One of the most important sources for the study of the divine office in Ireland during the first millennium is the Antiphonary of Bangor. An antiphonary is a text containing antiphons sung with psalms, responsories, hymns, and other chants for canonical hours. One of the most interesting passages from the Antiphonary of Bangor is a Eucharistic hymn providing important insight into the celebration of Mass in 7th century Ireland.
Before we discuss the hymn, however, some background on Bangor Abbey and its antiphonary are in order.
Bangor Abbey and the Laus Perennis
The Bangor antiphonary was a product of the renownd Bangor Abbey (Co. Down), founded in 558 by St. Comgall. It grew to become one of the largest and most influential Irish abbeys with a focus on education and missionary training, turning out some of the greatest missionaries, artists, and artisans of the Irish golden age. In its heyday under Comgall, Bangor was reputed to house upwards of four thousand monks, all under an extremely rigorous manner of living.
But Bangor was also known for its rich liturgical worship, centered on the practice of laus perennis, in which liturgical prayer is performed continuously by rotations monks praying in shifts so as to literally fulfill St. Paul’s admonition to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).
While much about Irish monastic worship in the pre-Norman age is speculative, it is fairly certain that Bangor was the first establishment to adopt the laus perennis. Irish contemporaries viewed Bangor’s custom as cutting edge, exemplary of what Irish monastic worship was capable of at its highest and most refined. Bangor thus filled a role in 7th century Ireland not unlike that assumed by Cluny in 11th century France—a center of liturgical excellence.
The Antiphonary of Bangor
The Antiphonary of Bangor is a Latin manuscript in 36 leaves and is the oldest liturgical text from Ireland to which any date can be assigned with certainty. The text provides a list of the abbots of Bangor, which ends with the abbacy of Cronan, who ruled Bangor from 680 to his death in 691. We thus have an eleven year window from 680 to 691 within which to date its composition.
As the name suggests, most of the texts of the Antiphonary of Bangor relate to the antiphons, responsories, versicles, etc. for the Divine Office. As such, it would seem at first glance to have little to do with the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass. Within the Bangor antiophonary, however, we find an extraordinary prayer that was clearly meant for use during Holy Mass.
The Eucharistic Hymn
The text of the hymn as found in the Antiphonary of Bangor is as follows. Notice the rubric directing the hymn to be sung during the priest’s communion:
The hymn to be sung while the priests receive Communion
Come, you holy ones, receive the body of Christ
drinking the holy Blood by which you were redeemed.
You who were saved by the body and blood of Christ,
let us praise God, by whom we are all made new.
By this sacrament of the body and blood,
all have escaped from the jaws of hell.
Giver of salvation, Christ, the son of God,
has saved the world by his cross and blood.
The Lord has been sacrificed for all,
himself both priest and victim.
The law commanded the sacrifice of victims,
foreshadowing the mysteries divine.
Bestower of light and savior of all,
he granted most noble grace to his holy people.
Let all draw near with pure and faithful minds,
let all receive the protection of eternal salvation.
Guardian of the saints, you are leader, O Lord,
and dispenser of life eternal to those who believe.
He gives heavenly bread to the hungry,
and to the thirsty water from the living spring.
Christ the Lord himself comes, who is Alpha and Omega.
He shall come again to judge us all. (1)
The rubric “to be sung while the priests receive Communion” clearly identifies this hymn as a text to be prayed at Mass, and thus offers us an invaluable insight into eucharistic piety during the 7th century. Its relevance may even go beyond Ireland—Fr. Neil X. O’Donoghue, S.T.D., a specialist in pre-Norman Irish liturgy at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, suggests that the hymn in unprecedented anywhere in the Latin West during the 7th century for the clarity of its content and specificity of its rubrical usage during the priest’s communion. (2)
While the Antiphonary of Bangor dates from the late 7th century, the texts it preserves obviously come from an earlier period. Fr. Michael Curran, a scholar of the Bangor Antiphonary, dates the hymn to the 6th century, during the life of Comgall himself, based on its themes of holy fear, eucharistic piety centered on the Passion, and the Eucharist as a shield on the day of Last Judgment, as well as the catena of biblical passages used in the text, which is in keeping with other liturgical books of the era.
Audite Audes Amantes
This hymn was not restricted to Bangor, however. Evidence suggests there it was in broader usage throughout the Irish church, as we see it referenced in another text called Audite audes amantes. Written in the 7th century, Audite audes amantes is a retelling of events from St. Patrick’s life in metrical form. There is a passage in this text which quotes the eucharistic hymn of Bangor:
As Patrick and Sechnall were walking around the churchyard, they heard a choir of angels singing around the Eucharist in the church. They were singing the hymn which begins, “Come you holy ones, to the Body of Christ,” that is why that hymn has been sung ever since in Ireland at the time of approaching the Body of Christ. (3)
This tantalizing passge from Audite audes amantes raises several important questions: Why were Patrick and Sechnall walking around the churchyard outside while the Eucharist was being offered within? Is this evidence of private Masses being offered in 7th century Ireland? If so, it is an extremely early testimony of the practice in Ireland and shows a parallel to the corresponding spread of the private Mass throughout the Latin west in the 7th century. (4) Another question is posed by the phrase “that is why that hymn has been sung ever since in Ireland.” Was the hymn more or less universal, part of the ordinary of the Irish liturgy? And did the Irish folk piety generally accept it as Patrician in origin, as the story suggests?
It is difficult to say; if nothing else, however, the passage in Audite audes amantes reveals that the use of the hymn was certainly not restricted to Bangor. Rather, it was part of a broader liturgical patrimony of the pre-Norman Irish church and an important testimony to strong belief in the Real Presence among Irish Christians of the 7th century.
(1) The original Latin can be found in A.S. Walpole’s Early Latin Hymns with Introductions and Notes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922), 345; English translation from Oliver Davies, Celtic Spirituality, in “The Classics of Western Spirituality” (Mahwah, NJ : Paulist Press, 1999), 316-17.
(2) See Neil X. O’Donoghue, The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, IN., 2022), 87
(3) John Carey, King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writing (Dublin: Four Courts Press: 2000), 150.
(4) For more on the history of the private Mass in the Latin west, see Canon Guiles Guitard, “The Private Mass, from its Origins to the Thirteeth Century,” New Liturgical Movement, Apr. 8, 2024. Available online at https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2024/04/the-private-mass-from-its-origins-to.html
Phillip Campbell, “The Eucharistic Hymn of th Bangor Antiphonary,” Unam Sanctam Catholicam, January 11, 2026. Available online at https://unamsancamcatholicam.com/2026/01/the-eucharistic-hymn-of-the-bangor-antiphonary