{"id":9323,"date":"2015-06-15T17:24:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T16:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=9323"},"modified":"2015-06-15T17:24:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T16:24:19","slug":"bangor-and-armagh-to-host-international-st-columbanus-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2015\/06\/bangor-and-armagh-to-host-international-st-columbanus-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangor and Armagh to Host International St Columbanus Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>This June sees Bangor and Armagh play host to the first \u201cFestival of the Columban Way\u201d, marking the 1400<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the death of St Columbanus.<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/press14.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9324\" title=\"press\" src=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/press14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a>The festival will see over 200 pilgrims from Italy visit Northern Ireland in honour of the legacy of St Columbanus. The Saint, who departed from Bangor Abbey around 590, was instrumental in spreading Christianity throughout Europe where he and his followers established settlements and monasteries in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.<\/p>\n<p>This two day celebration begins in Bangor on Saturday 20 June with Morning Prayer at Bangor Abbey at 9:30am. Throughout the day there are various activities taking place within the town centre including guided tours, talk on Columbanus, exhibitions and in the evening, Concelebrated Mass at St Comgall\u2019s followed by a concert of traditional music and dance. The services and activities are open to all and free of charge.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the event Alex Irvine, Tourism Development Officer for Ards and North Down Borough Council stated, \u201cWe are very much looking forward to the event. To be able to welcome so many visitors from Italy, where Columbanus founded his last Abbey, is very special in this the year marking 1400 years since his death\u201d. Father Joe Gunn from St Comgall\u2019s, added, \u201cThe fact that we are seeing so\u00a0 many pilgrims visiting Bangor, not just from Italy, but also France and Germany, in this special year is testament to the influence that the Saints from Bangor Abbey and in particular Columbanus played in the development of Christianity in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Following Bangor, the Festival moves on to Armagh on Sunday 21st for a Mass of Thanksgiving in St Patrick\u2019s Cathedral, Armagh at 11.00 am.\u00a0 The main celebrant of the Mass will be Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All-Ireland and President of the Irish Episcopal Conference.\u00a0 The homilist will be Fr Neil Collins, SSC.\u00a0 The Relic of St Columbanus will be available after Mass for veneration.\u00a0 Evensong will take place in St Patrick\u2019s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh at 3.15 pm.\u00a0 The homilist for the Evensong will be Fr Sean McDonagh, SSC.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the Festival T: Bangor Visitor Information Centre 028 9127 0069 for information on the Saturday for Armagh events on Sunday 21st please contact Fr Rory Coyle on 028 3752 2802.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This June sees Bangor and Armagh play host to the first \u201cFestival of the Columban Way\u201d, marking the 1400th anniversary of the death of St Columbanus. The festival will see over 200 pilgrims from Italy visit Northern Ireland in honour of the legacy of St Columbanus. The Saint, who departed from Bangor Abbey around 590, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2015\/06\/bangor-and-armagh-to-host-international-st-columbanus-festival\/\">Continued<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9325,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9323\/revisions\/9325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}