ll,

uv
;t
 THE LIVES
OF

THE BRITISH SAINTS

THE SAINTS OF WALES AND CORNWALL AND
SUCH IRISH SAINTS AS HAVE DEDICATIONS
IN BRITAIN

By
S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.,
AND

JOHN FISHER, B.D.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON :

The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion

NEW STONE BUILDINGS, 64, CHANCERY LANE
1911
 Contents of Volume III
PAGE
LIVES
S. Faustus S. Mynno

List of Illustrations

Fracan, Gweh Teirbroh and Winwaloe before S. Corentine. From

a Painting at Lesguen, Plouvien, Finistere . . .
facing page 42

S. Germanus. From Stained Glass, S. Neot ,,72

.......,,,,
. . . .
,,

i
ii-niKinus Foundations 76
Statue of S. Germanus at Pleyben . . . . .
,, ,, 78

:mor. From fresco hi S. Breage (restored) . . .

,, ,, 80

Map of Bokerly and Grim's Dykes . . . . .

,, ,, 86

Human Roads from Old Sarum and Badbury to Bath. .

,, ,, 94
Foundations of Gildas and his Sons and Grandsons in

Armorica . . . . . . . . .
,, 114
S. i
.ildas. From i$th Century Statue at Locmine . .
,, ,, 128

Statue of Gwen Teirbron and her Sons, Winwaloe, Gwethenoc

and James. In the Chapel of S. Venec . . . .

,, ,, 168

G\\iiifrewi. From i $th Century Glass at Llandyrnog . .

,, 194

>. G\\ ynllyw. From Statue at S. Woolo's . . . . ,, ,, 240

Gwynog. From Stained Glass at Llanwnog . . .

,, ,, 246
>. Huerve, with his Wolf and Guiharan. From a Statue formerly
in the Church of Kerlaz, near Douarnenez. . .
,, ,, 280

>.
Illtyd. From a Statue at Locildut, Sizun . . . .
,, ,,316
>. Mabenna. From Stained Glass, S.. Neot ,, 390
Madrun. Formerly at Madryn, Pwllheli . .
,, 398
Mancus. From Stained Glass, S. Neot . . . .
,, ,, 434
Maxchell. From i$th Century Glass at Llandyrnog . . ,, ,, 438
Mawes. From a Statue at Ergue-Gaberic . . .
,, ,, 446
Mawgan. From Stained Glass at La Meaugon ,,452
....
>. . . .
,,

S. Mybard. From Stained Glass, S. Neot 478

iii
 LIVES OF THE BRITISH SAINTS
Vol. iii.

S. FAUSTUS, Bishop, Confessor

As has been already stated, under the head of EDEYRN, it is not
possible to identify Faustus of Riez with the Faustus or Edeyrn, born
of incest, son of Gwrtheyrn or Vortigern, as is apparently done by
Nennius.
Sidonius Apollinaris says that Faustus was the son of a noble and
saintly British mother. He might possibly have so described the
daughter of Vortigern, if her after life was spent in penance and devo-
tion ;
but the chronology of Faustus cannot be made to fit in with
that of a son of the British prince.
Sidonius says nothing as to who was the father of Faustus, but that
may be explained by supposing that the father was dead when he
came to make the acquaintance of the son. 1

Faustus can hardly have been born earlier than 400. Whilst young
he went to Lerins, and it was probably whilst there that he became
intimate with a fellow-countryman, a Bishop Rioc, or Riocatus, as
Sidonius calls him, who paid two visits to Southern Gaul and the
Province. 2
In 434 Maximus, Abbot of Lerins, ascended the episcopal throne
of Riez,and Faustus was elected in his room to preside over the
monastic community. He must have been full young for so impor-
tant a position but as he lived till after 484, it is not possible to set
;

back his birth much earlier than 400.

His mother, at an advanced age, lived near him at Lerins. He
had a brother, a priest, Memorius, under him and in the society
;

was likewise a brother of his correspondent Sidonius Apollinaris.

At Lerins Faustus led a very strict life, was devoted to study, and
strove to imitate the lives of the fathers of the Egyptian deserts.
He wrote a letter to a deacon, named Gratus, who was infected with
Nestorian errors. Augustine informs us that he gave harbour in his
1
S. Avitus of Vienne says that Faustus was born in Britain.
8
Apoll. Sidon, Mon. Germ. Hist., viii. Krusch in Proem., liv-lxxv ; and
PP- I 57, 255, et seq.
VOL. III. 1
B
2 Lives of the British Saints

isle to Julian of Eclana, and to Pelagius, when expelled from Italy

for their heresy.

He sent two
He opposed Arianism with great ardour.
to Britain in or about 450.
tises by Rioc
ensued a fresh
On account of the death of Maximus in 462 there
at and Faustus was chosen to succeed him. The vigor-
election Riez,
to Arianism offered by Faustus brought upon
him the
ous opposition
resentment of Euric, the Visigoth King, who sent him
into exile in 481 ;

flock on the death of the king.

and he did not return to his till 484,
the when Gennadius wrote his work on
At the close of century,
1
Illustrious Men, Faustus was still living.

In the list of his works, given by Gennadius, the series opens with
a book De Spiritu Sancto. This treatise is still extant, and has been
2
to the Roman deacon Pascasius.
repeatedly but incorrectly attributed
Evidence to show that Faustus was the real author has been produced
3
by C. P. Caspari.
Another work, according to Gennadius, was an Opus egregium de
Gratia Dei, which was directed against the teaching of a Gallic priest,
Lucidus, relative to Predestination. Lucidus held that with the Fall
man had lost the power of free will, and all impulse towards God,
and that God predestined men to life or to damnation as He pleased.
This doctrine was condemned by the Synod of Aries in 475 and in ;

that of Lyons in 476 and the bishops present expressed a desire for
;

a complete exposition of the Catholic dogma of grace, and this it was

which led to the composition of the work mentioned, by Faustus.
There can be no doubt but that Faustus, in common with S. Hilary
of Aries and other Gallic saints, viewed with alarm the iron dogma
of predestination to which Augustine w as endeavouring to commit
r

the Church and which finally broke forth in all its offensiveness in
;

the heresy of Calvin. Faustus saw that the doctrine, logically carried
out and acted upon, cut at the roots of Christian morality, and fatally
affected the fulness of the redemptive work of Christ. Benedictus
Paulinus consulted Faustus on questions concerning repentance. The
answer of the Bishop of Riez was "I am asked whether the know-
:

ledge of the Trinity in Unity suffices to salvation in things divine ;

I answer, a rational grasp of the faith is not all that is required of us,
there must also be the reason for pleasing God. Naked truth without
merits is empty and vain."

1
De viris illust., c. 85.
2
Under the head of Pascasius in Migne, Pair. Lat., Iviii, pp. 783-836.
8
Vnbedriicktg . . .
Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsyinbols. Christiania, 1869,
pp. 214-24.
 S. Febric ^r

The predestinarianism of Augustine was the rust of his old Manichae-

ism working its way out of his soul in dogma the Pelagians and ;

semi-Pelagians went too far in the assertion of the force of the human
will to resist evil, unassisted by grace.
Faustus called down on his head the wrath of the thorough-paced
Augustinians, and S. Fulgentius of Ruspe took up his pen against
him, and the teaching of Fulgentius was rejected by Popes Gelasius
and Hormisdas, and by the Council of Orange in 529.
Two works mentioned by Gennadius, Adversus Arianos et
little

Macedonianos, and Adversus eos qui dicunt esse in creaturis aliquiu

incorporeum, are remarkable. In the latter he attributes to the soul
a sort of corporeal though spiritual envelope.
In or about 470 Claudianus Mamertus attacked his thesis in three
books, De Statu Anima.
Faustus was regarded as one of the most eloquent preachers of his
day, and some of his sermons are extant, as are also some of his letters.
A collection of fifty-six homilies was made, apparently by Eusebius
of Angers, in the eleventh century, which has been erroneously attri-
buted to Eusebius of Emesa. They are sermons by ancient Gallic
bishops, and among these are almost certainly some by Faustus of
Riez.
Faustus is thought to have died about 490. He is venerated at
Riez on September 28.
In some martyrologies he is given on January 16, as Maurolycus,
Ferrarius, and Greven, and Saussaye.
Aparish near Pau in the Basses-Pyrenees is called after this saint.
Its church was wrecked in the disastrous days of Jeanne d'Albret. When
restored, it was given a new patron, S. John the Baptist. S. Faustus
has neither a statue nor a commemoration in the church that bears
his name.
The works of Faustus are in Migne's Pair. Lat., Iviii, pp. 775-89,
and Engelbrecht, Fausti Regiensis Opera, Wien, 1891.

S. FEBRIC, Confessor
IN the circumstances
relating to the grant, in 955, of Lann Bedeui,
identified with Penterry, in Monmouthshire, to the Church of Llan-
"
daff, is mentioned Ecclesia Sanctorum larmen et Febric." J
The
1
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 219 ; see also i, p. 174.
4.
Lives of the British Saints

in the same county, but of the

church supposed to be S. Aryan's,
is
1
two saints nothing is known.

S. FEDDWID, see S. MEDDWID

S. FEOCK, Bishop, Confessor

THE Cornish Feock is Fiacc, Bishop of Sletty, disciple of S. Patrick.

His veneration extends to Brittany. It is certainly a remarkable
instance of the intercommunication that existed between Ireland,
Britain, and Armorica, that we find the same saint at home in all

three.
The authorities for the Life of Fiacc are, in the first place, the various
Lives of S. Patrick, as given by Colgan, in his Trias Thaumaturga.

There is no independent Life of the saint but there is one in Albert

;

le Grand, from the Legendarium of S. Matthew in Leon, and from

a MS. history of Brittany.
notices that we have concerning the saint in the Irish records
The
relate only to his acts in Ireland, because nothing was known of his
life out of his native isle;
and the Breton life we have deals with his
acts in Armorica, and passes over his acts in Ireland, or treats them
in the vaguest manner, making, however, a gross blunder that shall
be noticed in the sequel.
Fiacc is introduced to our notice for the first time when S. Patrick,
accompanied by pious clerics, appeared at the convention of Tar a, in
455. Precisely the same story is told of him then, as of Ere. Ere
had stood up on the previous day, when Patrick had been summoned
before Laoghaire at Slane. So, on this occasion, when Patrick
ap-
peared before the king and the great assembly at Tara, he was received
by all seated, with the exception of Dubhtach, the king's chief poet,
and Fiacc, his nephew, then a lad of eighteen. 2
Fiacc was the son of Dubhtach's sister. His father MacDaire had
been expelled from his patrimony in what is now Queen's County

Sir J. "
Rhys
(Arch. Camb., 1895, P- 38, in an article on The Goidels in
Wales '') disposed to regard Febric as the Goidelic form of a name which
is

occurs in the Book of S. Chad as

Guhebric, and in the Book of Llan Ddv (pp. 257-8)
as Guebric and Huefric. With the equation compare the Welsh river name
=
Fferws Goidelic Fergus, the Welsh Gwrwst or Grwst.
1
Tripartite Life, pp. 45, 53. Notes by Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni, p. 283.
 S. Feock 5

by Crimthan king of the Hy In exile he had become a

Cinnselach.
widower, and had married a Dubhtach the poet.
sister of

All the Hy Bairrche, the family to which Fiacc belonged, were now

living dispersed, nursing their resentment and looking for a chance

of revenge and of recovery of their land between the Nore and the
Barrow.
A few years after the incident at Tara, Fiacc was baptised by
1
S. Patrick himself, during his missionary visitation of Leinster.

Crimthan, the king of the Hy Cinnselach, who occupied Wexford.

and had annexed the Hy Biarrche territory, had opposed the progress
of the gospel,and had expelled from his territories such as professed
Christianity. Patrick succeeded in softening the old man and inducing
him to be baptised. This accelerated the conversion of his tribesmen,
and necessitated the establishment among them of a native priesthood.
With this view the apostle consulted Dubhtach, with whom he
was on the most friendly terms, as to what was to be done, and whom
he was to send to organize the Church among the Hy Cinnselach and
"
in the old Hy" Bairrche territory. The man I require as bishop,"
said Patrick, must be a free man, of good family, without blemish,
nnt i^iven to fawning, learned, hospitable, the husband of one wife,
and the father of a single child." The object of the last consideration
was that the new bishop should not be cumbered with family cares.
"
Dubhtach recommended his nephew, Fiacc the Fair. But how
"
persuade him to take on him the burden of the office ? asked Patrick.
"
He is now approaching," said Dubhtach. " Take a pair of shears
and pretend to be shaving my head, and see what follows." Patrick
did as desired. Fiacc ran up and asked breathlessly what Patrick
"
was about. I want a bishop for the Hy Cinnselach," replied the

apostle.
"
.My uncle is too important a man to be spared for that," said Fiacc,
"
take me rather than him," and so it was that Fiacc was consecrated
bishop. Then Patrick furnished him with a bell, a reliquary, a pastoral
staff, and appointed seven of his clerics to attend
and a book satchel ;

him. S. Patrick's conduct in this transaction was one of those happy

strokes of genius and tactful arrangement which conduced so largely
to his success in Ireland. 2
Crimthan, as already stated, had driven the Hy Bairrche out of
their land, although MacDaire was his own son-in-law. By the
daughter of Crimthan MacDaire had four sons, all of whom were
1
Life by Joscelyn, c. xii.
a
Ibid., p. 189 ;
Liber Hymnorum, ii, p. 31 ; Tirechan's Collections, Tripartite
Life, ii, 345.
 6 Lives of the British Saints

in banishment. By his second wife

eating out their hearts with rage
MacDaire had an only son, Fiacc.

The now proposed to Crimthan to surrender one-fifth of

apostle
the Hy Bairrche patrimony to Fiacc, that is to say, Fiacc's legitimate
share of his father's property, and to accept him as spiritual head of
the mission in that part of Leinster. To this, probably after some
demur, Crimthan acceded. He moreover gave to Patrick some thirty
or forty sites for churches in the Hy Cinnselach district, so that at
once the Church started well endowed throughout the whole district
from the Nore to the sea. By this happy arrangement, some of the
vvTong done to the Hy Bairrche was redressed, and Fiacc started work
among his own people.
The first thing he did was to form a nucleus whence he could work.
This he placed at Domnach Fiacc, now Moryacomb, on the borders
of Carlow, between Clonmore and Aghold. It is clear that he felt

little confidence in Crimthan, so he made his headquarters at some

little distance from him. From this establishment he worked the
district with the men given him by Patrick ;
but he did more, he
made of this establishment a training school for missionary priests
whom he could send as required, to fill the churches among the Hy
Cinnselach and the Hy Bairrche, as the gospel made way.
During Lent he was wont to retire unattended to a cave on the
north-east side of the doon of Clopook, where the rock rises abruptly
a hundred and fifty feet from the plain. It lies directly north-west
of Sletty, from which it is distant about seven miles.
Here he not only spent his time in prayer and meditation, but in
jotting down memorials of S. Patrick. A hymn on the Life of S.
Patrick is attributed to him, but he was not the author it was a ;

composition of Aedh, the anchorite, of Sletty, who died in 690.*

From Domnach Fiacc he moved to Sletty, near Carlow, for what
reason we do not know, and made that his principal establishment.
He had some ableand experienced men with him, men who made
their mark in the Church. One was Ninnidh or Ninnio, who has been
identified with Mancen or Maucan. In Tirechan's Collections towards
the Life of S. Patrick, he is called Manchan.
Possibly at the wish, or
by the advice of the apostle, this man crossed over to St. David's Head,
in Wales, and there established the
great nursery of saints, Ty Gwyn.
The district ruled by Crimthan was too unsettled, and the
prospects
of disturbance too and Patrick not to desire to
threatening for Fiacc
have the missionary school removed from Leinster. Another who
was with Fiacc was Paul, who succeeded Ninnidh as head of
Ty Gwyn,
1
Liber Hyinnorum, ii, pp. 315.
 7
eock 7

the Paulinus whose inscribed monument is preserved at Dolau Cothi.

Other helpers were men of experience, but who have left less mark.
Cattoc or Cattan, Patrick's priest Augustine, who had come to
;

Ireland with Palladius, and who, on the failure of that mission, had
accompanied his patron to North Britain. After the death of Palla-
dius, Augustine offered his services to Patrick, who placed him with
Fiacc.
Others of less note were Tagan or Tecce, an Ossory man Diarmid, ;

a kinsman of Fiacc, and Fedlemid.

Fiacc had been baptised in or about 460, but Ussher puts it many
years earlier, and was consecrated very shortly after and sent on his
mission to Leinster.
In 465 a revolution occurred. The half-brother of Fiacc, called
Oengus, succeeded in enlisting allies and in stirring up the clansmen
between the Nore and the Barrow. A battle was fought and Oengus
killed his grandfather, Crimthan, with his own hand. He then re-
covered his patrimony. Whether his brothers were restored is not
known. But the Hy Cinnselach were not disposed to bear their
defeat, and retaliated, so that for some years the whole of Leinster was
in commotion.
In 480 Finnchad, king of the Hy Cinnselach, was killed by Cairbre,
son of Niall, in a battle at Graine, north of Kildare, in which the
Leinster men were fighting among themselves. In 489 a desperate
conflicttook place at Kelliston in Carlow, in which Fiacc's half-brother
Oengus was engaged. In 492 Cairbre was again fighting the men of
Leinster. The latter were again defeated in 497 or 500.
The condition of the south-east was so disturbed, the country so
incessantly ravaged, that Fiacc must have despaired of effecting
much till the times were quieter. This was about the period of the
migration to Penwith, and although the Irish writers tell us
nothing about
it, we may
conjecture that it was during these
commotions that Fiacc went to Cornwall, there to work, and there,
maybe, to gather missionaries to assist him, when peace was
restored. But he went further, he visited Armorica. The Breton
legendary Life of S. Fiacc is late and mixed with fable. It makes him
an archbishop of Armagh, who, unable to bear the burden of his office,
and the manners of an intractable people, left Ireland, and crossed
to Armorica, floating over on a rock that detached itself and served
as a ship. He stepped ashore at Pen March ; whereupon the rock
turned about and swam back to Ireland. A portion, however, of
his stone boat is preserved at
Treguenec, about four miles from Pen
March, and it has in it a hollow in which it is supposed that the head
8 Lives of the British Satms

of the saint rested. Pilgrims visit the chapel

and place their heads
to be cured of fever, and carry off water in which
in this depression
a relic of the saint has been steeped.
to whom
Albert Le Grand supposes that S. Nonna, an Irish bishop
the Church of Pen March is dedicated, is the same as S. Vougai, or

Veoc, but no reason for this identification. Where the saint

gives
founded a church was at Lanveock, in the same peninsula. How
long he remained there is not known.
Thence he went north to Les-
neven, and branching away to the east became the founder of a religi-
ous house at S. Vougai. A tenth-century missal preserved there
long had the credit of having belonged to the saint, and to be invested

with miraculous powers.

The origin of the story of his having been elected Archbishop of
Armagh is this. He is spoken of in the Lives of S. Patrick as having
been the chief bishop in Leinster, and nominated archbishop over all
Ireland. But, as Dr. Todd has shown, this is due to a misrendering
of the original Irish, which merely stated that he was exalted to be
a chief in esteem over all other saints in Ireland.
In the tenth-century Litany of S. Vougai he is invoked as S. Bechue.
The name in Brittany is Vio, Vougai, Veho and Vec'ho. Beside
the churches already mentioned of which he is patron, he is also one
of those of Priziac, canton of Faouet, in Morbihan, where he is called
S. Beho. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the clergy
of Priziacwanted to change the dedication of the church to S. Avitus,
but met with such opposition from the parishioners that they were
1
obliged to give up the project. These foundations in Brittany, like
that in Cornwall, point to his having devoted a portion of his missionary
life to the establishment of centres of
religion elsewhere beside Ireland.
S. Feock in Cornwall belongs to the little Irish cluster, to which
S. Kea and Peran-ar-Worthal belong and they are at no great distance
;

from the cluster at Lizard, where among others was his fellow-worker
and friend in Ireland, S. Mancen or Maucan, also called Ninnio, and
it is more
probable that the S. Nonna of Pen March is this Ninnio,
who may have come to Armorica with S. Fiacc, than that it should
be another name of Fiacc himself.
To return to his labours in Ireland. He suffered at one time from
an abscess in his leg (laboravit fistula in coxa), which made it difficult
for him to walk. S. Patrick
hearing of this sent him a chariot and
horses to alleviate his but this excited jealousy in Secun-
sufferings ;

dinus, his comrade. Whereupon Patrick told the latter to keep the

1
Le Mene, Paroisses de Vannes, ii, p. 237.
 S. Ffagan g

chariot for himself, and Secundinus did actually retain it for three
of himself, and sent it to Fiacc. 1
days, and was then heartily ashamed
Nothing is recorded of the -death of Fiacc in Ireland, but late authori-
ties assume that he was buried in Sletty so that it is quite conceivable
;

he may have retired in favour of his son Fiacra, and gone to Cornwall

and have finished his days in Brittany. In the Irish Calendars his
feast is on October 12 ;
and his death may be put at any time between

510 and 520.

Under the name of Vouk or Vogoue he has a church and well in

S. Vogou's townland, Wexford, and his feast is there observed on Jan-

uary 20.
S. Feock's feast in Cornwall is on the nearest Thursday to February
2, before or after.
2
In Brittany he is commemorated on June 15. In Cornwall not

only Feock dedicated to him, but there is also a Saviock in

is S.

S. Kea's parish, where it adjoins S. Feock. (See also S.VEEP.) Sheviock

very probably was also dedicated to this saint, though

now under the
invocation of SS. Peter and Paul.
In the Exeter episcopal registers the parish church of S. Feock
ta5
appears as Ecclesia S Feocae, Bronescombe, 1264, 1267
. but as ;

u
S Fyoci in that of Brantyngham, 1372, and Stafford, 1398.
.

At Priziac is an early Christian lech, about 9 ft. high, and having

the form of a truncated cone, with a hole at the top for the reception
"
of a cross. This is called by the people le canon de Saint Beho,"

and there they pretend that he came over from Ireland floating upon
it as a log.

Probably in art he should be represented, either with a harp, as

he had been trained to be a bard by his uncle, before his ordination ;

or else with a chariot and horses at his side.

S. FFABIALI, see S. PABAI

S. FFAGAN, Bishop, Confessor

FFAGAN, or Fagan (occasionally Phagan), is represented in the
Lucius legend as having been sent, with Dyfan, by Pope Eleutherius
1
i, p. 241
Tripartite Life, Life by Joscelyn, c. xii.
;

Albert le Grand, and Tresvaux in his additions to Lobineau Garaby and

-
;

those who follow him. Not in any of the extant Breviary Calendars.
 i o Lives of the British Saints

to Britain in the latter part of the second century. The two are first
mentioned by William of Malmesbury, in his De Antiquitate Glastonien-
sis Ecclesice (written between 1129 and 1139)* and b Y Geoffrey
of

Monmouth. 1
Sometimes they have associated with them Elfan and
of the in the
Medwy. According to the later embellishments legend
"
MSS., Ffagan
lolo was a man of Italy, who came as a bishop to
" 2
Wales," and was bishop at Llansantffagan, where his church is."
3
He was penrhaith, or principal, of Cor Ffagan there, and one docu-
ment credits him with the foundation of two churches, Llanffagan
Fawr, now S. Pagans (S. Mary), near Cardiff, and Llanffagan Fach,
now Llanmaes (S. Cadoc), near Llantwit Major. 4 Leland says, 5
"
The Paroch Chirch Fagan is now of our Lady but ther is yet
of S. ;

by the Fagan sumtime the Paroch Chirch."

Village a Chapelle of S.
To him is dedicated the parish church of S. Fagan, a parish formed

(1856) out of Aberdare. He and Dyfan are reputed to have founded

the ancient see of Congresbury, which lasted till 721, when it was
removed to a village called Tydenton, now Wells. 6 In a late lolo
list he is entered among the chorepiscopi of Llandaff prior to the time
7
of S. Dubricius.

Ffagan's festival day does not occur in any of the Welsh calendars.
Browne W illis, 8 however, gives it on February 10 Cressy 9 on August
T

8 and Ffagan and Dyfan together on May 24. Roscarrock gives

;

May 26, which is also the day on which Lucius' is said to have been
baptised.
One of the " Sayings of the Wise
"
stanzas runs :
10

Hast thou heard the saying of Ffagan,

After showing his declaration ?
"
Where God is silent it is not wise to speak."
(Lie taw Duw nid doeth yngan).

Ffagan and his companions were probably enough historical per-

sons,whose names were introduced into the Lucius story in the twelfth
century. See further under S. DYFAN and S. Lucius.
1
Hist., iv, cc. 19, 20; Bruts, pp. 100-1. He says that they " purged away
the paganism of well-nigh the whole island." Win. of
Malmesbury brings them
to Glastonbury. Giraldus also mentions them in his
Descript. of Wales, i, c. 18
(Opp., vi, p. 202). See also McClure, British Place-names, S.P.C 1910 K
pp. 197-8
a
Pp. 115, 135. Ibid., p. 151. 4
Hnd., p. 220.
/*., iv, f. 63. Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl., 2nd ed., p. 215.
"
Liber Landavensis, p. 623. Pedair Erw Sant Ffagan " (his Four
Acres)
re mentioned (1709) as in the parish of Llandaff
(Cardiff Records, v, p. 399).
Llandaff, 1719, append, p. i Paroch. Angl, 1733, p. 198.
;

Rees, Welsh Saints, pp. 86, 316

10
lolo MSS., p. 256.
 S. Ffili 1 1

S. FFILI, Confessor
FFILI, in Latin Filius, was the son of Cenydd and grandson of
Gildas. 1 He had a church near that of his father in Gower, called
Rhos Ffili, now known as RhosSilior Rhosilly, 2 and dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin.
Apparently he moved into Cornwall, where Philleigh Church is
under his patronage 3 and perhaps Lamphil, or Lan-fnli, on the
;

further side of the Camel to the old chapel of S. James in the parish
of S. Breward,may Probably he moved, when did
bear his name.
his father, to Brittany, to the region of Browercc, where his grand-
father Gildas exercised a vast influence.
In the parish of Languidic, the Llan of his father, called Quidi in
Breton, is a Kervili, which may preserve his name. But he has most
probably been supplanted by S. Philibert at Loc Mariaquer, where
there is a village that is called S. Philibert.
Philibert of Grandchamps died in 684. There is a curious story
connected with S. Gildas that apparently belongs to Ffiliand not to
the abbot of Grandchamps. 4
Four monks came in a boat to Ruys
actually devils in disguise
to inform Gildas that their master, Philibert, was dying, and required
his presence to administer to him the last rites. At once he entered
the boat to accompany them across the sea. But before leaving, he
had a revelation that this was a demoniacal snare laid for him. Never-
theless he accompanied the false monks, taking with him his Book
of the Gospels and a little reliquary, hidden under his habit.
The boat started, and when at sea Gildas said to his companions :

"
Let one manage the rudder, and the rest unite with me in singing
Prime and that we may be more at our ease, lower the sail."
;

"
The monks replied If we delay, we shall arrive too late."
:

" "
That matters not," said Gildas duty to God comes first."
;

"
Then one of them flying into a rage exclaimed Confound your :

prime, we must push on." Gildas, however, knelt down and began
to sing Deus in adjutorium. At once boat and monks vanished,
leaving the saint alone on the waves. Wholly unconcerned, he spread
1
lolo
MSS., pp. 109, 137.
2
The name is sometimes said to be derived from Reginald de Sully (near
Cardiff), who received the lordship on the conquest of Glamorgan by Fitzhamon,
but this is a mistake. The name stands for Rhos Sulien, and occurs in the
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 239, as Rosulgen.
s
Register of Bishop Brantyngham, Eccl. Sti. Filii de Eglosros, 1384, 1387 ;

also Bishop Stafford's, 1405.

* AdaSS. Boll., Jan. ii, pp. 956, seq., and the Legendarium of the Church of
S. Gildas-des-Bois.
 12 Lives of the British Saints

his cloak, seated himself thereon, attached one end of the mantle to
his staff to serve as sail, and continued his office.

Thus wafted over the sea, he reached the isle of Noirmoutier, below
the Baie de Bourgneuf, in which, as disciple of S. Philibert, he had
his early years, rude health,
and found there S. Philibert in
passed
and received a cordial welcome. Having related to his old master
the adventures he had gone through, he remained with him some
months, and then finding a vessel starting for Ireland went in that to
the Isle of Saints. This extraordinary story occurs in the Legend-
arium of S. Gildas-des-Bois, and in the rhymed office of the saint.
But Philibert was not born till some time after Gildas had been
dead. The legend, however, should not be dimissed as worthless.
The root from which such a florid crop of fable sprang was probably
this. Gildas at Rhuis heard that his grandson, Ffili, at Locmariaquer
was ill, and went in a boat to see him. The boat, by the mismanage-
ment of the monks was upset, and all drowned in crossing the mouth
of the inland sea, where the current runs with force, except only Gildas,
who managed to get ashore. He may possibly have used a strong
expression relative to those who had the conduct of the boat, and
this has been adopted as a literal description of them. So far from
Gildas having been the disciple of Philibert, probably it was Ffili,
his grandson, who was his pupil, till he set
up for himself at
Locmariaquer.
Caerphilly, in Glamorganshire, is believed by some to derive its
name from Ffili, but this is as improbable as the other statement
that the old hundred name, Senghenydd, is from his
father, Cen-
1
ydd. In Peniarth MS. 118 (sixteenth century), The Book
of Dr.
John David Rhys, is given an account of the giants of Wales, with
topographical particulars; every Cawr, or giant, has his Caer or
Castell. After enumerating the sons of the South Wales
giant Bwch
"
Gawr, the writer observes, Some that Phili was a
say and a
giant,
son of Bwch, and had his residence at Caer Phili." 2
Ffili 's festival does not occur in
any of the Welsh calendars. The
Mabsant of Rhosilly, however, was, and
probably is still to some
extent, kept on February 12, the
merry-making, until late years, being
continued for three days. The Mabsant was celebrated for
what
was called Clobby, a kind of plum pudding that was prepared,
Bonny
sold, and largely consumed on these occasions. 3
1
See ii, p. 112.
So also Rice Merrick, A Booke of
Glamorganshire* Antiquities (1578) London
7 P I0
'
'.
Les Morris, Celtic Remains, p. 179. With the name' compare
5/
in hi
Kerfily vi-n, Brittany.
J. D. Davies, West Gower,
Swansea, 1885, i, p. 162.
 S. Ffinan 1
3

S. FFINAN, Abbot, Confessor

A CHURCH in Anglesey, Llanffinan, is dedicated to this saint, who
was certainly Irish. No saint of the name occurs in the Welsh saintly
though the late lolo MSS. mention a Ffinan of the Cor of
1
pedigrees,
Seiriol, atPenmon, Anglesey, who became bishop in the north. He
can hardly be Finnian of Clonard, who was associated with South
Wales. It is more likely that he is Finnian of Maghbile or Moville.
This is rendered the more probable by the Life of this Finnian being
included in the collection of John of Tynemouth, who says of him :

"
Reverendissimus pontifex Finanus, qui et Wallico nomine Winni-
nus appellatur," etc. Although he relates nothing relative to his
acts in Wales, he implies in these words that he was known and culted
in Wales.
For the Life of this saint we have, unfortunately, but scanty material.
A Vita was written by John of Tynemouth, which was taken into
Capgrave's collection.
There is also mention of him by the scholiast on the Martyrology
of Oengus, as also by that on the Hymn of Mugint in the Liber Hym-
norum.
Finnian was son of Cairbre and Lassara. Cairbre was of the Dal
Fiatach, the royal race of Ulster, descended from Fiatach the Fair,
King of Ireland, who was killed in 119 after a reign of five years.
His parents seem to have been Christians, for he was baptised and
sent to S. Colman of Dromore for instruction. Dromore is about
eighteen miles south of Carrickfergus in the old Dalaradian territory,
and was founded as a school and monastery by S. Colman, about the
year 514.
One day whilst with him Finnian had been naughty, and Colman
took a whip to thrash the boy. But as he held the instrument of
chastisement aloft his heart failed him, and he laid it aside. "It is
of no use," said he "I can't thrash you. You must go to another
;

master, who will be stricter and sterner than myself."

2

So the boy was sent to Ninnio at Candida Casa or Whitern, w ho

?

at the time had a ship on the coast, about to return to Alba. With
him he remained many years.
It is most difficult to disentangle, as has already been said, the
accounts we have of W'hitern from those of Ty Gwyn or Rosnat in
"
Menevia. Both were called The White House," over both presided
a certain Mancen or Ninnio, and both were famous training schools,
the Northern Candida Casa for the north of Ireland, the Menevian

1
P. 144. -
In the legend an angel arrests the arm of Colman.
14.
Lives of the British Saints

for the south. But in this case there can be little doubt
White House
that Finnian was sent to Whitern.
It was a double monastery, in which not young men only, but girls
as well received education, and scandals occurred.
Finnian was a handsome young fellow, with long fair hair,
on ac-
count of which he was called Finnbar, and with so sweet and angelic
a countenance, that, as we have seen, Colman was disarmed when
he took the whip to his back. And now his good looks won the heart
of the daughter of a Scotic king, who had been sent
to school at

Whitern. 1 There can be little doubt who this was, though not named
in the Life. This was Drustic, daughter of Drust, who ruled from
523 to 528. She was an inflammable young lady,
and we shall have
something more to relate about her presently.
She became so infatuated with Finnian that she fell sick, as he
would not pay regard to her advances, and fainted away in the pres-
ence of her father. There was clearly a family scene, and Finnian
was present. He recalled her to her senses by telling her plainly
that he had other ambitions than to become son-in-law to King Drust.
"
And so, says John of Tynemouth, ad vitam castam et sanctam
revocavit."
This statement, however, must be taken with a grain of salt. Very
injudiciously Drust sent his daughter back to Whitern, where she
soon forgot Finnian, and fell in love with another Irish pupil, named
Rioc and she bribed Finnian by a promise of a copy of all Mancen's
;

MS. books to act as her go-between. Finnian behaved treacherously,

for what reason we do not know and he contrived a secret meeting
;

in the dark between the damsel and another Irishman, named Tal-

mach, in place of Rioc. The result was a great scandal. Drustic,

by Talmach, became the mother of S. Lonan.
Mancen, or Ninnio, got wind of this little affair, and was highly
incensed. It brought his establishment into disrepute so he told ;

a boy to take a hatchet, hide behind the oratory, and hew at Finnian
as he came at early dawn to Mattins. The boy agreed, but by some
mistake Mancen preceded the pupil, and the lad struck at him and
felled him. Happily the blow was not mortal. He was saved by
crying out, and the boy recognized his voice and did not hew again. 2
"
Regis Britannic filiam, ipsum carnali amore nimis diligentem justo . . .

coram patre et populo post parvum inter vallum cb hoc

dei juditio
defunctam,
parentum et astantium gemitibus compassus ad vitam castam et sanctam
revocavit." Vita by John of Tynemouth.
1
Finnian of Moville went to learn with Mugint and Rioc and Talmach " et
ceteri alii secum. Drust rex Britanniae tune habuit filiam, i.e. Drusticc nomen
ejus, et dedit earn legendo cum Mugint. Et amavit ilia Rioc, et dixit Finniano :
 Ffinan 15
The story occurs in another form in the Life of S. Frigidian of Lucca,
who was erroneously identified with Finnian of Moville, and the lost
original acts of the latter were employed for the manufacture of

those of Frigidian. The composer softened down the circumstances.

No mention is made of Drustic or Rioc or Talmach but it is said ;

that Mugint, becoming jealous of Finnian's popularity as a teacher,

laid a snare for him, which ended in his receiving himself the wound
1
intended for his pupil. Talmach was afterwards accounted a saint,
and day is March 14. His
his son, Lonan of Trefoit, is commemo-
rated on November i. After this scandalous affair it was clearly
impossible Finnian to remain any longer at Whitern, and he
for

departed on pilgrimage to Rome. John of Tynemouth hushes up the

cause of his departure, and attributes it to his thirst for knowledge,
which he desired to quaff at the fountain head. He remained seven
\vars in Rome, and was ordained priest there.
A curious incident happened whilst there. He was preaching in
one of the Romanchurches, when, probably his strong Irish accent
and his bad Latin, so offended the audience that the orchestra was

Tribuam tibi omnes libros quos habet Mugint scribendum si Rioc dedisses mihi
in matrimonium. Et misit Finnen Talmach ad se ilia nocte in formam Rioc ;

et cognovit earn, et inde conccptus ac natusest Loman de Treocit. Sed Drustic

r^timavit quod Rioc earn cognovit, et dixit quod Rioc pater esset filii sed ;

falsum est, quia Rioc virgo fuit. Iratus est Mugint tune et misit quendam
piuTiim in templum, et dixit ei Si quis prius in hac nocte veniat ad te in temp-
:

lum, percuteeum securi. Ideo dixit quia prius Finnianus pergebat ad templum.
Sed tamen ilia nocte domino instigante ipse Mugint prius ecclesiae pervenit ;

et percussit eum puer

' '
et tune dixit Mugint Parce
. . .
quia putavit inimicos
!

populum populari." Liber Hymn., ii, p. n.

