Author Archives: Ian Adamson

   Now, as the number of monks in the monastery at Annegray increased daily, it became necessary for the community to seek a more suitable site. King Gunthram had died in 593 AD and young Childebert II now ruled over … Continue reading →

NewBelfast.com Blog of Belfast’s Lord Mayor, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir Follow Máirtín on Twitter and LinkedIn   Marcel Kittel wins Stage Two. Pic: BBC.   Any colour as long as it’s pink was the message from Belfast this week as the greatest … Continue reading →

Columbanus Fresco in the abbey of Brugnato.The foundation of Brugnato dates back to the 7th or 8th centuries and is linked to the erection of a monastery  which, like other monastic sites in Liguria and northern Italy, was dependent on … Continue reading →

The seventh-century manuscript already described as the Bangor Antiphonary was given that name by the famous Italian scholar, Muratori. However, the manuscript is not, strictly speaking, a true antiphonary since its contents are as follows:   1. Song of Moses … Continue reading →

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 →