St. Modhomhnóg was an Irish Saint known for his love of bees. His feast day is celebrated on the 13th of February.
St. Modhomhnóg was born in Ulster. He went to study with St. David in Wales where he cultivated bees in the garden.One story from there is that Modhomhnóg was working with another monk one day making a road, when he had to rebuke him for some matter. The other monk was seized with anger and took up a crowbar, but before he could bring it down on Modhomhnóg, David, who saw the incident, miraculously held back the angry monk’s arm by his spiritual powers and it remained paralysed.
When Modhomhnóg was returning to Ireland, it was said that David’s bees loved him so much, they followed him home and carried his boat safely to Ireland. He tried to send them back to Wales but David acknowledged how much the bees loved him and gave him his blessing for the bees to remain in Ireland.
St. Modhomhnóg built a church near Balbriggan in Co. Dublin and established a happy garden, which can be seen today and is called The Church of the Beekeeper.