Vita apud Colgan, Ada SS. Hib., pp. 634-42. The Life of S. Frigidian
1

is complete from a MS. at Cologne, and the lections for his office at Lucca are
cxa rpts from it. " Unde factum est quod Magister suus Mugentius nomine,
qui in civitate quae dicitur Candida, liberales disciplinas eum docuerat, ubi
etiam dicitur episcopali officio vir sanctus functus fuisse excandens iracundia,
;

cum duobus secum remanserant, nam plures ad B. Fridianum

discipulis qui
audiendum convenerant, machinatus est, ut ipsum nocturno silentio dolo peri-
meret et quod palam in sancto viro, et Regis filio, facere non poterat, occulte
:

impleret. Pravitatis ergo consilio firmatus, cum securibus ad ostium ecclesiae,

discipuli Mugentii accedunt, diligenter custodentes, ut virum sanctum ante
omnes ad matutinas surgentem in atrio ecclesiae occiderent, et occulte sepelirent,
ne tantum nefas ad cujusquam notitiam perveniret. Sed angelus Domini, qui
ipsum ex divino mandate ecclesiae suae servare volebat, ei unum de calceamentis
abstulit, quod dum circumquaque B. Fridianus aberrando quaeveret, Mugentius
ad ostium pervenit ecclesiae, ubi ab insidiatoribus B. Fridiani leva dextraque
percussus interiit. Tandem ut prudens recognoscens reatum suum, continuo
exclamavit, Parce Domine, parce populo tuo, et ne des haereditatem tuam in
opprobrium. Parce bene Fridiane, parce laqueum paravi et incidi in eum.
Tali ergo confessionis compendio in spe salutis Mugentius vitam finivit." Then
Fridian, as another David, lamenting for the death of his enemy, dismisses his
people and goes to Ireland and assumes the habit at Moville.
i 6 Lives of the British Saints

But Finnian would not be

set to bray him down with trumpets.
he raised his voice and roared out his homily, drowning
silenced;
1
all the instruments that were sounded
to silence him.
as he returned to Ireland,
Two years after his ordination priest
a marble altar and three round
carrying with him relics,
stone, jewels,
Ireland before. But above all he brought
such as had not been seen in

back with him S. Jerome's version of the Gospels and of the Penta-
teuch. This is the probable explanation of the words
in the Felire

to the effect that he was the first who

of Ongus, by the scholiast,
as weU as the Law of Moses.
brought the Gospel to Ireland,
He now founded the monastery of Maghbile, or Moville, in County
Down, about the year 540. The name signifies the Plain of the Aged
at present near the ruins
Tree, and it is a curious circumstance that
Another
abbey are very ancient yew trees of enormous
of the size.

of his foundations was Dromin in Louth.

He attended Nathi, the priest placed by Finnian of Clonard in
Connaught, when he was on his deathbed, and administered to him
the last rites.

Some were not in good discipline. One stabbed him

of his pupils
with a spear and wounded him, whereupon Finnian cursed him,
"
May the birds of the air devour your flesh, and may your unburied
bones lie scattered on the face of the field, and to hell with your
2 "
wretched soul !

Whilst Finnian was at his second monastery at Dromin, the memor-

able quarrel ensued between him and S. Columba.
In the course of his scholastic wanderings Columcille had borrowed
a Latin psalter from Finnian, which he forthwith proceeded to copy.
When Finnian learned what he had done he was incensed, and de-
manded back the original and with it the copy. Columba refused the
latter whereupon the case was referred to the decision of Diarmidh,
;

King of Meath, who decided against Columba, according to the prin-

ciple of the Brehon law, that as "to every cow belongs its calf, so to
3 "
every book belongs its copy." Thereupon ensued a commotion.
Columba was a thorough Celt. Christianity, indeed, had spread itself
through Ireland, but it was as yet only a thin veneer over the Celtic

"Cum populo Romano in quadam verbum domini predicaret,

ecclesia
quorundam clericorum invidia, ne a
populo vox illius audiretur, organa et tubas
ceteraque musice modulations instrumenta simul sonare fecit. Hec tamen
omnia altitudine mirabili, virtute divina, vox sua
'
superans commendatur."
Camera tuam volucres celi comedent, et ossa
undique dispersa terra non
suscipiet, animaque infelix ad inferna sine fine discendet."
3
The copy is still in existence, in the collection of the
Royal Irish Academy,
see Gilbert's N&'onal MSS. of Ireland, pp. 319-21.
 S. Ffinan 1 7

nature, rash, hot, passionate, revengeful. had indeed conquered

It
some of the grosser vices, and made them It had ele-
disgraceful.
vated somewhat the tone of morals, but it had scarce touched the
fiery, unforgiving spirit which lay deep beneath, and still exhibits
itself in the fierce and prolonged faction fights of Limerick and Tip-

perary. In the sixth century the tribal organization of the Irish

people intensified this spirit. The very women, and monks, and
clergy yielded themselves up to its fascination. Such being the
. . .

spirit of the age,such being the habits and customs of the time, even
in classes most naturally bound to peace, it is no wonder that Columba,
a child of the great northern Hy-Neill, took his judicial defeat very
badly, and summoned his tribesmen to a contest which, as he repre-
sented, touched most keenly their tribal honour. The decision of the
king against Columba's claim became, in fact, the occasion of a great
conflict between the rival northern and southern branches of the

Hy-Neill, which terminated in the battle of Cooldrevny, fought be-

tween Sligo and Drumcliffe in the year 561, and won by the Ulster
men, the party of S. Columba, when no less than 3,000 of the Meath
men were slain." l
Columcille retired to Inismurray. A synod assembled and excom-
municated him. Then he consulted his " soul-friend," S. Molaiss,
who advised submission and prescribed as a penance that Columcille
should retire to Pictland and there labour at the conversion of the
natives, in expiation of the scandal he had caused and the blood that
he had shed.
Before all this, Finnian had quarrelled with Tuathal Maelgarbh
(533-544). King of Ireland, over a small matter. He had asked the
king for butter wherewith to feed the lamp by which his disciples
read at night, and that the king had refused. Whereupon Finnian
cursed him and doomed him to a bloody death, murdered by one of
his own servants. And it fell out according to his words for Tuathal ;

was killed in 544, according to the legend on the same day on which
he was cursed. If so, then Finnian knew of the conspiracy against
him by Diarmidh, son of Fergus Cearbhal, who had instigated his
tutor Maelmor to assassinate the king, which he did at Grellach Eilti,
in the Ox mountains in Sligo. By not betraying the plot, Finnian
gained the favour of Diarmidh, who ascended the throne after the
murder of Tuathal.
Perhaps stirred to emulation by the successes of his rival, Colum-
cille,among the Picts, Finnian also crossed into Alba, according to the

1
Stokes (G. T.), Ireland and the Celtic Church, London, 1892, pp. 108-10.
VOL. II. C
 1 8 Lives of the British Saints

Soon after he
Breviary of Aberdeen, and landed
at Coninghame.

reached the river Garnoch, and ordered a boy to catch some fish for
dinner. But as no fish were caught, Finnian cursed the river, that
no man might ever after catch fish in it. On which the river left its
channel, and bent its course in another direction. The story has
been invented to account for the fact that the river has actually
changed its course. Thence the saint betook himself to Holywood,
where he founded a branch establishment to his main foundation at
Maghbile. Here Finnian set up a cross in honour of the blessed
Brigid. The Scottish tradition is that Finnian died in Cunningham,
at a place called Kilwinning, as in Scotland he is known as Winnin.
He died after a long sickness in 579 according to the Annals of
Ulster and of Tighernach, and the Chronicon Scottorum but the ;

Annals of Inisfallen, in the Bodleian copy, not that in Dublin, give

572.
S. Frigidian, Bishop of Lucca, has been identified with Finnian of

Moville. He was known to S. Gregory the Great, 1 who tells a story

of him that has some resemblance to that in the Breviary of Aberdeen,
that when the river Auster, now the Serchio, flooded Lucca, he took
a harrow, made a trench, and altered the course of the stream. But
the Breviary of Aberdeen was drawn up long after that
Frigidian of
Lucca had been identified with Finnian, and this
story was adapted
from S. Gregory to a river in Scotland.
So also the fact that Frigidian died in
579 may have induced the
compiler of the Annals to put that date down as the year in which
Finnian died and the Annals of Inisfallen, not so influenced, are
;

probably the more correct.

That Frigidian of Lucca was an Irishman is possible
enough, and
when the compilers of the acts of the saints of that diocese were in
quest of material for the lessons in their breviary,
they adapted that
of Finnian of Moville. But there is nothing in the Life of S. Finnian
that lends colour to such an identification.
Frigidian was made
bishop in 560, and that was just about the time when Finnian was
engaged in his altercation with Columcille relative to the
copy of his
psalter, leading to the battle of The day
Cooldrevny, fought in 561.
on which Finnian is commemorated in the Irish martyrologies is
September 10, but in Scotland on 21.
January
Frigidian of Lucca is commemorated on September and this
10,
may have led the Irish
martyrologists astray.
:t is
generally supposed that Llanffinan is dedicated to the
disciple
1
Dialog., iii, 9.
 S. Fflewyn 19
of Aidan, who afterwards succeeded him at Lindisfarne, l but the
2
parish wake was on September 14, which agrees rather with the
festival of Finnian of Moville. Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire is believed
to be named after the Ffinan of Llanmnan, and to testify to Welsh

missionary efforts among the Transmontane Picts.

3
To him Migvie
is also dedicated. Not far from Lumphanan is Midmar, dedicated
4
to S. Nidan, a disciple of S. Kentigern.
If when Finnian can have founded his church in Anglesey,
we inquire
we probably not be wrong in fixing it as taking place on his
shall

journey back from Rome. According to his Life he loitered on the

way, doing much missionary work, and converting pagans. It is
doubtful whether Finnian was a bishop. His identification with
Frigidian has conferred on him the episcopal title.

S. FFLEWYN, Confessor

FFLEWYN, or Ffiewin, was a son of Ithel Hael, the father of a large

family of Saints who migrated from Armorica to Wales tow ards the close
r

of the fifth century. In the pedigrees in Hanesyn Hen (Cardiff MS.

"
25)
5
he is entered as Fflewin in Talebolion," the commote and rural
deanery of the name in north-west Anglesey. He is patron there of
the little church of
Llanfflewyn, subject to Llanrhuddlad, which is
the only church known to be dedicated to him. In the lolo MSS. 6
"
occurs the following evolved and wholly inaccurate notice Fflewyn :

and Gredifael were saints of Cor y Ty Gwyn ar Daf, in Dyfed, where

they were with S. Pawl of Cor Illtyd superintending the Bangor," the
foundation of which is also attributed to these three saints. The
brothers Fflewyn and Gredifael seem to have kept together, both
having churches dedicated to them in Anglesey.
Fflewyn's festival is given on December 12 in the calendars in John
1
Angharad Llwyd, Hist, of Anglesey, 1833, p. 261 Arch. Camb., 1848,
E.g. ;

p. 55. The statement is founded on the supposition that the church of Llanidan
not far distant, is dedicated to Aidan, and not to Nidan, as correctly,
*
Nicolas Owen, Hist, of Anglesey, 1775, p. 58 so Angharad Llwyd. Browne
;

Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 281, however, gives December 14, meaning Finnian of
Clonard. The Ffinan in the Allwydd Paradwys calendar, on Feb. 17, is Fintan,
Abbot of Clonenagh, Queen's County.
1
Sir J.Rhys, Celtic Britain, ed. 1904, p. 174.
4
Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, 1872, p. 420; Skene, Celtic Scotland,
ii
(1887), p. 193.
P. 115 ; Myv. Arch., pp. Fflewyn is the Latin Flavinus.
425-6.
Pp. 112, 114. 133.
20 Lives of the British Saints
and
Edwards of Grammar, 1481, the Prymer of 1618,
Chirkland's
Willis gives the nth.
1 Nicolas Owen * and
Allwydd Paradwys, 1670.
3
however, that November 12 was his day at
Angharad Llwyd say,
have
They made a mistake in the month.
evidently
Llanfflewyn.

S. FFRAID, see S. BRIGID

S. FFWYST.
IN the lolo MSS.* Ffwyst is entered as a saint of Gwent, without
5
of Llanffwyst, now Llanfoist
pedigree, implying that he is the patron
near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. The church is now given as under
the invocation of S. Faith, due, no doubt, to lack of any information
to the
about its original patron, Faith being the nearest approach
name.

S. FINBAR, Bishop, Confessor

PATRON of Fowey, Cornwall, where there is a noble church dedicated
to him. For short he is called S. Barr. His day, according to William
of Worcester, as observed there, was September 26.
In 1336 at the rededication of the church, Bishop Grandisson at-
tempted to get rid of him, by putting the church under the invocation
of S. Nicolas but the old Irish saint has held his ground stubbornly
;

notwithstanding.
u
The authorities for the Life of S. Barr Finbar are a Vita S
or .

Barri in the so-called Kilkenny Book in Bishop Marsh's Library, Dublin.

Another Life in Irish that is fragmentary in the Book of Fermoy four ;

pages are missing. A Life in Latin in the MSS. of Trinity College

Library, Dublin. The Bollandists had a copy of the same Life that
is in the Kilkenny Book, but would not
publish it in its entirety as not
being conducive to edification. The following account is from the
Kilkenny Book, a transcript of which has been obtained.
1
Survey of Bangor, 1721, p. 280. Hist, of Anglesey, 1775, p. 58.
3
Hist, of Anglesey, 1833, P- 262. * P. 144.
The name occurs under this modern form (Lanfoist) in the Norwich Taxatio
1254-
 S. Finbar 2 I

Finbar's father was a native of Connaught. His origin was some-

what scandalous, but the story must be given, as it is illustrative of
the severe laws that prevailed in Ireland for the preservation of female
virtue.

Tighernach was king of Rathluin in Musketry. His wife had a

noble lady staying with her, and at the same time the king had sum-
moned to him a master-smith from Connaught, named Amergin.
"
The king commanded his household that none of them should form
a secret alliance with the lady visitor. Amergin did not, however,
hear of the warning, and he bestowed great love and affection to the
lady, and her love for him was no less." The king hearing a rumour
that all was not as it ought to be, sent for her, and she confessed that
she expected to become a mother, and that Amergin was the father.
4t "
If this be so," said the king, it is right that you should be bound

together, and scorched and burnt without respite."

The
king, so says the story, ordered both to be burnt alive, but a
providential rain extinguished the flames of the pyre. The facts
were, probably, that he was moved by the tears of his wife and the
lady, and commuted the extreme penalty of the law into one of banish-
ment.
\Yhen the child was born, the name given to it was Loan, and he
was nursed at home for seven years, at which age his father gave him
up to some religious men to be educated for the ecclesiastical estate.
They brought him to Kilmacahill in the county of Kilkenny, where
he remained some years learning to read and acquire the psalms by
heart.
One day a monk was cutting the boy's long golden curls, when he
"
-was forced to say, What shining hair yours is " The abbot stand-
!

"
ing by said, Ah !
Shining Hair (Finn-bar) be his name amongst
let
"
us henceforth ; and so it was, and so is he known to this day. 1
A
pretty story is told of his childhood, which indeed at once shows
<usthe kindly simplicity of these old religious men, and of the respect
with which the little Loan was regarded by them.
to trace out a new site, or perhaps only new founda-
They were about
church and monastery. With one accord they agreed
tions, for their
to let the innocent little boy with the golden locks bless the site of
their habitations and church, because, said they, nothing but good
and a blessing could rest on such a site as one thus dedicated.

1 "
Tonsus est secundum verbum sancti sfinioris. Quando autem tondebatur.
dixit senior, Fulcra est coma quam habuit iste. Servus del alter dixit senior.
Bene dixisti quod nomen ejus mutetur et vocabitur Fyndbarr." Cod. Kilken.,
fol. 1336.
 22 Lives of the British Saints
Finbar as
A David, known in the Lives of S.
foster brother of S.
and our saint himself under his
MacCorp, came to Ireland, placed
direction. Mac Corp, i.e., MacCoirpre, is not known to Irish or Welsh
martyrologists. The name means no more than the son of Cairbre.
with him on pil-
After some years MacCorp persuaded Barr to go
grimage to Rome. They went thither, and on their way back, Finbar
founded a church in Alba.
In the Life of S. David there is a notice of a visit made
to him by
with S. David
Barr on his way back from Rome. Finbar remained
some little while, and then desiring to return into Ireland, and having
"
no boat of his own, S. David lent him one of his own called the

Horse," as it had a figure-head representing

that animal. As Finbar
"
crossed over on it, he passed S. Brendan in his vessel The Sea Mon
ster," and they saluted each other. A picture of the vessel of S.
David was painted and framed in gold, and was long preserved at
1
Ferns.
Finbar seems to have made acquaintance also with S. Aidan and
S. Cadoc.
On his return to Ireland, Finbar founded a monastic settlement
on Lough Eirke, bears his name, Gongane Barra,
at a place that still

or the Chasm of S. Barr.

place The
soon became famous, and many
disciples resorted to him, and he became the head of a large congre-
gation, both male and female.
However, the place was incommodious, and S. Finbar abandoned
it for Cloyne, about fifteen miles from Cork, where he remained for
seventeen years. But this site did not satisfy his requirements, and
he migrated to Corcagh-mor, the Great Marsh, as the name
finally
signifies,near the mouth of the Lee, and there he founded twelve
churches, and about his settlement in process of time grew up the city
of Cork. To consecrate the place S. Finbar fasted and prayed inces-
santly for three days and three nights. The other alternative method
was moderate fasting and frequent prayer for forty days. Finbar
chose the severer but more rapid method of appropriating and dedi-
cating a site.
In the Life of S. Senan of Iniscathy we are told that that saint took
ten foreign monks from his monastery to S. Finbar, but it is difficult
to reconcile dates. According to legend, S. Finbar went from Cork
to Rome in company with S. Aedh or Madoc of Ferns, S. David and
twelve monks, to receive consecration from
Gregory the Great Gre- ;

1
Vita S. Davidis in Cambro-Brit. 55., pp. 132-3. In the original the story
assumes a fantastic form. The above is probably the nucleus out of which a
fable has been formed.
 S. Finbar 23
gory, however, refused to consecrate him, because it had been revealed
to him that Finbar was to receive his episcopal orders in heaven itself.
Then comes a nonsensical story of how Finbar and MacCorp were
carried up heaven and were there elevated to the office of bishops,
into
and how a miraculous spring of oil broke out and flowed over the
ankles of those who stood looking up expecting the return of the saints.
This stuff may at once be dismissed, and we must not be misled by
the introduction into the story of Gregory the Great (590-604). For
how long Finbar remained at Cork after he had founded it we do
S.

not know, but there he died and was buried.

When we come to fixing the date of S. Finbar we meet with diffi-
culties. He was a contemporary of S. David, S. Aidan, and S. Cadoc.
S. David's death can hardly be placed later than 589. As we have
shown under S. Aidan of Ferns, there were two of this name, and

Aidan, the disciple of S. David, died about 625. S. Cadoc is thought

to have died in 577. S. Senan, who sent monks to S. Finbar, died
510-20. He was younger than S. Brendan, who died 577.
Leland, quoting from the Life of S. Wymer, i.e., S. Fingar, mentions
"
Barricius as Socius Patricii," and says that he came to Cornwall,
and implies that he did so along with Fingar and Piala. If so, he
must have been associated with S. Senan and S. Breaca. Now we
are told in his Life that among the holy women under his direction
was a Brig, i.e., And as we have seen, he was on friendly
Breaca.
terms with S. Leland is certainly wrong in calling him a com-
Senan.
panion of S. Patrick, but if S. Patrick MacCalpurn died in 493, then
it is
by no means impossible that he may have seen and spoken with
him. But no mention of Patrick occurs in Finbar's Life. Usually
Finbar's death is set down as taking place in 623 this we consider ;

far too late, and should rather be disposed to place it at 560.

It remains to give a few of the
legendary tales that have attached
themselves to Finbar.
As we have went that he had been consecrated in
seen, the story
heaven. him by the hand and lifted him up, that like S.
Christ took
Paul, he might see the ineffable glories there. Ever after, that hand
blazed with light, so that Finbar was obliged to keep it covered with
a glove. 1
One day Finbar was sitting under a hazel-bush with S. Lasrean,
talking about heavenly things, and when they were about to part,
the latter besought his friend for a token that God was with him.

1 "
Usque ad mortem Sancti Barri visus carnalis manumejus propter nimiam
claritatem suam aspici non potuit, et ideo manica circa earn semper erat,"
Cod. Kilken., fol. 133.
 24 Lives of the British Saints

Now it was in the season of early spring Finbar prayed, and the;

hazel-catkins that were swaying about their heads fell off, nuts formed,
and leaves appeared. Then Finbar, smiling, filled his lap with ripe
hazel-nuts, and offered them to S. Lasrean.
In the Life of Monynna he is said to have visited her monastery.

Seeing the approach of the bishop, Monynna was aghast, as in the

monastery was only one little barrel of beer to serve for the sisters,
and the travellers approaching were many and thirsty. Hastily she
had a vat filled with water, and it turned into very respectable swipes.
The origin of the story is not far to seek. The good abbess not having
a sufficiency of ale, watered down her supply, and S. Finbar courte-
ously assured her that the liquor was so good that he would not drink
too much of it.
In the gloss in the Lebar Brecc on the Martyrology of Oengus is a
curious story of Finbar and Scuthin meeting on the sea, probably as
the former was on his way from Cornwall, and the latter on his
way
to Rome. Finbar was in a boat, but Scuthin was walking on the
"
water. How come you to be making your progress thus ? " asked
" "
Finbar. Why not," answered Scuthin, I am walking on a green
shamrock-spread plain." Then he stooped, picked a purple flower,
and threw it to Finbar, who dipped his hand in the sea,
caught a
salmon, and cast the fish to Scuthin. 1
Scuthin and Brendan were bosom friends, and the former had been
a disciple of S. David.
S. Finbar's Day is September 25. He occurs in all the Irish mar-
tyrologies, and in Nicolas Roscarrock's calendar. In Nasmith's
edition of William of Worcester the
day is given as September 26,
but this is probably a misprint for the 25th.
He is invoked in the Stowe Missal. 2
In art S. Finbar should be
represented as a bishop holding a branch
of hazel-nuts, or with his
right hand emitting rays of light.

S. FINGAR, Martyr
THERE two independent Lives of this Saint.
are
One, by a monk
of S. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, named
Anselm, has been printed by
the Bollandists, in the Ada
Sanctorum, Mart. Ill, pp. 456-9.
The other is by Albert Le Grand, in his Vies des Saints de
Bretagne
from the Legendaria of the Churches of Vannes
and Folgoet.
1
Felire ofOengus, ed. Whitley Stokes, p. xxxii.
\Yarren, Liturgy of the Celtic Church, Oxford,
1881, pp. 238. 240.
 S. Fingar 25

Fingar or Guaire the White was son of an Irish king, called in the
Latin legend Clyto. This has been supposed to be a misrendering
of Olylt, or Ailill Molt, king of Connaught in 449, and king of Ireland
in 463, who fell in the battle of Ocha in 478. But there is no other
;
ground for this supposition than a guess that Clyto stands for Olylt,
and it is more probable, admitting this, that the Olylt or Ailill, who
was the father of Fingar, was the son of MacDairre of the Hy Bairrche,
who, with his brothers, was expelled their patrimony by the Hy Cinn-
selach from Leinster.
1
When we read in a monastic account that
one of the Celtic saints left his country for the love of God, at the
head of a swarm of retainers, we may be pretty certain that he was
expelled, on account of some dynastic revolution. In the legend there
is much solemn fooling over Clyto and Fingar. According to it Fingar
was converted by S. Patrick, and when the apostle appeared before
Iris father to preach the gospel, he alone stood up. This is an appro-
priation from the legends of S. Ere and his half-brother, S. Fiacc.
Clyto was so angry that he ordered Fingar to leave the island. Several

young men who believed joined him, as did also his sister Piala (Ciara).
They took ship and sailed for Brittany, where they were well received
by the reigning prince, whose name is not recorded.
2

The place of landing is uncertain. S. Fingar is commemorated at

"both Ploudiri in Finistere and at Pluvigner in Morbihan, but the
latter place named indicates that it was there that he constituted his

plou or tribe.
The chief of the land gave his consent to his settling there, and
Fingar diverted himself with hunting. One day he was in pursuit
of a stag, when he was separated from his companions. He killed
and cut up the stag and placed the carcase on his horse. As he was
covered with blood, he sought a fountain where he could wash but ;

finding none, he drove the point of his spear into the ground, where-
upon a spring gushed forth. Here he cleansed his hands and garments.
In the process he saw his own face reflected in the water, and fell into
" "
great admiration of his personal beauty. I really," said he, am
too good-looking a fellow for this world," and he forthwith resolved
to devote his beauty to religion and he set to work to erect a hut
;

of branches near the spring, where he might begin his life of morti-
fication and solitude. 3

1
Anselm does not name the father of Fingar.
"
Terra marique minorem in Britanniam pervenerunt." Vita by Anselm.
A eta SS., Mart. iii. p. 456.
3 "
Formosi vultus sui pulchritudinem attendens (erat enim speciosus valde
et decorus aspectu) coepit laudare Deum, et benedicere, qui tantam ei contulerat
gratiam." Ibid., p. 457.
 26 Lives of the British Saints

Meantime companions and attendants were sore troubled at

his
his not appearing, and the prince of the country suspecting foul play,
arrested them, and threatened them with death unless they produced
Fingar. They represented to the prince
that it was antecedently im-

probable that they should murder their leader on whom they all de-
pended, and that they were obviously incapacitated from finding him
if The prince having a mind open to
they were locked up in prison.
an argument, yielded and bade them scour the country and find Fingar.

They searched, and at length came on him in his improvised cell by

the fountain. The prince or duke was brought to the spot, and as
Fingar professed his resolution not to return to the world, he was
granted the whole territory round, free of impost for ever. This is
almost certainly the very extensive district of Pluvigner. The name
indicates it as the place where Fingar established his clan or
itself

plebs. It now contains nine daughter churches. The mother church

is dedicated to Fingar, and his sacred fountain is shown near it.
S.

After some time the desire came over him to return to his native
land. He accordingly sailed for Ireland, and on arriving, found that
his father was dead, and the members of the sept desired that he
should be their chief. To this he would not hearken, but advised
that his sister Ciara (the Brythonic form is Piala) should be married
to some noble and that her husband should be elected king. But
Ciara would not consent to this she had but one ambition, to join
;

her brother in a religious life. Fingar then advised the sept to leave
it to chance, in other words, let there be a
general scrimmage to decide
who should be their sovereign ; as for himself, he would abandon the
country.
Accordingly, at the head of seven hundred and seventy-seven men,
seven bishops, and with his sister Ciara, he sailed to return to Armorica,
but was carried by the winds towards Cornwall.
We may be permitted here to quote the grotesque version of the
story as given by Lobineau.
"
Etant retourne dans son pays, avec le dessin de convertir a
Jesus
Christ ses compatriotes, il y refusa la couronne
que la mort venait
enlever a son pere, et que ses
sujets lui presentaient avec un em-
pressement qui marquait bien que ceux qui professent la veritable
foi ne manquent jamais de fidelite a leurs souverain
legitime."
Hardly had he started, before Hia, a virgin, who had resolved on
accompanying Ciara, came down to the shore, and to her dismay saw
the boat already in the But a leaf was floating on the waves.
offing.
With a stick she drew it towards her, and
trusting to God stepped on
to it, when the leaf
expanded, and she was wafted upon it over the
 S. Fingar 27

sea, and arrived in Cornwall, where she landed in Hayle Bay,

1
and
constructed for herself a cabin, where now stands^ S. Ives.
Some time later Fingar and his party arrived in the same harbour,
and disembarked. On landing, Fingar found a little dwelling in
which lived a holy virgin, but unwilling to incommode her, the party
passed on and went to Connerton.
2
Here w as a worthy woman whor

was ready and willing to entertain the party and, to make beds for ;

them, she at once tore down all the thatch from her roof. She had
but a single cow, but that she immediately offered the party. They
fell on it, killed, cut it up, roasted and ate it. After that, Fingar
collected the bones, and put them into the skin. The entire party, led
by the seven bishops, prayed, and up stood the cow, lowed, shook
herself, and suffered herself at once to be milked. After this the cow

always gave three times as much milk as any other, and from her
arose a special breed which continued in Cornwall to the time of
Anselm who wrote the legend. The next thing to be done was to
"
restore the roof which the woman had torn away," and this was accor-

dingly done.
The company now went on their way, eastwards. S. Hia no more
appears in the tale. She had apparently taken offence at their sailing
without her, and she remained where she had established herself, and
3
lucky it was for her that she did so. News had reached Tewdrig,
the prince, then at Riviere on the creek opening east out of the Hayle
estuary. He did not relish this invasion of Irish, and he armed men
and went in pursuit. Fingar and his party had slept at Connerton,
and they moved south in a body to the point where now stands
the church of Gwinear. Here Fingar and a companion left them to
go forward and explore the ground. He came, we are told, to a certain
valley, where he sat down. Being thirsty, he drove his staff into the
"
ground, and elicited a copious spring of beautifully clear water, utrius-
que duplici saxo decenter inclusus, usque in hodiernam diem copiosa
vena fluitare non cessat."
The spring that at Tregotha, and a very fine spring it is.
is It has

been enclosed and conducted by a drain pipe to flow into a large tank
that is walled round.
"
Meanwhile Tewdrig, veniens improvisus a tergo," had fallen on
the party that was resting on the slope of the hill, and had put them
1 "
Socii, datis veils, aequoreos fluctus secantes, prospero cursu applicueie
Cornubiam.ad portum, qui vocatur Heul ; ubi jam praevenerat eos sacra virgo
Hia," ibid., p. 458.
*
"Ad
villam quamdam, quae vocatur Conetconia, pervenerunt."t'&*W.,p. 459.
3 " Sonuerat fama in auribus
Theodorici, regis Cornubiae, in terra scilicet
sua Christianum multitudinem advenisse." Ibid.
 28 Lives of the British Saints

to the sword. Fingar, hearing cries in that direction, retraced his

steps, and on surmounting the elevation due south
of the site of the
saw what had taken place. Turning to his comrades he
butchery,
"
said, See this is the place where our labours are to be brought to
an end. Let us go forward and meet our fate." On coming up to
Tewdrig,
"
You son of a devil," was his choice address, " do your
father's work quickly." Then, kneeling down, he extended his neck,
and the tyrant at a single blow smote off his head. Fingar had
planted his staff at his side, and there it remained, took root and grew
into a tree, but of what description Anselm was unable to state.
Almost immediately, the decapitated Saint rose to his feet, picked
up his head and walked with it to the top of the hill. But here he
encountered a couple of wrangling women, who addressed each other
"
in such abusive terms, that the Saint exclaimed, I cannot endure
"
this ! and he cursed the spot that thenceforth it should grow no
other crop than scolds.
The hill is the bit of
moor behind Gwinear, now covered with the
manor mine. Disgusted at the language employed by
refuse of the
the women, S. Fingar turned aside and walked in the direction of
Rewala, but coming, in the bottom, to a beautiful fountain, he pro-
"
ceeded to wash his head there, in quo loco gratissimus fons,
jugi rivo
usque hodie emanare non cessat."
This well is called Tammi's or Keat's Well, and the cottagers of
Relistien have recourse to it for their water.
not easily found,
It is

being in a furze-brake, near another spring and stream. It lies

deep,
and has steps cut in the rock, or built descending into the water, which
is of the purest
quality. But Fingar's peregrinations did not end
there. Having cleaned his head he returned to the site of the massa-
cre, which at the time when Anselm wrote was divided from the well
by a small wood. There Fingar sank on the ground and
expired. A
copious spring issued from the spot where his head had been struck
off, and this was flowing at the time when Anselm near the treewrote,
that grew out of the saint's
walking stick.
This spring has been drained now
away by the mines, and issues
from an adit some way below the church.
If we reduce all this fable to its elements, this is what we arrive at.
Fingar landed at the mouth of the Hayle estuary and went to Conner-
ton, where he spent the first night. Then he went south. He had
outstripped his companions, and was refreshing himself at the Tre-
gotha spring, when he was recalled by the cries of his
companions.
All the nonsense about the march down
hill to wash his head was
invented later to give some
sanctity to the Tammi's Well and the ;
 S. Fingar 29

curse on the hill was a local joke greedily picked up by Anselm. The
well at Tregotha is still regarded with superstitious veneration re- ;

cently, a young man whose arm had been broken went daily to it,
to plunge the limb in the water, under the belief that this would
suffice for setting and healing it.

But to return to the legend.

Tewdrig having accomplished his
bloody work departed, leaving the dead scattered where they had
been slain.

The ensuing night a countryman named Gur dreamed that Fingar

appeared to him and bade him bury him decently. Gur woke up his
wife, and told her his dream but she bade him do nothing of the
;

kind, as Tewdrig might resent it. Next day he went out hunting and
pursued a stag which fled to the spot where lay the body of Fingar,
and fell down
before it as if imploring protection of the dead saint.
The dogs on coming up would not touch the stag, but went down
also
on the ground, with their tails between their legs about the sacred
body. Gur now at once proceeded to bury Fingar on the spot, and
he went about the scene of the butchery burying all the rest. Some
time after a church was erected over the grave.
Anselm finishes off the story with some tales of miracles performed
later, that are not particularly delicate. Where Anselm, the writer
of this wonderful legend, lived, we have no means of telling. That
he knew the sites is obvious. He is particular in describing them, but
he most vague relative to sites in Brittany. His narrative is clearly
is

based on popular tradition. There is always some truth at the bottom

of such traditions, but it is not always easy to arrive at it.

The truth would seem to be this, that Fingar was obliged to fly
Ireland, to save his life. If, as is possible, he were one of the Hy
Bairrche who were dispossessed by Crimthan and the Hy Cinnselach,
then we have a reasonable explanation. Ailill's brother, later, assassi-
nated Crimthan and recovered his own patrimony and, perhaps, a
;

rumour to this effect reached Fingar, and he returned to Ireland to

try his luck ; but the Hy Cinnselach were too powerful, and he was
obliged at the head of a fresh party of exiles from the Hy Bairrche
country to attempt to return to Brittany, where he had already settled
and established a plou. Unfavourable winds, however, drove him
on the Cornish coast, and there Tewdrig, who had suffered severely
from Irish invasions, slew him and some of his followers. We are
not, however, told that either Hia or Piala (Ciara) was put to
death.
There were later descents of Irish, soon after, under Breaca and
Buriana, and these effectually planted themselves in Penwith and
 3 o Lives of the British Saints

Carnmarth, and then the cult sprang up of their fellow Irishmen who
had preceded them. 1
As already intimated, Fingar is honoured not only in Morbihan,
but also in Finistere, at Ploudiri, where he is the patron of the daughter
church of Loc-equinger. But as there is another commune of the
same name with the same dedication in S. Thegonnec, in Finistere, we
may conclude that, although the legend says nothing about it, Fingar
brought over a second colony from Ireland which tie planted in Leon,
and this expedition in which he lost his life was actually the third.
Lobineau and the Bollandists put the date of the martyrdom at
455, but this is possibly too early. S. Fiacc, who belonged to the
same generation as Ailill, was born about 435 and died about 520.
But it is, it must be understood, mere conjecture in making Fingar
a son of Ailill of the Hy Bairrche. It is needless to say that no Irish
historian knows anything of Clyto. S. Fiacc would, if the identifica-

tion be admitted, be a half-brother of Fingar, and that may help to

account for the incident of the rising out of respect to S. Patrick being
transferred from Fiacc to Fingar.
The Church of Gwinear is supposed to mark the site of the martyrdom.
Wilson in the second edition of his Martyrology (1640) gives his
day as March 23. The Bollandists follow Wilson and Colgan by mis-
take on February 23. In Brittany on December 14.2 Gwinear
Feast is on the Sunday after the first Thursday in
May.
In the diocese of Quimper, Loc-equinger is dedicated to him, 3 and
another place of the same name in S. Thegonnec. At Langon he was
venerated as S.Venier, and his sanctuary was resorted to as early as
838. He became invested with the attributes of the Goddess of Love,
and was in repute among the amorous. To obviate inconveniences
due to this identification, the church has been rededicated to S. 4
Agatha.
In Brittany he is regarded as a But for this there is no
bishop.
justification in the Life.

