Bangor Abbey

Last updated

Bangor Abbey
Mainistir Bheannchair
BangorAbbeyAD688.JPG
Model of Bangor Abbey in AD 688
County Down UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within County Down
Island of Ireland location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Bangor Abbey (island of Ireland)
Monastery information
Other namesBennchor; Vallis Angelorum; White Choir
Order Celtic monasticism
Augustinian Canons Regular
Denomination Catholic
EstablishedAD 552–559
Disestablished1539
Reestablishedc. 1123–24
Mother house Armagh Abbey (as an Augustinian monastery)
Diocese Down
People
Founder(s) Comgall
Architecture
Functional statusBuildings incorporated into Church of Ireland church
Heritage designation Grade B+ listed building
Style Celtic monastic
Site
Location Bangor, County Down
Country Northern Ireland
Coordinates 54°39′22″N5°40′30″W / 54.656°N 5.675°W / 54.656; -5.675
Public accessyes
Website bangorabbey.org
Bangor Abbey and graveyard Bangor Abbey and graveyard - geograph.org.uk - 876776.jpg
Bangor Abbey and graveyard

Bangor Abbey was established by Saint Comgall in 558 in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland and was famous for its learning and austere rule. It is not to be confused with the slightly older abbey in Wales on the site of Bangor Cathedral.

Contents

History

Foundation

Comgall founded the monastery at Bangor about 558 A.D. in the County Down, on the southern shore of Belfast Lough. The ancient Annals differ about the exact year, giving various dates between 552 and 559. The earliest, the Annals of Tighernach, and the Annals of Innisfallen, give 558 A.D. as the date of the foundation. [1] The name was sometimes written "Beannchor." The place was also called the "Vale of Angels," because, according to a popular legend, St. Patrick once rested there and saw the valley filled with angels. [2]

Comgall was born in Antrim in 517, and educated at Clooneenagh and Clonmacnoise. The spirit of monasticism was then strong in Ireland. Many sought solitude the better to serve God, and with this object Comgall retired to a lonely island. The persuasions of his friends drew him from his retreat; later on he founded the monastery of Bangor. [2]

Under his rule, which was rigid, prayer and fasting were incessant. Food was scant and plain. Worship held the foremost place in the life of the community. It is clear that music was a prominent feature of the worship of the Bangor monks. [1] Crowds came to share his penances and his vigils; they also came for learning.

School

Bangor Abbey is regarded as one of the most important of the early Irish monastic sites, second only to Armagh. [3] Within the extensive rampart which encircled its monastic buildings, students studied scripture, theology, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music, and the classics. Mo Sinu moccu Min was the fifth abbot of Bangor. It is thought that he tutored Columbanus. [4] Robin Flower wrote that "It is clear that particular attention was paid to historical studies at Bangor, and the earliest Irish chronicle was probably a production of that house." [5]

Bangor was a major centre of learning—called the "Light of the World"—and trained many missionaries. Carthach of Lismore studied at Bangor, as did Fintan of Doon. Saint Mirin was a prior at Bangor before leaving to found Paisley Abbey in Renfrewshire. Columbanus and Gall went off to Continental Europe in 590 AD and founded the famous monasteries of Luxiell (France), St Gallen (Switzerland) and Bobbio (Italy).

Decline

The ruined Bangor Sundial (c. 900), now on display outside the town hall The Bangor sundial - geograph.org.uk - 214906.jpg
The ruined Bangor Sundial (c.900), now on display outside the town hall

Like many early Irish monasteries, Bangor was destroyed and rebuilt on a number of occasions. The Annals of Ulster record that Bangor was burned in 616 and again in 755. No doubt at this period the buildings were constructed of wood. Easily accessible from the sea, Bangor invited attack, and between 822 and 824 the Norsemen plundered it. The Annals of Ulster and the Four Masters both record that during this raid, “learned men and bishops” were smitten, while the shrine containing the relics of Comgall was taken. Another probable victim of the Vikings was “Tanaidhe MacUidhir, coarb of Bennchor, who was killed in 958. There is a consensus that the importance of Bangor declined around the latter part of the tenth century. [3]

