Comgall, St.

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COMGALL, ST.

Sixth century Irish monastic founder; b. Ulster, c. 520; d. Bangor, Ireland, c. 602. St. Comgall founded the monastery of Bangor about 555 on the southern shore of Belfast Lough. Its rule, derived from Clonenagh in Leix, was very severe. He helped St. columba of iona to convert the pagan Picts of Scotland and about 590 dispatched a group of 12 under a leader, St. columban, to renew religious life in Merovingian Gaul. The excellence of the education given in Bangor is apparent in Columba's writings. It appears, too, in the Antiphonary of Bangor, compiled in the monastery within the years 680 to 691. Comgall is mentioned in the Life of Columbanus by Jonas and commemorated in the Stowe Missal and the Martyrology of Tallaght.

Feast: May 10.

Bibliography: c. plummer, comp., Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, 2 v. (Oxford 1910) 2:321. Acta Sanctorum May 2:577587. j. p. bute, Acta sanctorum Hiberniae ex Codice Salmanticensi, ed. c. de smedt and j. de backer (Edinburgh 1888).

[j. ryan]