Caledonia Soul | Dr. Ian Adamson OBE

Bangor, Light of the World, 23: Malachy of Armagh

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Ian Adamson

The order of the Columbans did not long survive its founder and merged with the Benedictines in the eighth century. However, in honour of St. Gall, as we have seen, there arose a monastery dedicated to him which became one of the most important centres of Irish influence on the Continent. This monastery has been described as, “eminently distinguished as the chief seat of learning of ancient Germany.” It reached the height of its fame in the ninth century under Moengal, an Irishman. Although celebrated for its beautiful manuscripts, its carvings and its miniatures, it remained true to the tradition of Bangor in regarding music as the greatest of all the arts. Through the teaching of Moengal the music school of St. Gall became “the wonder and delight of Europe.”

Moengal has been identified with that abbot of whom the Annals of Ulster state, “871 AD Moengal, the pilgrim Abbot of Bangor, brought his old age to a happy close.”The famous pupils of Moengal there included Notker Balbulus (“The Stammerer”), who wrote a large series of hymns and is considered one of the greatest musicians of the Middle Ages; Tuotilo who was a painter and sculptor as well as a poet and musician; and Rathpert Waldramon who was a great musician and librarian. These three men were among the finest contributors to European mediaeval hymn-writing.

St Malachy

Finally, in the days of the Cambro-Normans there arose a second Columbanus. In his biography of his friend, Malachy, St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote of Malachy’s attempts to revive the Church of Bangor. Mael Maedoc was born at Armagh in 1095 and ordained in 1119. On coming to Bangor as an Abbot in 1124 he took the name of Malachias, the Hebrew for “My Angel” and this was undoubtedly taken because of the tradition of Bangor being known as the “Valley of the Angels.”

In 1127 the monastery was attacked by Conor O’Loughlin, king of the “northern Ui Neill”, and the “the city was destroyed.” Malachy was forced to migrate south with his monks and he set up a new community in County Kerry under the protection of his old friend, Cormac McCarthy, king of Desmond. In 1134 he was called back to Ulster to become Archbishop of Armagh and in 1137 he at length returned to his beloved Bangor. Two years later, following a journey to Rome he was made Papal Legate and built a great oratory of stone in Bangor on returning there.

Malachy’s influence in Irish ecclesiastical affairs was immense and has been compared to that of Boniface in Germany. He restored the discipline of the Church which had grown lax and had the Roman liturgy adopted. In 1148 he set out once more for Rome but, whilst staying at Clairvaux, died in the arms of St. Bernard on All Saints Day 1148. Of this Bernard wrote “Malachy, Bishop and Legate of the Holy Apostolic see, as if he had been taken up out of our hands by angels, happily fell asleep in the Lord in the fifty-fourth year of his life in the place and at the time he had chosen and foretold.”

Bishop Reeves has written that Malachy’s foundation at Bangor “like the second temple fell very far short of its primitive greatness, and in the process of time, under civil commotions, dwindled into insignificance and finally became but a name.” As for the Bangor Antiphonary it remained at the monastery of Bobbio whence with the Bobbio Missal and other Irish books it was moved to Milan by Cardinal Frederick Borromaeo when he founded the Ambrosian library there. So today there is preserved in Milan a reminder of those Days of Glory when the Laus Perennis was sung in Ireland and Bangor the Great was the Light of the World.

And of Malachy we also have a reminder of his influence in the beautiful St Malachy’s Church in Belfast, which was to have been the Cathedral Church of Down and Connor until funds were diverted to the destitute following the Great Famine. My friend Pat Mc Carthy, SDLP former Lord Mayor of Belfast recently brought me to see the plaque there to soldiers of the First World War and another friend Dennis Maloney has helped the church considerably. Finally I have also been particularly fond of St Malachy’s College, of which I was the school doctor for many years, where the memory of the great saint, the first Irish one to have been canonised by a pope, lives on.

As for the alleged prophecies of Saint Malachy,these were actually first published in 1595 by a Benedictine named Arnold Wion in his Lignum Vitæ, a history of the Benedictine order. Wion attributed the prophecies to Malachy of Armagh. He explained that the prophecies had not, to his knowledge, ever been printed before, but that many were eager to see them. Wion includes both the alleged original prophecies, consisting of short, cryptic Latin phrases, as well as an interpretation applying the statements to historical popes up to Urban VII (pope for thirteen days in 1590), which Wion attributes to Alphonsus Ciacconius. In this scheme the present Pope Francis is Peter of Rome, the last pope.

