. Cormac was another Irish saint. From his early youth he followed
a monastic life, and eventually became a disciple of St. Columba. In
after years he became Abbot of Dearmagh, now known as Durrow, in
King's County. This charge he resigned in order to give himself to
missionary life. He had always been of a brave and enterprising
nature, and more than once in his missionary career his zeal led him
to venture on the high seas, in quest of some pagan land where he
might preach the Faith, {96} or of some desert region where he might
live in closer communion with God.

In one of his journeys he visited St. Columba at Iona, and afterwards
sailed as far as the Orkneys, where the pagan people were minded to
put him to death. But one of the chiefs had long before made a solemn
promise to St. Columba, who had seen in vision the coming of Cormac
to the islands and his threatened death, that no harm should happen
to him in the Orkneys. This intervention was successful.

Neither the place nor time of St. Cormac's death is known with any
certainty, but an ancient Irish tradition asserts that he returned to
Durrow and was buried there.

A fragment still exists of the "Crozier of Durrow", which is
considered to be the most ancient relic of its kind now extant. It
is believed to have belonged to the founder of Durrow, the great
Columba, and to have been given by him to his disciple, Cormac.

22--St. Suibhne, Abbot, A.D. 772.

This saint was the sixteenth Abbot of Iona. There had been before him
another abbot of {97} the same name. Suibhne, pronounced "Sweeney",
is identical with an Irish appellation not uncommon in our day.

25--St. Moluag or Lughaidh, Bishop. A.D. 592.

This saint was born in Ireland and became a monk in the renowned
abbey of Bangor. He was so fervent a follower of monastic life that,
as St. Bernard testifies, he founded no less than a hundred
monasteries. Fired with missionary zeal, he left his native land to
preach to the pagans of Scotland. Tradition says that the rock on
which he stood detached itself from the Irish coast and became a raft
to bear him across the waters to the island of Lismore, in Loch
Linnhe, where he landed. St. Moluag converted the people of the
island to Christianity, and then moved into Ross-shire, where he
built many churches, dedicating them to the Mother of God.

He lived to extreme old age, and died at Rosemarkie on the Moray
Firth. Here he is said by some to have been buried, bu