Ecclesiastical Sites in County Down.

Irish Ecclesiastical Sites.

Ecclesiastical Sites in Ireland.

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Bangor.

(Banchor 'College')

The meaning of the name from the Irish means College. Bangor was at a time the premier site in Europe of academic Christian learning at St Comgalls Abbey founded in AD 558 nothing remains of the abbey today except for a manuscript called and quot;The Bangor Antiphonaryand quot; the oldest known Irish written hymn sheet, which dates from the 680's it is now in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, Italy. The abbey rose to be one of the most important in the country, educating and exporting missionaries not only to Ireland but to mainland Europe also.

Bangor was founded by Comgall, he was born at Magheramore, County Carlow in 512 AD, of the tribe of the Cruthin.in an area know now as Dalaradia. His father was Setna, a pictish warrior, his mother was Briga. Comgall died in 603 at the ripe old age of ninety.

The Abbey was attacked by the Vikings in 823, many monks lost their lives.

	Raholp Church.
	Situated approximately 4 miles (6.4 km's) east of Downpatrick on the Strangford road. The ruined church was one of the earliest Christian buildings in Ireland. It is associated with St Tassach who, according to tradition, administered the last communion to the dying St Patrick on 17th March 461 AD.
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