Bangor Abbey

Bangor Abbey is one of the oldest Christian monastic sites in the British Isles, founded around 558 AD by Saint Comgall of Bangor in what is now County Down, Northern Ireland. At its peak in the early medieval period, the abbey was a renowned training ground for missionaries — it was from here that Saint Columbanus departed on his influential mission through Gaul and northern Italy, shaping the course of European Christianity. Known in its heyday as Lumen Mundi, 'Light of the World', the monastery reportedly housed thousands of monks at its height. The site is today protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Category A listed building; an Anglican parish church occupies the historic grounds, preserving an unbroken thread of worship stretching back fifteen centuries.