S. FINNIAN, Abbot, Confessor

THIS very remarkable man, " master of the Saints
"
of Ireland, as
he was termed, and the
principal agent in the restoration of religion
l
Post tempus aliquod, cum
jam vinea Domini Sabaoth, id est Ecclesia
Cornubiae terminos occupare
coepisset ; incoata est devotione fidelium super
epulchrum Sancti Martyris basilica." Ibid., p. 459.
Missal of Vannes,i
53 o, Brev. Venet.,i S 8g, also 1757. and Albert le Grand,
Garaby, etc.
3
Here the Pardons are on
September 8, and the Sunday after December n
4
De Corson, Pouillt, T.V. pp. 42 et '

seq.
 S. Finnian 3 i

.ere when it had fallen into decay after the death of S. Patrick and
his missionary band, was trained for his work in Wales, and accord-
ingly may well
be introduced into this collection.
The authorities for his Life are :

1. A Latin Vita in the Salamanca Codex, published in Ada SS.

Hibcrnia, Edinburgh, 1888, pp. 189-200.
2. An Irish Life, from the Book of Lismore, Anecd. Oxon., 1890,
transl. pp. 222-30.
pp. 75-83 ;

Finnian is further mentioned in the Lives of S. Cadoc, S. Ciaran of

Clones, S. Lugid of Clonfert, S. Ruadhan of Lothra, S. Colman Elo,
S. Columba of Tir-da-Glas, S. Columba of Hy, etc.

The first Life is an important document it contains mention of

;

some thirty-seven contemporary kings, chiefs, and saints, almost all

of whom can be identified and their dates fixed, some precisely, others
approximately.
There are, however, certain difficulties to be met ;
these we will

consider, and then proceed to the particulars of the Life of the Saint.
The first of these concerns his baptism.
He is have been taken to be baptised by S. Fortchern, but
said to
on the way was met by S. Abban, who performed the ceremony. The
date of Fortchern is difficult to fix but Abban, born in 520, died in
;

590 consequently
; this would throw the birth of Finnian to the middle
of the sixth century or later, but Finnian actually died about 550.
Now the Life in the Salamanca Codex gives the name of the baptiser
of Finnian twice, and on one of these occasions as Abbanus. The
name a mistake of a copyist for Albeus, or Ailbe of Emly, who also
is

baptised S. David, and who died at an advanced age in 541. If we

make this correction, the anachronism disappears.

The second difficulty concerns the discipleship of S. Finnian to S.

Cadoc. This cannot have been, as they were of about the same age
or Finnian was somewhat the elder of the two. It is probable that
Finnian was a friend of Cadoc, and not actually his pupil.
With these rectifications, the difficulties disappear from the Life of
Finnian. Finnian was born about 472-5 he was a native of Leinster,
;

and is variously stated to have been son or grandson of Fintan of

the race of Lochain. 1 His mother's name was Talech. When he
was born his parents, who must have been Christians, sent him to be
baptised by Bishop Fortchern at Roscor, but on the way met Bishop
Ailbe (in the text Abban), who proceeded to baptise him. When
1
The Lives make him the son of Fintan, as does also a Genealogy in the
LebarBrecc. But a Genealogy in the Book of Leinster gives Finain mac Finloga
mac Fintan. Anecd. Oxon. Book of Lismore, p. 342.
32 Lives of the British Saints

sufficiently old, Finnian was committed to Fortchern to be educated-

Dr. Lanigan supposed that this was not Fortchern, grandson of Laog-
haire, who became disciple of S. Loman and succeeded him at Trim
in Meath. The period suits. Fortchern held Trim for three days
only after his master's death, and then migrated probably to Cill-
Fortchern of the Hy Drona in the land of the Hy Cinnselach, between
the Barrow and the Blackstairs and Mount Leinster.
At the age of thirty Finnian departed for South Wales, paying a.
visit to S. Caeman of Dayr-Innis on his way. He had with him his
nephew Gabhran, and a friend Buit, and they accompanied S. Cadoc,
who had just then visited Ireland. 1
In Wales the friends together founded Melboc (Meibod) and Nant-
Carvan. 2 The circumstances are not told in this way in the Life of
S. Finnian. There it is said that he went to Cill-muine. " He found
there before him three sages, named David, Gildas and Cathmail. , . .

Now when Cathmail beheld Finnian, he looked at him attentively,

'

Why this great attention bestowed on the unknown youth that is

' '

gone into the house ? asked David. Because I perceive great grace-
in him/ replied Cathmail."
The biographer confuses this visit to Cill-muine with one made
considerably later, when Finnian was called in to decide a contention
between David and Gildas, and which, if our reckoning be correct,
took place in 527, whereas the first arrival of Finnian in Wales
occurred in 502-5.
During his stay in Wales an inroad of Saxons took place, and as
they were in a valley, Finnian with his staff upset a mountain upon
them, and buried them under the stones. 3 This incursion is also,
mentioned in the Life of S. Aidan. 4 If
any Saxons troubled Wales
at this period, it must have been some who had made their
way in
boats round Cornwall and into the Severn Sea.
That Finnian was for a while with Cadoc at Llancarfan is almost
certain. A chapel bearing his name existed near it and the Life ;

says that he was wont to go to the island called Echni, i.e. the Flat
Holmes, in the Channel, for privacy, staying with the saints of the
5
place. These saints, as we know, were Cadoc and Gildas the former
;

was wont to retreat to it for Lent.

Cadoc, Finnian, and Buit formed the design of
visiting Rome, but
Finnian was dissuaded "
by an angel in a dream, who said What :

Vita S. Cadoci in Cambro-British

Saints, p. 36.
Vita S Findiani in Cod. '
col. Sal, 194, Garbayn alio nomine Nant.T
Cod. Sal., col. 193 Book
;
of Lismore, pp. 223-4
Cambro-British Saints, p. 23-. 5
Co d. Sal., col. 193
 S. Finnian 3 3

would be given to thee in Rome that thou canst not obtain here ?
and renew the Faith in Ireland." The angel that spoke to him
his own Common Sense. 1

Accordingly, bidding adieu to Cadoc, he took ship for Ireland. He

landed at Cill-Cairen, i.e. Carnin, in Wexford. He had been, says
the author of the Latin life, thirty years out of Ireland. Either he
was not thirty when he arrived at Cill-muine, or he was not out of his
country for thirty years for when he arrived in Wexford he was
;

received by Muirdach, the king who died in 525, so that Finnian cannot
have well been aged sixty at the date of Muirdach's death. It is
possible, but not probable, that he lived to the age of eighty-seven,
and that his great work of mastership to the Saints was begun when
he was over sixty years of age.
Finnian crossed over with Buit and one named Genoc. 2 Muirdach
son of Aengus, king of Leinster, met him on the shore, and taking
him on his back, carried him over three acres.
"
Some one standing by remarked You are a heavy burden to
:

" "
the prince." He shall have his reward," replied Finnian. For
every acre across which he transported me, he shall have a successor
on the throne," or, according to another version "As Muirdach :

has received me with joy, even so with joy shall the angels receive
him into everlasting habitations. And the yoke of the foreigner shall
not weigh on his shoulders."
Muirdach bade him select a site for his ecclesiastical settlement,
and he chose several. Moreover he blessed the queen, and she bore
a son, Eochu.
At this time probably he revisited Wales, and arrived to settle a
controversy between S. David and Gildas, as to which should be master
in Menevia. The headstrong Gildas desired to turn David out of his
patrimony. By the judgment of Finnian David remained, and Gildas
had to quit. 3
After having made some foundations in the Hy Cinnselach country,
Finnian visited the Hy Bairrche. He was perhaps induced to do this
on account of some unpleasantness having arisen between him and
Bressal, the son of Muirdach, who resented the largeness of the grants.
This irritation came to a head when Finnian demanded the site
occupied by the royal pigstyes as one whereon to build a church.
The altercation grew so hot over this matter, that Finnian lost his

1
Boo k of Lismore, p. 224 Cod. Sal., col. 194. From this latter is omitted
;

the significant sentence, " What would be

given thee at Rome will be given
thee here." 2
Cod Sal., col. 195.
3
Book of Lismore, pp. 223-4. This is not in the Life in the Cod. Sal.
VOL. III. D
 34 Lives of the British Saints

temper and cursed Bressal. Shortly after, in a raid made by the

Ossorians, Bressal was and as Muirdach may have not unreason-
killed,

ably considered that Finnian had made a sorry return for all the
kindness shown him, a coolness ensued between them, and on his
death Finnian deemed it expedient to leave that part of the country.
Diarmidh, son of Aengus Guinech, was dead, and his sons, Cormac
and Crimthan, shared the rule over the Hy Bairrche, and were jealous
of one another. Crimthan was the elder, Cormac the more subtle of
the two. Cormac visited his brother and spoke strongly against
Finnian as a man of a grasping nature, and urged him to expel the
Saint from his territories. But this he did out of low cunning. He
hoped to rouse Finnian thereby into cursing his brother, and so bringing
down ill-luck on his head. 1
Crimthan fell into the snare he went to the church where Finnian
;

was, and ordered him to leave. The Saint refused unless turned out
;

by force, he would not budge. A scuffle ensued, in which Crimthan

stumbled and broke his ankle on a stone and Finnian cursed him
;

that his kingship should come to naught.

What became of Crimthan we are not informed, but his accident
and consequent lameness would make him legally incapacitated to
wear the crown and Cormac became sole He abdicated, how-
;
king.
ever, in 535, and was succeeded by his brother Gorman.
Finnian next made an incursion into the
territory of the Hy Dun-
laing, where he was well received by Cairbre Dubh, who was king of
Leinster for eleven years, and died in 546.
One day early Finnian went outside the enclosure of his monastery.
and found a boy lying asleep under the bank. Some robbers had
been making a raid during the
night, and had taken the lad with them :

but he was too tired to

proceed, and had abandoned him. So
they
after creeping to the bank, he fell
asleep. Finnian hastily procured
a pair of shears and
clipped his hair. The boy started to his feet, and
rubbing his eyes asked what he was about.
"
saw that there was the
I
" making of a monk in you," replied Fin-
Who knows ? Perhaps you may rise to be abbot after me."
Then Finnian went to Cluain-Eraird, now
and on
Clonard, seeing
the place, exclaimed "
: This shall be my rest for ever Here will I
dwell, for I have a delight therein "
and he drove a wild boar away
;

that had its lair there, and sat down.

fratrem suum Crimtannum, ut

 S. Finnian 3 5

As he sat a druid named Fracan came up, and entered into con-
versation with him.
Finnian asked the druid whence he derived his wisdom, from above
from below.
"Test me, and find out," replied Fracan.
" "
Then," said Finnian, tell me, do you see the place of my resur-
"
rection ?
"
In heaven, surely," replied the druid.
"
Try again," said Finnian, and "stood up.
Then the druid, laughing, said Now indeed
: I see the place of

your rising. It is where you sat."

" "
You have hit it," said Finnian. There shall I be buried and
1
rise again."
On this spot Finnian founded his celebrated school and monastery,
and pupils streamed to him from every quarter. It was said to have
contained during his life as many as three thousand scholars. This was
the largest and most important college in Ireland at the time. 2 In
it were educated the Twelve Apostles of the Second Order. Among
his most important disciples were Ciaran, the wheelwright's son.
founder of Clonmacnois, who died in 548 Brendan of Birr, whose
;

death took place in 571 his namesake, the Navigator, who departed
;

this life in 577 the great Columcille, who died in 597 Columba of
; ;

Tir-da-Glas, d. 548 ; Mobi, the Flatfaced, d. 544 ; Lasrian, d. 570 ;

Sinel, who lived on to 603; Cairnechof Aghaboe, d. 599; Ruadhan
of Lothra, d. 584 ;
Senach the Bishop, d. 588. Some of these were
past middle age when they
joined the community.
Not yet satisfied, but desirous of starting feeders to his great school,
Finnian visited Connaught and having founded churches there,
;

committed them to Dathi or Nathi and to S. Grellan.

He entered into correspondence with Gildas about 550, relative to
penitential canons. The Penitential of Finnian is extant, and in
comparison with those of Gildas and of David shows that these saints
had been in communication, or had at least some common principle
on which they based their rules.
On one occasion Finnian visited Tuathal Maelgarbh, who was High
King from 533 to 544, and found with him a priest named Mancus,
who was in trouble. He wanted the king's horse pastures to build a
1
The biographer misses the point of the story. He makes the reply of the
druid to be a prophecy, showing that the druidic science had a divine origin ;

but obviously the druid was simply cutting a joke.

8
His mother and two sisters, Rignach and Rigenn, joined him at Clonard,
and he visited other women, so that he must have had a religious house for
women near by, or else Clonard was a double monastery.
 3 6 Lives of the British Saints

church in them, and he had asked the king for them ;

but Tuathal
had refused him. He had recourse to S. Finnian, who overcame the
1
king's objections.
Many years ago, before 525, Finnian had preached before S. Brigid,
and had so pleased her that she gave him a gold ring. One day a man
named Crimthan came to him and asked to be received into the com-
of Fotharta, who asked
munity. But the fellow was a serf to the king
for him an ounce of gold. So Finnian surrendered the ring Brigid
had given him, and which weighed an ounce, and with it bought the
man's freedom.
In 547 the terrible Yellow Plague broke out in Wales and was
carried to Ireland, where it caused many deaths, especially in 548. It

continued to rage till 550, when it died away.

Finnian, notwithstanding his age, was attacked by it, and was carried
off in 548, according to the Four Masters but the Annals of Inisf alien
;

protract his life to 552.

His disciple, Columba of Tir-da-Glas, ministered to Finnian in his
last hours, and then himself succumbed to the disorder. Finnian
died on December 12, and Columba on December 13. The Irish Life
says "As Paul died in Rome for the sake of the Christian people,
:

lestthey should all perish in the pains and punishments of hell, even
so Finnian died at Clonard for the sake of the people of the Gael, that
2
they might not all perish of the Yellow Plague."
The passage is somewhat obscure, but it seems to imply that the
death of Finnian was accepted as an atonement for the people, and
the plague was stayed. It goes on to say, that as he died an
angel
undertook to banish every pestilence from Clonard, and from all Ire-
land, on account of the fasting of his congregation. We then may
place the death of Finnian in 550, at the time when the Plague began
to cease.
The biographers revel in a nasty account of how Finnian wore an
iron girdle about his waist, that ate into his flesh so that
maggots
bred there. His daily refection was
barley bread and cold water, but
on Sundays and holydays he took broiled salmon and ale. He
slept
on the earth, and had a stone for a bolster.
Finnian was born about 472-5. He
probably left Ireland in or about
490, when his master Fortchern died. He returned to Ireland, after
having been thirty years in Britain, in the reign of Muirdach, who
died in 525. We mayplace this return in 520.
1
A but not over-delicate miracle was
droll
wrought by Finnian to bring the
"
j to submission. Rex superbus cum ad necessitatem naturae in
campum
pergeret, in statione sua penitus riguit." Cod. Sal., col. 206
2
Book of Lismore, p. 229.
 S. Fracan

On the death of Muirdach he went among the Hy Bairrche, and was

in their territory for seven years, till 532. Then he founded Clonard.
He cannot have been older than sixty, as his mother was still alive

at the time, though suffering from an infirmity that rendered the

1
nursing of her very unpleasant.
The visit to Tuathal Maelgarbh probably took place in 533, directly
he assumed the crown. Finnian would almost certainly then go to
salute the new king and beg something of him.
Finnian of Clonard occurs in all the Irish Martyrologies on December
12, also in the Drummond calendar, and in the Celtic calendar (No.

V) published by Bishop Forbes.

In the Welsh calendars Ffinan, i.e. Finnian, is commemorated on
December n
in that in Hafod MS. 8 (sixteenth century), and on
the I3th in those in Additional MS. 14,912 (fourteenth century), and
the Prymers of 1618 and 1633. Both are mistakes for the I2th.

Whytford has "In Yrelonde the feest of Saynt Fynang an abbot

:

in whose concepcyon his moder had of him a revelacyon. He cast

a water lyke a mere in to the see, and where it was he buylded a

monastery. And he ordeyned in an other monastery iii. m. monkes.

And he reysed v persones from deth, and turned water into wyne
with many other myracles that he dyd as well in Englonde and Wales
a> in Yrelande, and had also revelacyon of his deth."

Although it is said in his Life that he founded two churches in Wales,

" "
Melboc and Nantcarfan, it is certain that he was not the actual
founder of either ; but at Llancarfan there did exist a chapel in his
honour. 2

S. FODDWID, see S. MEDDWID

S. FRACAN, Confessor
FRACAN is probably Brychan. He was the second husband of Gwen
Teirbron, and the father of Saints James, Gwethenoc, and Winwaloe,
and of a daughter Creirwy. He was cousin to Cataw or Cado, Duke of
3
Cornwall, but the name of his father is not known.
1 "
Totum corpus ejus est ita infectum quod puellae servientes horrent
tangere earn." Cod. Sal., col. 201.
8
Cambro-British Saints, p. 39. " Finian Seoctus," on p. 88, is a misreading
"
for Finian Scottus."
"
Fracanus, Catouii regis Britannici, viri secundum seculum famosissimi
consobrinus," Vita Sti. Winwaloei in Cart. Landevennec, c. 2 ed. Plaine,
;

Analecta Boll., vii (1888), p. 176. Fragan is a late form of the name.
 38 Lives of the British Saints

The material for his Life is scanty enough, mention in the Lives of
Winwaloe, and of James and Gwethenoc. The latter has not been
printed, but extracts have been made
from it by the Bollandist fathers
in Catalogus Codicum hagiographicarum, Lat. (in the National Library,

Paris), 1889, i, pp. 578-82. "There was in the western parts of

Britain a certain wealthy man of great repute among his neighbours,
Fracan by name, having a wife of like rank, called in their native
tongue Guen, which in Latin is Candida. Divine mercy accorded
them three sons, of whom two were twins, the third was born later.
The twins were Gwethenoc and James, the third was named Wing-
1
waloe."
"
Fracan, accompanied by his two lambs, that
is, by his two sons,

Wethenoc and Jacut, and by their mother Alba (Guen), embarked

with a not very numerous retinue, traversed the British sea, and
disembarked in Armorica, a forest-clad land, where he learned that
the country was free from war and the north-west wind breathing
;

softly, they were carried to the port of Brahec. In which, looking

about, and arriving about the eleventh hour, Fracan found a fairly
extensive tract, suitable for the establishment of a single plou, sur-
rounded on all sides by woods and thorn-brakes, since called after its
discoverer, and watered by a certain river called Blood (Gouet). There
he began to live, along with his company, secure against sicknesses." 2
There can be no mistaking where Fracan landed, and where he
settled. His boats entered the long narrow estuary of the Gouet,
that opens into the Bay of S. Brieuc, commanded at the time by the
ruins of an ancient Roman castle, now called La Tour de Cesson. The
hillslopes descended rapidly to the water, dense with foliage.
The inflowing tide swept the boats up, Gwen seated, with her twin
boys on her lap, looking wonderingly at the new, wild where
country
they had come to settle. It was evening, and the stars were twinkling
in the sky overhead, and were reflected in the
glassy water, the sparkles
broken by the ripple as the boats advanced. The tide carried them
to a point where
through a lateral ravine from the east another stream
entered the Gouet. Here
they disembarked, lighted fires, and spent
the night. Some years later Brioc would land at the
same spot and
ascend the steep hill, and settle himself in the
prehistoric camp that
occupied the fork.

"
Fuit in occidentibus Britannic! territorii
partibus vir quidam opulentus et
inter convicaneos sues
nominatissimus,
Fraganus nomine, habens coniugem
coaequibilem, lingua patria Guen appellatam,
quod Latine sonat Candida."
Catal. Cod. hag., Paris,
p. 578.
1
Vita Sti. Winwaloei, ed.
Plaine, p. 176.
 S. Fracan 3 g

Next morning, doubtless, Fracan went inland to explore. He had

>rought sheep and oxen with him, and the place where he had dis-
embarked was hardly suited for them. Ascending the hill, and looking
south he saw rising ground that was bare of trees, a furzy down, on
which stood up great cairns that covered dolmens, in which the dead
1
of a disappeared race were buried.

Collecting his party, and driving the cattle and flock before them,
the colonists made for this high ground and there they encamped,
;

throwing up an earthen bank and surmounting it with a breastwork

of stakes and wattles, as a protection against wolves. And here Gwen
comforted her weary, sobbing twins, telling them that this was hence-
forth to be their home.
Would that the historian had told us the year when Fracan dis-

embarked, instead of being so precise concerning the hour.

According to De la Borderie the date was about 460, and this cannot
be far wrong.
Possibly Fracan was the earliest settler in this part, but probably
not. For Righuel had come over, we do not know whether before or
\\hcther he came shortly after, and established himself in supreme

authority over all the colonists and such natives as remained. And
Meugant was not long in following to found a college at La Meaugon
on the further side of the Gouet.
Some little way to the east was the Caer or Castel of Aldor or
Audren, the grandfather of Gwen, and where perhaps still lived her
father, Emyr Llydaw. It was doubtless the knowledge that there
were binding the family to British settlers in that part of Dom-
ties

nonia, which had induced Fracan to make for the harbour most con-
venient for disembarkation in the district over which his wife's family
had exercised a rough royalty.
And Gwen speedily put in a claim for tribal land, which was acknow-
ledged and she was granted a tract of territory, since called Ple"-
;

quien, north of Castel Audren, and where she also formed a plou, and
where to this day her statue remains. Of which more when we come
to speak of Gwen Teirbron.
But now the flood of colonists increased. With the first spring
weather their boats appeared off the coast, and there was a rapid
appropriation of land. These colonists were not, however, all British ;

Irish came as well in no small numbers. Fracan deemed it expedient

to secure a fresh tract, for the overflow of his
plou.
By the time that he had come to think this advisable he had to go-

1
The cairns have disappeared, but the dolmwus remain.
 40 Lives of the British Saints

far afield, and he went into L6on. And he pitched on a spot where
the Irish were crowding in thickest his plou there is now called
;

Saint Fregan. Then he secured another, hard by Plouvien (Plou-

guen), which was taken in the name of his wife.
We are led to inquire, why Fracan should have formed colonies in
Lon as well as in Domnonia. We
can only conjecture that he was
acting in concert with Righuel, his neighbour, who had assumed the
sovereignty over Domnonia, and wished to extend his authority over
Lon as well. The Kemenet Illi, between the Abervrach and the
River of Quilimadec, was becoming too Irish and Righuel may well
;

have urged Fracan to occupy an important district there among them,

as a check upon their independence, and to prevent their setting up
a prince of their own. This must be matter of conjecture but we ;

are fain to find a reason for this second double colony so far from the

headquarters of his tribe.

A word or two may here be given relative to the organization of
these settlements, and we cannot do better than give M. de la
Borderie's words :

"
The territory occupied by Fracan, his family and retinue, is called
to thisday Plou-Fragan. What then is a plou ?
"
The word exists with slight variations in all the Breton dialects.
In Welsh and Cornish it a parish in the ecclesiastical sense, but
is

rather the body of parishioners than the With the

parish territory.
Bretons of the continent it has a special The plou is
signification.
properly the little colony formed by the British immigrants, establish-
ing itself on leaving its boats in a corner of the Armoric desert, under
the direction of a brave warrior, a secular
chief, or else of a pious monk,
the spiritual chieftain over a little
society formed in the land of exile,
by community of misfortune. On this soil, the plou replaces the
clan. In the terrible storm which broke over Britain the clan was
for the most part dissolved by the disasters of invasion, and dis-
persed by the chances of emigration. The plou is derived from it,
an image, a modification, a reconstruction on a new
linked not basis,
by ties of blood, but by those, no less strong, of common
suffering,
of peril and exile faced and endured in common.
"
The civil institution of the plou subsisted and was full of life
still
in the ninth we may
century, as see by the Cartulary of Redon. In
that we must studythe functions of the chieftain of the
plou (in Latin
princeps plebis, in Breton mactiern), an
hereditary dignity, special
to Brittany, and of a
very original character. His first and principal
privilege* was that of exercising judicial
authority throughout the
plou, over all its inhabitants. The chief possessed beside certain
 S. Fracan 4.
i

special rights, dues, subventions,

and certain lands forming the domain
that sustained his dignity. All the plebenses or members of the plou
owed to their chief fidelity and assistance, as to a hereditary lord.
He could claim their military help if attacked in his person or his
goods, and in case of need,
to enforce his judgments. The plou . . .

must be considered as the elementary social and political unit, as

the distinctive and original feature of the British community on the
continent. It represents the little colony originally settled on the

Armorican by the immigrants. And the word remains fixed to the

soil

incorporated in the names of some two hundred Breton

present day,
l
parishes."
Ploufragan was but four miles distant from the Campus Roboris
or Champ de Rouvre, where Righuel had established himself. He
had crossed over with a large fleet, 2 and he planted his court where
is now Lishelion (Lis-hoel).
Fracan and Righuel were on very good terms. The former with
his small plou could not resist the latter at the head of a host of
settlers ; he submitted, and they lived in amity.
The began to make way for pasture and cultivated land.
forests
Great herds of wild horses roamed in the woods, and the colonists
made pitfalls and ensnared and then tamed them. And they amused
themselves with horse races on the sands of the Bay of Ifngnac. 3
Gwen had given to her husband a third son, whom they
Meanwhile,
calledWinwaloe, and a daughter, Chreirbia (parvula adhuc puella).
And here abruptly ends all that we know of Fracan, except that he
sent his three boys to be educated in the island of Lavrea, in the
Brehat archipelago, by a teacher named Budoc.
Fracan is the patron of Ploufragan, near S. Brieuc, and of Saint
Fregan, near Lesneven. Formerly he had a chapel in the parish of

1
Hist, de Bretagne, Paris and Rennes, 1896, i, pp. 281-2. It is to be regretted
that M. de la Borderie knew nothing of Welsh authorities for the genealogies
of the Colonists, or he might have been led to see much more into the causes
of their settlement in certain districts than he has. Indeed, his ignorance on
this subject induced him to speak contemptuously of material with which he
was unacquainted;
"
Riwalus Britanniae dux filius fuit Derochi . .Hie Riwalus a trans-
.

marinis veniens Britanniis cum multitudine navium possedit totam minorem

Britanniam tempore Chlotharii regis Francorum, qui Chlodovei regis filium
extitit," Mabill., Ada 55., O.S.B., saec. ii. De la Borderie distinguishes this
Righuel from the other spoken of as occupying the Campus Roboris, but without
reason. The period (511-561) may apply, and probably does, not to the date
of his coming over, but to his establishment of his rule over Domnonia. The
totam in the sentence "possedit totam minorem Britanniam " is an exaggeration.
He ruled only Domnonia, and perhaps also Leon.
3
Vita S. Winwaloei, ed. Plaine, p. 202.
 42 Lives of the British Saints

S. Guen Nord, which seems to show that this S. Guen was

in C6tes-du

originally Ste. Guen. He is represented as a theatrical king, with

breastplate, crown, and mantle, with sceptre in one hand and sword
in the other, in a statue of the eighteenth century at Ploufragan.
But the most interesting representation of him is in a painting in
the chapel of Lesguen in the parish of Plouvien, where he is figured
as a knight in armour, along with his wife, Gwen Teirbron, and his
son, Winwaloe.
Garaby records a tradition that barbarians having arrived off the coast
ofL&m in a fleet so large that the masts resembled a forest, Fracan
summoned the British to attack them. The marauders attempted to
disembark at Guisseny. The commandant of the leading body of British
" "
cried out, Milguern (A thousand sails !) And afterwards a cross
!

was erected on the spot, called Croas ar Mil guern. Fracan attacked the
camp of the pirates, routed them, cut them to pieces, and burnt their
ships.
Garaby gives October 3 as the day of S. Fracan, but without
stating his authority ; and he has been followed by Gautier de Mottai,
Kerviller, etc.
Fracan is invoked in the eleventh-century Litany, published by
D'Arbois de Jubainville, in the Revue Celtique, iii, p. 449, as Flocan,
probably a mistake for Frocan.

S. GAFRAN
THE 70/o MSS. include Gafran, the son of Aeddan Fradog ab
Dyfn-
wal Hen, among the Welsh saints, but there is no
authority whatever
for so doing. He was one of the " Men of the North," who have been
unwarrantably foisted into two documents therein of Achau'r Saint. 1
He was a northern warrior, pure and simple. The
only church that
has the semblance of a dedication to him is that of
Llantrisant, Angle-
sey, which is generally given as dedicated to the three saints, San-
nan, Afran, and leuan, where Afran is undoubtedly a mistake for
Afan. 2
Gafran was in reality the father of
Aeddan, and not his son. Aeddan
was the celebrated king of Scotch
Dalriada, known in the Irish annals
as Aidan mac Gabran, who died in 606.
Gafran to
died, according
the Annales Cambriae, in His wife was Lluan, daughter oi
558.
1
2
Pp. 106, 138. See under S. AFRAN, n6.
i, p.
FRACAN, GWEN TEIRBRON, AND WINWALOE BEFORE S. CORENTINE.
Painting at Lesguen, Plouvien, Finist&re.
 S. Garai 43

Brychan. The names of the father and son were first inverted, it would
appear, in the thirteenth-century Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd in Peniarth
"
MS. and the epithet Bradog,
45,
the Treacherous," is found
attached to them both in Welsh literature. Cantire or Kintyre was
called by the Welsh Pentir Gafran, his Headland.
x
Legend has woven itself around him. In the Triads he is the
"
head of a retinue designated one of the Three Faithful Retinues
(Diwair Deulu) of the Isle of Britain." The references to them in the
two earliest series are rather ambiguous; they showed their faith-
" " "
fulness (i) when the utter loss took place (2) when the utter
;

loss took place they went to (or, into the) sea for their lord." In the
"
third and latest series the incident is described as one of the Three
"
Utter Losses of the Isle of Britain." Gafran and his men went to
sea in search of Gwerddonau Lli'on (the Green Isles of the Ocean), and
were never afterwards heard of". They numbered 2,100. Soutbev,
2
in his Madoc, asks :

Where are the sons of Gavran ? where his tribe,

The faithful ? following their beloved chief,
They the Green Islands of the Ocean sought ;

Nor human tongue hath told, nor human ear,

Since from the silver shores they went their way,
Hath heard their fortunes.

S. GALLGO, see S. ALLECCUS

S. GARAI, Confessor
GARAI, or Garrai, was, according to the lolo MSS., the son of Cewydd
ab Caw. He is reckoned among the saints of Morganwg and Gwent,
and said to have been of " Cor Bangor." He is the reputed founder
of the Glamorganshire church Llanarrai or Llanharry, now dedicated
to S. Illtyd. 3
It is not improbable that he is the same as Gwrhai or Gwrai, son of
Caw.

1
Peniarth MS. 45 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 390, 397, 401, 408.
z
London, 1815, i, p. in.
3
Pp. 107, 146, 222. Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 258, gives his name as Garci.
 44 Lives of the British Saints

S. GARMON, see S. GERMANUS

S. GARTHELI, see S. GWRDDELW
S. GASTAYN, or GASTY, Confessor
THE church of Llangasty Talyllyn, on the Llangorse Lake, near the
town of Brecon, is said to be dedicated to this saint. No saint of the
name occurs in the Welsh saintly pedigrees, and had there been we
should have expected the initial letter of his name, as patron of Llan-
gasty, to be C and not G. We, however, learn from the Domitian
Cognatio that Gastayn was the saint who baptised Cynog, Brychan's
"
eldest son,and that his church is now situated by Mara." 1 He is
said to have been Cynog's preceptor.
In a version, 2 which is much overdrawn, of the legend respecting
the formation of Llyn Syfaddon, or Llangorse Lake a town, as usual,
being swallowed up for the wickedness of its principal inhabitants
"
Gastayn is made to be the son of Myfig, the last of the princes of
Syfaddon." When every vestige of the city had disappeared a cradle
was found floating near the margin of the lake, in which was a sleeping
child, which was afterwards baptised with the name Gastayn. In
time he embraced the ascetic life, and built his hermitage on the lake's
edge, wherein he was afterwards buried. This, we are told, is the
Llangasty of to-day.

S. GENYS, Bishop, Martyr

A CHURCH is
dedicated to this saint in the deanery of
Trigg Minor,
in North-east Cornwall, in themidst of a crowd of Brychan settle-
ments and it has been conjectured that Genys is a substitute for
;

Gwynws, son of Brychan.

S. Gennys stands on the cliffs above the
ocean, but in a sweet spot,
somewhat sheltered from the furious blasts from the north-west.
Pencarrow rears its head four hundred feet sheer out of the
surf, and
1
The Vespasian Cognatio merely "
states that Cynog was carried to the caet
and baptised."
2
The Red Dragon, Cardiff, 1882,i, pp. 276-81. See, however, the story as
told m
the Brython for 1863, pp. "4-5.
purporting to be from a MS. of Hugh
Thomas, the Breconshire antiquary, wherein is no mention of or
Gastayn
indeed, any names.
 S. Genys 4. 5

behind it nestles the little church. A couple of springs gush forth

hard by, and have worked their way down a glen, among trees and
green sward, to a deep valley through which a stream cuts its way to
the sea. Between this stream and the sea which folds around it is a
finger of steep crumbling rock surmounted by a cliff-castle two hun-
dred feet lower than Pencarrow. To the south of S. Gennys Church
the steeply away to Crackington Cove, where meet two streams
hill falls

that have cleft their way through the hills in deep glens with steep

heathery and gorse-clad sides. The loftiest cliff on this coast, starting
700 feet above the sea, is a little further down the coast at Treveague.
S. Gennys is day far from the beaten track, unreached
at the present

by train or coach, a wild and wondrous spot, where a man may be

out of the world and near to God. And if this be so now, what must
it have been in the sixth century, when the colony of half Irish, half
Welsh migrants from Brycheiniog came and settled here.
S. Gennys or Genys was a church under Launceston Priory, and

in the calendar of that church, as given by William of Worcester, the

Saint is entered as an Archbishop of Lismore in Ireland, and as one
of three brothers of the same name, who all lost their heads. S. Genys
was commemorated at Launceston on May 2 and 3, and the translation
of his head on July 19. In the Tavistock calendar S. Genes is on
August 25, but this is Genes the Martyr at Rome, or at Aries, both
of whom are commemorated on this day.
That the settlement at S. Gennys was important and a Lan, is
shown by the fact that it has its sanctuary, of which several of the
fields of the glebe constitute a part.
All that we can conclude with any safety from William of Wor-
cester, who gives us what information we have relative to S. Genys,
is that at Launceston and S.
Gennys it was supposed that the Saint
was from Ireland, that he was different from the Roman or the Aries
Martyr, and that he was a bishop.
There was, however, considerable confusion of mind about him ;

he was supposed to be brother of the other two Saints of the same

name, who had their heads struck off, and it was fabled that he had
shared their fate.
As
to his connexion with Lismore, this is also apocryphal. The
diocese was never archiepiscopal, nor was there any bishop of his
name there. Lismore Abbey was founded by S. Carthagh, the younger,
about 630.
The
village feast at S. Gennys is on Whit-Sunday.
There are springs near the church, but no tradition exists as to any
of them
having been a Holy Well. The church, picturesquely situated.
46 Lives of the British Saints
" It looks like a skeleton
has been horribly injured by restoration."

from which the flesh has been picked by vultures. The rood screen
"
restoration."
and old bench-ends were destroyed at this
If Genysbe the same as Gwynws, he is the same as the founder
of Llanwnws in Cardiganshire ;
and possibly his name may be pre-
1
served in Llangenys, a former name for Llandough, near Cardiff.

But the identification is most uncertain.