When St. Malachy, in 1121, became Abbot of Bangor he had to build everything anew. However, three years later he was promoted to the See of Down, and Bangor again decayed. By the Statutes of Kilkenny the "mere Irishmen" were excluded from making profession there. [2]

In 1469, the Franciscans had possession of it, and a century later the Augustinians, after which, at the dissolution of the monasteries in that part of Ireland, it was given by James I to Sir James Hamilton who repaired the church in 1617 and was buried in it when he died in 1644. It appears that stone from the abbey was used in the construction of the new church. All that remains of the Abbey ruins is St. Malachy's Wall. [6]

The present Tower of the church dates back to the 14th century. A mural in the church is of Christ ascending to heaven with Saints Comgall, Gall and Columbanus at his feet.

Antiphonary of Bangor

The Antiphonary of Bangor was probably written by the monks of Bangor Abbey between 602 and 691. It was housed at Bobbio in Italy for over 1000 years. The manuscript, which contains a collection of Latin hymns, prayers and antiphons is one of the earliest surviving dateable monastic manuscripts from Ireland and has been described as one of the most precious surviving witnesses to the early Irish church. The manuscript provides an important insight into monastic life in Ireland and is also testament to the artistic and literary standard of the work attributed to the monks of Bangor in the seventh century. [3]

Nothing now remains of the original buildings of Comgall's monastery. In the Private Chapel at Clandeboye, however, may be seen, built into the wall, the shaft of a Cross, which was found in the Abbey precincts. This is a fragment of a Celtic High Cross, which may have stood on "the Cross Hill" adjacent to Bangor Castle, and which is indicated on a 17th-century map. This fragment probably dates from about the 8th century. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbanus</span> Irish missionary (543–615)

Columbanus was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Gall</span> Irish disciple and saint

Gall according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region between Lorraine and Alemannia and only met Columbanus at the monastery of Luxeuil in the Vosges. Gall is known as a representative of the Irish monastic tradition. The Abbey of Saint Gall in the city of Saint Gallen, Switzerland was built upon his original hermitage. Deicolus was the elder brother of Gall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobbio</span> Comune in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Bobbio is a small town and comune in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a diocese of the same name. Bobbio is the administrative center of the Unione Montana Valli Trebbia e Luretta. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bangor, County Down</span> City in County Down, Northern Ireland

Bangor is a city and seaside resort in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the southern side of Belfast Lough. It is within the Belfast metropolitan area and is 13 miles (22 km) east of Belfast city centre, to which it is linked by the A2 road and the Belfast–Bangor railway line. The population was 64,596 at the 2021 census. Bangor was granted city status in 2022, becoming Northern Ireland's sixth city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luxeuil Abbey</span> Monastery in France

Luxeuil Abbey, the Abbaye Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul, was one of the oldest and best-known monasteries in Franche-Comté, located in what is now the département of Haute-Saône in Franche-Comté, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Down Cathedral</span>

Down Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is a Church of Ireland cathedral located in the town of Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. It stands on Cathedral Hill overlooking the town. It is one of two cathedrals in the Diocese of Down and Dromore. The cathedral is the centre point of Downpatrick, a relatively new name for the settlement, having only come into usage in the seventeenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mellifont Abbey</span> First Cistercian abbey built in Ireland

Mellifont Abbey, was a Cistercian abbey located close to Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland. It was the first abbey of the order to be built in Ireland. In 1152, it hosted the Synod of Kells-Mellifont. After its dissolution in 1539, the abbey became a private manor house. This saw the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603 and served as William of Orange's headquarters in 1690 during the Battle of the Boyne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of Kells</span> Former monastery in County Meath, Ireland

