Moville Abbey was founded around 540AD by St. Finnian and Bangor Abbey was founded by St. Comgall a short time later, around 558AD.
Life in any monastery was rigorous, involving a daily pattern of worship (daily offices said up to seven times per day) and a strict regime of prayer, penance, fasting, study and labour. Yet, despite the hardship of monastic life, both Finnian and Comgall drew many followers, and Moville and Bangor became important Christian centres, from which the gospel would spread not just across Ireland, but much further afield.
The most famous missionary to proceed from Moville was St Columba (Columbcille, the dove of the church) who evangelised Scotland and founded the famous abbey on Iona.
The followers of St Comgall were so numerous that its said up to 8000 monks may have lived and studied under his rule. From Bangor, monks set out to spread the gospel and establish monasteries and churches throughout Ireland and beyond. St Lua (or Molua) is estimated to have established over 100 churches – including, possibly, one at nearby Portmore known as Lann Lua (church of Lua). After the fall of the Roman Empire to northern barbarians, St Columbanus and St Gall set out with eleven companions to re-evangelise western Europe. They established the great monasteries of Luxeuil (France), St Gallen (Switzerland) and Bobbio (Italy).
Moville and Bangor continued to flourish for almost 300 years under a succession of abbots, some of whom were also bishops of the early church. However, in the C9th & C10th, they suffered a succession of Viking raids.
The fortunes of these abbeys were revived somewhat under Anglo-Norman influence, especially from 1121AD when St. Malachy became abbot of Bangor; it’s known that, up until the Reformation, the Abbeys received the tithes of many parishes, for which they provided vicars. Thus, around 1492AD, a monk called Donatus Magyd (Magynd or Maginn) came from Bangor Abbey to serve in the parish of Aghalee.
Until the dissolution of the monasteries (circa 1541AD), the tithes of Aghalee remained in the possession of the abbots of Bangor; while the tithes of Aghagallon and Maghernagaw remained in the possession of the abbots of Moville.
In the end, the Abbeys of Moville and Bangor – along with Comber, Grey Abbey, and the other religious houses in the district - were burnt in 1572 by Sir Brian McPhelim O'Neill, to ensure they could not be used as garrisons by English troops.
