Saint Munchin, Bishop
  January 2nd  

    The martyrologies of Oengus, Tallaght and Gorman all mention on this day a Munchin, who is also described as "the Wise", but that he was ever bishop of Limerick, or bishop at all, seems most doubtful. There is no extant life of the saint and the only data about his ancestry and career are to be found in the pedigree of the Dal Cais, the ruling sept in north Munster during early Christian times. Among the sept is numbered "Sedna from whom Maincin of Luimneach" in the Book of Ui Maine. The rare references to Sedna's folk show that the territory of his people lay by the coast of the present County Clare. The connection of Maincin (the name means "Little Monk") with the island at Limerick is explained in another entry in the genealogy: "Dioma had three sons, Dubduin, Aindlid and Feardomnach who gave Sibtand to Maincin of Luimneach". The donor's brethren figure in well-vouched history and we are enabled to date the lifetime of Minchin to the late seventh century. Inis Sibtand was the island at the head of the Shannon tideway where in the early tenth century the Norsemen founded Limerick.

    St. Munchin is the principal patron of the diocese of Limerick, and his feast is kept throughout Ireland.

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The substance of the above notice is due to Mgr Canon Michael Moloney, of Limerick. Canon J. Begley's surmise in his history of the diocese of Limerick (1906), pp. 71-72, is no more than an arbitrary guess. See also LIS., vol. i, pp. 27-34.

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Butler's Lives of The Saints, Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. and Donald Attwater Nihil Obstat: PATRICIVS MORRIS, S.T.D., L.S.S., CENSOR DEPVTATVS. Imprimatur: E. MORROGH BERNARD, VICARIVS GENERALIS WESTMONASTERII: DIE XXIII FEBRVARII MCMLIII