84 GERAINT, King, Martyr

THE name of Gereint, or Geramt, Latinized into Gerontius and

Gracised into Gerascen, meets us so often, that it will be necessary
to give some account of those who bore the name among the British,
of whom record remains.
i. A
Gerontius, a Briton, was one of the two generals appointed
by the usurper Constantine, to the command of his army. In 383
the legions in Britain had set up Maximus as emperor, and at their
head he marched towards Rome ;
but was defeated and slain in 388.
A fresh legion was dispatched by Stilicho to Britain in 396. Soon the
troops in Britain set up two new pretenders, Marcus and Gratian ;
but as they proved incompetent, assassinated them, and elevated one
Constantine, a private soldier, selected merely, as we are informed,
because of his name, and he was invested with the purple.
For four years, 407-411, he succeeded in holding Britain, Gaul,
and Spain under his sceptre. Constantine sent his son Constans to
subdue Spain, and Constans having effected this, left Gerontius to
hold the passes of the Pyrenees. But Constantine offended the touchy
spirit of his general, and in 408 Gerontius revolted and attacked Con-
stantine. He got possession of Constans at Vienne and put him to
death, and then proceeded to besiege Constantine in Aries. But the
approach of an army sent by Honorius obliged Gerontius to raise the
when he was abandoned by the bulk of his soldiers, and fled
siege,
towards Spain.
"
The Spanish soldiery conceived an utter contempt for Gerontius,
on account of his cowardly retreat, and took counsel to
slay him.
They attacked house during the night, but he, with one A] anus,
his
his friend, and a few
slaves, ascended to the top of the house, and
did such execution with their arrows that no less than three hundred
1
lolo MSS.. pp. 104, 1 1 6.
 S. Geraint 47
of the soldiers fell. When the stock of arrows was exhausted the
slaves made their escape, and Gerontius might
easily have followed
their example had not been for his love to his wife Nuncia, that
it

-detained him at her side. At daybreak next morning the soldiers set
fire to the house, thus cutting off all chance of escape. Then at the
request of Alanus, Gerontius hewed off his head. His wife then be-
sought him with groans and tears to perform the same office for her
rather than suffer her to fall into the hands of another, and he com-

plied with this her last request. Thus died one who had exhibited a
degree of courage worthy of her religion ; for she was a Christian,
and her death deserves commemoration. Gerontius then struck
himself thrice with his sword but failing to wound himself mortally,
;

he drew forth the dagger that he wore at his side, and plunged it into
1
his heart."
From what is said of the religion of Nuncia, it seems to be implied
that Gerontius was a heathen.
He died in 411, or shortly after.
2. The Welsh genealogies give Saint Geraint as son of Erbin ab
Cystennin Gorneu, and as father of Cyngar, Selyf, lestyn, Cador, and
Cu\v. 2 Cystennin Gorneu, "the Cornishman," is supposed to have
been the Constantine against whom Gerontius revolted, and who was
killed in 411. If so, then the date of the death of Cystennin's grandson
would be about 475.
Geraint was grandfather of Gildas, who died in 570. Allowing
thirty-three years for a generation, this would give 504 for the death
date of Geraint ; but Geraint died in battle, without attaining to old
age, consequently the two calculations fairly agree.
This Geraint ab Erbin is, in the Third or latest series of the Triads, 3
said to have been one of the three Llyngesog, or fleet-owners, of the
Isle of Britain, each of whom formed a fleet of six score ships with

1
Sozomen, Hist. Eccl., ix, 13 Zosimus, vi, 1-6 Prosper Aquit., Chron., etc.
; ;

Myr. Arch., p. 421 lolo MSS., pp. 116, 136.

;
Geraint married Gwyar,
daughter of Amlawdd Wledig Peniarth MS. 27, pt. ii
; Hanesyn H&n, p. 121 ;

(not Gwen, as on p. 109, the daughter o* Cynyr of Gaer Gawch and wife of
Geraint's own son, Selyf). The pedigrees in Cambro-British Saints, p. 269, and
Cardiff MS. 5 (1527). p. 120, add to his children a daughter, Silwen, or Sylwein,
probably a mistake for Selyf. In the Life of S. Cybi that Saint's pedigree is
given as the son of Salomon (Selyf), the son of Erbin, the son of Gereint, the
son of Lud (Cambro-British Saints, p. 183). Chrestien de Troyes, in his Erec,
the original of the Welsh romance of Gereint and Enid, makes Erec (Geraint)
the son of Lac (Lud). Of the same
origin, probably, as Geraint is the Irish
gerat or gerait, a champion.
3
Myv. Arch., p. 407. In the two first series, pp. 389, 397, the number of
men and ships is not given.
4.8
Lives of the British Saints

six score men in each, to patrol the coast against Saxon pirates,
who
in conjunction with the Irish, infested the coast of the Severn Sea.
enemy entered the mouth of
of the the Parret,
The piratical vessels
reached Llongborth, or Langport, and were there
met by King Arthur
and Geraint a battle ensued, in which Geraint was slain.
;

His death is thus described in a poem to his memory, attributed to

writes as an eye-witness.
Llywarch Hen, who
In Llongborth I saw a rage of slaughter,

And beyond all count,

biers
And red-stained men from the assault of Geraint.
In Llongborth I saw the edges of blades meet

Men in terror,

*****
with blood on the pate,
Before Geraint, the great son of his father.

In Llongborth Geraint was slain,

A brave man from the region of Dyfnaint (Devon), 1
And before they were overpowered, they committed slaughter.

This is really about all we know of him.

The Irish High King at the time was Oiliol Molt, and we hear that
in his reign there were many contests between the Britons and the
Picts and Scots. 2
We put the death of this Geraint as taking place roughly a little
after 475. It is not possible to assign the Battle of Llongborth to^so
late a date as that usually given it, 530.
"
The lolo MSS. 3 mention Geraint as lord of Gereinwg, Geraint's
Land," by which evidently Erging is meant, but as a genuine district-
name it is simply non-existent. The same documents further state
that Geraint is patron of a church at Caer Ffawydd or Henffordd,

Hereford, a statement for which there is no support.

i.e. It has been
surmised 4 that he founded the church of Pentraeth, in Anglesey,
which is sometimes still called Llanfair Bettws Geraint but this is ;

highly improbable. The church is now dedicated to the Blessed

Virgin, with festival on September 8.
In the Book of Llan Dav 5 is mention made of a Merthir Gerein, or
1
It occurs in the
Black Book of Carmarthen, and, with some variations, in the
Red Book Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, pp. 37-8, 274-7. One
of Hergest;
conjecture locates the Battle of Llongborth in the parish of Penbryn, Cardigan-
shire, where is a farm called Perth Geraint Theo. Evans, Dryctiy Prif Oesoedd,.
;

1740, i, c. 4 Arch. Camb., 1905, pp. 157-8.

;

2
Heating's Hist, of Ireland, trans. O'Connor, Dublin, 1841, ii, p. 25.
8
Pp. 116, 136.
4
Rowlands, Mona Antiqua, London, 1766, p.' 155 ; Williams, Observations on
"

the Snowdon Mountains, London, 1802, p. 145.

5
PP- 234, 323. The parish church of
"
Merthyr Geryn'
"
is entered in the
Valor of 1535, iv, p. 377.
 S. Gaerint 4.9

"
Geryn. This chapel stood," says the late Mr. Thomas Wakeman
"
near the Upper Grange Farm House, in the parish of Magor (Mon-
its remains have not been removed many years."
1
mouthshire) ;

Magor on the Caldicot Level, near the Severn Sea, and may have
is

been a Martyrium raised to the honour of S. Geraint who fell at Llong-

" " " " "
lx>rth. The Gerein or Geryn
Geraint," of the name stands for
"
as in Dingereint," which Brut y Tywysogion as the name
occurs in *

of the castle built by Gilbert de Clare in 1108, generally known as

Cilgeran Castle, on the Teify.

" " "
Among the Sayings of the Wise and the Stanzas of the Hear-
3
ing," we have the following :

Hast thou heard the saying of Geraint,

Son of Erbin, the just and experienced ?

"Short-lived is the hater ^or hated) of the saints."

(Byrhoedlog dygasog saint.)

He is the Geraint of the romance, Gereint and Enid.*

3. A Gerennius, King of Cornwall, is mentioned in the Life of
5, leilo. 5 When that Saint fled from the Yellow Plague in 547 to
Armorica, he passed through Cornwall and was well received by the king
there, Gerennius, and he promised the prince that he would visit and
o mimunicate him when he, Gerennius, was dying. Teilo returned from
Annoiira in 555 or 556. As he was about to embark, Teilo ordered
his followers to convey to the ship a stone sarcophagus which he had
pp-vided as a present for the king. They declared their inability to
get it down to the beach, and objected that its weight would over-
1-urden their boat. Teilo then harnessed to the stone coffin ten yoke
of oxen, which drew it to the shore, where he launched it on the tide ;

and the stone cist swam before the vessel, and reached the Cornish
coast before them. They landed at Dingerein, .the round fort in the
parish of S. Gerrans ;
and Teilo at once proceeded to visit the king,
whom he found alive indeed but very ill, and who, after having re-

ceived the communion, straightway expired, and his remains were

laid in the
sarcophagus provided for him. We will call this prince
Geraint II. He was probably grandson of Geraint I, who fell at Llong-
borth. He died about 556.

"Supplementary Notes" to Liber Landavensis, 1853, P- I0

"

>
a ^ so ^rs *

Harcourt Mitchell, Some Ancient Churches of Gwent, 1908, p. 21. Willis, how-
"
ever, in his Survey of Llandaff, 1719, append., p. 7, says of it, Site unknown,
otherwise than it stood near Tintern Abbey."
2
Bruts, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 289. There is a Cilgeraint also in the parish
of Llandegai, Carnarvonshire.
8
Ioh MSS.. p.
255 Myv. Arch., p. 128.
;

Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, pp. 244-295.

5
Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 108, 113-4.
VOL. III. E
 5 o Lives of the British Saints

4. There
was another Domnonian Geraint, to whom S. Aldhelm
wrote a letter in 705 urging the abandonment of Celtic peculiarities
of religious use in his realm, and conformity to thv. Roman rule.
1

This Geraint fought against Ina, King of the West Saxons, at Taun-
_ton in 710. 2

5. There was again a Geraint ab Carannog, of the race of Cadell

Deyrnllwg, who was a prince of Erging, or Archenfield, in Hereford-
shire. The Welsh pedigrees make him the father of S. Eldad or
Aldate, Bishop of Gloucester, who was slain by the Saxons, probably
in 577. 3 n^ ^ J
In the Life of S. Meven we read that this saint was a son of Gerascenus,
King We can hardly doubt that
of Orcheus, a district in Gwent. 4
Orcheus a misscript for Erchens for Erging, and that Gerascen is
is

an affected form of Geraint this same Geraint. Meven was a nephew

of S. Samson and we may suspect that the sister, who is so
of Dol,

harshly spoken of in the Life of that Saint because she declined to

embrace the religious life, was the wife of this Geraint.
"
6. A
Geraint, generous and resolute," is spoken of in the Gododin
of Aneurin, as engaged in the Battle of Catraeth, in the Scottish Low-
lands. That battle occurred between 586 and 603. This Geraint
was a Strathclyde chieftain. 6 He cannot be identified with any of
the others who bear his name.
7. GerranAis mentioned
by Albert Le Grand in his Life of S. Sezni
(Setna), but this Life is a deliberate appropriation of that of Ciaran
of Saighir, and the chieftain named Gerran in that is none other than
S. Ciaran of Clonmacnois. 8
The church of S. Gerrans is most probably dedicated to Gerennius
(No.3). The palace of Geraint, Din Gerrein, is in the parish, and the
earthworks remain. This is probably the Dinurrin from which Bishop
Kensteg hailed, who made his submission to Archbishop Coelnoth in
or about 866. 7 It is hardly probable that the
patron of S. Gerrans
can be Geraint ab Erbin (No. 2).
1
See the letter in Migne, Pair. Lat., Ixxxix, Haddan and
p. 87 ; Stubbs,
Councils, etc., iii, p. 268.
1
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sub anno. 3
lolo MSS., p. 131.
'
Orcheus autem pagus in Guenta provincia hunc
protulit, terris gen-
eratum patre nomine Gerasceno. Ex
qua eadem provincia Sancti Samsonis
mater extitit nata." Vita S. Meveni, ed. Plaine,
p. 3.
Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, p. 89. There are several other Geraints
mentioned in Welsh literature as
having lived at an early period Geraint
Hir and Geraint Feddw in the Triads, Geraint Fardd and Glas, the three
Geraints in Geoffrey of Monmouth. Moel y Geraint, or Barber's Hill, is near
Llangollen. Vies its Saints de
Bretagne, ed. Kerdanet, 1837 p. 530
i
Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc.. i, p. 674. On the coast, in the parish,
is
Killygerran Head.

U~A~
 S. Geraint 5 i

Geraint's tomb was shown at Carn Point, where he was tradition-

ally held to
lie in a golden boat, with silver oars. When the tumulus
was opened in 1858 a kistvaen was discovered with bones, but no
precious metal.
In the registers of the Bishops of Exeter, S. Gerrans is always called
Ecclesia Sti. Gerendi.
In Anthony, in Roseland, is Kill-Gerran, the cell of Geraint. In
Philleigh parish was
a chapel, now ruined but the wood in which
;

it stood still bears his name. Gerran's Bay and Gerran's Point also
recall him.
In Brittany S. Ge"ran formerly received a cult, but tradition is silent
concerning his parentage and history and we cannot be sure whether
;

(.craii is the Cornish Gerran, the Geraint of the Welsh. S. Geran

near Pontivy had a minihi, or place of sanctuary, always a mark ofy
a considerable and head foundation. But the parish has sunk to a
mere tref of S. Noyala.
S. Geran had a chapel at Cleguerec.
In Belle He, at Le Palais, the parish church bears his name, and
there he is commemorated on March 5.
In Brittany the utmost uncertainty reigns as to who and what he
was. In the 1589 Breviary of Vannes he is given as a Bishop, on
March 5. At S. Geran he has been supplanted by S. Guirec or
Curig. Lobineau conjectures that he was a soldier, the S. Gereon of
the Theban Legion at Cologne. Kef viler sets him down as a re-
.uonary bishop, companion of S. Patrick. But no such a person is
known to the Irish, or named in the Lives of the Apostle. He pro-
bably depended on the following ballad, preserved by Luzel, as sung
at S. Geran.

S. Geran went to Rome, not hopeless, nor proposing to tarry,

But in hopes of obtaining counsel from S. Patrick.
S. Patrick when he saw him, went forward to meet him.

See, said he, this little bell!

See this Go
forward with it over the land,
little bell.

Go, and where it soundeth, there tarry.

On a height near the swelling moors, the bell sounded.
The angel of God came down to clear the soil of wood and stones.
1
Happy folk of S. Geran, who have your patron in your church.
It is
possible that when British colonists migrated to Armorica,
they set apart portions of land as domains for their hereditary royal
chiefs at home, and that the Island of Belle He and the district of S.
Gran by Pontivy may have been so given, and that Geraint may
1
Annales de Bretagne, Rennes, T. ii (1886).
52 Lives of the British Saints

have transferred them, or portion of them, to become ecclesiastical

settlements. It is rather remarkable that the descendants of Geraint,
names throughout this part of
King and Martyr, have left their

Brittany.
The day of S. Geraint is uncertain.
The village feast at S. Gerrans is on August 10.
The pardon of S. Geran in Cleguerec is on the first Sunday in August.
But that at S. Geran near.Pontivy is on the third Sunday in October.
At Le Palais, as already said, it is on March 5.

S. GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, Bishop, Confessor

THE main authority for the Life of this great Saint

is a Vita by
Constantius, priest, apparently of Lyons. To this Life are prefixed

two letters dedicatory, one to S. Patiens, Bishop of Lyons (449-

circa 491), 1 another to Censurius, third bishop in succession to Ger-
manus in the see of Auxerre ;
there is also a prologue.

Constantius professes in the second letter to have revised and ampli-

"
fied the earlier Life that he had written at the desire of Patiens. The
authority of the holy Bishop Patiens, your brother, has required me
to retrace, in part at least, the Life and Acts of the blessed Germanus.
If I did not do this as well as I ought, I did what I could. My obedience
being known to your beatitude, you ordered me to plunge once more
into an excess of temerity, in desiring that I should enlarge this little
page, which still remained almost in obscurity, and that I should
2
myself come forward in some sort as my own accuser and betrayer."
Censurius, to whom this letter dedicatory was written, was Bishop
of Auxerre from 472 to 502.
Constantius is by no means an unknown man. He was the friend
of Sidonius Apollinaris ; his name stands at the head of a collection
of eight books of letters, dedicated to him by Sidonius. His name
occurs last in a letter of 480. About the year 473 he visited Clermont
to allay some difficulties that had arisen there, and Sidonius speaks
"
of him (Ep. i\\, i) then as one aetate gravem, infirmitate fragilem."
The original sketch of the life of S. Germanus, dedicated to Patiens,
no longer exists, but the amplified Life is found in a good number of
1
Patiens died a few years before 494 his second successor Rusticus
; is named
as dying in 501.
1
A letter was addressed to him by Sidonius about 475.
 S. Germanus of Auxerre 53

It was first published by Mombritius in Milan in 1480, in the

first volume of his Sandnarium. But this omits prologue and epilogue,
and contains many misprints ; it contains beside the text of Con-
st antius, a late addition, the legend of the ass the saint restored to
life. The dedicatory epistles are omitted, but that one existed in the
"
trxt used by Mombritius is shown by the superscription, Constantius
ad Patientem episcopum de vita Sancti Germani episcopi Autissio-
dorensis."
About a century appeared an amplified Life given by Surius,
later
"
in his probatis sanctorum
De historiis," iv, Colon. Agripp., 1573.
Tin- Hiilhindist Peter van der Bosche, in 1731, gave this same enlarged
in the Ada Sanctorum, July, vii. This second Life contains a
ijoml deal that is not to be found in the other and earlier Life and ;

is, an early ninth century amplification. This is the Vita

in fact,
iin^t generally used and quoted but the other is the original text.
;

I lie made were principally these

additions :

i. The story of S. Amator cutting down the pear tree, and the

ordination of S. Germanus as priest, down to the death of Amator,

and an ensuing miracle.
j. The
story of the interview of Germanus with Genoveva at Nan-

3. The absurd legend of the conversion of Mamertinus at the tomb

of Corcodemus.
The seeking for, finding and translation of the relics of S. Alban.
4.

5. The legend of the revelation as to the day of the death of the

Martyr Julian, made to Germanus on his visit to Brioude.

6. The greater portion of the account of the visit of Germanus to

the grave of Bishop Cassian of Autun, and of a wonderful dialogue

with the dead man.
7. The remarks on the act of the aged bishop carrying on his

shoulders a lame man over a stream, when crossing the Alps.

The Germanus by Constantius in its expanded form was
Life of
submitted to corrosive criticism by Schoel4 but he knew nothing of ;

the unadulterated Vita, and had no

acquaintance with the MSS. He
1
regarded the whole as a forgery of the sixth century.
Next C. Kohler pointed out that all the passage relative to the
meeting of Germanus with Genoveva was an excerpt from the Life of
the latter saint thrust into that of the former. 2
Two years later C. Narbey dealt with the Life, and maintained an
De ecclesiastics Brittonwn Scoiorumque histories
fontibus, 1851.
-

itiqne sur le texte de la vie latins de Ste. Genevicve in Bibl. de l'cole

dcs hantcs ftudt-s, T. xlviii, 1881.
54 Lives of the British Saints

impossible thesis, that the original Life by Constantius

was to be
found in a Gallican missal of the sixth century published by Mabillon
in 1685, in snippets of lessons for the Feast of S. Germanus, and in
the lections for the same feast in the Breviary of S. Germain des Pres
and S. Corneille de Compiegne. His thesis is quite untenable these ;

lections are portions taken almost at haphazard from the unadulterated

1
Life by Constantius.
But the final, most complete, and exhaustive criticism, which
settles thewhole question, is that of Levison, in 1903. 2
It is hardly worth mentioning Heric's Metrical Life of the Saint.
Heric died circa 876. It adds nothing of value. Even Heric was
somewhat staggered at the stories contained in the amplified Life.
"
He says : This ancient Vita was written with elegance.
It was
drawn up whilst the memory of the Saint was recent, and whilst many
who knew him were still alive. But what is reported ... is not
always very positive, nor very true, on account of the interval that
elapsed since his death."
Heric's Metrical Life is printed in the Ada SS. Boll., Jui: vii, pp.
221-5.
The Miracula Sti. Germani attributed to the same Heric are really
by an unknown author. Printed in the Ada SS., Jul. vii, pp. 255-
283.
It is not our purpose to give the Life of Germanus of Auxerre, but

only those portions of it that concern his visits to Britain.

About the time when the Roman legions were withdrawn from
Britain, one Pelagius began to teach his heresy in Rome, Pelagius
is usually designated Britto or Britanicus, but his bitter enemy and
opponent, Jerome, in two places speaks of him as Irish. He began
teaching his doctrine on Original Sin in 400, or thereabouts. He
probably sent his books to Britain and to Ireland by his disciple
Agricola. Indeed, his commentary on S. Paul seems to have been
highly valued in the latter island to a late period, and Pelagius himself
to have been regarded, not as a heretic, but as an
authority on doc-
trine. 3 The orthodox clergy in Britain, uneasy at the spread of the
Pelagian heresy, sent to the Church of Gaul for help. Constantius
relates that accordingly
"
a great synod was gathered, and
by the
judgment of all, two glorious lights of religion were beset by the peti-
1
tude critique sur la vie de S. Germain, Paris,
1884.
*
Bischof Germanus v. Auxerre, in Neuer Archiv d. Geselschaft altere deutsche
/.
Geschichtskunde, Hanover, xxix, 1903.
3
Zimmer (H.), The Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland, London 1902
pp. 19-21.
 S. Germanus of Auxerre 55

tions of the whole body that is to say, Germanus and Lupus,

;
apos-
tolic priests, who had shown on earth with their bodies, indeed, but
in heaven by their merits. And the more urgent appeared the neces-

sity, the more promptly

did the devoted heroes undertake the work,

hastening on the business with the goads of faith."

Lupus, the companion of Germanus, was Bishop of Troyes. The
date of the mission, 429, is fixed by the contemporary witness of
Prosper of Aquitaine, who relates that Germanus the bishop was sent
" " "
ad actionem Palladii diaconi by Pope Ccelestine vice sua." x
Some difficulty has been experienced in reconciling the statement
of Constantius with that of Prosper, who does not mention Lupus.
" "
Prosper, as is a well established fact, set himself to write up the
Roman see and exalt its prerogatives. But there need be no contra-
diction. Coelestine may have heard of the decision of the Gallican
Council, and have approved of it. This was not the first time that
a Gallic bishop had intervened in British strife. About a generation
before this, Victricius of Rouen, summoned to the island by his fellow-

pivlates in Britain, had gone thither, and had succeeded in establishing

peace. What the circumstances were that occasioned this interference,
\v<- are not told. 2

The bishops crossed the straits in winter, as we learn from the Life
of S. Lupus. On
account of the roughness of the sea, Germanus
emptied a vessel of oil on the waters, and so smoothed them. On
thi-ir arrival in Britain, their fitness for the work was speedily mani-
d by their energy and success. The Gallic vernacular was akin
to the
language spoken in Britain originally, and both had taken into
them a large infusion of Latin, so that the addresses of the bishops
were probably quite understandable
'
by the people.
Some sixty or seventy years before, Hilary, the Bishop of Poitiers,
dealing in Gaul with the great heresy which preceded this, had found
of great service to
it
go about from place to place and collect in dif-
ferent parts small assemblies ofthe bishops, for free discussion and
mutual explanation. He found that misunderstandings were in this
way, better than in any other, got rid of, and differences of opinion
were reduced to a minimum. Germanus and Lupus dealt with the
people of Britain as their predecessor had dealt with the Bishops of
Gaul. They went all over,
discussing the great question with the
people whom they found. They preached in the churches, they
addressed the people on the high-roads, they sought for them in the
and followed them up by-paths. It is clear that the visitors
fields,

Prosper, Chron., in Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc.. i, p. 16.

*
Victricius, De Laude Sanctorum, c. I (Migne, xx, p. 443).
 5 6 Lives of the British Saints

from Gaul could speak to the people, both in town and in country in
their own tongue, or in a tongue well understood by them. No doubt
the native speech of Gaul and that of Britain were still so closely akin
that no serious difficulty was felt in this respect. They met with
success so great that the leaders on the other side were forced to take
action. .
They undertook to dispute with the Gallicans in public.
. .

The biographer is not an impartial chronicler. The Pelagians carne to

the disputation with many outward signs of pomp and wealth, richly
dressed, and attended by a crowd of supporters. Beside the principals,
we immense numbers of people came to hear the dispute,
are told that

bringing with them their wives and children coming, in the important
;

phrase of the biographer, to play the part of spectator and judge.

The disputants were now face to face. The bishops set the
. . .

Pelagians to begin, and a weary business the Pelagians made of it.

Then their turn came. They quoted the scriptures. The opponents
had nothing to say. The people, to whose arbitration it was put,
scarce could keep their hands off them. The decision was given by
acclamation against the Pelagians." l
Constantius has doubtless not told usall, and has highly coloured

the triumph of Germanus. A Romano-British tribune and his wife

brought their blind daughter to the two bishops, and Germanus at
once restored the 2
girl's sight by touching her eyes with his reliquary.
The Britons at this time suffered severely from the inroads of the
Picts. Constantius says, Picts and Saxons, and Bede repeats the
statement. It has been objected that this is an anachronism, as the
Saxon invasion took place in 449. But it is now generally admitted
that the Saxons had settled in considerable numbers in the east of
Scotland before that date. If so, their alliance with the Picts to break
over the Wall and devastate Britain is
probable enough. Saxons
were in league with the Picts in their onslaughts upon the Britons
from a much earlier period. Theodosius, in 369, defeated their com-
bined forces in north Britain, 3 and the Count of the Saxon Shore was
appointed expressly to guard the east coast against the depredations
of the Teutonic marauders. Again in 396 Picts, Scots, and Saxons
were in league against Britain, and were defeated by Stilicho. 4
News having reached the bishops that a fresh invasion of the northern
barbarians was menacing the land, Germanus and Lupus accompanied

1
Browne (Bp. of Bristol), The Church in these Islands before the coming of
Augustine, S.P.C.K., 1899, P- 92 et seq.
2
This is in the uninterpolated Constantius.
3
Claudian, De Quarto Consulatu Honorii.
Claudian, In i mum Consulatttm Stilichonis.
*
 S. Germanus of Auxerre 5 7

the British army that marched to arrest its progress. During the
march to the soldiers, and most of them, who were not
they preached
Christians, moved the
by exhortations of the prelates, received baptism.
1
The army, wet with baptismal water, as Bede says, went against
the heathen foe in the strength of the Lord.
Germanus picked out
the most active among the Britons, examined the country, and finding
a valley encompassed by drew up his inexperienced troops near
hills,

it. The fire of military ardour awoke in him, and he took the com-
mand of the dispirited Britons, and endeavoured to infuse into them
some energy.
When the Picts came on, the Britons remained in ambush till all

their foeswere gathered in the valley then Germanus, bearing the

;

standard, started from his lurking-place. The priests thundered the

Paschal cry of Hallelujah, for it was Eastertide, the Britons rose, re-

prated the shout, and burst

from their covert. The Picts and Saxons
fled in disorder, casting away their arms ;
and many were drowned
in the river.
The man, almost without striking a blow,
Britons, without loss of a
found themselves in the unwonted position of victors instead of flying,
and attributed their triumph to the merits and generalship of their
h.>ly leader. To pursue the flying foe, and turn a panic into a rout,
and thus strike a serious blow at the power of the invaders, was an
effort beyond their capabilities. They were content to gather up the
spoil, and return rejoicing to their camp.
The site of this bloodless victory is supposed to have been Maes
Garmon, near Mold in Flintshire but this can hardly have been it,
;

if the Picts were allied with Saxons. If, however, they had been

associated with Scots (Irish), then it is by no means improbable.

Chester may have attracted the barbarians, and their boats may
have entered the Dee. There are philological difficulties also in the
way ;Germanus would not become Garmon in Welsh, if adopted
directfrom the Latin.
As the Welsh have preserved no record of the victory, as Gildas
does not allude to it, we may well ask whether the story is not the
legend of some affair in the north near the Wall, greatly exaggerated
by Constantius. Actually it speaks of ineptitude to take advantage
of a success, and does little credit to either the Britons or to their
leader. Bede knew nothing of it but what he read in the account
of the priest Constantius, whose words he quotes almost verbatim.
After having successfully combated Pelagianism, probably in the

1
Hist. EccL, i, c. 20.
 5 8 Lives of the British Saints

autumn of the same year, Germanus and Lupus returned to Gaul.

The former visited Aries, where he was warmly received by S. Hilary.
It is remarkable that, at this very time, the bishops of Gaul, Hilary
among them, were labouring at Rome under suspicion of dangerous
sympathy with Pelagian doctrines. They at least those of Gallia
Narbonensis had felt themselves obliged to call in question the
teaching of Augustine on Predestination and Grace, and were charged
by the fiery Prosper with semi-Pelagianism. In reality they protested
against the exaggeration of the doctrines of Augustine, which left no
place for human effort and the exercise of free-will. It is remarkable
that Germanus, who must have been under the influence of the pre-
vailing anti-Augustinian views of the Gallican Church, should have
refuted Pelagianism in its British stronghold.
In 447, the year before his death, Germanus went again to Britain,
1
accompanied by S. Severus of Treves, the disciple of Lupus. Of
this Severus nothing further is known. Prosper makes no mention of
this second visit ; our sole authority for it is Constantius. This silence
of Prosper is not enough to make us doubt it. The historic sources
of the fifth century but
rarely touch on British matters. Indeed, the
Chronica Gallica at the year 452 is the sole contemporary
authority
for the settlement of the Saxons in Britain. In fact, after the year
440 the events in Gaul are hardly alluded to by Prosper. The only
incidents he speaks of as occurring there are the invasion of Attila in

451, and the murder of the West Gothic King Thorismod in 453.
On
reaching Britain, Germanus was well received by one Elapius,
"
the most considerable person in the land," and he restored the use
of his leg to the crippled son of
Elapius. An assembly was sum-
moned, and Germanus induced the Britons to drive into exile the
teachers of Pelagianism, as he failed to convince them of their error.
After they had been banished, Britain remained stedfast in the
Catholic faith.
After a very brief stay the two
bishops returned to Gaul, and on
this occasion had smooth seas and light breezes, both in coming and
in returning.
Germanus died at Ravenna, the last day of July, 448.
We come to a question of some difficulty. Was S. Patrick a disciple
of Germanus of Auxerre ? Patrick in his " Confessions " does not
intimate by one word that he was so not
by one word does Constantius
;

1
Bede is the authority for Severus being His name does
Bishop of Treves.
occur in the catalogue of
Bishops of Treves, but this was not drawn up till the
tenth century. Contemporary with Germanus was a
Severus, Bishop of Vence
who attended synods at Riez 439, and at Vaison in
442.
 S.
A
Germanus of Auxerre 5 9
refer to Patrick, and had there been any tradition at Auxerre that
the Apostle of Ireland had been a disciple of S. Germanus, this would
certainly have been noted, either by Constantius or by the amplifier.
The Irish authorities for discipleship are not good.
Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni, who drew up a life of S. Patrick in or
about 690, asserts it. Tirechan made a collection of notes on S.
Patrick, copied from a book in the writing of Bishop Ultan of Ard-
braccan, who died in 656. In this there is no mention of discipleship
under Germanus, but Tirechan has nothing to say of the early life of
Patrick. To his collection is tacked on a number of anecdotes in
Latin and in old Irish, but by whom written and when appended we
have no means of judging. They are all of little historic value.
"
In one of these we have this Patrick and Iserninus, that
: is

Bishop Fith, were with Germanus in the city Olsiodra (Auxerre), and
Germanus said to Iserninus that he should go and preach in Ireland.
Iserninus was ready to obey and go anywhere, save to Ireland. Then
Germanus said to Patrick, And thou, wilt thou be obedient ?
' '
Patrick
'

replied, Be it even as thou desirest '. Germanus said, This shall be '

between you. Iserninus shall not be able to avoid going eventually

1
to Ireland.'"

The hymn of S. Fiacc also alludes to discipleship to Germanus, but

this hymn was probably corrupted after the publication of Muirchu 's

narrative. 2
"
In 431 Coelestine sent Palladius to the Scots believing in Christ."
It was at the suggestion of Palladius, a deacon, according to Prosper,.
that Ccelestine commissioned Germanus to proceed to Britain in 429.
Now it is
possible that Palladius may have been a disciple of Ger-
manus ; and as the Palladius who went to Ireland was also called
Patrick, this may have originated the legend.
A
second question relates to the traditions preserved by the Welsh
relative to Germanus as the founder of monasteries in South Wales,,
and as consecrating S. Dubricius. We hold that these and other tra-
another Germanus, Bishop of Man, and
ditions refer to we remit the
consideration of them to the ensuing article.
The of S. Germanus is on July 31.
feast At Auxerre his body
arrived from Ravenna on September 22, was exposed for six days to
the veneration of the
public, and was buried on October I. The body
was translated on January 6, 859, and all these days were formerly
observed in his honour at Auxerre.

1
In the Tripartite Life, ed. Stokes, ii, p. 343.
2
Stokes, notes on the Hymn, in the same, i, p. cxii.
 60 "Lives of the British Saints

For Germanus or Garmon churches in Wales and Cornwall, see the

ensuing article.
The church of Faulkbourne in Essex is dedicated to S. Germanus,
and near it is a Holy Well that bears his name. Winterbourne-
Farringdon, near Dorchester, is also dedicated to him.
"
Camden says that at S. Albans, There is still remaining near the
ruins of the city a chapel of Germanus occupying the site of the ele-
vation whence he preached the Word of God, as is testified by old
1
parchments of S. Albans."
In Lincolnshire, Thurlby, Scothorne and Ranby are dedicated to
the Saint of Auxerre. So is Wiggenhall in Norfolk. The dedication
to him in Selby Abbey is late, of the eleventh century, due to the
possession of a finger of S. Germanus. Two other Yorkshire churches
dedicated to him are Winestead and Marske-by-the^Sea, due to the
influence of the monks of Selby.
Afragment of a Cornish Mass of S. Germanus exists in a ninth
century MS., and in it he is asserted to have preached in Cornwall.
""
Lucerna et columna Cornubiae et preco veritatis efulsit, qui in Lann-
2
aledensis ecclesiae tuae prato sicut rosae et lilia floruit, et tenebras
infidelitatis quae obcecabant corda et sensus nostros detersit." 3
But a mistake, and the Germanus who was
this almost certainly is
in Cornwall was probably his Armorican namesake.
The church of S. Germans in Cornwall flattered itself that it pos-
"
sessed the relics of the saint, Ubi reliquiae Germani episcopi con-
duntur." In the proper preface is an allusion to the Saint's opposition
to Gwrtheyrn, which helps to identify him with the Armorican Saint,

-although it also says that he was sent to Britain by the Pope Gregory
(590-604), a marvellous assemblage of blunders.

S. GERMANUS, Bishop of Man, Confessor

ALMOST inextricable confusion has been wrought by the
confounding
together of two Saints Germanus, the one of Auxerre and the other,
an Armoricari by birth, who died as first
Bishop of the Isle of Man.'
That they were distinct personages is certain.

1
Britannia, London, 1594, p. 305.
2
LanAleth, the ancient name of S. Germans.
3
Warren, Liturgy of the Celtic Church, Oxford, 1881, pp. 159-61 ; also Haddan
and Stubbs, Councils, etc., i, p. 696.
 *
S. Germanics 61

following are the principal statements made in the documents

The
lolo MSS., which have contributed largely to make
printed in the
confusion worse confounded.
" Gannon ab Rhedyw
Catwg was principal of the Cor which S.

caused to be founded at Llancarfan, in the room of Dyfrig, when he

was consecrated Archbishop of Llandaff, which Cor, together with
that <f Illtyd. was founded by SS. Garmon and Bleiddan (Lupus) in
\VaKs when they came to this Island to renew faith and baptism. 1
" of the tribe of Cadell Deyrnllwg was
The religious establishment
Bangor (iarmon, called Llanfeithin, in Llancarfan, and is called Bangor

Cat',
"
Thr tribe of Emyr Llydaw was sent to the Island of Britain to
restore faith and baptism, and came in two Cors. The first came
with S. Garmon, and settled in Illtyd's Cor the second came with ;

fa n, and fixed themselves in Bardsey.

