the establishment at Kildare. Then she returned 