To be continued

© Pretani Associates 2014

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Hugh Smyth (1941-2014)

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Ian Adamson

Today, with Helen Brooker (Upper Top Right), I attended the funeral of my friend and colleague former Belfast city councillor and Progressive Unionist Party leader Alderman Hugh Smyth. Helen’s husband David had been Hugh’s surgeon and looked after his palliative care

Hugh, who was 73, died on Monday. He had served on Belfast City Council for 41 years and was a former Lord Mayor. I was his Deputy Lord Mayor in 1994 and he sent me on missions to Nashville, Tennessee to twin that City with Belfast and to Ankara in Turkey for a conference on Bosnia. I also accompanied him to Dublin when he made the first visit of a Belfast Lord Mayor to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, when we visited the Shankill Crozier in the National Museum.

His coffin was escorted from West Belfast Orange Hall on Shankill Road to St Anne’s Cathedral for the service.

His former party colleagues Billy Hutchinson and Ken Wilkinson carried the coffin into the cathedral and the oration was given by my old pupil Councillor Dr John Kyle.

Councillors from across the political divide attended the service.

Hugh gave up the PUP leadership in 2002, when he was succeeded by David Ervine.

He was first elected as a councillor in May 1972 and was one of the best-known characters at Belfast City Hall until he stood down last December.

He also served in the 1974 Northern Ireland Assembly and the Northern Ireland Convention.

Hugh was awarded an OBE for his services to the community in 1996.

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Bangor Light of the World, 22: The Plan of St Gall

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Ian Adamson

Too frail to accompany his abbot, Gallus, or as we know him now, St Gall, left Columbanus’s mission in 612 AD to stay in Swabia and live in a retreat by the Steinach. At this site in 720, an Abbey was eventually formed by the Alemannian Ottmar which bears Gall’s name, St Gallen. In 747 Abbot Ottmar was required to convert the community to Benedictine ways. He thus designated buildings for common dining and sleeping with an infirmary and hospice. But the Abbey’s lands were totally alienated by greedy neighbours and it ceased to prosper.In 816 however Gozbert arrived as Abbot to find the monk’s spiritual life at a low ebb. Through vigorous litigation he reclaimed the estates of the Abbey and regained its fortunes. By 830 AD he was ready to refurbish the superannuated buildings of the old settlement and for this purpose he requested the guidance of The Plan of St Gall, the document created as an instrument of policy to inform and regulate monastic planning throughout the Frankish Empire.

Few documents possess the broad imaginative scope of this parchment, which has become a Swiss national treasure.This manuscript was copied between 820 and 830 AD from a lost original. It depicts a Benedictine monastery to shelter the work, study and prayers of some 270 souls, of whom 110 were monks. Although Charlemagne (c742- 814) had urged adoption of Benedictine custom by Frankish monasteries, the acceptance of this was neither universal nor undisputed. That part of his vision for unity of civil and church affairs was, however, achieved by his son and successor Louis the Pious, who determined to change the Frankish monastic life from the different existing monastic practices, including the Rule of Columbanus, in favour of the Rule of St Benedict.

Dean Leckey, Rector of Bangor Abbey, who, by the Grace of God, came to live in my village of Conlig before he died.

In August 1988, while Chairman of the Farset organisation, I initiated a meeting with Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich at the Bangor Heritage Centre, when a video recording of the Cardinal speaking about Columbanus took place. He was then received by the Mayor of North Down. We then met Archbishop Robin Eames, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of the Church of Ireland, on Friday 2 September 1988 to tell him of our proposal to make a video, which was to be entitled The Steps of Columbanus. He too agreed to support it by participating in the video, giving a talk on Comgall. This was subsequently done under the auspices of Canon Hamilton Leckey at Bangor Abbey.

On Monday, 5 September 1988 I took Jackie Hewitt from the Farset Youth Project to follow part of the route Columbanus had taken. We stayed the following night at the home of Raymond Laurent, one of my closest Parisian friends. We travelled on to Auxerre, where both Columbanus and Patrick studied, and arrived in Lausanne where we had dinner with Pierre Dubois, Professor of European Studies at the University of Geneva. We then crossed the Alps via the St Gothard Pass, on the same route as Columbanus, going on to Milan and eventually to Bobbio where the saint rests.The full route, however, would be covered by the audio-visual unit itself the following year.

In September 1989, therefore, the audio-visual project took place with Bahman Jamshid Nehad, an Iranian Project Superviser, as our co-ordinator and Henry Mohammed as our camera-man. We visited Rheims, Luxeuil, the Rhine, St Gallen, Bregenz and Bobbio. Barney McCaughey acted as narrator and the initial video presentation was presented to Cardinal Tomàs Ó Fiaich and Archbishop Eames along with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Cultural Traditions Group of the Community Relations Council, of which I was a member, early in 1990. It was hoped that the BBC and RTE would attend, but, of course, they didn’t. For they never do.