I- 1

"
The first of the two Cors that came to this Island was that of
(iannon, a saint and bishop, son of S. Rhedyw, of the land of Gaul,
and uncle, mother's brother, to and in the time of
Emyr Llydaw ;

nnin Llydaw he came

where he remained till the time of
here,
(iwr therm Gwrtheneu, after which he w^ent to France, where he died.
Ii- founded two Cors of Saints, and
I
placed in them bishops and divines,
in nnli'i- might instruct the nation of the Cymry in the
that they
Christian Faith,where they had erred in their faith. He founded one
Llancarfan, and placed Dyfrig there as principal, and he himself
i

was bishop. Another near Caerworgorn, where he placed Illtyd as

principal, and S. Bleiddan chief bishop there. After that he placed
and made Dyfrig archbishop there, and placed
bishops in Llandaff,
>.
Catwg ab Gwynllyw in the Cor in Llancarfan in his stead, and
2
appointed the Archbishop of Llandaff to be his bishop there.
"
Garmon founded Llancarfan." 3
" "
Among the Stanzas of the Achievements is this :

"
The achievement of Garmon a meek man he was a skilful work,
a fair residence. The establishing of the saints in a Cor in a secure
4
dwelling."

1
P. 130 cf. p. 10, where it
; is stated that Illtyd brought Garmon to Wales
at On
King Tewdrig's suggestion. p. 39, however, Teilo is credited with having
brought him over.
*
Ibid., p. 131. On pp. 113 and 119 Dyfrig is said to have been Gannon's
perie,lawr or confessor. He had also as confessors Gwyndaf H6n and Ustig ab
Geraint, pp. 108, 131.The Book of Llan Ddv (p. 69) also states that Germanus
and Lupus consecrated "
Dyfrig to be archbishop over all the Britons of the
southern part."
3
lolo MSS., p. 220. Ibid., p. 263.
62 Lives of the British Saints
" "
Among Other Achievements :

The achievement of Garmon, the son of Rhedig,

Was the establishing of order among ecclesiastics,
And Faith, in the anxious day.

Again:-
The achievement of Garmon, the renowned Saint,
Was the obtaining of privilege for saints and churches ; K/\>
And the court of demand was the act of Llyr Merini.
1 I
tC
"
The early genealogies briefly state : Garmon was the son of
Ridicus ;
it was in the age of Gwrtheyrn Gwrtheneu that he came
2
to this Island, from France."
Now Auxerre was in Britain in 429 and in 447. For
Germanus of
neither time did he remain long for the last hardly a twelvemonth,
;

and he died in 448. It is not probable that he founded monasteries

during these brief visits. He was busy contending against Pelagian-
ism in gatherings of the clergy and people, and his biographer, Con-
stantius, says not one word concerning his having established religious
communities during his visits either in 429 or in 447. Apart from the
late and untrustworthy statements just quoted, there is no evidence
whatever that Germanus of Auxerre visited South Wales.
Yet according to them he founded Llancarfan and Llantwit, and
placed Catwg or Cadoc in the former, and Dyfrig and then Illtyd in
the latter.
Dyfrig attended the Synod of Brefi. We do not know the exact
date, butit was before that of
Victory, the date of which is given in
the Annales Cambria as taking place in 569. Haddan and Stubbs
suppose that it took place but shortly previous. We have given
3
reasons for holding that it was held before the outbreak of the Yellow
Plague in 547. If we suppose that it was in 546,* then that was nearly
one hundred years after the last visit of Germanus. If we take 560,
then one hundred and thirteen years after. According to the Annales
Cambria, Dyfrig died in 612, one hundred and sixty-five years after
that same visit. We do not ourselves hold that Dyfrig can have lived
to so late a date, but
anyhow it is
absolutely impossible to admit that
he can have been appointed much
bishop, less archbishop, by Ger-
manus in 447.
1
lolo MSS., p. 264. The Welsh text is evidently corrupt.
a
Peniarth MS. 45 ; cf. Myv. Arch., pp. 416, 425, and Cambro-British Saints,
p. 270. Rhedyw for Ridicus seems to occur in the lolo MSS. only.
3
ii, P- 25.
4
After the subsidence of the Yellow
Plague it is probable that a synod would be
held to regulate the Church thrown into disorder
by the death and flight of so
many ecclesiastics.
 S. Germanus 63

Cadoc was a contemporary of Gildas and there is reason for sup-

;

died in one hundred and thirty years after the

posing that Cadoc 577,
final visit of Germanus.
Illtyd was a
master of SS. Samson, Gildas, and Paul of Le"on. Sam-
son died not many years after 557 Gildas died in 570
; Paul of L6on ;

about 573.
Now would give the
taking a generation at thirty-three years, this
about 537
death year of Illtyd as and if he were then aged seventy-
;

seven he was born about 460, thirteen years after the last visit of
Germanus.
The anachronism is made the greater by associating Lupus with
Germanus in the founding of these monasteries and the appointment
Lupus was in Britain only in 429 and this would
of the abbots, for ;

throw back the formation of these establishments by eighteen years.

Whatever allowance may be made for a margin of error, it is impos-
sible to reconcile the statements.

Then, once more, Nennius and the Welsh authorities represent

< iermanus as a strenuous opponent of Gwrtheyrn, and as encouraging
the revolt that broke out against that prince in consequence of his
having invited over the Saxons.
It was not till 457 that the battle of Crayford was gained by these

latter, and the Britons were driven out of Kent and not till 465 ;

that a great victory won over twelve British chiefs at Ebbesfleet showed
how serious a menace to Britain these strangers were. It was not
till the expulsion of Gwrtheyrn took place
after this that and Ebbes- ;

fleet was fought seventeen years after the death of Germanus of

Auxerre.
We are constrained to dismiss as unhistorical all that is said of the
iation of Germanus of Auxerre with Llantwit and Llancarfan,
and with Gwrtheyrn.
But it does not follow that the statements of Nennius and of the
Welsh authorities are to be rejected en bloc. It is quite possible that
there has been a mistake as to the Germanus who played so active a

part in Welsh affairs, political as well as ecclesiastical. There were

other Germans or Garmons.
The Welsh pedigrees mention one Garmon ab Goronwy of Gwared-
dog, a Saint of Beuno's Cor at Clynnog.
1
He is unimportant.
The Irish give us two, German mac Guill and Germanus or Mogor-
man, Bishop of Man.
The first is probably one " "
of the sons of Goll mentioned in the

1
lolo MSS., pp. 143-4.
 64 Lives of the British Saints

Life of S. Ailbe, and of whom we shall deal in a separate article. He

flourished about 510.
"
or Mogornan was a son of Restitutus the Lombard,"
Mogorman
and of a sister of S. Patrick.
c. iv, p. 227), has
Colgan, in his Trias Thaumaturga (Appendix V,
a dissertation on this Germanus. He says that Mogornan or Mogorman
is the Germanus or Gorman commemorated on October 25 in the Irish

Martyrologies ;
but he confuses him with Germanus mac Guill, com-
memorated on July 30. He supposes that Restitutus was a native
of Armorica, and that Germanus became a disciple of S. Patrick mac

Calpurn, and died as first Bishop of Man.

The information we receive relative to this son of Restitutus is not
of good quality, and has to be accepted with reserve. But a suffi-
cient amount is available to show us that there was such a man, that
he was associated with Patrick, and that he became Bishop of Man.
The title of " the Lombard " given to Restitutus is also rendered
"
Huy Baird," and is a blunder, a mistranslation of Huy Baird. Res-
"
titutus is also spoken of as one of the Lombards of Letha." 1 Letha.
is Letavia, i.e. Armorica. There were no Lombards in western
Europe at the time of Patrick.
At this period they were seated north of the Danube above where
is now Vienna, the old Vindobona. In
512 they overthrew the
Herulii, in 566 or 567 they destroyed the kingdom of the Gepidse and
made themselves masters of Pannonia. It was not till 569 that they
descended into Upper Italy. In 575, indeed, they crossed the
Alps
and came down on the Province, where they
destroyed Nice and six
othercities, but were cut to pieces by Mummolus. 2
The Hy Baird of which Restitutus was a clansman was some-
race in Armorica.
"
Patrick and his father Calpurn, Concess, his and
mother, . . .

his five sisters,

namely, Lupait and Tigris and Liamain and Darerca,.
and the name of the fifth Cinnenum (and) his brother, the Deacon
Sannan, all went from Ail Cluade over the Ictian Sea
(the English
Channel) southward to the Britons of Armorica, that is to say, to the
Letavian Britons for there were relations of theirs there at that
;

time." 3
1
Preface to the Hymn of Secundinus, Liber Hymn.,
ii, pp 3 4 A few Welsh,
pedigree MSS., e.g., Cardiff MS. and Llanstephan MS. 81, con-
5 (1527), p. 119,"
tarn th "
ttry, Garmon gassarrvgv (gassarygy) gwr o wlad ryvain," i.e., of
1
Greg. Turon, Hist. Franc., vii, 6 ; Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders v
pp. 215-24.
3
Gloss on Fiacc's
Hymn, Tripartite Life, ii, pp. 4x3-5. The Book of Leinster
 S. Germanus 65

Tlie/e Liamain is supposed to have married Restitutus, and to have

become the mother of Germanus. There also were born the brothers
or first cousins of Germanus, Auxilius, Isserninus, Secundinus and
Benignus, who worked so nobly in the mission-field with their uncle

Patrick.
Ninnan the Deacon, brother of Patrick, was the father of another
1
Patrick.
Auxilius, Isserninus and Benignus went to Ireland, according to the
Chronicon Scottorum and the Annals of Inisfallen,in 438. Who the
H\ Bainl were we can only guess. Possibly that peculiar race
living a:

portion of western Brittany called at present the Bigauden,

and having Kalmuck-like features and build.
When Germanus went to S. Patrick in Ireland we do not know.
lie cannot have remained there long, for we hear little of his labours.

Hr founded one church, Kilgorman, south of Arklow, in Wexford. 2

We next hear of him in the Life of S. Brioc. Crossing over from
\\V\ford harbour, which in Irish has borne his name, Lough Garman, 3
In- landed in Ceritica or Ceredigion, then occupied
by Irish, and made
the acquaintance of Cuerp, a Goidel chief there, and his wife Eldruda,
>.on by birth. Cuerp handed over his child Brioc to Germanus
to In- educated by him, and the Saint took the child along with him to
Paris, where Brioc had as fellow pupils Illtyd and Patrick. 4
Tin- I. i!V Brioc does not identify this Germanus with the Bishop
of S.
of Auxfrre, and we can hardly doubt that he was the son of Restitutus
of the Hy Baird of Letha.
The Patrick who was pupil to S. Germanus would seem to have been
the son of Sannan the Deacon, and cousin of Germanus and Illtyd ;

was his great-nephew, grandson of Aldor, who is said to have married

.1 -i>tei of the Saint, and must at the time have been
very young.
That iermanus revisited his native land of Armorica and the district
(

ol the
Hy Baird is more than probable and the supposition receives;

some confirmation from the fact of a number of memorials of him

being found in Cornouaille, and in a part that leads one to suspect
on the Relatives of the Irish Saints has "
Lupait, Patrick's sister, the sons of
:

Hua-Haird, Sechnall. Xectain, Dabonna, Mogornan (Mogorman) Darioc, Ausaille, ,

>yter Lugnath." Ibid., ii, p. 549.

is
Thauni., App. v, c. iv, p. 225.
1

Shearman, Loca Patriciana, p. 169.

in
Welsh, Lhvch Garmon, in Brut y Tywysogion and the Life of Gruff -
ydd ab Cynan.
Brioci in Anal. Boll.,
ii, pp. 165-6. The chronology of the Life of
Brioc as Dom Plaine and De la Borderie rests on the assumption
worked out by
that the tutor of Brioc was Germanus of Auxerre. If that assumption be re-
jected then all their schemes of in the Life
chronology collapse.
VOL. III. F
66 Lives of the British Saints

Baird, to which his father belonged,

was that
that the tribe of the Hy
now represented by the Bigauden.
Calpurn=Concess

S. Patrick
b. c. 410,
d. 493
 S. Germanus 67

at this period, and we can do no more than offer the suggestion that
('nnamis was there along with his pupils.
From Paris, after a while, Germanus departed for Britain.
We may synchronize the return of Germanus with the visit made
by the great Apostle of Ireland
to Britain in quest of fresh missionaries

fur hi- work. This had grown enormously. The fields were white to
Inrvest, but the labourers were few. Accordingly he quitted Ireland
"
to gather assistants. Joscelyn, in his Life of S. Patrick, says Sanctus :

in regressu suo aliquantisper in Britannia propria patria moratus,

"i<m;i-trria multa fundavit, atque a Paganis destructa reparavit.

Moiurhonim sacris conventibus secundum formam religionis, quam

:r,Tlixit, anuentibus ea replevit . . . et triginta episcopos ex
traiiMnarinis ]>artibus congregates, et a se consecratos, in Dominican!
i
in dr-tinabat." J
Allowance must be made for exaggeration.
What Patrick did was to come to Britain to collect helpers. He
founded n<> monasteries he had not time to do
; so, but he may have
arran^vd that nurseries should be established to furnish him with
Mipj lic- of missioners.

It so, then he would

assuredly select his kinsman Germanus, who
cannot have been younger than himself, to undertake this task, and
this may help to account for the statements in the Welsh documents
to the effect that Germanus had a hand in the foundation of Llantwit
and I.lancarfan.
The date of the visit of Patrick to Britain we do not know. Shear-
man sets it down as taking place in 462.2
It will we have (i) Germanus of Auxerre,
have been noticed that :

son of Rusticus Germanus the Armorican, son of Restitutus

; (2) ;

(3) Germanus, son of Ridicus or Rhedyw, according to the Welsh

nits. Germanus, son of Restitutus, we know about through
Irish tradition. It is our contention that Garmon, son of Ridicus,
and Mogorman, son of Restitutus, are identical, and that the Welsh
have confounded the son of Restitutus with the son of Rusticus, a
easily made.
in intake The fame acquired by the Bishop of Auxerre
Mould tend to eclipse that of the less known prelate of the same name. 3
In like manner the scholiast on the Hymn of S. Fiacc informs us

1
Ada SS. Boll., Mart. T. ii, pp. 573-4.
2
Loca Patriciana, p. 452.
"
Rhys (Celtic Folklore, p. 39) observes that the name Garmon can
J.

hardly have come down in Welsh from the time of the famous Saint in the fifth
century, as it would then have probably yielded Gerfon and not Garmon it .

looks as if it had come

through the Goidelic of this country." Had Germarus
been adopted by the Welsh ata/o/e
period Garmon might possibly stand. 1 he
Combination rin is not unknown in the language ; e.g., darmerth, gennaiv, gorwes,
gonnod, etc.
68 Lives of the British Saints

that S. Patrick accompanied S. Germanus to Britain to assist in the

suppression of the Pelagian heresy.

The scholiast is late, and he
read somewhere that Germanus and Patrick were together in Britain,
and then rushed to the conclusion that Patrick had attended the great
Bishop of Auxerre in 429 or 447.
At the same time that Germanus quitted Paris, Brioc departed to
revisit his parents in Ceredigion.
"
Wenext hear of Germanus in Brecknock, sent by Patrick." The
authority is and
the Life of
Ninnoca, is
S.not good but it does show ;

that a distinction was drawn between Germanus, the kinsman of

Patrick, and the Bishop of Auxerre, and that the former was in Wales.
The Life of S. Ninnoca, as we have it, is late, but is certainly based
"
on earlier material and the statement,
;
Sanctus Germanus epis-
copus ex Hibernensium regione transmissus a Sancto Patricio archi-
l
episcopo, venit ad Brochanum regem fkitannise," cannot be a late
invention. No mediaeval hagiographer in Brittany could have in-
vented such a statement, knowing nothing of the son of Restitutus.
What he found in the text he amplified and coloured.
We come next to the mass of legendary matter in the Historia
Brittonum.
Nennius made his compilation from a Volumen Brittannice, and also
from a Vita Germani. Now had there been any account in this latter
about his contest with the Pelagians, or the Hallelujah Victory, as there
certainly would have been had the Life been one of Germanus of
Auxerre, there can be no manner of doubt that Nennius would have
mentioned both. But as there is no such matter in his History, we
must conclude that the Germanus whose Vita was before him was
quite another saint of the same name. Nennius took into his history
from the Vita Germani the chapters 32-35 then he interrupted the
;

narrative to follow the Volumen Brittannice he returned to the ;

Vita Germani for chapter 39 again recurred to the Volumen Brit-

;

tannice and after that gave chapter 48 from the Vita Germani. In
;

most of the MSS. he calls the saint

simply Germanus, with no mention.
of Auxerre.

Although the story comes to us in a fabulous form, it contains some

historic elements.
The incidents group themselves under two heads : the Transactions
of Germanus with Benlli of Powys (known in Welsh tradition as Benlli
Gawr, or the Giant), and those with Gwrtheyrn.
One authority for his encounter with Benlli is
Marcus, a British

1
Vita S. Ninnocha in Cartulary of
Quimperlf, Paris, 1896, p. 18.
 S. Germanus 69
>p, who
had lived long in Ireland, and who told the story to Heric,
and he or whoever was the author of the bock, inserted it in his book
on the Miracles of Germanus of Auxerre so that already the confu-
;

sion between the two Saints of the same name existed.

The tale as told in the Volumen Brittannice is earlier, and Mark
had read it and repeated it from memory to Heric. He does not name
Henlli, nor the man who was raised to the throne of Powys in his room.
Either Mark had forgotten them, or Heric had not deemed it
necessary
t.i record them.

The story as told in the Vita Germani, which Nennius laid under
Contribution and amplified in 796, is as follows:
("rrmaims went to visit Benlli, and to preach to him. When he
arrived at the gate of the city, he and his attendants were respectfully
received by the porter, who came forth and saluted them. Germanus
bade him communicate to the "king their desire to enter but Benlli ;

returned a harsh answer, declaring that they might remain without

a t \\elvemonth for aught he cared, but he would not permit them
to i onir within.

Evening closed in, and they knew not whither to go. Then one of
the kind's servants approached, and bowing before the man of God,
announced the king's answer, but offered the hospitality of his own
housr outside the city gates, which they accepted and there they ;

were kindly received. The host had but one cow and a calf, and he
killed the latter, dressed and set it before his guests. Germanus bade
them retrain from breaking a bone of the calf ; and the next morning
it was found alive, uninjured.

rly the same day they again approached the gate and sought
audience of the wicked king and whilst engaged in prayer, awaiting
;

admission, a man covered with sweat issued through the gates, and
prostrated himself before them. Then Germanus asked if he believed
in the Holy Trinity, and when he had received this assurance, baptised
him, and bade him go to Benlli with his message, but forewarned him
that he would die. The man on entering, met the prefect was seized, ;

bound, and conducted before the tyrant, who ordered him at once to
be put to death.
Germanus and his company remained outside the whole day, without
obtaining admission.
"
Then he said to the man who had entertained him : Take care
that none of your friends remain this night within the walls." There-
upon the man brought forth his nine sons. Germanus bade them as
well as his attendants fast all
night, and he cautioned the man and
his sons not to look round whatever And, lo
might happen. !
early
 jo Lives of the British Saints

in the night fire fell from heaven and consumed the city, and all who
"
were therein ;
and that citadel (arx) has not been rebuilt even to
this day."
Next morning Germanus baptised his host and the sons, and all the
inhabitants of the country round and Germanus promised to the
;

"
man that a king should not be wanting to his seed for ever." This
man's name was Cadell Ddyrnllug he became king of Powys in the
;

"
room of Benlli, and all his sons were kings, and from their offspring
* "
the whole of Powys has been governed to this day,"
country testi-

fying to the tribal character of

Welsh chieftainship as that of a ruling
or leader."
family, and not merely of a single person
The old line of Cadelling continued to rule Powys till the death in

854 of Cyngen ab Cadell, the last king of that line. They are spoken
" and the
of as of Cegidfa," i.e. Guilsfield, near Welshpool, fort of

Gaer Fawr there was probably their chief seat. Through Cyngen's
sisterNest the kingdom of Powys passed to her son, Rhodri Mawr,
king of Gwynedd.
As related by Mark the bishop, the story was less marvellous. He
must have quoted from a version earlier and in places less expanded
than any that has reached us.
In Nennius the man is portarius, but in- Mark's version probably
porcarius, for Heric makes him the king's subulcus. The night was
one of winter, and so cold that it was unfit for man or beast to be
exposed to the inclemency of the weather. The story of the calf is
given at greater length and with fuller particulars but nothing is
;

told of the man covered with sweat who was executed. Next morning
Germanus and his companions are admitted to an audience with the
king, when the Saint roundly scolded the prince, who had not a word
to answer. Then Germanus thrust him from his throne with his staff,
and bade him surrender his seat to one more worthy to fill it. The
king obeyed, and fled along with his wife and children. After that
Germanus raised the subulcus to the vacant throne, and thenceforth
to this day the descendants of the pig-driver gave kings to the Britons. a
The incident of the calf eaten and restored whole is a pagan myth
imported into the story. It is instructive to note how the account of
the deposition of Benlli was expanded in later editions of Nennius,
with reminiscences of Lot and the destruction of Sodom.
1
Nennius in Monumenta German. Hist. Chron. Minora, ed. Mommsen, cc,
32-5. In the sixteenth-century metrical legend of S. Cynhafal the destruction
of Benlli is attributed to that Saint. See ii, pp. 255-6.
8
Seebohm, Tribal System in Wales, 1895, p. 145.
DC Miracul. S. Germani, ed. Migne, p. 124 also given by Mommsen as above,
;

pp. 172-3.
 S. Germanus 7 i

\Vhat actually occurred was apparently this. Benlli, king of Powys,

had incurred the dislike of a large number of his people, and Germanus
an insurrection under Cadell, and cursed the king in true
ictioned
Celtic fashion. The insurgents prevailed. Benlli was expelled, and
Cadell Ddyrnllug
1
was the first of a new line of kings of Powys.
JVnlli trawr was king in lal, a district lying between Ruthin and
Mold, and extending towards Llangollen ; and the conical mountain,
Mod 1-Vnlli, in the Clwydian range, takes its name from him, and the
fort crowning it is generally believed to be the arx of Nennius. His
lu'li, is mentioned in Englynion y Beddau in the twelfth-century
2
k Book of Carmarthen :

Whose the grave on the Maes Mawr ?

Proud his hand upon his lance

The grave of Beli ab Benlli Gawr.

Tin'two stones set up to mark the grave existed till about 1600 at a
place of the name on the Nant-y-Meini brook, which rises on the
NYnjuis mountain. Cadell apparently rewarded Germanus with
Brants of land in lal, and the Germanus churches in Denbighshire owe
their origin to this. We cannot attribute them to the Bishop of
Auxerre.
A legend of a similar character is told by the Welsh historian, Hum-

phrey Lhuyd, of Germanus (whom he confounds with his namesake

of Auxerre) in his Breuiary of Britayne, published in 1573, wherein
he connects him with Llynclys, near Oswestry. The then king of
Powys had his palace on the spot where now stands Llynclys Pool.
"
The kynge whereof, bycause he refused to heare that good man, by
the secret and terrible iudgement of God, with his Palace, and all his
householde, was swallowed vp into the bowels of the Earth in that
place, whereas, not farre from Oswastry, is now a standyng water, of
an vnknowne depth, called Lhunclys, that is to say, the deuouryng of
the Palace." 3

1
The Durnluc of Catell Durnluc has nothing to do with the supposed district-
name Teyrnllwg (lolo MSS., p. 86), the traditional name of the district com-
"
prised in the old Diocese of Chester, and whence Vale Royal," applied to a
district in Cheshire, was translated. Cadell Ddyrnllug seems to mean Cadell
of the Black Hand (Mr. Egerton Phillimore in Y
Cymmrodor, viii, p. 119; ix,
P- i?9).
1
Ed. Dr. J. G. Evans, 1906, p. 69. Beli was slain in battle by Meirion ab
Tybion, who also set up the stones to mark his grave (Peniarth MS. 267, and
Llanstephan MS. 18).
3
The Breuiary is a translation by Twyne of Lhuyd's work in Latin published
"
in 1572 at
Cologne. Llynclys means, more correctly, the swallowed court."
Thm* are other legends of the origin of the Pool see Sir J. Rhys, Celtic Folk-
;

lore, pp. 410-4.

 72 Lives of the British Saints

The next political movement in which Germanus was engaged was

one against Gwrtheyrn.
to assist the Britons against
Although the invitation to the Jutes
the Picts had been sent, not on Gwrtheyrn's sole initiative, but by
1
decision of a council of the chiefs, as Gildas assures us, yet when
th2 disastrous results became manifest, indignation and resentment
broke out against Gwrtheyrn himself, and a conjuration was formed
of Roman imperial
against him, headed by Ambrosius Aurelianus,
descent. In characteristic fashion a Saint was invoked to bless the
conspirators and to ban Gwrtheyrn.
Germanus was fixed on, and
a great Council of the chieftains and clergy was assembled, to criminate
and condemn the king. Gwrtheyrn had added to his incapacity as a

ruler, the crime of seducing his own daughter.

" was gathered in one
And when a great synod of clerics and laity
council," bade his daughter bring in the child she had
Gwrtheyrn
borne him, and place it in the lap of Germanus and declare that he,
the bishop, was its father.
Germanus received the child, and called for a comb and razor and
shears, and bade the child offer them to his true father after the flesh,
whereupon the boy handed them to the king. Gwrtheyrn rose up in
a fury, and fled from the face of Germanus and the council. Then he
invited magi, i.e. Druids, to him. Next follows the fable of Ambrosius
Merlin, and the attempt made by Gwrtheyrn to build a castle in Eryri,
or the Snowdon district. From this he was also driven, and he departed
with his wise men (Druids in the Irish Nennius) to the sinistral district,
and arrived in the region named Gworthegirniaun. 2 Thither Ger-
manus again pursued him, along with his following of British clergy ;

and mounting a rock, he prayed against him for forty days and nights.
Then Gwrtheyrn fled again to the castle that bore his name near the
river Teifi. Once more the implacable Germanus went after him, and
fasted and prayed against him for three days and as
many nights.
And on the fourth night fire fell from heaven and consumed the wicked
"
king, with his wives and all his followers. Hie est finis Guorthegirni,
ut in Libro beati Germani repperi. Alii autem aliter dixerunt." 3
The author proceeds to say that this differs from the current tradition
that represents Gwrtheyrn as
wandering about the country, scorned
by all, till he died of a broken heart.
In the foregoing account the incest of the
king is put in the fore-
1
De Excid. Brit., el Williams, pp. 52, 54 ed.
; Mommsen, p. 38.
The commote is now in Radnorshire, the chief place in it being Rhayader.
It was regarded at one time as being in
3
Powys.
Nennius, ed. Mommsen, c. 47, pp. IQO-I.
 S. GERMANUS.
Stained Glass, S. Neot.
 S. Ger mantis 73

front as the principal cause of the assembly of the Council ; that this

was not so, we may rest assured. The Britons were far more concerned
over the conquests of the Jutes and Saxons than about the private

morals of the king.

The child put into the arms of Germanus is called in the text Sanctus

Fan -i us but he cannot have been Faustus of Riez, but Edeyrn,

;

\vh<> built a monastery at Llanedarn, in Glamorganshire.

dwrthevrn would seem to have thrown himself into the arms of

the pajjan party, for he summoned to him twelve magi or Druids who
ad\i>ed him to offer a human sacrifice.
The reason why Germanus went after him the second time was
this. us that a great meeting was held between
Nennius tells
probably
the Saxons and the Britons, for convivial purposes, and that at the

banquet the Saxons treacherously

stabbed the Britons, and three
hundred of their nobles were thus slain.Gwrtheyrn was, however,
>pared. because he had married the daughter of Hengist but he was ;

"
kept in bonds till he had surrendered the three provinces of East,
South, and Middle Sex, besides other districts at the option of his

This surrender seems to have roused the resentment of the Britons

to the highest pitch, and to have induced Germanus to go after the
kini; and expel him from Dyfed.

Tin- lire falling from heaven is a reduplication of the myth of the

death of Benlli.

"rding to Nennius, the order of events was this :

i. A Council in which Germanus met and denounced Gwrtheyrn,

and from which Gwrtheyrn fled.

j. Heretreats to Eryri, in Gwynedd, where he builds a caer, which

eventually he surrenders to Ambrosius, or Emrys Wledig.

He then makes his headquarters in Guenessi, where he built
himself a castle called Caer Gwrtheyrn.
4. A and Britons, at which the nobles of the
conclave of Saxons
latter are treacherously murdered. Gwrtheyrn is, however, spared.
5. Germanus again seeks him in Caer Gwrtheyrn fasts against ;

him with all his clergy.

"
6.
Gwrtheyrn again fliesto 'a Castell (arx) Gwrtheyrn, quae est
in regione Demetorum juxta flumen Teibi." Germanus again fasts
against him, and fire falls from heaven and consumes him and his
wives.
\\ e will take this succession and endeavour to find and determine
the several sites.
 74.
Lives of the British Saints

1. Where the Council was held which deposed Gwj theyrn we have
no means of saying.
2. The be fixed with certainty. It is Dinas
castle in Eryri may
from Beddgelert to Llanberis,
Emrys, on a rock above the road leading
half-way between Beddgelert and Llyn y Ddinas. it is a remarkable
rounded and very steep hill, ascended with comparative ease on one
side The summit bears traces of having been fortified, and
only.
there is on it a large cairn now overgrown with brushwood, and there

were in it till comparatively recently the remains of eight cytiau. The

summit is very irregular. As Gwrtheyrn surrendered this fortress to
Ambrosius, it bears the name of the latter. It occupies an important
strategic position.
3. The next place of retreat was Caer Gwrtheyrn
in Guenessi. There
are various readings for Guenessi. In the Irish Nennius it is Guunis.
"
Some thirteenth-century MSS. give Guasmoric juxta Lugubaliam
ibi aedificavit urbem quaeAnglice Palme castre dicitur." So far its
situation has not been determined. Certain early forms of place-
names occurring in the district between Morecambe Bay and the Sol-
way Firth incline Mr. Egerton Phillimore to believe that it will ulti-

mately be located there.

4. Nennius says that Germanus continued
to preach to Gwrtheyrn
to turn to God, and abandon his illicit connexion. Then he tells the
story of the wars and death of Gwrthefyr, and then of the false peace
concluded between Gwrtheyrn and Hengist, and of the massacre of
the British nobles by the treacherous Saxons. Then he adds that
Gwrtheyrn, who had been spared by Hengist because he had married
the daughter of the Saxon leader, fled into Gwrtheyrnion to his castle,
and that Germanus went after him. He had previously surrendered
" "
the plaga occidentalis to Ambrosius.

5. After this, Germanus, exasperated at the slaughter of three hun-

dred British nobles, pursued Gwrtheyrn to his castle in Gwrtheyrnion,
and took with him a number of British clerics. He ascended a rock
"
and fasted against him " for forty days and nights. Then the
wretched king fled again.
6. Lastly, Gwrtheyrn took refuge in a castle (arx) that bore his
"
name in regione Demetiorum juxta flumen Teibi." The spot is

Craig Gwrtheyrn, near Llandyssul, in Cardiganshire. It is an insu-

lated,rounded hill, rising five hundred feet on the south bank of the
river, half-way between Llandyssul and Llanfihangel-ar-Arth.
This was his last refuge. Germanus again pursued him, and fire

fell from heaven and consumed him and his wives.

Nennius adds that the conclusion of the story was doubtful. What
 S. Germamts 75

he related was from the Book of the blessed Germanus "alii autem ;

alittT dixerunt." The other versions of the end of the king were,
"
by all the people of Britain for having received
that being hated
and being publicly charged by S. Germanus and the clergy
-a.\ons,

in the sight of God, he betook himself to flight and that, deserted and ;

a wanderer, he sought a place of refuge, till broken hearted he made

an ignominious end. Some accounts state that the earth opened and
swallowed him up on the night his castle was burned as no relics ;

discovered on the following morning, either of him, or of those

who were burned with him."
A local tradition attaches to Gwrtheyrn's castle under Yr Eifl, in
I.lryn, at
the mouth of the romantic dingle Nant Gwrtheyrn. Here
utliuorks, a circular embankment with a base-court forming
a portion of a circle struck from another centre. The local legend is
to tin ctlect that an earthquake rent the rock on which it stands, and
1

-0>.ook down the castle and in Nant Gwrtheyrn is shown a tumulus,

;

popularly called Bedd Gwrtheyrn, under which the unfortunate king

was held to be buried. More than a century ago it was dug into, and
in- co (tin was exposed containing the bones of an
unusually big
man.
L
One of the Englynion y Beddau runs :

The grave in Ystyfachau

Everybody is doubtful about it.

It is the grave of Gwrtheyrn Gwrthenau.

The situation, however, of Ystyfachau is not known, it would

appear.
i Yalle Crucis Abbey is the Pillar of Eliseg, which was set up
by Cyngen ab Cadell (died 854) the ,
last king of Powys of the old line,
to the
memory of his great-grandfather Eliseg or Elise. The inscrip-
"
tion is now, unhappily, very illegible. Part of it has been read, Pas-
-
cen[tius] . . . films Guarthi[girni] (quern) bened[ixit] Germanus."
Tin words refer to some lost tradition, according to which Germanus
4

had given his blessing to this son of the ignoble king; but it
establishes the existence of a Germanus in Wales at the period of
Gwrtheyrn, or, at least, of his son.
Germanus, having accomplished his work in upsetting Benlli and
Gwrtheyrn from their thrones, and blessing the usurpations of Cadell
and Ambrosius, and having, if we may place any reliance at all on the

1
Black Book of Carmarthen, ed. Dr. J. G. Evans, p. 67.
*
See especially Prof. Sayce's restored reading of the inscription, Arch. Camb.>
1909, pp. 45-6 also Sir J. Rhys in Y Cymmrodor, xxi (1908).
;
 j6 Lives of the British Saints

statements in the lolo MSS., doixe something towards the establish-

ment of colleges in South Wales, departed for Ireland, and was ap-
be the first Bishop of Man.
pointed by his kinsman, Patrick, to
The date cannot be determined with precision, but it was some-
where between 464 and 466.
Life of S. Patrick in Colgan's
Joscelyn, the author of the sixth
"
S. Patricii visum sanctum
Collection, says Quemdam
:
discipulorum
et sapientem Germanum nominatum, in episcopum promotum, illius
et in quodam promon-
gentis ecclesiae novelise regentem praeposuit,
torio (quod adhuc insula Patricii vocatum, eo quod ipso ibidem ali-
l
quantulum demorabatur) episcopalem sedem posuit."
In the same Life is given an account of the conversion of Maccail,
a robber, who was destined to become fourth Bishop of Man, after
Connidrius and Romulus, who succeeded Germanus. 2 S. Patrick is

said himself to have laboured in the Isle of Man. 3

That Germanus summoned his disciple Brioc to his assistance is
possible enough, though he has left no foundation in Man but Brioc ;

received a cult in churches in Kirkcudbright and Rothesay.

enough that the statement that S. Patrick worked in
It is possible

the Isle of Man may

be due to a mistake, and that the Patrick who
went there was the son of Sannan the Deacon, the pupil of Germanus.
The death of Germanus took place in 474. 4
His church near Peel Castle in Man is called Kirk-Jarman.
When we come to consider the dates of his life we encounter great
difficulties.

The statement that he founded Llantwit and placed Illtyd there

cannot be accepted, and it is one of a very late date. Illtyd can
hardly have been converted till 472, and could not well have founded
Llantwit before 480.
The statement relative to Catwg is also impossible chronologically,
as Catwg died about 577, a century after the death of Germanus.
Dyfrig also belonged to a later generation.
It is unfortunately
impossible to fix the date of the revolution under
1
Trias Thaumat., Vita 6 U p. 98. ,
2
Vita S. Patricii in Acta SS. Boll., Mart. T. Trias Thaumat.,
I., pp. 570-1 ;

Vita 6 U p. 98. ,

3
Acta SS. Boll., Mart. T. T,, p. 559.
Ussher in his Primordii gives this date. He almost
certainly had authority
for which we no longer possess. He was not the man to
it,
give it as a bit of
guesswork. The date of the death of Germanus is not in the Chron.
Scottorum,
nor in the Annals of Ulster or Inisfallen. Those of
Tighernach are lost between
360 and 489. O'Conor, Rerum Hibern. Scriptores, ii, p. 114, has: " A.D. Ger-
mano primo Mannias episcopo defuncto duo successores a S. Patricio 471, ordinati
sunt, Conindrus et Romulus, quibus postea successit Maccaldus."
GERMANUS FOUNDATIONS.
 >. Germanus 77

isius Anreliamis that led to the expulsion of Gwrtheyrn from

his command.
Approximately, but only approximately, these would be the dates
i he life of Germanus.

l,rrmanu> conjecturally born in Armorica . . . c. 410

went to Ireland to S. Patrick . . . c. 440

Patrick mac Sannan

leaves Gaul to meet S. Patrick in Britain
.....
leaves Ireland and takes charge of Brioc, Illtyd and

. .
c.

c.
450
462
nitfaged in contest with Gwrtheyrn . . c, 462-4
returns to Ireland and appointed first Bishop of

,,
Man
dies in Man
.

