THE CONVERSION OF THE MANX
KIRK: MAUGHOLD, which derives its name from Maughold, who lived near the close of the fifth century, and after being a captain of Irish banditti, arrived in this Island (as tradition says) in a little leathern boat, his hands manacled, and bolts on his feet. He was in this condition cast upon the shore; and that the Bishop received him with admiration and pity, especially when he informed him that he had been a captain of robbers in Ireland, and that he voluntarily underwent this penance for his course of life. He retired to this village, and soon became illustrious for his piety and austerity.
In consequence of the fame he had acquired, he was unanimously chosen Bishop of Man; and so great was his pious celebrity, that St Bridget, one of the tutelar saints of Ireland, and foundress of Douglas Nunnery, visited him in his mountainous retreat, and received from his hands the veil of celibacy. In confirmation of this legend, there is still visible a beautiful quadrangular pillar, rear the church gate of Kirk Maughold on which part of the history of the saint is evidently traced, particularly his interview with St Bridget. Those relating to the "Conversion of St. Maughold," "St. Maughold and Gilcolm," "The Legend of Myrescogh Lake," and "The Stone Cross of Ballafletcher" are pious stories invented by monks and priests for the edification of simple-minded laymen; while the legends entitled "Goddard Crovan's Stone," "Olave Goddardson and the Sword Macabuin," "Ivar and Matilda," and "Alswith the Swift" are tales which, fostered by the love of the marvellous, have sprung up about personages, some of whom are historical, centuries after the events related are supposed to have taken place.
St. Maughold-by some written -Macfeld, by Dr. Heylin -Machilla, by the Latin authors Macutus-was elected Bishop by the universal sufrage of the Manks nation, but by whom consecrated is very uncertain; for, as the former bishops, by right of conversion, were consecrated by St. Patrick, so whether the Archbishop of Armagh continued the same, the Archbishop of York, because the Bishopric was not erected by St. Paulinus till the yeare 622, which was above 100 years after St. Maughold who style him Bishop of Sodor, and will have the Episcopus Sodorensis and Man the same; whereas this bishopric was erected many ages before St. Columbus, who is acknowledged by all writers to be the founder of the Abbey of Hye, in the Island of Iona, which from him was called I-ColumbKill, which monastery was the cathedral of the Bishop of the Isles, who was from that time styled Episcopus Sodorensis, from a village called Sodor, adjoining to the monastery, in which the Bishop had his residence; After the Isle of Man was made the seate of the Norwegian race, the Bishoprics were united with the titles of Sodor and Man, and so continued till conquered by the English, since which the Bishop of Man keeps his claim, and the Scotch Bishop styles himself Bishop of the Isles, anciently Episcopus Insularum Sodorensium.