Abbey Library, St Gallen

It was indeed most interesting to visit the library of the great church of St Gallen in Switzerland, the destination to which the ‘Plan of St Gall’ was originally sent some 1200 years ago at the abbot’s request. The simple survival of the plan is something of a wonder. And although it describes a self-contained monastic community, it reveals an astonishing congruence with modern concerns of community planning, technology and the efficient use of resources. Indeed essential unity of purpose expressed therein sustains its timeless relevance to human needs and western society.

The Carolingian empire, left to the lesser scions of a great house, broke up after the death of its founder. But the ideals of Charlemagne, and indeed Columbanus before him, survive in a document which became an important force in the shaping of modern Europe. For like the concept of empire itself the scheme transmitted to us in the Plan of St Gall, was to survive the collapse of that power which first nurtured it and left a permanent imprint on monastic planning for centuries to come.

To be continued

© Pretani Associates 2014

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Bangor, Light of the World, 21: The Cruthin Wars and Bishop Congus

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Ian Adamson

In 627 AD Congal Claen or “One Eye,” a Prince of the Cruthin, became the Over-King of Ulster. He had ruled in Tara until his blinding by bees put him from his kingship. The following year Congal slew the High King of the “Ui Neill” and in 629 he strengthened his claim to the whole of Ulster by killing the King of Dalriada who was an ally of the “Ui Neill”. This resulted in the Battle of Dunceithirnn in Londonderry later that year, when the north-western “Gaels” under their new High King, Domnall, son of Hugh, defeated Congal and crushed the Cruthin. Congal was forced to flee to Scotland where he succeeded in reversing the Dalriadan (Epidian Cruthin) alliance with the “Ui Neill”.

On 24th June, 637 AD therefore was fought the famous Battle of Magh Rath (Moira) in County Down against Domnall, son of Hugh, by the allies of Ulster. Sadly, however, Congal was killed and Domnall Brecc (Freckled Donald), King of Dalriada, lost all his Ulster territories. In this way the Ui Neill consolidated their power in Ulster and the Cruthin further declined. One of the finest passages from the epic of the Belfast poet and antiquarian, Sir Samuel Ferguson, on Congal is the soliloquy of Ardan, the great friend of Congal, to his dead king following the battle.

“I stand alone,
Last wreck remaining of a power and order overthrown,
Much needing solace;
And, ah me!, not in the empty lore
Of bard or druid does my soul find peace or comfort more;
Nor in the bells or crooked staves nor sacrificial shows
Find I help my soul desires,
Or in the chants of those
Who claim our druids’ vacant place.
Alone and faint, I crave,
Oh, God, one ray of heavenly light to help me to the grave,
Such even as thou, dead Congal, hadst;
That so these eyes of mine
May look their last on earth and heaven with calmness such as thine.”

The grave of Congal Claen is unmarked today but surely his memory should be kept alive in Ulster for he was the last Cruthinic king to provide an effective opposition to the Gaels in the north of Ireland. Congal had fought above all others for the People of Cruthin. Bangor could only remain strong while the Cruthin remained strong and the complete defeat at the Battle of Moira signalled the inevitable decline of the Bangor monastery. Thus it was that the Cult of Patrick eventually moved from Connor in Dalaradia to Armagh. Abbot Comgall himself had once said that he also would pray only for the People of the Cruthin, his own people, but Comgall was no more. And then in 645 the great and gentle St. Gall died quietly beside the River Stinace.

The Annals further state that in 663 AD Segan, son of Uacuinn, died. Segan was described as being “a great physician of scripture.” Due to their great understanding and learning, coupled with a deep faith, the Bangor monks, particularly Columbanus himself, were accredited with the powers of healing, both of the body and of the soul. The word “medicum” (physician or healer) is the Latin equivalent of the Aramaic “Essene” and of the Greek “Therapeutae”, which exactly describe those communities in Palestine and Egypt upon which the true vine was ultimately modelled.

The story of the Donegal Kingdoms , describing them as “Northern Ui Neill”, rather than the Venniconian Cruthin that they actually were , is a later propagandistic fiction and not a summary of what actually happened. Almost certainly it was given its classical form by and on behalf of the Cenel nEogan, during the reign in the mid eighth century of their powerful and ambitious king, Aed (Hugh) Allan, who died in the year 743. Whatever his actual victories and political successes, they were underlined by a set of deliberately created fictional historical texts which purported to give him and his ancestors a more glorious past than they had actually enjoyed. The same texts projected his dynasty back to the dawn of history and created a new political relationship with the neighbouring kingdoms. Whatever the initial reaction to them, these political fictions were plausible enough to endure and have been ultimately accepted as history by most commentators over the past thirteen hundred years and by those modern “serious scholars” trapped in nationalist ideologies.

