Dungal
(flourished c.820) Irish monk, teacher, astronomer and poet. He addressed a letter to Charlemagne explaining an eclipse of the sun in which he displays a knowledge of astronomy far beyond his time. In 815 he was appointed master of the imperial school at Pavia, and several years later he appeared against Claudius, Bishop of Turin, in a work defending the veneration of images. A number of poems are ascribed to him. He is supposed to have died at the monastery of Bobbio , to which he bequeathed his books.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Dungal
Irish monk, teacher, astronomer, and poet who flourished about 820. He is mentioned in 811 as an Irish priest and scholar at the monastery of St-Denis near Paris. In that year he wrote a letter to Charlemagne explaining the eclipse of the sun which was supposed to have taken place in 810. In one of Alcuin’s letters (M. G., Epp., IV, 437) he is alluded to as a bishop. In 823 he is mentioned in a “capitulary” of Lothair, and in 825 in an imperial decree by which he was appointed “master” of the school at Pavia. This is the last mention of Dungal in the public records of the empire. In 827 or 828 he appeared against Claudius, Bishop of Turin, in a work defending the veneration of images. From the fact that he bequeathed his books to the library of St. Columbanus at Bobbio it is inferred that he spent his last days in the Irish monastery on the Trebbia. The date of his death is unknown. His books, many of them at least, were transferred by Cardinal Federigo Borromeo to the Ambrosian Library in Milan, where they now are.
Some historians doubt whether the Dungal of St-Denis and the adversary of Claudius are one person. The prevalent opinion, however, is that they are one and the same. In his letter to Charlemagne Dungal brings to bear on the question of eclipses a knowledge of astronomy far beyond the current ideas of the time. His “Reply” to Claudius is enriched with many citations from the Greek and Latin Fathers and from the liturgical hymns of the Church. The poems ascribed in most manuscripts to Exul Hibernicus are believed by Dümmler, editor of the “Poetæ Ævi Carolini”, to have been written by Dungal, who like many of his fellow-exiles from Ireland styles himself peregrinus, exul, pauper et peregrinus. Only three of them bear the name Dungal. They are interesting from many points of view, especially from that of the historian who searches the records of Charlemagne’s reign for the all too scanty references to the personal feelings and the attitude of mind of the Irish scholars who flocked to the Continent of Europe in the ninth century. Yet they do not enable us to determine when and where Dungal was born, though from the fact that among his books which he presented to the Library of Bobbio is the “Antiphonary of Bangor”, it is inferred that he spent the ears of his student life in Ireland at the famous Bangor school. Mabillon published a ninth-century poem from which it appears that Dungal enjoyed among his contemporaries a reputation for more than ordinary learning.
———————————–
Neues Arciv der Gesllsch. f. deutsche Geschichskunde, IV, 254; Poetæ ævi Carolini, (Berlin, 1881), I, 393; MURATORI, Antiq. Ital., III, dis. xliii; TIRABOSCHI, Storia della letter. italiana, III, 163; Catholic University Bulletin (Washington, 1907), XIII, 11 sqq.
WILLIAM TURNER Transcribed by Thomas J. Bress
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VCopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Dungal
a writer of the 9th century, of whose origin and history little is known, but who is supposed to have been of Scotch or Irish birth. According to Irish accounts, he was abbot of Glendolough, and after the destruction of his monastery by the Danes he fled to France. He calls himself “a recluse,” and the Hist. Litt. de la France (4:493) notes him as a monk of the abbey of St Denis, in France. Muratori, however (Rer. Ital. 4:611), describes him as a monk of Pavia, in Italy. He wrote against the reforming movements of Claudius of Turin (q.v.), in 827, Responsa contra perversas Claudii Taurinensis Episcopi sententias, in which he defends the invocation of saints, the adoration of relics, etc., but seeks to guard these usages from superstitious abuse. The book was first published by Papirius Masson (Paris, 1608), and may be found in Bibliotheca Max. Patrum (Lyons), 14:196233; also in Migne, Patrologia Latina, tom. 103. He was also celebrated as an astronomer. Moore, History of Ireland; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, 3:333; Schrockh, Kirchengeschichte, 23:414.