....... c.

c.
466
474

The dedications to him in North Wales lie mainly in the district

whore lie had with Benlli and Gwrtheyrn. Cadell doubt-
his contests

less rewarded him with lands for his aid, as would also Ambrosius

Aurelianus from those of Gwrtheyrn. *

Hi- <lmrch.es areLlanarmon and Bettws Garmon, in Carnarvon-

-liin- :
lal, Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, Llanarmon
Llanarmon yn
Mynycld Mawr (called also Llanarmon Fach), and Capel Garmon, in
Denbighshire Llanfechain (formerly Llanarmon ym Mechain) and
;

Castle Caereinion, in Montgomeryshire; and Llanarmon or S. Har-

mon's. in
(iwrtheyrnion, Radnorshire. All these, with the exception
<>f the last-named, are in North Wales. It is possible enough that
of themmay be dedicated to his great namesake of Auxerre, as
all of them subsequently came to be so regarded.
Under Llanarmon yn lal there is included in the Valor of 1535 the
"
item, coram Imagine S'ci Garmon' xxx8 ." 1
In oblacionibus With
this the notice of Leland, some five
years later, well coincides, that
"
Greate Pilgremage and Offering was a (of) late to S. Armon." 2 In
the south wall of the church, outside, is inserted in an upright position
the effigy of a priest in Eucharistic vestments, 3 which Pennant says
ha- done
duty for S. Garmon but his image was, no doubt, destroyed
;

like all
others at the Reformation. On the summit of a rocky knoll,
near Tomen y
Rhodwydd, in this parish, is his Holy Well, Ffynnon
Armon, the water of which is said neither to increase nor diminish at
any time, nor has it
any visible inlet or outlet. It was formerly much
frequented.

1
iv, p. 440 ; cf. vi, p. xliv.
2
I tin., v, fo.
35. (fifteenth century) swears by his hand,
Lewis Glyn Cothi
'

Mvn Haw "

IHMI Armon (Works, 1837, p. 76).
!

*
There is an illustration of it in Lloyd-Williams and Underwood, Village
Churches of Denbighshire, 1872.
78 Lives of the British Saints

In Llanfechain churchyard, on the north side of the church, is a

small mound called Twmpath Garmon, from which he is said to have
preached, and similar
mounds exist at Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog and
Castle Caereinion. The water for baptisms at Llanfechain continued
to be carried, until within last century, from the Ffynnon Armon
there, about 200 yards from the church.
There are Holy Wells of
Garmon and Bettws Garmon, which were formerly
his also at Capel
in great repute.Garth Garmon is the name of a township of Capel
Garmon, and Clas Garmon of one of S. Harmon's. The elds (cf. Irish
to the existence of some kind of
dais) of the latter clearly points
monastic community at an early period.
1 "
Jonathan Williams in his History of Radnorshire, says that there
is on the bank of the River Marteg, at the eastern extremity of the
parish, near to the confines of the parish of Llanbister, a remarkable
and conspicuous tumulus, named Bedd Garmon, i.e. the Grave of
"
Garmon " and further, at p. 89 of the same work, he says
;
One :

"
of the townships or parishes constituting the manor of Rhayaderis
called Tu Sant Harmon. Tu is simply an illiterate way of spelling
Ty, the House of S. Garmon (cf. Ty Ddewi for S. David's).
In Flintshire, in the parish of Mold, is Maes Garmon, 2 supposed
to have been the place where the Alleluiatic Victory was won by Ger-
manus of Auxerre against the Picts and Saxons. It is very doubtful
that the overthrow took place there, and that Germanus of Auxerre
was in Wales at all. It may take its name from Germanus of Armorica.
In 1736 an obelisk was erected on the spot as the traditional site of

the victory, first located here by Ussher.

In Devon the parish church of Week S. Germans has the saint, pro-
bably, as patron, but the patronal feast is observed on July 31.
In Cornwall German's on the Lynher, an early monastic and
is S.

episcopal centre from Saxon times certainly. We may suspect that

this was actually one of the mission colleges founded by Germanus
mac Restitutus, rather than those in South Wales.
The parish church of Rame is dedicated to S. German so also ;

was a chapel at Padstow (B. Stafford's Register, 1415).

In Lower Brittany are Clohars Carnoet by Quimperle, and Riec

*
Tenby, 1859, p. 239. There was a tradition that he had his hermitage
adjoining the churchyard of S. Harmon's. Bp. Maddox (1736-43) in MS. Z in
the Episcopal Library at S. Asaph records under Llanarmon
Dyffryn Ceiriog that
Garmon is " said to have been buried under a plain stone in the Church."
2
Maes, a field, sometimes means a field of battle, but it is most unusual
to find the word prefixed to the name of a Saint. If Maes Garmon were the
scene, the Saxons must have sailed round to the west, as
they can hardly have
fought their way across the island.
STATUE OF S. GERMANUS.
At Pleyben.
 S. Germanus 7g

near by ; Plougastel-Saint-Germain, west of Quimper, and Kerlaz.

AN" IMt-yben by Chateaulin, Laz by Chateauneu'f and Plougonven
near Morlaix. All these are in Finistere. No trace of the Saint is to
lu- loam! in the diocese of Vannes. The dedications to S. Germain
\\e meet with in Ille-et-Vilain belong to a different Saint, German mac
Guill.
(.nmamis, lUshop of Man, has met with a hard fate, and no recog-
nition. He has everywhere been supplanted by his noted namesake
of Auxerre.
M. Loth, inAnnales de Bretagne, 1905, has disputed the thesis that
was an Armorican Germanus distinct from the saint of Auxerre.
\Y quite admit that the authority of the lolo MSS. is of little
value, and that the Irish traditions relative to the family of
S. much higher. But we
Patrick are not of venture to think that
it is
possible to conciliate, by the assumption we make, the Welsh
and Itbh traditions with Nennius and the Life of S. Brioc.
Germanus does not occur in the Irish Martyrologies. In the Isle of
Man In- was commemorated on July 3. In the Welsh Calendars the
1'Ystival of Germanus, Gwyl Armon, occurs in May, July, and October.
1 he days in the two last months are festivals of his namesake of
.aid that in May of him
May 27 and 28 occur in
of Paris.
half a dozen Welsh Calendars
July 13 and 14 in five
; July 31 ;

in a score or more Calendars (including those of the earlier editions

of the and in some fourteen on Octo-
Welsh Bible and Prayer-Book) ;

" "
ber July 31 is often marked
i.
Gwyl Armon yn lal in the calendars,
but in more recent times the wakes were held in Yale on August I.
Tin- wakes at Llanfechain and Castle Caereinion were held on October I,

latterly the Sunday after October 12. In the two Carnarvonshire

parish^ they followed July 31.
At Harmon's, Radnorshire, the feast was kept on the Sunday
S.

alter August 13.

At S. German's in Cornwall on July 31, transferred to August I, but
also a fair
on May 28, the day of S. Germanus, Bishop of Paris.
At Plougastel-Saint-Germain the patronal feast is held on the first
Sunday in July, and the Pardon on the first Sunday after Easter.
At Pleyben the Pardon is on the first Sunday in August. At Riec
the patronal feast is on the first Monday in July. At Clohars Carnoet
on August 15.
There is a fine statue of S. Germanus at Pleyben.
 80 Lives of the British Saints

S. GERMANUS MAC GUILL, Bishop, Confessor

MENTION has been made in the Life of S. Ailbe of that saint having
come across the Sons of Goll on the Ranee, near Dol.
And under the head of Achebran some account has been given of
the party of Irish bishops and their sisters who came to Cornwall, a
after a brief sojourn there went on to Gaul, landed at the mouth
the Ranee, and founded churches up the river and in the surroundin
country as also of their appearing at Rheims in 509.
;

It is not necessary here to repeat what was said under S. ACHEBRAN.

IN.
"
The words in the Life of S. Ailbe are, In ilia autem regione magnum
1
monasterium, in quo reliquit filios Guill."
edificavit
The party on reaching Cornwall formed small settlements. That of
German is now Germoe under S. Breaca. The name is Germocus i
Leland and William of Worcester, and Leland, quoting from the legen
of S. Breaca, says that he was a king. As such he is represented in
fifteenth-century fresco in the church of S. Breage, and in a statue in
niche above the porch at Germoe.
There is a story in the Life of S. Ciaran of Saighir about a German
an old travelling companion.
German went to visit the master, whereupon Ciaran proposed aft
prayer to perform one of his penances, to go into a tub of cold water
and he invited German to come in with him. This German did
but the water was so cold that his teeth chattered, and he was abou
to scramble out,when Ciaran assured him that if he would only remai
in and bear it a little longer, he would get over the sense of the inte
cold. German did so.

Presently Ciaran exclaimed, "Heigh! a fish! a fish!" and

tween them the two nude Saints succeeded in capturing a trout that
was in the vat. " I rejoice that we have got the fish," said Ciaran,.
"for I am expecting home to-day my old pupil Carthagh, whom I
had to send abroad, as he was rather disorderly as a disciple and
he will want his dinner."
It is not certain that this was the same German, but chronologically
it
may well be so. Though Germoe or German may have been of
royal descent, he was hardly a king.
In the Irish O'Gorman, and Donegal,.
Martyrologies of Tallaght,
German mac commemorated on July 30. William of Wor-
Guill is

cester says that the

day on which Germoe was commemorated in
Cornwall was June 24, and he calls him a Germoe Feast,
bishop.
however, is on the first
Thursday in May.
1
Ada SS. Hib. in Cod. Sal., col. 244.
 S. GERMOE.
From Fresco in S. Breage (restored).
 S. Gildas 8 r

A is found in Ille-et-Vilaine-: S. Gormain sur

chain of his churches
Ille, S.Germain en Congles, and S. Germain des Pinel, also the very
interesting and fine church of the same .dedication in Rennes.
In the churchyard of Germoe is a singular structure, that is called
S, <
M-rmoe's Chair. It existed in the time of Leland. There was a
Holy Well near the church, but no structure of that nature remains.
At Tredias near Broons, C6tes-du-Nord, were seven crosses, marking
tin.-
spot where traditionally the seven Irish brother pilgrims separated.
A IK-W road has been carried over the spot, and has buried the crosses.
Tlu-y were situated on the Farm of S. Georges. 1

S. GERMOE, see S. GERMANUS MAC GUILL

S. GERWYN, see S. BERWYN

S. GILDAS, Abbot, Confessor

THE authorities for the Life of Gildas are, first, his own statement
about himself in the book of De Excidio Britannia.
;t, a Life by a monk of Rhuis, written in the ninth century.
An admirable critical edition of this Life by Professor Hugh Williams
ppeared in his Gildas, Cymmrodorion Record Series, 1901, pp.
,;i; 389. This Life was first printed in 1605 by John a Bosco, in his
Bibliotheca Floriacensis , from an imperfect MS., and this was reprinted
by the Bollandists in Ada SS., Jun. II, pp. 958-67 also by Colgan
;

in his Ada SS. Hibernice, 1645, p. 181 et seq.

In a complete form it was
published by Mabillon for the first time,
Ada SS. O.S.B., saec. I, 1668,
pp. 138-52 ; and now by Professor
Williams in his Gildas.
This Life was written
during the lifetime apparently of Isembard,
Bishop of Poitiers (Isembardus 1047-1086). But that it is based on
much earlier material is unquestionable. The monks of Rhuis were
able to fly before the Normans and carry off the body of Gildas and
their chief treasures to
Berry, and doubtless conveyed their books
with them.
Professor Williams thinks that it was written originally in or about

De Lhommeau, "Visite aux torn beaux de Tresneur," in L' Union Liber ale de
Dinan, June 4, Ajoutons que la route qui passe pr6s de la ferme et traverse
1903.
le ruisseau est
neuve, et qu'elle a enseveli sous son remblai les Sept Croix, groupe
pieux dresse par les fideles en 1'honneur des sept saints de Bretagne lesquels
etaient Gebrien,
Helen, Petran, Germain, Veran, Abran et Tressaint.
VOL. III. G
82 Lives of the British Saints

we suppose that the chapters, 32-45, have

been added at a
880, and
later date. This is possible, but not certain. In chapter 32 there is a
"
reference back to what had already been said, Britannia, quae olim
" "
Letavia dicta fuit, sicut diximus the reference being to c. 16,
;
Dei
in Armoricam quondam Galliae regionem, tune
jussu pervenisset
autem a Britannis, a quibus possidebatur, Letavia dicebatur."
On the whole we should consider the Life by the Monk of Rhuis as
a composition of the end of the eleventh century, based upon earlier

material.
Another edition by Mommsen, in Monumenta German., Hist. Chron.
Minor a, iii. (1894), pp. 91-106.
The third source is a Life attributed to Caradog of Llancarfan.
in which it was so
Archbishop Ussher possessed a MS. of this Life,
attributed in a rude distich appended to it.
Caradog was a friend of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and accordingly
belonged to the middle of the twelfth century. The
manner in which
in the narrative leads rather
Glastonbury is forced into prominence
to the conviction that it was a composition of a monk of that place.
"
This Life was first printed by Stevenson for the English Historical
" " "
Society in 1838, then by Giles for the Caxton Society in 1854.

It has been published by Mommsen in the above-mentioned Collection,

pp. 107-10. Also by Professor Williams in his Gildas, pp. 394-413.

This served as basis for the Life of Gildas in Capgrave's Nova Legenda
Anglice.
On the other hand, the Life by the monk of Rhuis has served the
same purpose to a condenser whose work is in the Bibl. Nat. Paris, and
which is given by De Smedt in his Catalogus hagiograph. Latin. Bibl.
Paris.
From what has been said under S. ANEURIN/ it will be seen that
the Welsh genealogists identify Gildas with him but that the Aneurin,
;

who is also Gildas, was not the author of the Gododin.

For the authorities for his pedigree we refer back to that article.
Before proceeding to the narrative of the Life of Gildas, it will be
requisite first of all to consider at some length the date of his birth.

I. ON THE DATE OF THE BIRTH OF GILDAS.

In order to arrive at an approximate chronology of the Life of
Gildas, it is necessary, as a preliminary, to determine the date of the
Battle of Mount Badon, upon which the whole calculation depends.
"
Gildas says From that time (i.e. from the victory won by Am-
:

brosius Aurelianus), the citizens were sometimes victorious, sometimes

1
i, pp. 158-60.
 S. Gildas 83

the enemy. . . . This continued up to the year of the siege of Mount

Badon, and of almost the last great slaughter inflicted upon the

rascally crew. And this commences, a fact I know, as the forty-fourth

"
year,
with one month now elapsed ;
it is also the year of my birth

(usque ad annum obsessionis Badonici mentis, novissimaeque ferme

de furciferis non minimae stragis, quique quadragesimus quartus, ut
novi, orditur annus, mense jamuno emenso, qui et meae nativitatis
est). He proceeds to say that from that date comparative peace had
"
reigned. But not even at the present day are the cities of our
country inhabited as formerly deserted and dismantled, they lie
;

neglected until now

(hactenus squalent), because, although wars with
foreigners have ceased, domestic wars continue. The recollection of
so hopeless a ruin of the island, and of the unlooked-for help, has been

fixed in the memory of those who have survived as witnesses of both

marvels. Owing to this (deliverance) kings, magistrates, private
us, priests, preserved their own rank.
ecclesiastics, severally
As they died away, when an age had succeeded ignorant of that storm,
and having experience only of the present quiet, all the controlling
and justice were so shaken and overturned that
influences of truth . . .

not even the remembrance of them is to be found among the afore-

named ranks." x From this passage we learn that the Battle of Mount
Badon arrested the advance of the Teutonic invaders, and was suc-
ceeded by a period of at least thirty-three years, a generation, of
tranquil ity. Nennius makes the Battle of Mount Badon to have been
"
the twelfth of Arthur's victories. In this engagement nine hundred
and sixty by his hand alone, no one but the Lord affording him
fell

tance."The " by his hand alone " is, of course, a bit of mythi-
2

cal extravagance. The Annales Cambria have " Bellum Badonis in :

quo Arthur portavit crucem Domini nostri Ihu Xp'i tribus diebus et
tribus noctibus in humeros suos et Brittones victores fuerunt." 3
In the Irish Nennius,
although it is stated that Arthur and the
Britons fought twelve great battles,
yet the name of the twelfth has

slipped out.
"
Henry Huntingdon says that in this battle
of four hundred and
forty of the Britons fell by the swords of their enemies in a single day,
none of their host acting in concert, and Arthur alone receiving succour
from the Lord." 4

A Excidio Britannia, ed. Prof. H. Williams, pp. 60-3.

5
Hist. Brit., ed. Mommsen,
p. 200.
1
In Y Cvwmrodor
ix, (1888), p. 154, ed. Phillimore.
4
Hist. Angl., ii, c. 18. Geoffrey of Monmouth makes
the Saxons besiege Bath.
Arthur, who was in the north, hastens south and attacks the Saxons, who are
on a mountain, and
slays 470 with his own hands. Hist. Reg. Brit., ix, c. 4.
 84 Lives of the British Saints

Now, in order to determine the date of this victory, we

Cessation
of Hostili- have to fix our eyes on the arrest in the onward march of
ties *
the West Saxons, giving peace for over thirty years. That
Gildas was mainly concerned with the condition of Britain in the
south-west is probable. He was much in South Wales, and, if the
Vita 2 da may be trusted, was for a while at Glastonbury.
was during the long pause of a generation, during which the
It
invaders made no attempt to press forward, that Gildas wrote, and
it was towards the end of that rest, before hostilities had broken out

anew and fresh districts had been overrun, plundered, and devastated.
Now we can hardly expect to find a notice of this crushing defeat
set down Saxon Chronicle that records no reverses of the arms
in the ;

of the invaders, only their successes. What we shall have to look

for, then, is the sudden halt in the onward sweep, lasting many years.
We do not obtain any help from Bede, who simply paraphrases the
words of Gildas, whilst misunderstanding his calculation. He says :

"
They (the Britons) had at this time for their leader Ambrosius
Aurelius, a modest man, who alone, by chance, of the Roman nation
had survived the storm, in which his parents, who were of the royal
race, had perished. Under him the Britons revived, and offering
battle to the victors, by the help of God, came off victorious. From
that day, sometimes the natives and sometimes their enemies, pre-
vailed, till the year of the siege of Badon Hill, when they made no
small slaughter of those invaders, about forty-four years after their
arrival in England. But of this hereafter." 1
According to Bede, then, 493 was the date of the battle, but he
fixes this date entirely on a misapprehension of the words of Gildas.
"Concerning this" we will speak, as does Bede, "hereafter."
Invasion
We w^l now 1^
at tne entries in the Chronicle, and see
of Hamp- what we shall be able to
gather thence for fixing the period
of the thirty-three years ' arrest in the invasion and if ;

this be fixed, then we shall be able to determine the date of the siege
of Mount Badon, which was that from which the pause in the conquest
of Britain began. In 495 Cerdic and Cynric arrived with five ships
at Cerdic's Ore, and the same
day fought against the Brits. Cerdic's
Ore is probably Calshot, at the mouth of 2
Southampton Water.
In 501 Port and his two sons came to Britain with two
ships, and
1
Hist. Eccl., i, c. 1 6.
8
a term still in use on the coast of
Ore is
Hampshire, and signifies a spit
running into the sea. A farm by Calshot is called Ower, which is the same as
Ore, and Camden says that Calshot is a corruption of Caldshore. Britannia,
1594, P- 190.
 S. Gildas 8 5

effected a landing at Portsmouth ; and in a conflict slew a young

British chieftain.
In 508 Cerdic and Cynric were engaged in a battle with the Brits
;it Xatan-leagh, slew a British king, and five thousand men with him.
Natan-leagh is Netley, and the district as far as Charford was then
included in the Natan-leagh settlement.
In 514 the West Saxons arrived with three ships and landed at
( and Stuf and Whitgar, nephews of Cerdic, fought the
Vnlic's Ore ;

Brits and put them to flight.

"
In 519 Cerdic and Cynric undertook the government of the West
and the same year they fought with the Brits at Cerdic's ford
,

(Charford) and from that time forth the kingly family of the West
;

x
have reigned."
The West Sexe were now compacted into one political organization.
"
No entries were made for 520-526 ; but in 527 we have, In this year
ic and Cynric fought against the Brits at the place called Cerdic's-
lea."
In 530 Cerdic and Cynric took possession of the Isle of Wight but ;

n<>t till 552, thirty-three years after that Cerdic became King of the
Saxons, was there any move westwards.

Geography To understand the situation, it is necessary to take a

uth
survey of the southern portion of Hampshire, bounded
and^Eas? on the north by Wiltshire and on the west by Dorset-
Dorset, shire.

A great half-moon of chalk hills extends from just above Havant

in the east to Badbury Rings by Shapwick in the west, about four miles
n< >rth of Wimbourne. The basin between these hills and the sea at
Havant was occupied by the forest of Bere.
At Portchester on Portsmouth harbour was the Roman station and
town of Portus Magnus, from which a Roman road ran to Bitterne
opposite Southampton, where was the town of Clausentum.
Here the River Itchen enters the sea, having broken a way through
the chalk ring at Redbridge the Anton or Teste also flows into the
;

sea by Southampton, and the whole tract between the rivers from
Eastleigh to Romsey was originally one vast morass, out of which
rose tofts covered with trees.
From Southampton Water to Wimbourne and the Stour was one
immense region of forest, heath and marsh, so impenetrable that a
traveller from Clausentum to Morionio or Poole would probably go
round to Venta Belgarum (Winchester), hence to Old Sarum, and
then take the road south, afterwards called the Ackling Way.
1
Saxon Chronicle, sub. ann.
86 Lives of the British Saints

Now within the area enclosed by the great chalk half-moon is a

lesser crescent, risingfrom 400 to 500 feet above the sea, also of chalk
Beyond this the
concavity towards Southampton.
is
down, with its

basin of the Avon, flowing from Salisbury. The river formerly

wandered among marshes, now drained, but periodically flooded,
dairy farm land. At Charford a stretch of chalk
affording superior
hillsfrom the east approaches the river, and contracts the area of

morass.
The Jutes and Saxons having made themselves masters of Natan-
leagh or Netley, the district
between the mouth of the Itchen and
Portsmouth harbour, and having pillaged Portus Magnus and Clau-
sentum, remained in occupation of this district for twenty-four years.
and then made a further advance. They passed over the inner cres-
cent of down, crossed the Avon at Charford, and there fought the
Britons and defeated them, and most probably took possession of the
that commanded the ford, and
strong entrenched camp of Whitsbury
over the whole of the region enclosed by the hoop of chalk
spread
downs from the vale of the Avon to that of the Stour by Wimbourne,
A spur of chalk ridge strikes inward from
the west, rising to 600
feet, and forms the Pentridge. South of this, from the Avon to the
Stour, towards the sea, was sandy barren waste and morass. West
all

of Pentridge, in a hollow, a chalk valley unwatered by a stream, was

Cranbourne Forest stretching its arms along the slopes of the hills
and occupying all the land that was not fen, but having the bare down
swelling above it and that bare down was densely peopled by the
;

Romano-Britons, who lived there mainly on their flocks, and who

have literally strewn these downs with the remains of their dwellings
clustered in villages and towns. Across these downs, straight as an
arrow, and perfectly distinguishable to the present day, is the Ackling
Street, coming from Old Sarum and striking for Badbury Rings, a
junction point of several roads.
This elevated chalk region was a Gwent. The forests that occupied
the lowlands, the river basins where the water spread, shifted its
course, and formed deep morasses and lagoons as also the heathery
tracts strewn with swamps, were hardly inhabited at all, but popula-
tion teemed on the downs. The researches of General Pitt Rivers
have shown both how numerous they were, and also what was their
condition of life before the Saxons swept them away. They had
absorbed a considerable amount of Roman culture. Their wattle
and mudhouses were admirably drained, and were heated by rude
hypocausts. They made use of Roman coins, Samian ware of the
finest quality, and
pottery with green and yellow glaze, which was of
MAP OF BOKERLY AND GRIM'S DYKES.
 -,

87
"
extreme rarity among the Romans. They had chests of drawers in
which they kept their goods, which were decorated with bronze bosses,
and ornamented with tastefully designed handles of the same metal.
They had which implies a certain degree of luxury.
vessels of glass,

The}- used tweezers for extracting thorns, bronze ear-picks, and even
implements designed for cleaning the finger nails, and they played
games of draughts a number of iron styli showed that they were able
;

to read and write. Some of their houses were painted on the

. . .

inside, and warmed with flues in the Roman style. They were, per-
haps, covered with Roman tegulae and imbrices, and others were cer-
tainly roofed with tiles of Purbecke shale. They wore well-formed
bronze finger rings, set with stones or enamelled. They used bangles
of bronze and Kimmeridge shale, and one brooch discovered was of

the finest mosaic, such as could not easily be surpassed even in Italy
at the present day. Also gilt and enamelled brooches, some of which
in the form of animals. They used bronze and white metal
spoons and the number of highly ornate bronze and white metal
;

fibulae showed that such tastefully decorated fastenings for their

s must have been in common use." x
They had their amphi-
theatres for public entertainments they drew water from wells,
;

sunk in one instance to the depth of 188 feet. Of images of the gods,
of indications of paganism, these villages were barren, but there was

idence that Christianity had taken hold of the occupants in- ;

deed, the slovenly and irreverent manner in which they buried their -

in refuse heaps and ashpits shows that they had lost all sense of

it
departed, such as was so marked a feature in the
ion for the

the bronze age, and had not acquired any idea of the dignity
in

he human body such as comes in with Christianity.

tple The Ackling
Street runs straight as an arrow from Old Sarum to a point now called
East
J^UOl
Woodyates, and there makes a slight bend to the east and ;

m
tram this point drives directly, without a swerve, to Badbury Rings,
'

can be seen distinctly in the distance, with the road aiming at

m. Here, in the opinion of General Pitt Rivers, stood the Romano-
then
British town of Vindogladia, a centre and market to the numerous
villagesstrewn on all the downs around. Here he unearthed a portion
a town. The exploration was never completed, and all that can
said isthat here stood a considerable village or small town, in-
abited by Romanized Britons, at the same time as the villages on
surrounding Gw_ent. Roman coins were discovered down to
norms, 395-423, who withdrew the legions from Britain.

Excavations in Bokerly and Wansdyke, privately printed, 1892, iii, pp. 5-6.
 88 Lives of the British Saints

From Woodyates the Ackling Street runs over open down, rising
some 340 to 390 feet above the sea. This down declines towards
the west, where a broad waterless valley, once occupied by Cranborne
Chase, separates it from the higher ridge, now tree-covered but for-
merly bare, that is a continuation of the half-moon of chalk hills
enclosing the basins of the Itchen, Anton, and Avon.
This description has been necessary to explain what follows.
The Gewissae, having crossed the Avon at Charford, made them-
selves masters of the Gwent that culminates and of the
in Pentridge,
worthless morass south of it ; and they doubtless then sacked Vindo-
gladia, if
Woodyates may be regarded as occupying the site of that
town.
They were, however, in a bad strategical position, for the ring of
high land that half encircled them was strongly defended by a chain
of fortresses of prehistoric origin, but capable as ever of being utilized,
all within sight of one another :
Badbury, Bugbury, Hod Hill, Ham-
bledon, Melbury, Winklebury, Castle Ditches, Chiselbury, and Clear-
bury Ring. And up the Avon stood the most redoubtable fortress in
Southern Britain, Sorbiodunum (Old Sarum).
One great advantage they had, however, obtained a hold on the
Ackling Street.

Here, then, pent up in this half-hoop, if we

may trust the Saxon
Chronicle, the Gewissae remained inactive, save for the subjugation
of the Isle of Wight, for thirty-three
years, making no attempt to
break out to the north or to the west.
The Britons on the Isle of Wight now found themselves cut off from
their countrymen by the Gewissae, who
occupied the mainland from
Portsmouth to the River Avon, that enters the sea at Christ Church.
We may be sure that they would not relish this isolation, and would
escape with all their goods to that portion of the country still unoccu-
pied by the invaders and when we are informed that in 530 Cerdic
;

and Cynric conquered the Isle of Wight, and slew many men at Wiht-
garas-byrg (Carisbrooke) we may feel confident that the island had
,

already been to a large extent abandoned, and that the slaying was
simply a massacre of such as remained.
Period of
Now ** is certainl y a remarkable fact that Cerdic and
inactivity Cynric, who had landed in 495, and had been joined
by
th
fresh adventur ers in 501 and 514, should have done nothing
three yes. '

to push forward their

conquest from 519 to 552, when the
Battle of Old Sarum was
fought, followed by Barbury Hill in 556,
marking an outburst of fresh activity.
They did, indeed, consolidate their power in south
Hampshire and
 S. Gildas 8 g

east Dorset by the Battle of Cerdic's Lea, the site of which has not
been determined, and by the conquest and occupation of the Isle of
Wight ;
but they made no attempt to break through the chain of
forts that lay along the heights of the chalk hills to north and west,
so far as we can ascertain from the entries in the Saxon Chronicle.
How are we to account for this inactivity for thirty-three years ?

This has been explained by the great reverse of Mount

Badon, which Roger of Wendover states was fought in
520. Roger is a very worthless authority on the early history of
Britain, but on this point he may possibly enough be right.

Henry of Huntingdon, a grave and trustworthy historian,

mentions the battle, and he sets it down as taking place after 519,
and before 530. It is true that he quotes Nennius, whom he
calls Gildas, but he must have had some grounds for placing the

battle just after 519. The Annaks Cambria 1 give the date of
Mount Badon as 516, but the dates in the early portion of this
work are not more than approximate.
Now Gildas says that after this battle ensued a lull in the invasion
lasting for a generation. There was such a lull, according to the Saxon
Chronicle, from 519 to 552, just thirty-three years, a generation, and at
no other time in the latter part of the fifth or in the sixth century. We
may ask, if the Battle of Mount Badon was productive of this arrest,
whether it is not probable that its site would be somewhere on the
then frontier of the Gewissae. And we have Badbury Hill that answers
cur requirements. Badbury the southernmost point of the sweep
is

"t hill and fortresses. It rises some four miles north-west of Wim-
b'iurne to a height of 327 feet, and is a sufficiently conspicuous object
t<>
give its name to a hundred. It is an entrenched hill, and the camp
measures 1,800 feet long by 1,700 feet wide. There are three con-
centric banks and ditches ;
the point of junction of the Roman
it is

reads from Old Sarum to Dorchester from Moriottie, one leading to P*

the junction of the Fosse Road and that from Old Sarum to Ad Axium.
It is conceivable that the Gewissse, unable to force their
way to
Old Sarum past Clearbury, and fearing to leave their base exposed to
a swoop down from
Badbury on their settlements in south Hampshire,
may have resolved on turning the flank of the Britons by taking Bad-
bury, which was the key to the position, and which opened up to them
Dorchester, Ilchester,and the way to the Severn basin.
That district from the Chilterns to the Severn was the most pros-
perous and richest in Britain, and may well have incited in them the
lust of
conquest and of plunder.
1
Y Cymmrodor, ix (1888), p. 154.
 go Lives of the British Saints

But two ways only were open to them, that by Old Sarum to Ad
Axium, and that by Badbury and Dorchester.
From Old Sarum they shrank. " Celt and Roman alike had seen
the military value of the height from which the eye sweeps nowadays
over the grassy meadows of the Avon to the arrowy spire of Salisbury ;

and, admirable as the position was in itself, it had been strengthened

at a vast cost of labour. The camp on the summit of the knoll was
girt in by a trench hewn so deeply in the chalk that, from the inner
side ofit, the white face of the rampart rose a hundred feet high, while
strong outworks protected the approaches to the fortress from the
west and from the east. Arms must have been useless against such
a stronghold as this." x
Nor was Old Sarum alone ; less than three miles east of it was
another very strong fortress, Figsbury, and Clearbury would have to
be passed before Old Sarum was reached.
Of the two doorways to the west, that by Badbury was certainly
the easiest to force and it had this great advantage, that it could
;

be attacked without exposing the base itself, defended by impassable

morasses.
No modern invader would hesitate for a moment as to which to
choose. If, then, Mount Badon be Badbury, all seems clear. The
West Saxons made a desperate attack on it in 520, and met with a
crushing defeat which left them inactive for a generation, save only
that they reduced the Isle of Wight.There is further evidence that
for a long periodthey remained on the defensive only.
Bokerly A very remarkable range of embankment and moat
Dyke. extends from Boulsbury or Martin Wood, between Cran-
borne and South Damerham, and stretching north-west over Blagden
Hill descends to Martin Down, and reaches the Ackling Street pre-
cisely atWoodyates, where that road makes its one and only deflection.
It crosses the Roman Road, then curves south, and passing West

Woodyates disappears in the direction of Garston Wood in tilled land.

No further traces of it can be found till we come suddenly on it
again above Gussage S. Andrew, on Thorney Down, where the modern
road from Salisbury to Blandford cuts through it. Thence it can be
traced for four miles, with breaks, to Launceston or Langstone Down,
in Tarrant Monkton parish.
Now these formidable entrenchments were obviously thrown up by
people occupying the Pentridge Qw^nt. The date at which thrown
up can also be approximately determined, at least for that portion
which crosses the Roman Road at Woodyates.
1
Green, The. Making of England, 1897, i, p. 105.
 S. Gildas
"
Bokerly Dyke, the present boundary line between Dorset and
Wilts, is an entrenchment in high relief, nearly four miles long, run-

ning in a north-west and south-east direction across the old Roman

road which runs from Sarum to Badbury. It has a ditch on the north-
1
east side of the rampart, proving that it was from this point the

enemy was expected ... it

everywhere occupied strong ground, if
viewed from the standpoint of an enemy advancing to attack it from
the north-east. It runs somewhat crookedly along the ground . . .

this crookedness arose from the constructors availing themselves of

hollows as they secured the ground. It ran across t^ p ^wpnti. or

open downland, between the two great forests which existed at that
time, and the remains of which still, or until quite lately, did exist
on both flanks. On the south-east the Dyke terminated upon strong
ground in Martin Wood, which may be considered as the survival of
the Forest of Holt, and to have been formerly continuous with the
New Forest. On the left it terminated in a part of the country which,
within the memory of persons still living, was a part of Cranborne
*
Chase Wood."
The Dyke, wherever it fails to be distinguishable, has either been

ploughed down or else stopped at a forest. And a forest in those

it

early days, a tangle of briar and thorns and undergrowth, was emi-
nently effective as a point on which to abut. It re-appears again

where there was open down.

"
General Pitt Rivers says further Bokerly entrenchment, dating
:

beyond doubt as late as the departure of the Romans from Britain,

cannot have been erected earlier than the year 520."
It would appear to have been thrown up by men flush with the

pillage of Romano-British towns, to such an extent are the banks

peppered throughout with relics of that period and late Roman coins.
That the Teutonic invaders did throw up dykes against the Britons
iscertain Offa's Dyke is evidence to that effect.
;

One thing seems very evident. Those who threw up Bokerly

Dyke and in so doing they buried a portion of the Romano-British
town at Woodyates, and heaped the bank with the debris of the houses
/ere afraid of attack from the north and north-east, and took special
care to guard against an enemy advancing along Ackling Street for ;

here, where the Dyke crosses the Roman road, they threw up a double
line of defences. The inner bank has been ploughed down, and the inner

1
General Pitt Rivers is here speaking of that portion of the Ditches which
explored.
8
Excavations in Bokerly and Wansdyke, privately printed, 1892, p. 9.
92 Lives of the British Saints

moat filled but they were both revealed by the explorations of

;

General Pitt Rivers.

The dense forest of Cranborne, filling the dry valley from Wood-
yates,Upwood, Handley, perhaps rendered a dyke there unnecessary ;

perhaps the defence was continued by an abatis of trees. Above

Gussage S. Andrews a double bank and two moats re-appear crossing
elevated down, and only ceasing where there is a valley formerly dense
with trees and brambles. They re-appear again on the Down by
Tarrant Hinton. Beyond, further south, they cannot be traced, for
here the Gwent comes to an end, and the defence, if continued, was
continuecTby-an abatis. It will be seen by the map that the frontier
here was thrust considerably forward, somewhat north-west of Bad-
bury. For what reason we are unable to say.
Whether the Saxons by a daring rush had gained Badbury and
were dislodged by the Britons and driven back, or whether they
attacked Badbury and were repulsed, does not appear from the
meagre notices we have of the Battle of Mount Badon assuming that
Badbury is Mount Badon.
" "
Gildas merely mentions the Mount Badon, without
obsession of

stating by whom it was besieged.is not more explicit.