Aed’s pseudo-historians were probably led by the Armagh Bishop Congus, who exploited the opportunity provided by the alliance with the King to advance the case for the supremacy of his own church throughout Ireland. Congus was from Cul Athguirt in the parish of Islandmagee, County Antrim. He was descended from Dá Slúaig, the son of Ainmere so he was a member of the Húi Nadsluaga clan who were one of the five prímthúatha of the Dál mBuinne Cruthin, east of Lough Neagh, County Antrim. Congus was a scribe before being elevated to the See of Armagh. He died in 750.

The Bangor Antiphonary itself may be dated from Cronan, the last Abbot listed in the commemoration poem, who, according to the Annals, died on 6 November, 691 AD. Cronan was alive when the Antiphonary was written so that it follows that it can be dated some year between 680 and 691. The manuscript was given its present title “Antiphonarium Benchorense” by the great Italian scholar, Muratori. It remains the only important relic of the ancient monastery of Bangor and was taken from Bangor to Bobbio at some time between its composition and the plundering of the monastery by the Vikings in the ninth century.

Indirect evidence of the work of the Bangor monks, however, is found in early Christian ornamentation. Pictish artwork is strongly characterised by intricate network interlacing. This is apparent in ornamental stones found on the east coast of Scotland and England from Shetland to Durham and in parts of Ireland. Identical features are also found in the great contemporary illuminated gospels of Durrow, Lindesfarne and Kells. The Book of Durrow is named after the Columban foundation of Durrow near Tullamore in Offaly. It is generally regarded as having been made towards the end of the seventh century, perhaps in the 670s, and Cruthinic influence was outstanding.

But the finest surviving example of the Pictish art form lies in the Lindesfarne Gospels which were written in honour of St. Cuthbert by Eadfrith who was made Bishop of Lindesfarne in the year of our Lord 698. These were bound by Bishop Ethilward and ornamented by Bilfrith the anchorite. The great work was preserved with the body of the saint at Lindesfarne and then carried in flight before the fury of the Vikings. Having rested some years at Durham, it was finally returned to Lindesfarne Priory where it stayed until the Dissolution.

The Book of Kells is generally assigned to the early ninth century when it may have been written and illuminated by the scribes of Iona. Subsequently it was brought to Kells where it was known in the eleventh century as “The great gospel of Colum Cille (Columba).” There are many influences apparent in its design, notably the Coptic (Egyptian), Cruthinic (Pictish) and Celtic, all three of which were prominent in Bangor until its destruction. For example, Christ is symbolised by the Greek letters “Xp” (Chi Rho) in both the Book of Kells and the Bangor Antiphonary.

Yet because of its location on the shores of Belfast Lough the great monastery lay open to attack by the Vikings. They first came raiding in the year 810 AD and between 822 and 824 the tomb of Comgall was broken open, its costly ornaments seized and the bones of the great saint “shaken from their shrine.” St. Bernard related that on one day alone 900 monks were killed. It is unlikely that following this time the Laus Perennis was ever sung again in Ireland.

To be continued

© Pretani Associates 2014

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The Ulster Workers Council Strike

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Ian Adamson

Tommy Lyttle, Glen Barr, Ian Adamson, Andy Tyrie, John Mc Michael

The Ulster Workers’ Council (UWC) strike was a successful general strike which took place 40 years ago between 15 May and 28 May 1974, during ” The Troubles”. The UWC was the brainchild of my old friend Harry Murray, a shop steward at Harland and Wolff. The strike was called by Ulster Loyalists and Unionists who were against the Sunningdale Agreement, which had been signed in December 1973. This Loyalist uprising, co-ordinated by the UWC, was largely organised by the Ulster Defence Association under its Chairman Andy Tyrie.

Specifically, many strikers did not oppose the sharing of political power with Irish Nationalists per se, as Harry’s later actions proved, but rather the undemocatic way it was applied and the imposed “Council of Ireland”. This proposed role for the Republic of Ireland’s government in the running of Northern Ireland was unacceptable to the bulk of the Unionist population in Northern Ireland who supported the strike, notwithstanding the Government-inspired propaganda to the contrary that they were generally intimidated.

In The Break-Up of Britain Tom Nairn concluded that: “It was the working class which made the Ulster Nation. Its 1974 strike defied, and defeated, three bourgeois governments and the British Army. Although they will never concede the fact, it relegated the claims of the IRA forever to that historical archive from which they should never have re-emerged. It was without doubt the most successful political action carried out by any European working class since the War”.