The Abbey of Kells is a former monastery in Kells, County Meath, Ireland, 59 kilometres (37 mi) north-west of Dublin. It was founded in the early 9th century, and the Book of Kells was kept there during the later medieval and early modern periods before finally leaving the abbey in the 1650s. Much of the Book of Kells may have been created there, but historians cannot be certain of the exact date and circumstances of its creation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comgall</span> Mediaeval Irish abbot and saint

Saint Comgall, an early Irish saint, was the founder and abbot of the great Irish monastery at Bangor in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic Rite</span> Liturgical practices in the Middle Ages

The term "Celtic Rite" is applied to the various liturgical rites used in Celtic Christianity in Britain, Ireland and Brittany and the monasteries founded by St. Columbanus and Saint Catald in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy during the Early Middle Ages. The term is not meant to imply homogeneity; instead it is used to describe a diverse range of liturgical practices united by lineage and geography.

The Antiphonary of Bangor is an ancient Latin manuscript, supposed to have been originally written at Bangor Abbey in modern-day Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiberno-Scottish mission</span> Medieval Irish and Scottish Christian mission

The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaelic missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, England and Merovingian France. Catholic Christianity spread first within Ireland. Since the 8th and 9th centuries, these early missions were called 'Celtic Christianity'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnus of Füssen</span> Missionary saint in southern Germany

Magnus of Füssen, otherwise Magnoald or Mang, was a missionary saint in southern Germany, also known as the Apostle of the Allgäu. He is believed to have been a contemporary either of Gall or of Boniface and is venerated as the founder of St. Mang's Abbey, Füssen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobbio Abbey</span> Monastery in Italy

Bobbio Abbey is a monastery founded by Irish Saint Columbanus in 614, around which later grew up the town of Bobbio, in the province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is dedicated to Saint Columbanus. It was famous as a centre of resistance to Arianism and as one of the greatest libraries in the Middle Ages. The abbey was dissolved under the French administration in 1803, although many of the buildings remain in other uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moluag</span> 6th-century Roman Catholic missionary

Saint Moluag was a Scottish missionary, and a contemporary of Saint Columba, who evangelized the Picts of Scotland in the sixth century. Saint Moluag was the patron saint of Argyll as evidenced by a charter in 1544, from the Earl of Argyll, which states "in honour of God Omnipotent, the blessed Virgin, and Saint Moloc, our patron". The House of Lorne became the kings of Dalriada and eventually united with the Picts to become the kings of Scots.

There is archaeological evidence of insular monasticism as early as the mid 5th century, influenced by establishments in Gaul such as the monastery of Martin of Tours at Marmoutier, the abbey established by Honoratus at Lérins; the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel; and that of Germanus at Auxerre. Many Irish monks studied at Candida Casa near Whithorn in what is now Galloway in Scotland.

Events from the 7th century in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nendrum Monastery</span> Christian monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, County Down, Northern Ireland

Nendrum Monastery was a Christian monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, County Down, Northern Ireland. Medieval records say it was founded in the 5th century, but this is uncertain. The monastery came to an end at some time between 974 and 1178, but its church served a parish until the site was abandoned in the 15th century. Some remains of the monastery can still be seen.

Bangor is a civil and ecclesiastical parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is located in the north of the Ards Peninsula, consisting of 30 townlands, twenty-two and a half of which lie in the barony of Ards Lower, with seven and a half lying within that of Castlereagh Lower. Its ancient monastery was of ecclesiastical importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sillan</span> Mediaeval Irish abbot and saint

Saint Sillan was early Irish saint and abbot of Bangor Abbey, Bangor, County Down. He was recorded as being a disciple and second or third successor of Saint Comgall, who was the founder and first abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Bangor. The village of Kilsheelan, County Tipperary is named after him. His Irish name is Sioláin which can translate to either "seed-basket" or "cullender/sieve".

References