Nennius
Geoffrey of Monmouth, who connects Mount Badon with a hill near
Bath, makes Arthur and the Britons attack it, and drive the Saxons
from it ;and though the authority of Geoffrey is naught, we suspect
that what really took place was something of this sort. The Gewissae
made a dash for Badbury and seized it. They could not, however,
cross the Stour, the ford commanded by Spettisbury, nor move north,
threatened by Hod Hill and Hambledon and Arthur with his Britons
;

-succeeded in driving back the Saxons from Badbury.

Was Cerdic's-lea the country from Bokerly Dyke to the sea, now
conquered and held by Cerdic, as formerly Natan-leagh had been con-
quered and held ? We cannot say. It would seem, however, certain
that Bokerly Dyke had been cast up by the Gewissae when they made
themselves masters of this portion of the land. But there is further
evidence.
Grim's Running in parts parallel with it, describing a vast curve
Dyke,
stretching on the south from Whitsbury Common, and
running almost due north to a point 380 feet above the sea, near Clear-
bury Camp, on the Gwent, is Grim's Dyke. From this point it turns
and runs west, and at a mile and a quarter above
Woodyates crosses
the Ackling Street. It then approaches
Bokerly Dyke, and at a dis-
tance of half a mile from it follows its direction in a
sweep to the south,
and aims at a camp in the Chase. Whether the dykes that have been
 S. Gildas 93

examined in Cranborne Chase formed a portion of it cannot be deter-

mined but it is probable that they did.
;

Grim's Dyke, after aiming at the high ground of what is now Cran-
borne Chase, but which was formerly open down densely strewn with
Romano-British villages, probably followed what is now the line of
demarcation of the county of Dorset to the wood above Farnham,
where are camps, and along the elevated land over which now runs the
high road from Blandford to Shaftesbury. But possibly no rampart
was here needed. All this district was well protected by formidable
camps. Bugbury, east of Blandford, is within sight of Badburyand
Spettisbury, and has traces of a bank running from it, north and
south. There are embankments all across this country but to solve ;

their purpose and to connect them, demands careful examination by

a local antiquary.
Now Grim's Dyke has its moat fronting Bokerly Dyke, and was
thrown up by a people who were at war with those who piled up
Bokerly. Each nationality dreaded raids from the other. Grim's
Dyke has not, unhappily, been explored, but those dykes in Rushmore
that have been examined, and which apparently have some connexion
with Grim's Dyke, show that they belong to the same period as Bokerly.
"
If Grim's Ditch ever was a defensive entrenchment," says General
"
Pitt Rivers, and of the same period as the Dyke, it must have been
erected in opposition to the defenders of Bokerly Dyke, as the Ditch
the south-east side facing the Dyke." x
ii The ground behind
the Grim's Ditch rises to a ridge of chalk, behind which on the north
is the
Valley of the Ebble, beyond which again rise other chalk downs.
of an
It was
clearly desirable for those who would check the advance
enemy enclosed within the half-moon to prevent them from acquiring
this defensive rise of land, for if they got into the Valley of the Ebble

the way to Old Sarum was open to them.

Grim'sDyke is vastly inferior as a structure to Bokerly Dyke. The
near Woodyates, rose 17 feet above the bottom of the moat
latter,
when excavated, and must originally have stood at least 3 feet higher.
And Grim's Dyke was probably never anything like so high, and
depended on the moat and for defence rather than on the
palisade
embankment.
One other point must be noticed in connexion with Grim's Dyke,
and that is, that it rests upon and stretches beyond Whitsbury so
;

that either the Gewissae, when they gained the victory at Charford,
did not secure that fortress, or else it was wrested from them later by
Britons, if we admit that Grim's Dyke was thrown up by these
1
Excavations in Bokerly and Wansdyke, p. 59.
94 Lives of the British Saints

latter against the Saxons, who in like manner cast up Bokerly Dyke
against the Britons.
General Pitt Rivers says of Wansdyke, with which we are not con-
"
cerned, and Bokerly Ditches, with which we are No reasonable :

man can ever again assert that either of these dykes are pre-Roman,
or that Bokerly Dyke was erected previously to the time of the Em-
peror Honorius that is to say, previously to the time when the Roman
;

legions evacuated Britain." 1 With this evidence, what can be said

but that the invading West Saxons entrenched themselves in the
district of South Hampshire on purpose to maintain themselves there
tillthey were strong enough to push north and west ?
Their numbers cannot have been great a couple of thousand at ;

the outside, but recruited by fresh arrivals from beyond the seas every
summer.
The evidence of Bokerly Dyke goes far to show that they remained
on the defensive, without immediate prospect of a further advance.
So only can we account for the labour expended on these entrench-
ments.
cer tainly a confirmation of the theory first pro-
I* *s
Mount
Badon is pounded by Dr. Guest, that the Mount Badon of Gildas
ury
and Nennius was Badbury in Dorsetshire, that we find
'
:

1. That 519-20 the West Saxons remained inactive for some

after

thirty-three years, so far as not making any advance to north or west.

2. That they appear to have entrenched themselves in their
newly
acquired settlement, as if content for a while to remain on the defensive
only.
Both Dr. Freeman and Mr. Green have accepted the identification
and the proposed date for here we have
Badbury precisely where
;

we might expect a battle to be fought, we have the British tradition

that a battle was fought, and that the Britons
gained the victory-
tradition substantiated by Gildas. And we have a period of peace
and arrest in the onward sweep of the enemy following on this supposed
battle in 520.
When was there such a lull ?
else

Henry of
Huntingdon admits that the site of Mount Badon, as of
the other battles " described "
by Gildas," were not remembered. In
our times," he says, " the places are unknown."

Not Bath Nevertheless, Mount Badon has been supposed to be

Bath. The Welsh mediaeval writers fall into this mistake,
though Bath is in a hole and Badon was a hill.
Certainly had Bath been accepted in his time as the site of the battle,
1
Excavations in Bokerly and Wansdyke, p. xiii.
ROMAN ROADS FROM OLD SARUM AND BADBURY TO BATH.
 S. Gildas 95

Henry of Huntingdon would not have expressed himself as he does.

Badbury is called in Saxon Baddanbyrig, and Leland describes Bathan
Wood near Badbury. 1
That it was occupied by the Romano-British at the time when the
Jutes and Saxons
landed in Hampshire is almost certain for although ;

Badbury has not been explored, yet about it are being continually
turned up relics of that period, of that same period as the relics found
inBokerly Dyke, coins of the later Roman emperors, Carausius, Clau-
dius Gothicus,and Constantine II, as well as British coins, including
one of Cunobelinus, bronze swords, fragments of Samian ware, and
British fibulae.
2
That Mount Badon should be Bath is incredible.
It would have been impossible for the Gewissae to have broken through

the chain of camps that encircled them, and to have penetrated so

far, till either Badbury or Old Sarum had fallen. The road west from
Sarum is strongly guarded by a series of fortresses. Almost imme-
diately in turning west from Old Sarum, along the
Roman Road, begin
the formidable entrenchments in Grovely Wood, the Ham&hill Ditches,
the Kilbury Rings, Hanging Langford Camp, and Church End Ring.
Then come the Stockton earthworks, all within ten miles of Sarum.
\\V must further consider that the invaders were comparatively few,
that they were foot fighters and not horsemen and to have raided
;

over forty miles from their base is what they could not have thought
of doing. They would have been enfolded and cut to pieces infallibly
liad they done so.

The Roman name

for Bath was Aquae Solis. What the Celtic name
it was we do not know. 3
originally In mediaeval Welsh it was
\v n and Caer Vadon. The actual site of the battle having been
rgotten, it was supposed by Geoffrey of Monmouth to have
been
ught at Bath and the text
;
of Gildas was interpolated with the
" the words
s qui prope Sabrinum ostium habetur," after

obsessionis Badonici montis." But the paragraph is not found

in the best MSS., and was not admitted into the edition of Gildas

London, 1568.
Joscelin,
We have noreason whatever for supposing that the name Badwn
was given by the Welsh to the ruins of Aquae Solis till after the Saxons
1
///., iii, p. 55.
2
Mulchings' History of Dorset, 3rd ed., by Shipp and Whitworth Hodson,
1868, p. 177. "
In the Welsh Life of S. David, it is named Yr Enneint Twymyn,
3 the
" Caer
hot bath*. Camden gives it the same name among the Britons, but also \/ f^T^
Palladur( which he supposes is derived from Pallas or Minerva (Britannia,
Caer Baladr is really the old Welsh name for Shaftes-
4, pp. 169,170).
Qf,*
f>aladr being a shaft or beam.
, See, however, Geoffrey's Brut, ed. Rhys
Evans, p. 64.

urvJW->
96 Lives of the British Saints

had settled there, re-edified it, and called it Bathan-ceaster, of which

Caer Vadon is a translation.
The Welsh word badd, a bath (which does duty also for the city-
name), borrowed
is directly from the English and baddon, 1 a bath (as-
;

well as the city-name), is not Celtic. Applied to the town it is simply

Bathonia borrowed.
The Mons Badonicus of Gildas most certainly did not derive its-
name from any Baths near it, but the name was probably descriptive
of the hill.

The bad or badd entering into composition in Celtic names is not

rare. There is a Baddon in Cornwall. It may be bad, a boat, and

may give the name to a dun or camp as bearing some resemblance to>

a vessel. <>
Mr. Green's words concerning the period under consideration may
"
well be quoted. A
fight at Charford on the Lower Avon in 5io/
seems to mark the close of a conflict in which the provincials were
driven from the woodlands whose shrunken remains meet us in the
New Forest, and in which the whole district between the Andredsweald
and the Lower Avon was secured for English holding. The success
at Charford was followed by the political organization of the Con

querors, and Cerdic and Cynric became kings of the West Saxons.
Here, however, their success came to an end. Across the Avon the
forest belt again thickened into a barrier that held the invaders at

bay ;
for when in the following year, 520, they clove their way through,
it to the Valley of the Frome, eager perhaps for the sack of a city
whose marked by our Dorchester, they were met by the Britons
site is

at Badbury Mount Badon, and thrown back in what after events

or
show to have been a crushing defeat. The border line of our Hamp-
shire to the west still marks the point at which the progress of t
Gewissae was arrested by this overthrow, and how severe was
check is shown by the long cessation of any advance in this quarter." 2

Summary
From the Saxon Chronicle we learn :

a. That from 449 to

of Argu-
577 there was but one period of
tranquility, when encroachments were arrested, i.e. from
519 to 552, a generation.
6. This was due to the road to Dorchester
being blocked to the
advance of the Gewissae by the fortress of Badbury and that to ;

Cirencester and Bath by Old Sarum.

The badd and baddon quotations cited in Dr. Silvan Evans' Welsh Dictionary
1

are all late; and the Bath-names,

s.vv., Badd, Baddwn, Baddon, and Caer
Faddon, take us no further back than the Middle Ages, and are merely adapta-
2
tions. The Making of England, 1897, i> PP- 101-2.
 S. Gildas g7

c. That probable they would have attempted the least formid-

it is

and that which would have turned the British flank

e of these, ;

and that a crushing reverse in doing so would account for the long
period of inaction.
From Gildas we learn :

a. That a battle was fought at Mount Badon, in which the Saxons

were defeated.
b. That, consequent on this defeat, there ensued a period of at
least thirty years of tranquility.
From monumental evidence we learn :

a. That in Pentridge, west of the Avon, a people was cooped in for

a period sufficiently long to allow them to erect enormous embank-
ment <.
//.That over against these embankments, the people with whom
they were at war threw up an opposed range of dykes.
c. That the period when these embankments were cast up was
subsequent to 520.
d. That accordingly there is strong probability that these banks
were cast up by the Saxons on one side, and by the Britons on the
other.
It would therefore appear as evident as possible, from the scanty

materials in our possession, that it was the Battle of Mount Badon

which produced the inaction of over thirty years, terminating in 552,
and that this battle was fought shortly after 519 and, next, that the
;

site of the battle was on the frontiers of the Gewissae, and Badbury
\\i-rs to this requirement.
e will now proceed to another point in our consideration of this
difficult investigation.

te of
There are two other dates with which Gildas was inti-
the Death mately connected. In his Increpatio he attacks with great
aelgwn Now Maelgwn died
'asperity Maelgwn, King of Gwynedd.
at the outbreak of the Yellow Plague in 547. This is the date given
in the Ann ales
Cambria, and with it agree the Irish annals. Thus
1

give under 548, when its worst ravages were

the Four Masters felt in
"
Ireland : The death of Ciaran of Clonmacnois, of Tighernach of
Clones, of Mactail, of S. Colum, son of Crimthan, of Finan of^ Clonard,
tutor of the Saints of Ireland. All died of the Plague of Cron-Chonaill.
This was the first Buite Chonaill. All the saints died of it but Ciaran
and Tighernach." Eochaid, son of Connlo, King of Ulster, also died
then.
"
In the Vita Sti. Tciliari we have (Book of Llan Ddv, p. 107), Pestis ilia
. traxit Mailconum regem Guenedotiae."
III. H
 98 Lives of the British Saints

Consequently Gildas must have written his Increpatio before 547,

probably between 540 and 544.
But he further says that a generation had sprung up since the Battle
of Mount Badon, in the period of calm, and in security.

Accordingly we cannot put the composition and publication of this

work before 540, twenty years after Mount Badon. The eclipse in
538 and the further eclipse in 540 may have alarmed men's minds,
and hurried on the publication.
Summons ^ne secon(l date is that of his summons to Ireland by
by King King Ainmire, which is mentioned in the Life by the monk
Ainmire.

Now Ainmire, according to the Four Masters, was king in 564, and
was slain in 566.
There is, indeed, a slight variation in the dates given. Ainmire
did not become King de facto till 565, after the murder of Diarmidh,
and his life is prolonged according to some authorities till
569.
"
Now the Annales Cambrics give 565 as Navigatio Gildae in Hyber-
nia," and this exactly agrees with the date of Ainmire's becoming
supreme king in Ireland.
Thus the summons to Ireland took place proximately twenty-five
De Excidio Britannia. In the interim
years after the issue of the tract
the long peace had been broken, Old Sarum, the most redoubtable
fortress on the had fallen in 552. The Battle of Barbury Hill
frontier,
x
in 556 made
West Saxons masters of the greater part of Wilt-
the
shire. Berkshire was overrun, and the way up the Thames was open.
Not only so, but the west was also open. Only London and Silchester
remained in the hands of the Britons, and these next fell. Then, and
then only, was the road clear from all difficulties of advance on Bath,
Cirencester and Gloucester, and this advance was made in 577.

Date of We now arrive at that most difficult problem of all to

Birth of be solved, the date of the birth of Gildas. And the diffi-
1 as
culty springs out of the ambiguity of his own words. He
'

"
says : Ex eo tempore nunc cives, nunc hostes, vincebant
usque . . .

ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis quique quadragesimus

. . .

quartus (ut novi) orditur annus, mense jam uno emenso, qui et meae
nativitatis est."
This has been interpreted in two ways.

1
Beran-byrig has by some been supposed to be Banbury. But this is im-
possible. The an in Beran is the Saxon genitive ending, and it would fall away,
and the accented syllable Beranbyrig become Ber- or Bar-bury. Barbury was
an important fortress on the Ridge Way. The advance into the Avon basin
and that of the Severn could not be made till Barbury had fallen.

/I
 S. Gildas gg
First, Gildas reckoned forty-four years less a month to the siege of
Mount Badon from the landing of the Jutes in Thanet.
Secondly, Gildas reckoned that this time elapsed between the Badon
-victory and his writing the tract.

Bede's
^
"
e nrs ^ ^s the
adopted by Bede,
interpretation
Interpre- quadragesimoquarto anno adventus eorum in
circiter et
tation. "
Britanniam. But if 520 be the true date of the Battle of
Mount Badon, this would give 476 as that of the arrival of the three
keels in Thanet, whereas the true date is nearer 449.
" "
The arrival of the was certainly not long after the
three keels
third consulship of ^Etius (Agitio ter consuli) spoken of by Gildas, and
this was in 446. It was in their dire distress at being abandoned by

the Romans that the Britons appealed to the Jutes for aid. Bede in
his History says : "In the year of our Lord 449, Martian being made
Emperor with Valentinian . . . ruled the empire seven years. Then
the nation of the Angles or Saxons, being invited by the aforesaid
x
king (Vortigern), arrived in Britain with three long ships."
His dateis not quite correct. Marcian was not proclaimed Emperor
till450. Elsewhere Bede gives the fourteenth year of the Emperor
" "
Maurice, i.e. 596, as about the one hundred and fiftieth year after
the arrival of the Angles. This would give 446-7 but he only says ;

" "
about a hundred and fifty years before, so that we cannot pin him
to an exact date in this passage. 2
Again, Bede in his Chronicle gives the date as 453. But the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle gives 449.
If we reckon forty-four years from the landing of the Saxons, we
have as the date of Mount Badon 490 or 493, according as we accept
446 or 449 as the date of the arrival of the three keels.

The Chronicon Britannicum, 3 drawn up, or concluded, in 1356, gives

"
under 490, Natus est S. Gildas. Hiis diebus Arturus fortis." But
the same Chronicle gives 520 as the date of his arrival in Armorica,
.and as the Rhuis biographer says that he was aged thirty when he
arrived, the date 490 was arrived at simply by deducting 30 from
520.
The date 493 is adopted by De la Borderie. 4
But neither of these dates was followed by a period of peace ; on
the contrary, they were followed by a series of disasters.

The Jutes and Saxons were hacking their way through Sussex. In
"
491 fell Anderida, when the Teutonic invaders slew all that were
therein, nor was there thenceforth one Briton left." Moreover, at
1 * c. 23.
Hist. EccL, i, c. 15 v, c. 24.
; Ibid., i,
8 Dom Morice, Preuves, 1742.
4
Revue Celtique, vi, pp. i-i
ioo Lives of the British Saints

this time Camulodunum fell, and the whole of the Saxon Shore was in
the hands of the new arrivals. Then came the landing of the Angles
and the destruction of Lindunum and Eburacum and, as we have ;

already seen, the occupation of Hampshire by Jutes and Gewissae.

The victory of Badon Hill therefore cannot have taken place in 490
or 493, as neither of these dates initiated a period of cessation from
invasion and conquest.
The victory of Ambrosius, to which Gildas also referred, was suc-
ceeded by a time of alternate defeat and victory up to 520. And
after 520 ensued a time of rest till 552.
Now on looking at the text, it seems very doubtful whether Gildas
could have calculated the years, with a month out, from the first
arrival of the Jutes in Thanet. Is it at all likely that there was an
accurate record kept of the precise date as to a month of that landing ?
Moreover, Gildas is referring immediately previous to his statement
about Mount Badon, not to the landing of the enemy, but to the
victory over them won by Ambrosius Aurelianus, and those who
"
rallied about him. Ne ad internicionem usque delerentur, duce
Ambrosio Aureliano . . . vires capessunt, victores provocantes ad
proelium quis victoria, Domino annuente, cessit." Then at once
;

he proceeds to say how that from this date (ex eo tempore) the chances
of war varied up to the obsession of Mount Badon.

Ussher's
^he secon d solution proposed to the puzzle of Gildas is
Interpre- that forty-four years less a month elapsed between the
on<
siege of Mount Badon and the writing of his book. This
was Ussher's suggestion.
1

"
This also is the way in which Mommsen reads the passage : For-
tasse sic licebit tradita refingere quique quadragesimus quartus (est
:

ab eo qui) orditur annus mense jam uno emenso, qui et mece nativitatis
est. Ita Gildas ait scribere se anno ab obsessione mentis Badonici

itemque a nativitate sua quadragesimo quarto." 2

But this presents insuperable difficulties.
In the first place such a treatise as the De Excidio was not dashed

off in a month. Its composition cannot be regarded as a fixed date.

It is a laboured production, and Gildas tells us that he was for ten
years and more thinking of it.
3

In the next, if Mount Badon siege was in 520, this would bring the
composition to 564, and Maelgwn Gwynedd died in 547.

1
Britan. Eccl. Antiquitates, Dublin, 1639, i, p. 477.
2
Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist., Chronica Minora, iii, p. 8.
"
Silui, fateor, cum immense cordis dolore spacio bilustri
. . .
temporis-
vel eo amplius praetereuntis.' Ed. Williams, p. 2.
 S. Gildas i o i

If the De Excidio were written in 540, that would give 496 for the
Battle of Mount Badon and certainly no continuous period of peace
;

existed from that date to 540, for war was incessant from 496 to 520.
Both explanations of the words of Gildas assume what certainly
appears to be his meaning, that he was born in the year in which was
fought the Battle of Mount Badon.
Now if we accept this battle as having been fought in 520, at that time
Gildas was abbot of Rhuis ; and his heart was hot within him at the
scandals in the British race when he was aged ten to fifteen, and he
wrote his tractate at the age of twenty to twenty-five.
This is, of course, absurd, and so feeling it, to escape the difficulty,
the Battle of Mount Badon has been thrust back to some date in the
fifth century. But at no date in that century, and at none other in the
sixth but 520, was there the beginning of a long period of inaction on
the part of the Saxons and of peace to the Britons, lasting a generation.
Finnian of Clonard, who died in 548, was in correspondence with
Gildas relative to penitential discipline. The subject was a delicate
one to handle, and could only be discussed by Finnian with a man
well on in years.
It is very probable that it was the publication of the De Excidio
that induced Finnian to write to Gildas as a severe moralist, relative
to the proposed Code. If so, then the age of Gildas would be sixty-

six, supposing Finnian wrote in 542 an age quite suitable for the
;

discussion of such questions as Finnian proposed.

Having considered the difficulties encumbering the

Proposed
Interpre- interpretation of the forty-four years as offered by Bede
on
and Ussher, we venture to propose a third that the forty-
'
:

years were reckoned between the two victories, that won by Aure-
Ambrosius, and that won by Arthur at Mount Badon.
Let us look again at the words of Gildas.
That they might not be utterly destroyed, they (the Britons)
take up arms and challenge their victors to battle under Ambrosius
Aurelianus. ... To these men there came victory. From that time,
the citizens were sometimes victorious, sometimes the enemy. . . .

This continued up to the year of the siege of Mount Badon, and of

almost the last great slaughter inflicted upon the rascally crew. And
this commences as the
forty-fourth year, with one month now elapsed."
Here we have two fixed dates, the victory of Aurelius and the victory
at Mount Badon, between which was a see-saw of success and defeat.
What we propose is that the forty-four years less a month applies to
this period of see-saw. And that, if the victory of Mount Badon took
place in 520, that of Aurelius and the initiation of the see-saw occurred
in 476.
 I o2 Lives of the British Saints

If this be allowed, then we will go further, and suggest that the

"
passage, It is also the year of my birth," refers, not to the year of
Mount Badon, but to that of the victory of Aurelius. The explanation
proposed may do some violence to the words of Gildas, but in our
opinion it offers the only practical solution to the difficulty.
The whole passage is involved, and is rendered the more confused
by the introduction of the wretched moralizing of the writer, who
explains the alternation in success thus "In order that the Lord,,
:

according to His wont, might try in this nation, the Israel of to-day,
whether it loves Him or not."
"
Wewould read the disputed passage thus Ambrosio Aureliano
:

victoria Domino annuente cessit ex eo tempore nunc cives, mine

;

hostes, vincebant, usque ad annum obsessionis Badonici mentis, quique

quadragesimus quartus, ut novi, orditur annus, mense jam uno emenso
(ab anno victoriae Ambrosii), qui et (annus) meae nativitatis est."
This would give 476 as the date of the victory of Aurelius and of
the birth of Gildas, and it would make him aged sixty-four when he
wrote his book, if that were in 540, or sixty-eight if he wrote in 544.
The dates would stand thus
476. Victory of Aurelius and birth of Gildas.
520. Battle of Mount Badon.
540-4. Gildas writes the De Excidio.

547. Death of Maelgwn Gwynedd.

548. Death of Finnian of Clonard.

565. Gildas summoned to Ireland by Ainmire.

570. Death
of Gildas, aged ninety-four.
It is remarkable that the events of his life fall into place if this be

accepted. This we shall see in the sequel. Not only so, but it allows
us to accept statements relative to Gildas that occur in the Life by
Caradog of Llancarfan, in that of S. Cadoc and that of S. Brendan,
which otherwise must be rejected.
Then once more the Welsh genealogies insist on Gildas having been
a married man, and father of a family. One can see no reason for
invention in this case mediaeval authors suppressed such awkward
;

facts when writing the Lives of the Saints, but one cannot conceive a
reason for a genealogist inventing and giving currency to a fictitious
statement that Gildas had sons and grandsons. But where are they to
come in, if we make him born in 520 and die in 570 ? He could hardly
have had a large family under the age of thirty-five, and that brings
us to 555, and the De Excidio was written certainly by an ecclesiastic
in 540 or 544. In the Life of S. Brendan we are informed that he
visited Gildas at Rhuis, and on his return to Ireland had an interview
 S. Gildas

with S.
Brigid. Now Brigid died in February, 525 ; consequently
Brendan visited Gildas at Rhuis in the winter of 523-4. are ex- We
pn-ssly told it was in winter.
Brigid, moreover, had known Gildas at an earlier period, and he
sent her a bell. As she died in 525, this cannot have been as the Rhuis
" "
biographer says, in the time of Ainmericus, king over all Ireland ;
for Ainmire began his reign in 565, as we have already seen. But if
Gildas had become acquainted with Brigid it must have been before 520,
and this again throws his birth back some way into the fifth century.
We must accordingly conclude either that Mount Badon was fought
in the latter part of the fifth century ; but this is impossible, as there
was no period of a generation of tranquility, such as Gildas describes,
in any part of the fifth century or else we must accept the interpre-
;

tation of the words of Gildas we have suggested, however strained

it may appear.
Having thus settled, as far as it is possible to settle, the date of the
birth of Gildas, we shall be able to proceed with his Life, and show
how that, the date being conceded, we are able to fit into his life with-
out violence the various incidents that are recorded connected with
his career.
II. THE LIFE OF GILDAS.
"
Gildas was born
in Arecluta (the country on the Clyde "), Ren-
frewshire, according to Skene, and was the son of Caw, called by the
Rhuis biographer Caunus, and by the other Nau.
The Welsh genealogists give the pedigree as follows

Ert

Ger
 104 Lives of the British Saints

They name many other children of Caw, but in some cases sons, no
doubt, stand for grandsons, or such as belonged to the family and
tribe.

In the Life of the Rhuis biographer, only four brothers and a sister
are named. The second biographer, following Welsh genealogical
"
tradition, says Nau, the King of Scotia
: had twenty-four . . .

sons, victorious warriors." The genealogists, however, do not give

the names of quite that number. 1
"
The eldest son was Huail, called by the Rhuis monk Cuillus, a
"
very active man in war ; another was Maelog, of Llowes Egreas ;

is the Welsh Eugrad ; Alleccus, the Welsh Gallgo, and a sister, Peteova
or Peteona, is in Welsh Peithien.

Owing and Scots into Arecluta, Caw's

to the incursions of the Picts
sons were forced to abandon their native land and to fly to Wales,
with the exception of Huail, who gathered about him those who re-
mained of the fighting men, and lived a wild, piratical life.
The author of the second Life hints that all the sons of Caw had
been warriors in early days, doubtless Gildas included. But he fled
with his brothers, except Huail, to Gwynedd, where they were well
received by Cadwallon Lawhir, the king, and by his son Maelgwn.
Cadwallon had expelled the Goidels out of Mona, and he gave to
the sons of Caw lands in the island, where they accordingly settled.
Probably was in Arecluta that Gildas had married for the Welsh
it ;

genealogies assure us that he had five children: Cenydd, Gwynog,

Nwython, Maidoc or Aidan, and Dolgan.
But perhaps about this time, or shortly after, he lost his wife, and
resolved on embracing the ecclesiastical profession. He placed himself
"
for his training under Illtyd at Llantwit. Now, the blessed Gildas
... entrusted by his parents to the charge of
is S. Hildutus, to be
instructed by him." 2
This could not have been when the family was in Strathclyde it ;

must have been later. And there is a mistake in what the biographer
states as to his having been entrusted to S. Illtyd by his parents. He
was a young man, not a boy, at the time.
.
Among his companions were Samson and Paul.
"
Of these men, the most holy Samson was afterwards Archbishop
of the Britons, whilst Paul presided as bishop over the Osissmi." The
mention of Samson as archbishop indicates the lateness of the period
at which this account was drawn up. The archbishopric was not
founded till 848, and it must have taken more than a century for the

1
See 2
Vita i
ma
ii, pp. 93-4. , p. 326.
 S. Gildas

fable to have grown up that Samson had ever exercised metropolitan

jurisdiction.
The Life of S. Paul gives Dewi, Samson and Gildas as the fellow-
pupils of that Saint under Illtyd. And the same four are named in
the Life of S. Illtyd.
We must mere hagiographical rhetoric what the bio-
set aside as
"
grapher says the
: From
fifteenth year of his age, through the whole

period of the present life which he lived in this world, up to the very
last day on which he was called by the Lord, it was only three times
in the week, as we have learnt from a trustworthy source, that he
took a most scanty food for his body. He buffeted his body with
frequent fastings and with protracted vigils ... he withstood vices,
while he struggled against the temptations of the devil, and tortured
himself in resisting the pleasures of the body."
This may be true enough of his mode of life after he had embraced
the monastic discipline, but that cannot have been when he was fifteen,
but rather when aged thirty or more.
The Rhuis biographer probably knew nothing about Gildas having
been a family man, but we cannot acquit Caradog, or whoever wrote
the second Life. To him the genealogies were accessible. But it
seemed more becoming to a saint not to admit this, and he therefore
skimmed over this early episode, falsifying his facts to suit the ideas
of the twelfth century.
"
Nau," says he, the King of Scotia . had twenty-four sons,
. .

ictorious warriors." Actually they had been beaten and driven A/I
"
ito ignominious flight by the Picts. One of these was named Gildas,
rfiom his parents engaged in the study of literature. ... He eagerly
diligently studied among his own people in the seven arts until
le reached the age of youth, when, on becoming a young man, he
jedily left the country."
In the first Life we are informed that the youthful Gildas performed
>me miracles. As S. Illtyd " dwelt with his disciples in a narrow

sland, confined, and squalid with its arid Gildas prayed, and
soil,"
"
the island expanded in all directions, blossoming round with various
)wers."
We obtain an explanation of this from the Life of S. Illtyd (c. 13).
r
nys was a term applied not only to islands, but also to monastic
)lonies. At Llantwit Illtyd desired to reclaim the rich alluvial soil
/een it and the and set to work with his disciples to build a
sea,
wall to enclose and thus extend rich pasture-land to enhance
it,

ic territory of his ynys. The Rlmis biographer did not understand

early meaning given to the term, and so converted the circumstance
 I o6 Lives of the British Saints

into a miracle. He goes on to relate how that S. Illtyd sowed the

island, but the sea birds destroyed his corn then Gildas, Samson
;

and Paul drove them into a barn. The story appears in the Life of
Paul, in that of Samson, and in that of Illtyd but in the two latter
;

the miracle is attributed to Samson alone, in that of Paul to that

saint. The biographer of Gildas had these Lives before him. He
adopted the incident, and added the name of his hero.
The Rhuis author adds that Gildas was at other schools beside that
of Illtyd. "Cum plurimorum doctorum scholas peragrasset." He
apparently went to Ireland, there to finish his monastic training.
He was in Ireland when an event took place which recalled him to
Britain.
Huail was the only one of the brothers who did not embrace the
ecclesiastical profession. He seems to have been a filibuster. " Hueil
major natu belliger assiduus et miles famosissimus nulli regi obedivit,
nee etiam Arthuro. AfHigebat eundem, commovebat inter utrumque
" da
maximum furorem (Vita 2 ).
He would often swoop down from
Scotia, plunder and burn in Wales. The use of the term Scotia for
Scotland is indicative of the late date at which this Life was drawn
up. Clearly Huail had collected the remnant of his clansmen in
Strathclyde, and carried on a wanton war of devastation against his
own race, in place of assailing the scattered foes of the Britons, the
Picts, and Goidels. A
council of war was held in Minau apparently
Manaw, the Isle of Man
and he was surrounded there and killed. 1
The Welsh traditionary story is different. According to that, Huail
ventured to make love to a lady whom Arthur admired, and this led
to Arthur having Huail's head hacked off on the Maen Huail, a stone
2
still pointed out in S. Peter's Square, Ruthin.
The slaying of Huail caused great offence. Gildas, who was at the
tune in Ireland, hastened to Wales to exact retribution. Several
ecclesiastics intervened, and as a blood fine Arthur surrendered several

parcels of land to the family of Caw, after which Gildas consented to

give Arthur the Kiss of Peace.
It is possible enough that the foundations made in Radnorshire

by some of the brothers of Huail were on land thus, and then, granted
in mulct for the execution.
In Ireland Gildas had made the acquaintance of S. Brigid. It is
"
1
A
Scotia veniebat saepissime, incendia ponebat, praedas ducebat cum
victoria ac laude. Unde rex universalis Britanniae audiens magnanimum
juvenem talia fecisse et aequalia facere persecutus est victorosissimum juvenem
et optimum, ut aiebant et sperabant indigenae, futurum regem. In persecutione
autem hostili et in conventu bellico in insula Minau interfecit juvenem prae-
datorem." Vita 2 da , ed. Williams, p. 402. 2
See under S. HUAIL.
 ,5". Gildas 107
jtended by the Rhuis biographer that he went to North Britain, and
id something there towards the conversion of the Picts. That he
id revisit Strathclyde is possible enough. It ne had
anything to do
ith the Picts we cannot say he has left no traces behind him of
;

ly spiritual work wrought there.

The author
of the second Life says that' Gildas had brought from
reland with him a beautiful and sweet-sounding bell and that he ;

rent with it to Nant Carfan, where he shewed it to S. Cadoc, who

jatly admired it and wanted to buy it. Gildas refused, alleging

it he was on his to and
way Rome, purposed offering it "to the
)ishop of the Roman Church." Cadoc was forced to swallow his
ippointment. However, when Gildas arrived in Rome, and the
>pe knew that it had been greatly desired by Cadoc, he refused to
:ept it and on his return, Gildas made a present of it to the Abbot
;

Nant or Llan Carfan. This incident occurs also in the Life of S.

Cadoc (c. 23).
On his way back from Rome it was that Gildas landed on the Isle
of Houat off the coast of Broweroc ; and after a brief sojourn there
aliquamdiu "), crossed over to the mainland, to the long spit that,
a crab's claw encloses the inland sea of the Morbihan.
That Isle of Houat was
itself but a remaining fragment of the ancient

>astline that ran from the spit of Quiberon to Le Croissic. Long

fore the historic period the sea had broken through and attacked
ther barrier, partly of sand dunes and partly of granite cliffs,
ing one weak spot, a fault in the granite, it had burst through
it and formed the inland sea of the Morbihan enclosed between the
ics of land of Locmariaquer and Sarzeau.
Entering this lagoon, Gildas drew his boat to land, and ascending
"
le peninsula of Sarzeau, lighted on an ancient camp, quoddam
strum in Monte Reuvisii in prospectu maris," and there erected a
*
lonastery.
This took place, as we are assured by the Rhuis biographer, when
was aged thirty, and when
Childeric, son of Meroveus,
at the time
2
king of the Franks, a prince still pagan. The Chronicon Britan-
icum gives the date 520. 3 Now Childeric this cannot have been,

i
Vita i ina , ed. Williams, p. 348.
"
Childericus enim eo tempore Merovei filius gentilium errori deditus im-
ibat Francis, quod ex gestis veterum firudens lector cognoscere -potest" The
biographer in these words seems to let us see he had been dipping into Gregory
Tours, but being at sea as to the true period of the life of Gildas he misplaced
arrival at Rhuis by some forty to forty-fifty years.
8
This chronicle was drawn up in 1356 ; Dom Morice, Memoires pour Servir,
1742.
I o8 Lives of the British Saints

forhe died in 481, and was succeeded by Clovis, baptized in 496, who
died in 511. Childebert succeeded, and reigned to 558. The king
then must have been Childebert, and the biographer must have been
to make such a blunder.
very badly instructed in early Frank history
He saw in the MS. before him a name Childe probably with the . . .

last letters illegible, and concluded that this was Childeric, son of
Meroveus. enough that in the early portion of his reign
It is possible

Childebert may have been a bad Christian, and some remark to this
"
effect may have led the late biographer to say that the king was gen-
t ilium errori deditus."

