204: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



died in 517 or 518, but of her authentic histor}' we know very little. Besides 

 the work of Couchubran, several other lives of her are extant. A list of 

 these is given in the next paragraph. Through all these lives runs an 

 extraordinary confusion of names, dates, and places, and there seems to be no 

 doubt that Couchubran and tlie other biographers liave mixed up two, and 

 perhaps three, diflferent saints of the same name. At present, when only a 

 few of these lives, such as they are, have been even acciu-ately printed, and 

 none has been exhaustively studied from the historical point of view, it would 

 be au unprofitable labour to attempt to unravel tliis problem.' 



II. 



Besides the Vita by Coiichubranus and the liymns and prose tracts printed 

 in tlie present iMipcr, the following lives of this so-calkil St. Moncnna have 

 been preserved: 



(1). Vita.SancUie Darui"cae, found in the well-known L'odox Salnianticeusis, 

 a fuurteentli-century Ms. in the l{<jyal Library at Brussels, No. 3179 (aucien 

 No. 7672-74), fols, 79 r''-82 v'.' it has been printed by De Smedt and 

 Dc Backer.' Zimmer* would place the compilation of this life later than 

 the teutli century. Couchubrau's Vita may be based on it, or both may be 

 derived from the same more ancient source. 



(2). Sauctao Modvenuae Vita et Tractatus de Miraculis eius, compiled by 

 Gi'<iirrey, alilxit of Burton-uiHm-Tix'nt from 111-4 to 1151.' Two .MSS. of this 

 work, which has not yet been printed,' are known to me, .MS. Keg. 15, B. iv. 

 fols. 76 r°-88r^ in the British Museum, a vellum quarto of the thirteenth 

 century, and us. No. 260, a vellum quarto in the Library of Lord Mostyn.' 



' Such an attempt has been mode by the Utc Canon O'llanlon (Lives of the Irish Saints, vii, 

 [1892], pp. 6.>-63, and 79-93), but I fear ho has only succeeded in increasing the confusion. 

 IIoiTi'Tcr, in his own uncritical wiy he gives the fullest general account of St. Monenna that can 

 at present be obtained short of reading the actual l.atin livn*. lie hns also collected all the infor- 

 mation available from Irish souncs. On the importance of giving accurate texts of the Latin lives 

 of Irish saints, aev the intcmling review of I'luDimer's book by llr. MacCaffrcy (Irish Tlieological 

 Quarirrly, July, 1910, p. 33M). 



- Von Den Ghcyn (Catalogue dos Manuscrits de la Biblioth6que Royalo do Belgiquc, v, lOOo, 

 p. HG). 



' Acta Sanctorum Hibemiae ex Codice Salmanticensi, 1888, cols. IC.5-188. Zimmer (Oottingischc 

 Uelehrle Anseigen, i, 1891, pp. l63-'iOO) has criticized this publication very severely ; but, though 

 by no means pcrfwt, it has rendcreal great services to students of Irish hagiogruphy (cf. riummcr, 

 Vitjie Sanctorum IlibcmLie, tomus i, 1910, p. ixn). To all those who wish to understand the 

 nature of Irish hagiogrvphy the two volumes of I'lummcr's bo<ik just quoted ore absolutely 

 essential (cf. especially tum. i, pp. cxxixsq.). 



' L'X'. cil., p. 186. As these pages were i>a»sing through the press, news rcwchcd mo of the pre- 

 inntiirc death of Professor Zimmer. Ilis loss will be equally great to students of Celtic philology 

 and to those of Qibenio-Latin literature. 



* Hardy, Descriptive Catiloguf of British Ilistory, i, pt. 1, 18G2, p. 97. 



* It is to be printed, along with the Anglo-Norman poem mentioned below, from both these mhh., 

 by Professor A. T. Baker, of Sheffield, in one of the furthcoming volumes of the Litciory Society 

 of Stuitiiart. 



' Appendix to fourth Report of the fioyal Commission on Historical mss., 1874, p. 3G1. 



