Friday 26 April 2013

Saint Indreachtach of Bangor, April 26


April 26 is the commemoration of a ninth-century Abbot of Bangor, Indreachtach, whose death at the beginning of the tenth century was recorded in the Irish Annals. Canon O'Hanlon has the details:



St. Indreachtach, Abbot of Bangor. 
[Ninth and Tenth Centuries.]

St. Indreachtach, was son to Dobhailen; and, he seems to have been born, some time during the ninth century. He became Abbot of Bangor, where a great religious institute was founded, about the year 559, by St. Comgall, a native of Magheramorne, in the county of Antrim. He was a contemporary of St. Columkille, and their respective monasteries bore a great resemblance to each other, both in their discipline—being seminaries of learning—as also receptacles for piety; and, in their economy, they were generally governed by a presbyter abbot, as also attended by a resident bishop. St. Indreachtach died, on the 26th day of April, A.D. 901, according to the Annals of the Four Masters. Therein are quoted these following lines, being a translation from the original Irish :—

"One and three hundred fair revolving years from the death of Comhgall of Beannchair,
To the period of the happy death of the great illustrious Innreachtach."

As this saint is said to have died, about the commencement of the tenth century, we should not feel surprised at the omission of his name, in the published Martyrology of Tallagh, at the vi. of the Kalends of May, or 26th of April; for, according to Colgan, St. Corpre, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, who died in 899, is the latest saint, whose name is inserted in that calendar.


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