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Bangor Light of the World, 20: Molua of Caledonia

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Ian Adamson

Saint Molua, (c.530 – 592), (also known as Lua, Luan, Luanus, Lugaidh, Moloag, Molluog, Moluag, Murlach), was an Ulster missionary, and a contemporary of Comgall, Columbanus and Columba, who evangelized the Caledonian Cruthin or Picts in the sixth century. Saint Molua 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“.

Molua, born in Ireland, was a noble of the Dàl nAraide (Dalaradia) or Ulster Cruthin and was educated in Bangor under Comgall. Tradition states that the rock, on which Molua, or Moluag as he was known in the Hebrides, was standing, detached itself from the Irish coast and he drifted across to the island of Lismore, in Loch Linnhe. According to the Irish Annals, in 562 Molua beat Saint Columba in a race to the large island of the Lyn of Lorn in Argyll, now called the Isle of Lismore. WS Skene claims it was the sacred island of the Western Picts and the burial place of their kings whose capital was at Beregonium, across the water at Benderloch.

Molua was accompanied to north Britain by his kinsman Comgall , who presented him to King Brude of the Northern Picts to obtain permission to carry on his mission of spreading Christianity. It is likely that King Brude preferred Molua to Columba because of Columba’s close relation to the Gaelic-speaking leadership of Dàl Riata and the “Ui Neill”. This explains why Molua evangelized largely Pictish areas and Columba stayed within the sphere of Dál Riata or Scottish (Irish) influence.

After founding an island monastery on the Isle of Lismore, Molua went on to found two other great centres in the land of the Picts at Rosmarkie and Mortlach. These were his three centres of teaching, and it is significant that all three were to become the seats of the Roman Catholic Sees of the Isles, Ross and Aberdeen. So it was that St Bernard of Clairvaux wrote of Bangor in his biography of Malachy in the twelfth century :“A place it was, truly sacred, the nursery of saints who brought forth fruit most abundantly to the Glory of God, insomuch that one of the sons of that holy congregation, Molua by name, is alone reputed to have been the founder of a hundred monasteries”. Molua died in Rosemarkie, Scotland on June 25, 592. The Annals of Ulster record the death of Lugaid of Les Mór in 592 “Obitus Lugide Lis Moer.”

Molua is said to have been buried at Rosemarkie on the Moray Firth, though his remains were later transported to Lismore, and honoured in the cathedral which bore his name. The Coarb, or successor, of Saint Molua, is the Livingstone chief of the Clan Mac Lea. This Livingstone family of Lismore had long been the hereditary keepers of the crozier of the saint. The bell of Saint Molua was in existence until the sixteenth century when it disappeared during the Reformation. An ancient bell found at Kilmichael Glassary, Argyll is thought to have been the lost bell. St Molua’s parish church at Stormont, Belfast commemorates his name, although he has been totally confused over the centuries with St Molua of Killaloe.

To be continued

© Pretani Associates 2014

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Bangor, Light of the World, 19:The Teachers of the World

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Ian Adamson

The end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh centuries AD was indeed the Golden Age of the Bangor monastery, for it became the centre of literature, both sacred and secular, in Europe. Here were compiled the oldest Chronicles of Ireland and the beautiful poetry, the Voyage of Bran, which tells also of those great Cruthin Kings of Dalaradia, Mongan and Fiachna.

The Voyage of Bran speaks of the Birth of Christ as follows:

A great birth will come after ages,
That will not be in a lofty place,
The son of a Virgin Mother,
He will seize the rule of many thousands.

A rule without beginning, without end,
He has created the world so that it is perfect,
Whose are on earth and sea,
Woe to him that shall be under His unwill:

It’s He that made the heavens,
Happy he that has a white heart,
He will purify hosts under pure water,
It’s He that will cure your sickness.

Yet the most beautiful poetry of that age is contained in the Bangor Antiphonary. The “Commemoration of our Abbots” in the Antiphonary is perhaps the most valuable in the collection for by it the date of the manuscript can be determined. In itself it is an interesting poem and one can see that after the prefatory verse the lines run in alphabetical order.

Sancta sanctorum opera The Holy, Valiant deeds
Patrum, fratres, fortissimo, Of sacred Fathers,
Benchorensi in optima Based on the matchless
Fundatorum ecclesia, Church of Bangor;
Abbatum eminentia, The noble deeds of abbots,
Numerum, tempora, nomina, Their number, times and names,
Sine fine fulgentia, Of never-ending lustre,
Audite, magna merita; Hear, brothers; great their deserts,
Quos convocavit Dominus Whom the Lord hath gathered
Caelorum regni sedibus. To the mansions of his heavenly kingdom
Amavit Christus Comgillum; Christ loved Comgall,
Bene et ipse Dominum; Well, too, did he the Lord;
Carum habuit Beognoum; He held Beogna dear;
Dominum ornavit Aedeum; He graced the noble Aedh;
Elegit sanctum Sinlanum, He chose the holy Sinlan,
Famosum mundi magistrum Far-famed teacher of the world.
Quos convocavit Dominus Whom the Lord hath gathered
Caelorum regni sedibus. To the mansions of his heavenly kingdom.
Gratum fecit Fintenanum, He made Finten accepted,
Heredem almum inclitum; An heir generous, renowned;
Illustravit Maclaisreum, He rendered Maclaisre illustrious,
Kaput abbatum omnium The chief of all abbots;
Lampade sacrae Seganum, With a sacred torch (he enlightened) Segan,
Magnum scripturae medicum, A great physician of scripture.
Quos convocavit Dominus Whom the Lord hath gathered
Caelorum regni sedibus. To the mansions of his heavenly kingdom
Notus vir erat Beracnus; Beracnus was a distinguished man;
Ornatus et Cuminenus; Cummian pre-eminent in glory;
Pastor Columba congruous; Columba a congenial shepherd;
Querela absque Aidanus; Baithene a worthy ruler;
Summus antestes Crotanus. Crotan a chief president.
Quos convocavit Dominus Whom the Lord has gathered
Caelorum regni sedibus. To the mansions of his heavenly kingdom.
Tantis successit Colmanus, To these so excellent succeeded Colman,
Vir amabilis omnibus, A man to be beloved by all;
Xpo (Christo) nunc sedet suprimus Singing praises to Christ
Ymnos canens. Quindecimus He now sits on high. That Cronan,
Zoen ut carpet Cronanus, The fifteenth, may lay hold on life.
Conservet eum Dominus. The Lord preserve him.
Quos convocavit Dominus Whom the Lord hath gathered
Caelorum regni sedibus To the mansions of his heavenly kingdom.
Horum sanctorum merita The truest merits,
Abbatum fideliddima, of these holy abbots,
Erga Comgillum congrua, Meet for Comgal,
Invocamus altissima; Most exalted, we invoke;
Uti possimus omnia That we may blot out
Nostra delere crimina, All our offences
Per Jesum Christum, aeterna Through Jesus Christ
Regnantem in saecula.Who reigns for ages everlasting.

To Sinlan, described as “a far-famed teacher of the world”, has been attributed the ancient Ulster Chronicle from which the oldest entries of the Annals of Ulster have been derived. The harmony that exists between the enumeration of the abbots in the poem and the entries in the Irish Annals is remarkable.

To be continued

© Pretani Associates 2014

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Bangor Light of the World, 18: Gall of Switzerland

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Ian Adamson

In the spring of 612 AD war broke out between Austrasia and Burgundy. The Austrasian army was first defeated at Toul and then annihilated at Tolbiac. King Theudebert fled across the Rhine but was captured for his brother Theuderich by Count Bertechar. By order of his mother Brunhilde he was committed to a monastery and beheaded shortly afterwards. The death of Theudebert meant that Theuderich was now King of Austrasia and its German provinces as well as Burgundy and, as the Queen mother set up her court at Metz, Columbanus decided that it was time for him to move on.

Among others, Gall was not anxious to go and the resultant separation of the two great saints of Ireland was not effected without acrimony. When Gall threw himself at Columbanus’s feet, saying that he was not able for the journey, Columbanus replied, “Brother, I know that now it seems a heavy burden for you to suffer further fatigue for my sake, nevertheless this I enjoin in you before I go so that so long as I live in the body you do not dare to celebrate Communion.” This seems to us today as cruel a stricture from Columbanus as that dealt to his mother so many years before, but it underlines that singleness of purpose which was for Columbanus the stamp of his greatness, for we know that at heart he was really a tender and kind man. His personal feelings, however, were not allowed to stand in the way of his duty to God.

And so, although by now more than 70 years of age, Columbanus crossed the snow-covered Alps by the St Gothard’s Pass and made his way to the court of the Lombard king, Agilulph, whose queen, Theodelinda, had become famous throughout Europe for her beauty and intelligence. At this time the Lombards, including King Agilulph, were Arians although Queen Theodelinda, was a devout Christian. It is thought that due to her influence the Arian King received Columbanus and his companions with great kindness and consideration and they were able to begin a new mission among the half Christian population of Lombardy.

