St. Mochae was, like his successors down to the close of the tenth century, both bishop and abbot. They appear to have exercised episcopal jurisdiction in their own neighbourhood. The saint is said to have died A.D. 496--that is only three years after the death of St. Patrick himself. There was another saint who died A.D. 644, and was called Mocua, a similarity which probably gave rise to the strange story told both by Ængus and O'Clery, that Mochae of Noendrum was enchanted for 150 years by the song of a black-bird, so that he felt not the flight of time nor the withering influence of the passing years. He went with seven score young men to cut wattles to build his church. He himself was engaged cutting timber like the rest. He had got his load ready before the others, and sat down beside it. Just then he heard a beautiful bird singing on the boughs of a blackthorn bush close at hand. It was the most beautiful bird he had ever seen, and speaking with a human voice the Bird said:--"This is diligent work of thine, O cleric." "It is required," replied Mochae, "for building a church in honour of God;" and then he added, "Who, may I ask, is addressing me?" "A man of the people of my Lord is here," replied the Bird, "that is, an Angel of God from heaven." "All hail to thee," said Mochae, "and why hast thou come hither?" "To speak to thee from thy Lord, and amuse thee for a while." "I like it," said Mochae. Then Mochae remained for three hundred years listening to that Bird, having his load of wood by his side, and the wood was not withered, and his flesh decayed not, and the time did not seem longer than one single hour of the day. At length God's Angel bade him farewell, and Mochae returned home with his load, and he found his church built, and he saw only strange faces, for all his friends and acquaintances had long been dead. But when he told them his strange story, they believed it, and knelt before him to do him honour, and built a shrine on the spot where he had seen God's Angel, and heard the heavenly song. Ængus says the Bird sang three songs only, but each lasted fifty years, so that the three hundred given in the _Martyrology of Donegal_ was probably by a mistake in the figures put for one hundred and fifty. If one Angel's song can be so sweet and so beguiling, what a joy to listen to the chorus of all the heavenly choirs!