Bangor, Light of the World, 2: The Family of Bangor

Many centuries ago, in the days of the Cambro-Normans, there existed a tradition in Ireland which was already an ancient one. It was said that when St Patrick and his companions came one day to a certain valley in the north of County Down, suddenly “they beheld the valley filled with a heavenly light and with a multitude of the host of heaven they heard, as chanted forth from the voice of angels, the psalmody of the celestial choir.” This place so enthralled those holy men that they called it “Vallis Angelorum”, the Valley of the Angels.

In the process of time there was built in this valley a holy place called Bangor, in which was celebrated a praise to God such as the world had seldom seen or heard. Such was the veneration in which it was held that St Bernard of Clairvaux wrote of it 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: which I mention for this reason, that the reader may, from this single instance, form a conception of the number to which the community amounted. In short, so widely had its branches extended through Ireland and Scotland that these times appear to have been especially foreshadowed in the verses of David:

“Thou visitest the earth and waterest it; thou greatly enrichest it; the river of God is full of water; thou preparest them corn when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly; thou makest it soft with showers; thou blessest the springing thereof.” Nor was it only into the countries I have mentioned but even into distant lands that crowds of saints, like an inundation, poured. One of whom, St. Columbanus, penetrating into these our regions of France, built the monastery of Luxeuil and there became a great multitude. So great do they say it was that the solemnisation of divine offices was kept up by companies, who relieved each other in succession so that no for one moment, day or night, was there an intermission of their devotions.”

Although there is now nothing remaining of the buildings in which this celebrated perennial praise was sung, a precious and golden fragment of its ancient liturgy remains. This is contained in a manuscript called the Bangor Antiphonary which is preserved in the Ambrosian Library of Milan in Italy. The Perennial Praise or Laus Perennis was based on the Temple Praise in Jerusalem and the Community of Bangor were well versed in the scriptural basis of its authority. In this they were remarkably similar to those communities of the Jews known as Essenes and Therapeutae who sung a similar praise in Palestine and Egypt in earlier times. Because of it the Bangorians established what was for them a New Jerusalem in accord with the Revelation of St John the Divine, that disciple whom Jesus loved, to whom He entrusted his mother at the foot of the Cross and whose vision of the Apocalypse contained the final oracles of God.

This association is well illustrated by extract from the Bangor Antiphonary, which is entitled “Versicles of the Community of Bangor” and which has become better known as the “Good Rule of Bangor”.

These verses contain the whole raison d’être of the Community or Family of Bangor. They were obviously inspired by John’s Vision in Revelation, chapters 21 and 22, and the writings of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. Both speak of the eternal dwelling place of God, made not with hands but with “living stones”. In other words John taught that those Jews and Gentiles who believed in Christ would build together a New Temple. As 1 Peter 2:5 says: “You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Good Rule of Bangor
Straight and divine, holy, exact and constant,
exalted, just and admirable.

Blessed family of Bangor, founded on unerring faith, adorned
with salvation’s hope, perfect in charity.

Ship never distressed though beaten by the waves:
fully prepared for nuptials, spouse for the
sovereign Lord.

House full of delicious things
and built upon a rock; and no less the true
vine brought out of Egypt’s land.

Surely an enduring city, strong and unified, worthy and
glorious, set upon a hill.

Ark shaded by Cherubim, all overlaid by gold, filled with
sacred things and borne by four men.

A very Queen for Christ, clad in the light of the sun,
innocent yet wise, from every side invulnerable.
A truly regal hall with many jewels adorned
of Christ’s flock too the fold, and kept by
the great God.

A fruitful virgin she and mother undefiled, joyful and tremulous,
submissive to God’s word.

For whom, with the perfect, a happy life is destined,
prepared with God the Father to last to eternity.

Bradshaw’s translation
Bangor Antiphonary

Bangor was to be “an enduring city, set upon a hill” – a New Jerusalem. It was to be the Ark of the Covenant, a New Temple, “the true vine out of Egypt”, a new Perennial Praise.

To fully understand the origins and history of Bangor wewill therefore trace the whole course of the Temple worship both in Palestine and Egypt, centering first on Jesus of Nazareth who was the embodiment of that worship to his followers. We will then follow the story of the Bangor Community itself, for they it was who brought the Light of the Word of their Lord into the darkness of a Barbarian Europe. The lands and peoples among whom they sang their perennial song, thus continuing “the psalmody of the celestial choir”, constituted much of the then known world. It is a story of fortitude and courage perhaps unequalled in the history of mankind. The influence Bangor generated remains strong in Europe today and may be traced as far afield as Russia, the Ukraine and Bulgaria. Indeed, though many may not realise it, it is the very basis of modern Western civilisation itself.

To be continued

Bangor, Light of the World, 2: The Family of Bangor

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