The spirit of obedience amongst Mochuda’s monks was such that if any senior member of the community ordered another to lie in the fire he would be obeyed.  As an instance of this,—­some of the brethren were on one occasion baking bread in an oven when one the monks said to another younger than himself, “The bread is burning:  take it out instantly.”  There was an iron shovel for drawing out the bread but the brother could not find it on the instant.  He heeded not the flames which shot out of the oven’s mouth but caught the hot bread and shifted it with his hands and suffered no hurt whatever.  On another day the monks were engaged in labour beside the river which runs through the monastery.  One of the senior monks called upon a young monk named Colman to do a certain piece of work.  Immediately, as he had not named any particular Colman, twelve monks of the name rushed into the water.  The readiness and exactness of the obedience practised was displayed in this incident.

Great moreover was their meekness and patience in sickness or ill-health as appears from the case of the monk out of the wounds of whose body maggots fell as he walked; yet he never complained or told anyone or left his work for two moments although it was plain from his appearance that his health was declining, and he was growing thinner from day to day.  The brothers pitied him very much.  At length Mochuda questioned him—­putting him under obedience to tell the truth—­as to the cause of his decline.  The monk thereupon showed him his sides which were torn by a twig tied fast around them.  Mochuda asked him who had done that barbarous and intolerable thing to him.  The monk answered:—­“One day while we were drawing logs of timber from the wood my girdle broke from the strain, so that my clothes hung loose.  A monk behind me saw this and cutting a twig tied it so tightly around my sides that it has caused my flesh to mortify.”  Mochuda asked—­“And why did you not loosen the twig?” The monk replied—­“Because my body in not my own and he who tied it (the withe) has never loosed it.”  It was a whole year since the withe had been fastened around him.  Mochuda said to him:—­“Brother, you have suffered great pain; as a reward thereof take now you choice—­your restoration to bodily health or spiritual health by immediate departure hence to eternal life.”  He answered, deciding to go to heaven:—­“Why should I desire to remain in this life?” Having received the Sacrament and the Holy Communion he departed hence to glory.

There came to Mochuda on another occasion with her husband, a woman named Brigh whose hand lay withered and useless by her side:  she besought the saint to cure her hand.  Moreover she was pregnant at the time.  Mochuda held out an apple in his hand to her as he had done before to Flandnait, the daughter of Cuana, saying—­“Alleluia, put forth your nerveless hand to take this apple.”  She did as she was told and took the apple from his hand and was cured; moreover as she tasted the fruit parturition came on—­without pain or inconvenience, after which [the pair] returned to their home rejoicing.