Sant Komgall
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Celtic Orthodox Church
Saint Comgall
SAINT COMGALL abbé de Bangor (517-603)
SA VIE
Le dictionnaire historique des saints de John Coulson rapporte cette description laconique de Comgall : « Né dans l’Ulster, Irlande du Nord, il fut ordonné prêtre par l’évêque Lugid et fonda la grande abbaye de Bangor, sur la baie de Belfort. Trois mille moines auraient vécu sous sa direction, notamment saint Colomban du temps de sa jeunesse. » Il fut auparavant disciple de saint Fiontan, fameux pour la rigueur de sa direction spirituelle. Comgall donna une règle écrite en vers irlandais à la communauté qu’il fonda à Bangor en 599. On disait d’elle qu’elle était « droite et divine, sévère, sainte et exacte, souverainement juste et digne d’admiration à qui appartient la vie bienheureuse que Dieu prépare en compagnie des saints pour durer sans jamais finir ». La renommée de Bangor devait éclipser celle de tous les autres monastères irlandais selon Montalembert. Les trois mille frères étaient divisés en sept chœurs alternatifs, chantant jour et nuit les louanges de Dieu pour appeler la miséricorde de Dieu sur leur Église et leur patrie.
Bien que saint Comgall fut connu pour son ascétisme, (il ne mangeait qu’un seul repas complet par semaine) nombre de miracles le concernant ont trait à la nourriture. Un jour, des voleurs dérobèrent les légumes du monastère ; par les prières de saint Comgall ils furent privés de la vue jusqu’à ce qu’ils se repentent ; après quoi, ils intégrèrent la communauté. Une autre fois, alors que les vivres manquaient et que les moines attendaient des invités, le saint pria Dieu et un banc de poissons vint s’échouer sur la rive.
Comgall partit quelque temps pour l’Écosse, il accompagna aussi saint Colomba dans un voyage missionnaire à Inverness pour évangéliser les Pictes.
Il mourut à Bangor en 603. L’Antiphonaire de Bangor rédigé un siècle après contient une longue hymne à sa louange.
Catholiques en France
Saint Comgall
(6ème s.)
Moine écossais, il fonda sur la côte de l'Ulster le célèbre monastère de Bangor qui fut un centre de haute spiritualité jusqu'au temps des invasions danoises. Saint Bernard dans sa "vie de saint Malachie" n'hésite pas à considérer Bangor comme "une pépinière de saints qui a produit tant de fruits pour la gloire de Dieu." Ce monastère connut jusqu'à trois mille moines qui lui étaient agrégés. C'est de cette école de sainteté que sortit saint Colomban. C'est aussi de Bangor que se répandit en Occident la pratique de la pénitence privée et de la confession fréquente.
Site NewAdvent
St. Comgall
Founder and abbot of the great Irish monastery at Bangor, flourished in the sixth century. The year of his birth is uncertain, but according to the testimony of the Irish annals it must be placed between 510 and 520; his death is said to have occurred in 602 ("Annals of Tighernach" and "Chronicon Scotorum"), or 597 (Annals of Innisfallen). He was born in Dalaradia in Ulster near the place now known as Magheramorne in the present County Antrim. He seems to have served first as a soldier, and on his release from military service he is said to have studied at Clonard with St. Finnian, and at Clonmacnoise with St. Ciaran, who died in 549. We next find him in Ulster in an island on Lough Erne accompanied by a few friends following a very severe form of monastic life. He intended to go to Britain, but was dissuaded from this step by Lugidius, the bishop who ordained him, at whose advice he remained in Ireland and set himself to spread the monastic life throughout the country. The most famous of the Comgall is Bangor, situated in the present County Down, on the Southern shore of Belfast Lough and directly opposite to Carrickfergus. According to the Irish annals Bangor was founded not later than 552, though Ussher and most of the later writers on the subject assign the foundation to the year 555. According to Adamnan's "Life of Columba", there was a very close connection between Comgall and Columba though there does not appear to be sufficient authority for stating that Comgall was the disciple of Columba in any strict sense. He is said to have been the friend of St. Brendan, St. Cormac, St. Cainnech, and Finbarr of Moville. After intense suffering he received the Eucharist from St. Fiacra and expired in the monastery at Bangor.
Comgall belonged to what is known as the Second Order of Irish Saints. These flourished in the Irish Church during the sixth century. They were for the most part educated in Britain, or received their training from those who had grown up under the influence of the British Schools. They were the founders of the great Irish monastic schools, and contributed much to the spread of monasticism in the Irish Church. It is an interesting question how far Comgall, or men like him, had advanced in their establishments at Bangor and elsewhere in introducing the last stages of monasticism then developed on the Continent by St. Benedict. In other words, did St. Congall give his monks at Bangor a strict monastic rule resembling the Rule of St. Benedict? There has come down to us a Rule of St. Comgall in Irish, but the evidence would not warrant us in saying that as it stands at present it could be attributed to him. The fact, however, thatColumbanus, a disciple of Comgall and himself a monk of Bangor, drew up for his Continental monasteries a "Regula Monachorum" wound lead us to believe that there had been a similar organization in Bangor in his time. This, however, is not conclusive, since Columbanus might have derived inspiration from the Benedictine Rule then widely spread over South-Western Europe. St. Comgall is mentioned in the "Life of Columbanus" by Jonas, as the superior of Bangor, under whom St. Columbanus had studied. He is also mentioned under 10 May, his feast-day in the "Felire" of Oengus the Culdee published by Whitley Stokes for the Henry Bradshaw Society (2nd ed.), and his name is commemorated in the Stowe Missal (MacCarthy), and in the Martyrology of Tallaght.