Columbanus window in the monastery of Bobbio

A place of settlement was, therefore, the first prerequisite and a man named Jucundus reminded the king that there was a suitable place at Bobbio, a ruined church once dedicated to St Peter. This was a fertile and salubrious district near the Trebbia. There, by the grace of God, was built in the Valley of the Appenines a monastery whose name will never be forgotten by those who follow the Way of the Lord – Bobbio the Beautiful. The Bobbio missal preserves a specimen of the liturgy in use in the early Irish Church and is of obvious Bangor origin.

The holy Columbanus lived but one year after the foundation of Bobbio, but the life of the great man was complete for the Bangor Rule had been given to Europe and the world and Bangor had indeed become a Light to the Gentiles and a city set on a hill. During his last days Columbanus’s thoughts returned to Gall, the only survivor of that band who had accompanied him from Bangor, a constant and faithful companion over half of Europe whom he had silenced because his obedience had not been to death. On his deathbed, therefore, the great man ordered that the staff on which he head been leaning while travelling through the great mountain ranges of Europe should be taken to Gall as a symbol of forgiveness.

Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich

And so the saint died, to the great grief of his companions, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of December, which is to say, Sunday 23 November, in the year of our Lord 615, probably in the seventy-third year of his age. He was buried beneath the High Altar of that place. Some time afterwards his remains were enclosed in a stone coffin and are still preserved in the old monastic church at Bobbio, where I have visited him regularly; firstly with the Farset Youth Project, when we made a video on The Steps of Columbanus with Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich and Archbishop Robin Eames, and also with my friends Edmund and Kathleen Irvine, the parents of young Edmund (Ed: i.e. Eddie Irvine, formerly the Formula 1 racing driver). Later they called to see the Bangor Antiphonary in the Ambrosian Library in Milan.

It is surely not too much to say that Ireland never sent a greater son than Columbanus to do the work of God in foreign lands. For centuries his influence remained dominant in France and northern Italy. His character was certainly not faultless. He was consumed with a ruthless zeal in the service of his master, Jesus, which was at once the secret of his immense power and the source of his mistakes. It is a measure of his strength of character, however, that when Queen Brunhilde, his constant enemy, was captured by the army of Neustria under Clothair and cruelly done to death following utter public humiliation Columbanus refused a personal invitation from King Clothair to return to Luxeuil from Bobbio.

G.S.M. Walker in his edition of the “Works of St Columbanus” writes of him, “A character so complex and so contrary, humble and haughty, harsh and tender, pedantic and impetuous by turns, had as its guiding and unifying pattern the ambition of sainthood. All his activities were subordinate to this one end and with the self-sacrifice that can seem so close to self-assertion he worked out his sole salvation by the wondrous pathway that he knew. He was a missionary through circumstance, a monk by vocation, a contemplative, too frequently driven to action by the world, a pilgrim on the road to Paradise.”

To be continued

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Bangor Light of the World, 17: To Bregenz

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Ian Adamson

Pope Gregory the Great

Now the strict Penitential of Columbanus infringed on the authority of the local Frankish bishops. But it was only with his insistence on celebrating Easter according to the British calculation that he was left open to the charge of unorthodoxy. Not even that finest of Popes, Gregory the Great, could convince Columbanus that what had been handed down to his monks by the saints of Ireland could possibly be wrong. They had no wish to impose their usages on others but required to be left alone to themselves. Columbanus was indeed a man of strong will and he remonstrated with the synod of French bishops who objected to his practices with letters both to them and Pope Gregory on the subject, “Surely it is better for you”, he wrote, “to comfort rather than disturb us, poor old men, strangers too, in your midst. Let us rather love one another in the charity of Christ, striving to fulfil his precepts and, therefore, secure a place in the assembly of the just made perfect in Heaven.” However, the Irish practices were not in accordance with the contemporary discipline of the Church and certainly did not win Columbanus any affectation in the eyes of the Franks who were merely following that discipline.

Further trouble was to follow. Following the death of King Childebert in 595, his two sons became Kings of Austrasia and Burgundy. As both were minors their grandmother Brunhilde acted as Queen Regent and soon Gaul entered again a period of civil disorder. When the new young King of Burgundy, Theuderich (French Thierry, German Dietrich), grew to manhood he put aside his lawful wife and committed himself to a life of debauchery by installing concubines in the Royal household. The infamous Brunhilde instructed Columbanus to confirm Theuderich’s illegitimate children, but the Abbot refused and thus incurred the Queen Mother’s undying enmity. When Columbanus further denied Theuderich admission to the monastery at Luxeuil the Burgundian king determined to banish the great man and his followers from the kingdom. For the time being, Columbanus was imprisoned at Besançon where he was kept under strict guard. His longing to return to Luxeuil was so great, however, that one day he left Besancon for the monastery without the authority of the king.

When Theuderich heard of this he was furious and ordered that all the monks from both Britain and Ireland should be expelled forthwith to their own countries of origin. To enforce this edict he sent his own chamberlain, Count Bertechar, with a guard of soldiers under a captain named Ragamund. When the soldiers arrived at Luxeuil they found Columbanus chanting the Divine Office. Although at first reluctant to go, Columbanus knew in his heart that the soldiers would be punished if they did not force him out of the monastery and so he called to his brethren and said, “let us go, my brothers, in the name of God.”

And so, with great sadness, in the year 610 AD, almost two decades since the foundation of Luxeuil, Columbanus and the Irish monks left their great monastery and were conducted by Captain Ragamund and his men to Nevers where they embarked on a boat which was to take them to the mouth of the Loire. From there they sailed to Orleans where they found all the churches closed to them by order of the king. They proceeded to Tours where, after some difficulty, Columbanus was able to spend a night in prayer at the tomb of St Martin, and so they all came to Nantes near the mouth of the Loire where they were able to embark on a boat which was to take them back to Ireland.

But it was not the will of God that Columbanus and his companions should return to Bangor, for when they had come to the mouth of the Loire a mighty sea arose and the ship which Columbanus had intended to rejoin was forced to return to harbour. A perfect calm then followed for three days and the captain, being very apprehensive of another storm, caused all the monks and their baggage to be put on shore for he feared that this was a sign from God and so, left to fend for themselves, Columbanus and his friends proceeded to Soissons, to the court of Clothair, King of Neustria, who received them with great kindness and generosity.

Clothair had always disliked Brunhilde and her grandsons and was anxious to keep the monks in his kingdom. However, Columbanus preferred to press on to Metz, seat of the court of Austrasia, where Theudebert, Theuderich’s brother, ruled. Theudebert received the monks well and at Metz several of the former brothers from Luxeuil joined Columbanus since they preferred to follow him in his wanderings rather than remain behind in the kingdom of his persecutor. From Metz Columbanus travelled to Mayence, being determined to preach to the pagan populations on the right bank of the Rhine and its tributaries.

Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich

During this time Columbanus wrote the famous Carmen Navale or “Boat Song”, which has been beautifully translated by Cardinal O’Fiaich as follows:

“Lo, little bark on twin-horned Rhine,
From forests hewn to skim the brine.
Heave, lads, and let the echoes ring.

The tempest howl, the storms dismay,
But manly strength can win the day.
Heave, lads, and let the echoes ring.

For clouds and squalls will soon pass on,
And victory lies with work well done.
Heave, lads, and let the echoes ring.

Hold fast! Survive! And all is well.
God sent you worse, he’ll calm this swell.
Heave, lads, and let the echoes ring.

So Satan acts to tire the brain,
And by temptation souls are slain.
Think, lads, of Christ and echo him.

Stand firm in mind ‘gainst Satan’s guile.
Protect yourselves with virtue’s foil.
Think, lads, of Christ and echo him.

Strong faith and zeal will victory gain.
The old foe breaks his lance in vain.
Think, lads, of Christ and echo him.

The King of virtues vowed a prize
For him who wins, for him who tries.
Think, lads, of Christ and echo him.”

Bregenz today

After great hardship they came as far as Lake Zurich in Switzerland, finally establishing themselves at Bregenz on Lake Constance where they made a new headquarters. The countryside here was wild and beautiful and the tribes living in the region – the Suevi and Alemanni – were pagans who worshipped as their god Wodin. It is said that the impulsiveness of Gall, who set fire to their temples and threw their offerings into the lake, put this mission in jeopardy.

To be continued

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St Comgall’s Day

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Ian Adamson

Today, accompanied by my colleague in Pretani Associates, Helen Brooker, I attended the Annual St Comgall’s Lecture of the Friends of Bangor Abbey by Professor Jean-Michel Picard, U.C.D., talking on ‘Columbanus and the Antiphonary of Bangor’ with special reference to the hymn ‘ Praecamur Patrem’ (Hymnum Apostolorum ut alii dicunt). Professor Picard demonstrated convincingly that this hymn could only have been written by Columbanus himself before he left Ireland.

researcher

Professor Picard (b Marseilles 1952) studied at the University of Provence in Aix-en-Provence, at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne and at the National University of Ireland (UCD). As a specialist in mediæval languages and literature, he has published several books and numerous articles on Irish hagiographical literature, on Hiberno-Latin language, and on the history of contacts between Ireland and the continent during the middle ages. Jean-Michel Picard is a professor in the UCD School of Languages and Literatures and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

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