Bangor: Light of the World

Bangor, once the site of one of the largest Christian schools in Ireland, was the jumping off point for the famous missionary journeys of Columbanus and Gall. The Bangor Antiphonary, which is now in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, was the flowering of a style and depth of worship with unique appeal. In his ‘Light of the World’ Ian Adamson has combined literary skill and scholarship to describe how one of the main strands of European civilisation developed out of the Judaeo-Christian tradition of the Middle-East and to bring out the full scope of how Bangor became the focus for religious life of great depth and power in the early medieval period of Europe. St Columbanus is, of course, the much loved patron saint of bikers around the world; an accolade that reflects his love of travel and great spirit of adventure and discovery. He was a man who looked past the perceived barriers and inevitabilities by which we so often live our lives in order to discover what was beyond those horizons, what was possible, what could be better. In many ways he was a man ahead of his time; a visionary who spoke and dreamt of a united Europe in which we could live and work together in peace.Many centuries after his death he continues to be an inspiring figure who we, in Ireland, are very proud to claim as one of our own. Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland.