Comgall St Gallen
There were eight 6th century Celtic Christian top evangelist graduates of St Patrick’s Bible schools –
.. 1 COMGALL 517 AD – 602 AD
One was Comgall St Gallus, who finally left Patrick’s Bangor monastery north of Strangford Lough where the Beg Stream dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. He went south to the Bodensee in Switzerland.
Comgall’s father was Setna, a Pict warrior.
His mother was Briga. He learned Greek as all the top monks did.
Comgall was buried in Bangor, but one of his arms was removed and taken to Leinster by Finchra.
Comgall was a close friend of
.. 2 COLUMBA.
A key Patrick-trained missionary was
.. 3 COLUMBANUS who also studied with Comgall. Columbanus was born in Leinster in 543 AD, so was 26 years younger than Comgall. This younger monk left for the Continent with a dozen other monks, converting many to Celtic Christianity. He made it all the way down to Bobbio Italy, taking artifacts so they would not be taken by the Vikings as booty. He was buried in Pavia.
K I N G C O N A L L of DAL RIATA
son of Comgall St Gallen
King Conall of Dal Riata, only son of Comgall St Gallen, was defeated by the Scottish Picts in 558 AD, and they carried away many spoils of victory. But King Conall was able to work it out with Scottish Druid King Brude MacMaelchon up near Inverness to give the Island of Iona to Columba.
The poets in Ireland are a favored group. But back in the 6th century, they abused their traveling bard status by freeloading and disturbing the peace with loud wild adulterous living.
King Hugh II called a judgment Convention in 573 AD at Drumceat north of Tara to abolish all the poets and kick them out of Ireland.
When Columba, a good poet and musician himself, heard about this lynch mob, he decided he had to make an impassioned
speech at Drumceat to ask for reform, not abolition and forced removal of all the rowdy poets from merry Ireland.
Because he had been booted out for good himself and could never ‘see’ Ireland again,
Colm Cille Columba arranged for a large entourage including Aiden to go by boat to the green Isle, and blind-folded himself so as to not ‘see’ Ireland.
His speech while blind-folded did the trick – so he departed back to Iona Island, leaving his ex-roomate King Conall (in Delgon 563 AD in Kintyre) to follow through with key reforms so as to avoid an abolition disaster.
This was accomplished at Drom-Keth in 590 AD. The poets shaped up, no longer allowed to wander, forced to settle down in one place as the official local bard.