BANIAS
251
BAKIM
- ession of Catholic abbots was still kept up, the
ast being Abbot MacCormack, who lived in France, jut. returning to Ireland during the Reign of Terror, ound a refuge at MajTiooth CoUege and died there n the early years of the nineteenth century.
Among the Abbots of Bangor few acquired fame, out many of the students did. Findchua has his life -sNTitten in the Book of Lismore; Luanus founded 100 monasteries and St. Carthage founded the great School of Lismore. From Bangor Columbanus and Gall crossed the sea, the former to found Luxeuil and Bobbio, the latter to evangelize Switzerland. In the ninth century a Bangor student, Dungal, defended orthodoxy against the Western iconoclasts. The present town of Bangor is a thriving little place, popular as a seaside resort. Local tradition has it that some ruined walls near the Protestant church mark the site of the ancient abbey; nothing else is left of the place hallowed by the prayers and penances of St. Malachy and St. Coingall.
(2) The Welsh Abbey of Bangor was situated in Flintshire, not far from Chester, and in the Middle Ages was often confounded with Bangor in Carnar- vonshire, which was an episcopal see. The date of its foundation and its founder's name are equally uncertain. With great confidence and e\-ident con- viction, Montalembert declares that its founder was St. Iltud, or Iltyde. But some allowance must be made for French partiality, for Iltud was an Armoric Gaul. His life and acts are narrated in the "Lives of the Cambro-British Saints"; they have been carefully edited by Mr. Rees; and though it is stated that he" was an Armorican, and had been a soldier, and married, before he became a monk, it is not said that he was connected with Bangor. It is more probable that the abbey was founded by Dunawd, a Welshman, whence it was often called Bangor Dunawd. And if St. Deiniol was the son of Dunawd, as it is said, this would fix the foundation of the Flintshire abbey at about the beginning of the sixth centurj', for Bangor in Carnarvonshire was founded by St. Deiniol in 514. It would also dispose of the assertion that Pelagius, the heretic, was at one time its abbot, for he died long before. It is certain that Bangor was the greatest monastic establislmient in Wales, having at one time 2,000 monks. The Angles and Saxons had then conquered Britain and had treated the Britons with great severity. A remnant of these latter found refuge in Wales, where they brooded over their ^^Tongs, and, being Christians themselves, refused to preach the Gospel to their conquerors. When St. Augustine came to England, in the last years of the sixth centurj', he visited the Britons in Wales. Their moral condition was then bad; they clung to the old mode of celebrating Easter, and some errors of doctrine had also crept into their creed. He had a conference with delegates from Bangor, but they refused to co-operate with him in the work of con- verting the stiU unconverted English. In pun- ishment, he predicted that, as they refused to preach the way of hfe to the English, they would at the hands of these same English suffer death. And this came to pass in 603 when Ethelfrid of North- umbria defeated the Britons near Chester. Hearing that the monks of Bangor were praying for his enemies, he turned aside from the battle and put 1,200 of them to death. Extensive ruins of this abbey still remained in the twelfth centurj', but in Ussher's time, in the seventeenth centurj', these ruins had all but disappeared. On the site of the abbey now stands the small town of Bangor-on-the- Dee.
Warren, ed.. The Antiphonary of Bangor (London. 1893); Stores. Lives of the Sainfa from the Book of Lismore (Oxford. 18901- .\rchd\ll, Monaslicon Hibemicum (Dublin. 1893); O'HwLos. Life of St. Malachy (Dublin. 1859); Lanigan. Eccktiaatical Historic (Dublin, 1822); Ussheb, It'oris (Dublin.
1847); AnruiU of the Four Masters (Dublin, 1854); Healt
Ancient Schools and Scholars of Ireland (Dublin, 1896); Reeve,
Adamnan (Dublin. 1857); Wars of the Gael and Gall (I^ondon,
1867); Rees, Lives of the Cambro-British Saints (Llandovery.
1853); Lingard. Ariglo-Saxon Church (London, 1845); Bede.
Ecclesiastical History (in BoKn's Series); William of Malmes-
bury (in Bohn's series); Giraldus Cambrensis (in Bohn's .'series),
Moxtaiembert, Monks of the West (New ed. London. 1898).
E. A. D'Alton.
Banias. See C^sarea Philippi.
Banim.JoHX and Michael. — John, poet, dramatist, novelist, b. 3 April. 1798. at Kilkenny, Ireland; d. 31 August, 1842. His father, following the double oc- cupation of farmer and storekeeper, was in easy cir- cumstances. John's literary efforts began very early; at ten he wTote some verses and a tale of considerable length. After a preparatorj' training in private schools he entered Kilkenny College in 1810. Having a taste for painting and drawing he went to DubUn in 1813 to study art. In two years he was back in Kilkenny, became a drawing teacher, and fell desperately in love -n-ith one of his pupils, a girl two years his junior. The girl's father refused his consent, with the result that in two months she died of a broken heart. Her lover almost followed her example. An entire disregard of self at the time of the funeral caused paralysis and left him a N-ictim of spinal disease, which afflicted him almost incessantly and finally caused his death. At the end of a year he set out for Dubhn with a literarj' career in view. It was not long before he made liis reputation. In 1821, when only twenty-three years old, he -nTote the tragedy "Damon and Pytliias", which was played at Covent Garden with Macready and Charles Kemble in the principal parts. After his marriage, which took place during a visit to his parents, he planned with his brother Michael, "The Tales of the O'Hara Family". These were to be -nTitten in collaboration, each brother to submit his work to the other for revi- sion. As a result, it is impossible to distinguish from internal evidence the work of each. Their ambition was to do for Ireland what Scott, by his Waverley Xovels, had done for Scotland — to make their countrymen known -nnth their national traits and national" customs and to give a true picture of the Irish character with its bright lights and deep shadows. To London, a -n-ider field for literary work, Banim went in 1822 "-nithout friends and with little money to seek his fortune". The next ten years were a fruitful season, during which he contributed frequently to various periodicals, and produced a considera"ble number of operatic pieces, dramas, essays, and novels, but always at the expense of "wringing, agonizing, burning pain". Writing of this period to his brother, he says: "Of more than twenty known volumes I have written, and treble their quantity in periodicals, no three pages have been penned" free from bodily pain". The little crumbs of comfort he recei\-ed he generously shared with his countrjTnan, Gerald Griffin, who wTOte of his early struggles in London: "What would I have done if I had not found Banim?" In 1829 Jolm Banim was ordered to France in the hope that he might repair his shattered health, but the journey was of no a^-ail. In a few years a stroke of paralysis "deprived liim of the use of his Umbs and brains". In 1835 he re- turned to Kilkenny by slow stages. Dublin and his native city showed" him signal honour by demonstra- tions that moved him deeply. A pubfic appeal for assistance met with such generous response that his financial troubles were ended. The Government, in recognition of his hterarj' work, granted hhn a pen- sion of i£150, and an additional sum of £40 a year for the education of his daughter. His last work was the revision of a story which he had inspired and en- couraged his brother to vrrite, "Father Connell ", the picture of his beloved parish priest of Kilkenny. He died in his own Windgap Cottage, just outside
