Monthly Archives: May 2014

The founder of Bangor, Comgall, was born at Magheramorne, County Antrim, in 517 AD, of the people of the Cruthin. He lived in that old kingdom which Milchu had ruled, known now as Dalaradia. His father was Setna, a Pictish … Continue reading →

Round Tower and Church at Nendrum Monastic Site, 2008   Among Patrick’s first converts were Bronagh, daughter of Milchu, and her son Mochaoi (Mahee), whose birthname was Caolàn. St Mochaoi was to found the great monastery of Nendrum on Mahee Island … Continue reading →

Saint Patrick       Today I accompanied my colleague in Pretani Associates, Helen Brooker, to the St Patrick’s Centre, Downpatrick, County Down on the invitation of its Director Tim Campbell, and gave a lecture on Common Identity to the American National … Continue reading →

There are many traces of an Eastern origin and connection in the Bangor Antiphonary, including, for example, the festal observance of Saturday as well as Sunday and the presence in the Divine Office of the ceremony of the Kiss of … Continue reading →

In Jesus’s time the Essene calendar was more in vogue than the newer one of the Jerusalem priesthood and was the one used at the Last Supper, as the theologian Pope Benedict XVI has intimated. But it is to Egypt … Continue reading →

Qumran       Roman persecution of Christians reached its height following the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD for which, according to Tacitus, Nero’s Government blamed the Christians. It is the tradition of the Church that both Peter … Continue reading →

Herod the Great       When the second Temple had stood for 500 years, it began to show signs of structural decay. And so Herod, named the Great, in order to reconcile the Jews to his government under Rome … Continue reading →