Movilla Cemetery

Finnian's legacy ensured that Movilla Abbey flourished. By the seventh century, it had become one of the greatest monasteries in Ireland - a thriving centre of Celtic Christianity, a community of worship, prayer, study, mission and trade. The Abbey's reputation was enhanced by virtue of the fact it had a complete copy of the Bible (the Latin Vulgate Bible), which Finnian had obtained from Rome. At the time, it was the only complete copy of the Bible in the whole of Ireland, and served to enhance Movilla's reputation nationally, as a unique centre of learning. Movilla's most famous student was St. Columba, a pupil of Finnian's. Columba became a deacon while at Movilla and is said to have…

In 1886, W. J. Patterson offered this information to the Annual Report of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club: <blockquote>Some years ago, a curious stone object was dug up in the burial ground which surrounds the ruins of the old Abbey Church of Movilla near Newtownards, Co. Down. It was found under the following circumstances: A gentleman living in the neighbourhood, wishing to construct a family burial vault, had an excavation made to the depth of eight or ten feet, until the solid slate rock which underlies the clay of the cemetery was reached. At the bottom of the excavation, resting on the rock, was found [a] large stone coffer. . . .The measurements are as follows:--Length, 3 feet 8…