Probably at this time Brendan paid a visit to Gildas, and was

If Gildas were born in
churlishly received, in the winter of 523-4.
476, then he made his first settlement at Rhuis in the
autumn of 520.
We are told that Gildas asked Brendan to undertake the supervision
of his settlement, but that Brendan declined. This is intelligible
enough. Gildas wanted to return to Britain he had with him but ;

a handful of followers he was unknown as an ecclesiastical leader

; ;

he probably contented himself with obtaining a concession of the old

camp and some adjoining land from the Count, and then desired
to revisit Britain that he might collect disciples for his monastery.
So only can we reconcile the two accounts we have. The Rhuis bio-
grapher says nothing of his visit to and residence at Glastonbury, and
da
the author of the Vita 2 passes lightly over all that took place in
Armorica.
Leaving Rhuis with some few of his followers, Gildas departed for
Britain.
Professor Hugh Williams is disposed to reject the whole account by
the author of Vita 2 da relative to the residence of Gildas at Glaston-
"
bury after his return from the Continent. All the sections in refer-
ence to Glastonbury and Gildas' tarrying there can be no otherwise
regarded than as a piece of literary fiction."
But it is never well to reject traditions that are precise when recon-
ciliation is possible.
da
Caradog, or whoever wrote the Vita 2 says that Gildas was seven
,

years abroad, before returning to Britain. If our reckoning be right,

this would be from 527.
"
At the end of the seventh year he returned, with a large mass of
volumes, to Greater Britain . . . and great numbers of scholars
flocked to him from all parts." x
Gildas had now a part to play,
to qualify for a saint. This could
only be done in one way, by undergoing austerities.
1
Vita 2 da , p. 394. This is difficult to reconcile with his meeting S. Finnian.
 S. Gildas 109
"It was his habit to go into a river at midnight, where he would
remain unmoved until he had said the Lord's Prayer thrice. Having
done this, he would repair to his oratory, and pray there on his knees
unto the Divine Majesty until broad daylight. He was wont to sleep
moderately, and to lie upon a stone, clothed with only a single garment.
He used to eat without satisfying his wants, contented with his share
*
of the heavenly reward."
"
On his return to Britain he went into the district of Pepidiauc,"
now Dewisland, where he preached every Lord's
in Pembrokeshire,

Day in a church on the seashore. This is the Caermorfa of the Life

of S. David by Giraldus, and here is supposed to have occurred the
incident of his becoming mute because Non was present in the church,
2
pregnant with David. Unfortunately for the story, David is repre-
sented as having been a fellow disciple of Gildas in the school of S.
Illtyd, in the very early Life of S. Paul. Moreover, the same story is
told of Bishop Ailbe, who baptized David, and was his kinsman. The
purpose of his visit to Pebydiog is obvious enough. There was the
great monastery ruled by Paulinus, that sent so many missionaries to
Ireland. He sought thence to glean some restless spirits who would
attach themselves to himself and follow him to Armorica.
From Pebydiog he went with like purpose to Llancarfan, where he
"
propitiated Cadoc with the gift of the bell. And Cadoc, abbot of
the church of Nantcarfan, asked the teacher Gildas to superintend the
studies of his schools for the space of one year." 3
Cadoc, in fact, wanted to absent himself and visit Scotland. Gildas
"
consented, and whilst he was at Llancarfan, he himself wrote out
the work of the four Evangelists, a work that still remains in the
:h of S. Cadoc, covered all overwith gold and silver." 4
"
At the close of the year, and when the scholars were retiring from
ly, the saintly abbot Cadoc, and the excellent
master Gildas,
mutually agreed to repair to two islands, viz., Ronech and Echin.
Cadoc landed in the one nearer to Wales, and Gildas in that which
liesover against England." 5
da
The author of Vita 2 pretends that the saints lived on the islands
for seven years. But the Life of S. Cadoc says that the saint was
"
wont to retire to the islets only for the season of Lent. In the days

1
Vita 2da, p. 396.
2 " who was the
Ibid., pp. 398, 400. In tempore Trifini regis." Triphun,
son of Clotri, is mentioned also in the Life cf S. David, and the story of the silence
of Gildas before the pregnant Xon is told in the same Life.
3 *
Ibid., pp. 404, 406. Ibid., p. 406; see ii, p. 14.
6
Ibid., p. }((,.
 1 1 o Lives of the British Saints
" "
of Lent he was there, but on Palm Sunday he returned to Nant-
l
carfan."
The author of Vita 2 da cannot state the truth when he makes Gildas

occupy the islet for seven years. He seems to have mistaken what
is said in the Life of S. Cadoc. In that Cadoc departs from his monas-
tery for the north of Britain, and remains away seven years. In it
Gildas arrives from Ireland with his bell, after the return of Cadoc
from North Britain. Then follows the story of the bell, not told in
the same words as in the Life of Gildas, but the same in its details.
In the Life of S. Finnian of Clonard we read that he went to two
2
holy men inhabiting the Isle of Echni. They are not named, but
it is not improbable that these were Gildas and Cadoc. The date can
be fixed fairly closely, for Finnian returned to Ireland before the death
of Muirdach, King of the Hy Cinnselach, who died in 525, according
to the most approved computation.
A curious story is given in the Life of S. Finnian relative to his
intercourse with Gildas whilst he was in Wales, but he doubtless re-
visited Wales later.
He went to Cill-muine, in Pebydiog, and there met Gildas and Cadoc
and David, and found Gildas and David in vehement contest for supre-
macy. It was decided that Cadoc should judge between them. Cadoc,
however, was unwilling to offend either party, and he thrust the re-
3
sponsibility on Finnian, who adjudged the supremacy to David.
What would seem to be the basis of this story is that whilst Gildas
was in Pebydiog he did endeavour to wrest from David his succession
to the abbacy of Ty Gwyn or the Old Bush, but failed after which ;

he visited Llancarfan. It was probably then that Gildas and Cadoc

agreed to spend Lent on the two islets, Ronech and Echni. These
are the Steep and Flat Holmes, in the Bristol Channel and on these
;

alone in England are found the entire-leafed peony and the wild leek.
It is supposed that these plants have
lingered on there from the gardens
of the ancient settlers in monastic
days.
Whilst on the Steep Holmes Gildas built himself a chapel and a
cell, and is credited with having elicited a spring. He lived on birds'
eggs and fish ; and occasionally visited Cadoc, who returned his visits. 4

"
Quadragesimalibus diebus consuevit Sanctus Cadocus manere in duabus
Palmarum veniebat Nantcaruan,
insulis, videlicet, Barren et Echni ; in die vero
ibi expectans, et faciens Paschale servitium." Cambro-British Saints, p. 45.
2
Vita S. Finniani in Cod. Sal., col. 193.
3
Life of Finnian of Clonard in Book of Lismore, pp. 222-3.
*
Vita 2 da p. 406. Confirmed by the " Life of S. Oudoceus " in Book of Llan
,

"
Ddv, p. 138, but Echni is given for Ronech. Ronech means the Isle of " Seals
 S. Gildas ill

The islandsat last to be abandoned on account of the piratical

had
icursions of the Northmen. 1
From Llancarfan, Gildas went to Glastonbury. He had doubtless
collected some disciples in Pebydiog, and had added to the band some
of the pupils of Cadoc, who desired to see the world. Now he sought
to swell the body by adherents gained at Glastonbury.
"
At Glastonbury Gildas was well received. He built a church
thru' ... in which he fasted and prayed assiduously, clad in goats'
2
hair, giving to all an irreproachable example of a good religious life."
Whilst Gildas was at Glastonbury a strange incident took place,
according to the author of the second Life.
At this time Melwas was king of what is now called Somerset ;
he had carried off Gwenhwyfar or Guinevere, Arthur's queen. There-
upon Arthur laid siege to Glastonbury, whither Melwas had retired,
"
but was not able to effect much, propter munitiones arundineti et
"
fluminis ac paludis causa tutelae ; and Melwas retained Gwenhwyfar
there for a whole year.
"
Arthur had convoked the levies of Cornubia and Dibnenia," and
the monks of the Holy Isle felt the inconvenience of the siege. The
abbot, along with Gildas, interposed and Arthur, very unheroically,
;

expressed himself ready to forgive and forget if his wife were sent
back to him. Gwenhwyfar was accordingly returned to her husband,
and the two princes met on good terms ; and in token of fraternal
union visited together the church of Glastonbury. 3
Geoffrey of Monmouth very rarely condescends to give a date to
the events he relates. When he does, we may suspect that he had ^J *^
some authority for it. He says that Arthur died in 542.* The
Ann ales Cambria give the date as 537. 5 But as they antedate the
Battle of Mount Badon by four years, so here they may give a date
some five years too early. The Welsh chronicle in the Red Book of
Hergestmakes an interval of twenty-two years between the victory of
Mount Badon and the death of Arthur. 6 The Annales Cambria make
twenty-one years. Although very little reliance can be placed on the
Welsh chronicle, and less still on Geoffrey of Monmouth, yet both

"
Venerunt piratae de insulis Orcadibus, qui afflixerunt ilium raptis ab eo
suis famulis servientibus et ductis in exilium cum
spoliis et omnibus suae habita-
tionis supellectilibus." Vita 2 da, p. 408. For all his asceticism, Gildas was
careful not to retire to solitude without servants to wait on him, and suitable
furniture for his 2
cell. Ibid., p. 410.
3
Ibid., pp. 408, 410. Melwas is the Meliaudes of the Romancers, who
make him father of Tristan.
4
Hist. Reg. Brit., xi, c. 2. 6
Ed. Phillimore in Y Cymmrodor, ix, p. 154.
8
O Oes Gwrtheyrn in Bruts, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 404.
112 Lives of the British Saints

witness, along with the Cambrian annals, to there having existed a.

tradition that Arthur survived the famous victory some twenty-one
or twenty-two years. There would accordingly be no anachronism
in supposing that he and the chieftain of the Domnonii were at war
about 530-534, the period during which we suppose that Gildas was
at Glastonbury. And it may be to this domestic broil that he alludes,
when he says that during a generation after Mount Badon peace
reigned, so far that the incursions of the enemy had ceased, but that
"
it had been broken by civil broils, Cessantibus licet externis bellis,
sed non civilibus."
The author of the second Life pretends that Gildas remained at

Glastonbury, wrote his Epistle there, which he calls his History of the

Kings of Britain, and died there.

We shall see, in the sequel, what perhaps gave rise to this idea.
On the other hand, the monk of Rhuis knew nothing of the visit to
Britain and residence at Glastonbury. Yet that Gildas should return
after having obtained a concession of land on the Sarzeau peninsula,,
in order to collect a number of followers to fill the large monastery he
had founded in Brittany can hardly be questioned.
There is collateral evidence of Gildas having been in South Wales.
In the lolo MSS. he is said to have founded Llanildas, afterwards
called Y Wig Fawr (the Great Wood), in Glamorgan. 1 This is pro-
bably Wick, subject to S. Bride's Major, which, however, Rees gives
as dedicated to S. James. 2 That is no more than a.Norman or English
rededication.
Moreover, Aidan or Maidoc, son of Gildas, was actually left in
Pebydiog with S. David at an early age, as pupil. This shows that
Gildas had been there, and that although the contention for the
mastery had been sharp between them, it was patched up, and ia
token of reconciliation, Gildas committed his boy to be fostered and
3
trained by David.
Many of the brothers of Gildas were in Anglesey ; but he does not
appear to have gone into Northern Wales.
At length, after an absence of seven years, Gildas returned with
a body of recruits to Rhuis, and the monastery was organised on an
extensive scale.
When the biographer speaks of the
"
Mountain of Reuvisium "
he conveys to the mind an entirely false impression. Rhuis stands
but a hundred feet above the Atlantic on a tableland that extends
to Sarzeau,and thence declines gently to the sea. The spot is bleak
and wind-swept, but towards the Morbihan is tree-grown and covered
1 2 3
P. 220. Essay on Welsh Saints, p. 338. See his Life, i, pp. 116-26.
 S. Gildas 113
with vineyards. This is the'furthest 'point to the North where wine
is made, and such as is made is little better than the poor native cider.

Originally there was more timber, but not on the plateau. Towards
the ocean the high ground breaks down in precipitous cliffs, but further
south-east the rocks give way, and the bay of Sucinio is formed, on
which stands the castle of the ancient Dukes of Brittany. The whole
of the coast has greatly altered since Gildas settled there, as the

granite is soft and full of faults. The sea has gained on the land,
and in places has completely changed the coastline.
The monastery of Rhuis had its wood, and a church was erected in
this part of the promontory. It was called Coetlann. Here, we
are informed that Gildas destroyed a dragon, and to this day the
fosse is pointed out in which it was supposed to have lain.
Gildas undoubtedly gained the favour of Weroc I, the Chief or
Count of the British settlers who occupied all the country round
Vannes.
It was, perhaps, due to him that he obtained a concession at Cas-
tennec on the Blavet. Here a finger of hill projects, and the river
makes a loop round it. The sides are steep, and the summit was
crowned by the old Roman town of Sulim, fallen, when Gildas settled
there, into complete ruin.
Here he established a small monastery, not among the ruins, but
on the neck of land at a place called Castennec. With this establish-
ment, a curious circumstance is associated. Among the wreckage
of the old town was a granite image of Venus, stark naked, and by
no means decent, standing 7 feet high, with a bandlet about the head
on which are cut the letters I IT. Before it stood a huge granite
basin. religious worship, and we may well suppose
The image received
it with their strong sense of the necessity of doing
in accordance

ly with idols and such an idol as this Gildas and his disciple
loc would throw it down. They did more, they buried it under
the foundations of their monastery a little distance off.
When the Northmen devastated the country in the tenth century,
establishment at Castennec was destroyed and was never again
restored. But at a subsequent period, in digging among the rubbish

heaps, the image was disclosed, set up, and at once received a revived
cult. Those afflicted with gout and rheumatism rubbed their limbs
againstit, and made offerings to it women, after their confinements
;

bathed in the stone basin before it and rites were celebrated in its
;

honour characterised by gross indecency.

The Bishop of Vannes thundered against it, and at last Count
Pierre de Lannion removed it to his castle at Baud, and had it chiselled
VOL. in. I
114 Lives of the British Saints

over to renderit a little more decorous. His chateau has disappeared,

as has the Castennec monastery, as has the Roman city of Sulim, but
the Venus of Quinipili still stands serene, looking out of her blank
eyes, having witnessed the destruction of castle, monastery and
town. 1
A path from where stood Castennec leads down to a combe through
which trickles a tiny rill, then ascends a hillside to where stands a farm-
house among ancient chestnut trees. From this, a rapid descent
leads to the oratory of Gildas and his disciple Budoc under over-
hanging granite rocks at the brink of the river, to which oratory they
retired for Lent and at times when they desired solitude. 2
Gildas built up a wall on the river face and so enclosed a space
under the rock. There was a little water oozing out at the spot,
hardly a clear spring, as the biographer terms it, but affording sufficient

drinking water.
That Gildas was able to glaze the east window of his cell is recorded
as something miraculous.
The chapel is still where Gildas formed his oratory it has been
;

rebuilt and restored, but preserves early features. The roof is a

lean-to against the rock, the wall being run further out than in the
time of Gildas. A
mass of granite outside has been hewn into steps
and a platform to serve as a pulpit.
Within the oratory are two compartments ; the outer contains
altar to S. Budoc
(Bieuzy), that within to S. Gildas. On the lei
side of the latter is a block of masonry and granite rock to serve
a table for the pain benit that is distributed to the pilgrims on tl
occasion of a Pardon.
A slab of resonant diorite on a pedestal serves as a bell. It is struck
with a pebble and rings at the Sanctus, Consecration, and Communion.
It is
traditionally attributed to Gildas. Against the wall is the
inscription :

Etat blamah hon doar sanel

Un ermitagie peur mair-vet
Beba vein glas hon doai eit cloh
En hon chapel groeit en urroh.

The Pardons are on January 29, and Whitsun Monday, but Mass

1
De la Borderie, Hist, de Bretagne, i, pp. 180-2 ; Baring-Gould, Brittany
London, 1901, pp. 45, 47-8.
"
Tune denique construxit parvum oratorium super ripam fluminis Blaveti
sub quadam eminent! rupe, ab occidente in orientem ipsam concavans rupem
et ad latus ejus dextrum erigens parietem congruum fecit
oratorium, sub quo
de rupe emanate fecit fontem perlucidum." Vita i'" a pp. 348, 350. ,
FOUNDATIONS OF GILDAS AND HIS SONS AND GRANDSONS IN
ARMORICA.
 S. Gildas 115
also said in the chapel on the third Sunday in July, and on the
mrth Sunday after Midsummer Day.
The Blavet and its tributaries would seem to have been claimed
by Gildas as a special field for operations. Possibly, he may have
thought that he had some rights there. It is conceivable that his
grandfather Geraint had been granted a domain there, for we find
S. Geran with its minihi or sanctuary higher up the river. His uncle
Solomon or Selyf may also have been the saint and martyr commemor-
ated at Guern, where is his martyrium. 1 We have, unhappily, no
documentary evidence to connect these saints with Gildas. But it is

certainly a remarkable coincidence that about the Blavet we should

find the names of members of his family in a cluster.
Further down the river is Languidic, the Lan of Cenydd, the crippled
son of Gildas, who has also a chapel at Plumelin. Gildas himself
has a chapel at Malguenac, and a monastic settlement of his was at
Locmine".
This latter stood whereis now Moreac, and not on the site of the

present town. In 919, owing to the incursions of the Northmen,

the monks of Rhuis, bearing the body of their founder, fled to Locmine*,
where they were joined by the monks of that community, and all
retired together to Berry, and remained at Bourg-Dieu or D^ols/
till 1010, when Rhuis, and after that, Locmine*, were restored.
Ten years after the departure of Gildas from Britain, he composed
his book " in which he reproved five of the kings of that island who
had been ensnared in various crimes and sins." 2
The book De Excidio Britannia certainly appeared before 547,
the year in which Maelgwn Gwynedd died of the Yellow Plague,

>bably in 544, twenty-four years after the Battle of Mount Badon,

before the peace came to an end. It produced effects which
shall now note.
Gildas was the father of five children. Cenydd had been a member
the college of Cadoc, but afterwards had settled in Gower.
In his Increpatio Gildas had assailed Vortipore, King of Demetia.
Like the pard art thou in manners and wickedness of various
)lours, though thy head is now becoming grey upon a throne full ;

guile, and from top to bottom defiled by various murders and

ilteries, thou worthless son of a good king, as Manasseh of Heze-
3
ih."
Gower was not in Demetia, but it is possible enough that Vortipore
1
Not Solomon, King of Brittany, killed in 874, but an earlier king of the
ime name. See under S. SELYF.
ma
Vita i , p. 352.
3
De Excidio, ed. Williams, p. 72.
 i i 6 Lives of the British Saints

may have had in it to make residence there no

sufficient influence

longer possible for Cenydd ; and it may have been on this account
that he migrated to Brittany and placed himself in his father's hands.
Another son was Aidan, or Maidoc he had been placed with S. David
; ;

and probably he also had to depart and shelter himself in Ireland.

Of Dolgan we know nothing, and next to nothing of Nwython.
But Gwynog had been settled in Powys, and he now very probably
had to escape from the wrath of Cuneglas, prince, it would seem, of
"
a district in North Wales, also violently abused by Gildas as wallow-
ing in the old filth of thy wickedness, from the years of thy youth,
thou bear, rider of many despiser of God and contemner of
. . .

His decree, thou Cuneglas (meaning, in the tongue, Thou Roman

tawny butcher).Why,
. . . innumerable lapses,
in addition to
dost thou, having driven away thy wife, cast thine eyes upon her
"
dastardly sister, who is under a vow to God of perpetual chastity ?
GwyjQog probably fled to Armorica, and it is just possible that he
may be the Eunius who became Bishop of Vannes at a later period.
Cenydd was a father of a family, and there is evidence of his sons
having also settled in the neighbourhood of Vannes and of the Blavet.
Caffo, one of the brothers of Gildas, had been a disciple of S. Cybi
in Mon. Probably on account of the insults cast at Maelgwn by
Gildas, he was constrained to leave, but the shepherds of the King,
resenting the outrage, killed him at Rhosfyr, now Newborough, and
he is accounted one of the martyrs of Anglesey.
Alleccus, or Gallgo, another, there is some reason to think, was con-
strained to fly the resentment of Maelgwn, and take refuge in Ireland.

Maelog, or Meilig, also had been in Mon, with Cybi. He apparently

had also to escape, and
finally settled at Llowes.
It is not " "
easy to read the querulous epistle of Gildas with
patience. He has left unsaid so much that we desire to know, and
has poured forth his denunciations in
language so extravagant and
"
venomous, as to disgust the reader. M. J. Loth says There are :

heaps of contradictions, puerilities, ineptitudes of every kind in the

work of this Jeremiah of the tenth class, whose ignorance, outside
the Scriptures, defies all comparison, and whose want of judgment
betrays itself in incredible childishness." 1
The bird that befouls its awn nest is accounted a
very ill bird indeed.
Yet it is perhaps due to the violence of the invective
intemperate
of Gildas against those of his own race and
blood, that the work has
been preserved. Saxons and English cherished the book, and were

1
Les mots Latins dans les langues brittoniques, Paris, 1892.
 .

S. Gildas 117

able to produce against the Welsh, as evidence of their vices and

it

follies, given by one of themselves.

In this sorry work, Gildas throws dirt at the princes of his native
land, against his own cousin Constantine, against Maelgwn, the
large-hearted benefactor of his family. He heaps abuse on the people
from whom he sprung. He could see no heroism in the Britons when
they rose against the Roman invaders. Boudica, whose^ daughters
had been outraged, and herself scourged with rods by the Roman
tribunes, was in no degree justified in resenting these infamies.
" "
She is to Gildas only a and the Britons are crafty
deceitful lioness,"
s." He varies his metaphor, them to barndoor
later on, to liken
fowl under the trusty wings of the parent birds, the Romans. His
"
own flesh and blood are cowards. They present their backs, instead
necks to the sword, while chill
of their shields, to the pursuers, their
terrorruns through their bones. They hold forth their hands to
be bound like women so that it became a proverb and derision
;
:

The Britons are neither brave in war, nor faithful in peace." If, how-
"
ever, they rise against their Imperial oppressors, they are stiff-

necked and stubborn-minded, ungrateful rebels." Throughout, Gildas

shows himself to be Roman-minded.
National independence he cannot away with. At the bottom
of all the disasters that befell Britain lay ingratitude to and severance
from the Roman Empire. Aurelius Ambrosius is praised, but mainly
because he was of noble Roman blood. When
a prophet thunders
so loudly against the vices of his race, one naturally desires to look

home, at his own monastic household, and see if that was clean.
A glance at the Penitential of Gildas suffices to show that the same
abominations which were rampant in the British world, had found
a lodging within the walls of his monastery, and had to be provided

against.
And when he assails his fellow countrymen as cowards, we ask
what token of courage did Gildas show in denouncing the chiefs
secular and ecclesiastical in his own neighbourhood at Rhuis, for
their infamous lives ? His biographer maintains silence on this point.
It must have been a Cadoc
satisfaction to Gildas that his old friend
should take it head also to come to Brittany, and to the same
into his
parts But Cadoc was too discreet to settle close to the hot-tempered
Gildas. He selected for himself a site very similar to that chosen by
Gildas at Rhuis, at the edge of another inland sea, that of Etel.
De la Villemarque gives " a tradition still circulating in Armorica," x
relative to the meeting of these saints, and a dispute as to whether
1
La Ltgenfa Celtique, Paris, 1861, pp. 201-4.
 i I 8 Lives of the British Saints

Virgil had been saved. Unhappily, no statement made by De la Ville-

marque, unless established on other authority, can be trusted, and
it may well be questioned whether the Breton peasant would know
1
anything about Virgil. The story has been told under S. CADOC.
Gildas would appear to have been on very good terms with Conmore,
Count of Poher, and regent of Domnonia. This Conmore was a bold,
ambitious and unscrupulous man. On the death of Jonas, King of
Domnonia, he seized the rule. He married the widow and assumed
the regency for the young Judual, son of Jonas, who, however, mis-
trusting his uncle, fled. ,

Conmore had been Carhaix, the

The original caer or stronghold of
old Roman Vorganium, in an elevated bleak situation. Owing to
the favour in which Gildas stood with him, Conmore surrendered
to him Carnoet, near Carhaix, on still higher ground, dominating
the place.
The river Hieres flows through a lovely valley, between w ell-wooded r

and rocky hills and by the water stands the chapel of the peniti
;

of Gildas. Thence a road scrambles to the high ground on which

stands the village of Carnoet, where a cluster of squalid cottages
surrounds a bran-new and very ugly modern church. Beyond the
village a way still mounts to the highest point of the ridge, that com-
mands the country for many miles round, and looks down on Caihaix.
Under the lea of this point, in a well-timbered nook, beside an oozing
spring, lies the sixteenth century chapel of S. Gildas. The summit
of the hill shooting above it is crowned by an earthwork. M. de la
Borderie is mistaken in supposing this to be the remains of a monastic
"
enclosure. Sur un mamelon ires dominant exist e une grande
enceinte circulaire fermee de re jets de terre considerables et de fosses
de sept metres de profondeur or, on le sait, les monasteres bretons
;

primitifs de quelque importance devaient ton jours etre, comme ceux

des Scots, clos d'un rampart de ce genre, soit que le fondateur 1'elevat
lui-meme, soit qu'il s'etablit (comme a Rhuis) dans un fort barbare
on un camp remain preexistant." 2

The camp of the tenth century, and is of Northman origin.

is There
can be no mistake about it. It consists of a tump scooped out at
top, with a loop bank at the side, forming a bass-court. Its counter-
part maybe seen on the Alun, below S. Davids. Excavations in
such camps prove the period to which they belong.
In the chapel is a stone sarcophagus, sunk in the floor, and regarded
as having been the bed of the saint. On the Pardon in January, the
peasants offer cocks and hens ; and in the North aisle are three
1 2
ii, p. 28. Hist, de Bretagne, i, p. 440.
 S. Gildas 1
19
ranges of coops to contain the fowls, which cackle through Mass, and
are sold afterwards, the proceeds going to the repair of the chapel.
Conmore lost his wife, the widow of Jonas, and daughter of Budic
II of Cornouaille, and then asked the hand of Triphena, daughter
of Weroc, Count of the British of Vannes.
Weroc was now aged, and his son Macliau, well aware that on his
father's death his brother Canao would endeavour to kill him, entered
into negotiations with Conmore, to secure his support. Then it was
that the Count of Poher and regent of Domnonia asked for the
hand of Triphena.
Count Weroc was reluctant to give his consent. He had gauged
the character of the man and mistrusted him.
Thereupon Conmore turned to Gildas, and gained his advocacy.
The Rhuis biographer gives us the Breton tradition of his time. He
"
says, Conomerus made it his practice, as soon as he learnt that his
wife had conceived, to put her to death at once. And when he had
already done away with many women sprung from noble families,
parents began to feel much saddened on this account, and to move
further away from him." 1
This is mere idle legend. History has recorded only one previous
2
wife, and with her Conmore lived happily.
Gildas had not seen through the design of Conmore his vanity;

was flattered by being asked to further the suit of the Count, and
he persuaded Weroc against his better judgment to give his daughter
to the regent.
far as can be made out Conmore treated the lady with brutality
murdered her son Trechmor, probably by a former husband,
ghim at Carhaix. Thereupon Triphena fled from her husband
threw herself on the protection of her father,
.e whole
story has been so transformed by fable, that it is difficult
to arrive at the facts.
Gildas heard ofwhat had taken place whilst at Castennec, and
he rushed off, crossed the Blavet and went to Camors, where was
Conmore's castle, and taking a handful of earth, cast it against
the wall, and cursed it and doubtless its master with it. 3 Then he
hastened on to Weroc and found the runaway wife with him. He
arranged that so soon as she gave birth to the child she bore in her
womb, she should be received into a religious house for women, and
that the child should be given to him. When this event took place,
1 ma
Vita
i
2
De la Borderie, Hist, de Bretagne, \, p. 401, note i.
p. 354.
,

8 "
Accepit plenum pugillum terrae et projecit super illam habitationem,
quae statim Deo volente tota corruit." Vita i,p. 360.
 I 2 o Lives of the British Saints

he himself baptized the child, a boy, gave to it his own name, and
undertook to train it for the monastic profession.
This is not the form in which the legend is told by the Rhuis
biographer.
According to him, both Gildas and Weroc knew the character of
Conmore, and both were reluctant to allow the marriage. But Con-
more insisted, and Weroc in a fright sent for Gildas, who then yielded,
and promised that if Weroc would give his daughter to the Regent
of Domnonia he himself would be responsible for her safety. When,
after the marriage, Conmore perceived that Triphena was about to
"
become a mother he meditated killing her as had been his custom."
"
She, fearing for her life, ran away. When her wicked husband
learnt this, he was incensed with greater anger, and pursued her.

Having found her on the road-side, hiding under some leaves for
she was wearied by her journey he drew out his sword, cut off her
x
head, and then returned home."
"
Hearing of what had taken place, Gildas went to the place where
lay the lifeless corpse of the murdered woman with her offspring in
her womb prayed, and then took the head and fastened it on
. . .

to the trunk of the body and forthwith she arose whole." 2

. . .

When the son was born, Gildas had the child baptized, and this
"
son also was distinguished for his virtues and miracles, and completed
with a blessed end the saintly life he had led. Now the Bretons, in
order to distinguish him from the other S. Gildas, do not call him
Gildas but Trechmorus."
The Rhuis biographer does not relate the martyrdom of this Trech-
mor by his father. Such, however, is the constant tradition. 3
The wholestory is impossible as well as absurd. If Conmore did

killa child of Triphena, it must have been a son by a former husband,

as his fall ensued very shortly after the flight of Triphena.
If Triphena had a son named Gildas, he disappears totally from

Breton history, and it is possible that he may have gone from dis-
tracted Brittany to Glastonbury, settled and died there, and thus

may have given occasion to the mistake into which the author of the
Second Life has fallen, in making the historian to be buried at
Glastonbury.
Trechmor is said to have suffered decapitation at Carhaix, the
residence of Conmore. He is the patron of the place, and is represented
1 2
Ibid., p. 358. Ibid., p. 360.
3
A eta Nat. Fran$ais MS. 22321, p. 870; and Ancient
Sti. Trechmori, Bibl.
Breviary of Quimper. Lobineau, Vies des SS. deBretagne, ed. 1836, pp. 298-300 ;

Garaby, p. 300.
 S. Gildas 121

at the west end of the church, above the principal doorway, as a

young man of about twenty-one, holding his head in his hands.
Trechmor cannot have been identical with the younger Gildas,
but was a distinct personage, older than the godson of Gildas by
many years. The younger Gildas was born about 550, and Conmore
was killed in 555, so that he cannot have put his son by Triphena to
death as a young man. The only explanation of the story that can
be adopted is that Conmore married Triphena, who was a widow
with a grown-up son, Trechmor, and that Conmore, finding Trechmor
stand in his way, as he had Judual, sought his life and succeeded in
killing him, whereas he had failed in the case of Judual.
Count Weroc died shortly after the return of his daughter (550) ;

whereupon Canao, the Conober of Gregory of Tours, murdered three

of his brothers, and Macliau fled to Conmore, but after a while stole
back, threw himself into Vannes, and got himself elected bishop.
Meanwhile, Conmore had got embroiled with the saints of Le"on
and Domnonia. A conjuration against the Regent was the result,
and we may be sure that Gildas, flaming with mortified vanity and
resentment, threw himself into it, heart and soul.
Conmore fell in a battle fought on the slopes of the Monts d'Arre'c
in 555. An Abbey du Relecq (of the Bones) was erected on the site
by Judual and S. Paul of Leon.
Gildas unquestionably had taken an energetic part in the con-
juration against Conmore, and he expected to be rewarded, as were
the other saints who had excommunicated and cursed the Regent
from the top of Menes Bre. Nor was he disappointed. We may
attribute to this period the foundations in Domnonia.
"
He made a settlement at Laniscat near Corlay and Quintin. Here,"
"
De la Borderie, not is Gildas the patron of the parish,
i;and the church covered withonly
ays
paintings representing his history, but
in the commune are likewise a chapel dedicated to him, and a cave,
of which tradition tells, that he was wont to retire to it, after having

preached throughout the neighbourhood and there he was wont

;

to sleep on a stone shaped like a bed, which is still to be seen in the

cave, and to which processions were made in his honour, to the end
of the seventeenth century." 1 In this region we have La Harmoye,
of which Gildas is patron, as also Magoar and at Plaintel his son
;

Cenydd was installed.

His monasteries of Rhuis, Castennec and Locmin6 possessed that in-
dispensable adjunct to a monastic institution, a barren island to which
the abbot and the more devout might retreat for perfect solitude not ;

1
Hist, de Bretagne, i, p. 439.
 122 Lives of the British Saints

so his Domnonian colony. He accordingly sought one out. Striking

due north, he halted at Tonquedec, and was there sufficiently long
to leave a lasting impress. It was a halfway house. His chapel is
there, with his story represented in a series of panels. But his object
"
was the sea, the tossing "wine-dark sea, and he pushed on to Port
B anc, on the north coast, a little west of Treguier. Port Blanc is
known to us as the place whence sailed the Breton auxiliaries of Henry
L
Bolingbroke.
'
The coast is rugged, and the sea is thick strewn
with an archipelago of islets. The largest isle is that of S. Gildas ;

that he coveted, asked for and was given, and it now bears his name.
Granite rocks start abruptly out of the green sward, and on the side
towards the mainland, away from the sea-gales, timber grows. Here
is a dolmen that is called the Bed of Gildas, and a chapel marks the

site of his oratory.

Affairs in Broweroc were not to his mind. Canao, who had mur-
dered his brothers, gave shelter to Chramm, son of Clothair, King
of Soissons. Chramm had rebelled against his father, and having
lost his uncle and ally, Childebert, in 558, fled from the resentment
of his father for shelter in Broweroc.
Canao took up arms on his behalf, assumed the offensive, invaded
the Franco-Gallic marches, and committed great ravages. Clothair
raised a large army and met the Bretons. An engagement ensued,
and Canao was defeated and slain, 560.
Chramm fled, was about to take boat and leave the land, when
he remembered that his wife and daughters were in a fisherman's
cabin on the shore. He returned to fetch them away and was cap-
tured. By his father's orders he was strangled with a kerchief, and
fire was heaped round the hut, and the
poor women within were
burned to death.
Where was Gildas all this while ? These horrors cannot have been
enacted far from Vannes. We do not hear that he issued from his
secure monastery to lift a voice to protest against such deeds of
barbarism.
No sooner was Canao dead, than Macliau, who had been Bishop
of Vannes, assumed the temporal Countship along with the spiritual
rule over Broweroc, and recalled his wife and children.
Macliau had entered into a solemn contract with Budic II of Cor-
nouaille to guarantee the safety of their respective children.
No sooner was Budic dead, circa 570, than Macliau broke his oath,
invaded Cornouaille, and wrested it from Tewdrig, son of Budic

The young prince concealed himself, collected followers, and awaited

1
Richard II, Act ii, sc. i.
 S. Gildas 123
his opportunity. Macliau had been excommunicated by the other
bishops, but that concerned him not. In 577 Tewdrig emerged
from his concealment, fell unawares on Macliau, and slew him and
one of his sons who was with him.
The spiritual condition of Broweroc at the period whilst Macliau was
bishop must have been in a most unsatisfactory condition there ;

were but Gildas and his monks in the diocese to hold aloft the lamp
of religion.
It is certainly surprising that not a word of reproach spoken against
these perfidious princes and their renegade bishop should have been
recorded as having been spoken, not a line of condemnation has
come down to us, not even the notice that Gildas put pen to paper
to rebuke them. But they were near at hand to avenge an insult,
and with Gildas discretion was the better part of valour. He could
pour forth scurrility and abuse on princes too far away to touch his
skin, but he was silent before those who could injure him or his monas-
teries.

Before 549 Finnian of Clonard, whom Gildas had met in Wales,

was in correspondence with him relative to a penitential code
and ;

Gildas had kept up his interest in Ireland.

1
King Ainmire, 565, invited him over to restore religion in Erin,
and the revival that actually took place has been attributed to him
in concert with Cadoc and David. David himself did not visit the
island, but he trained men to act there as evangelists. Cadoc and
Gildas, however, worked there in person. The Rhuis biographer
has bungled sadly over this second visit to Ireland, made when Gildas
very old. He confounds it with the early visit, from which he
recalledby the murder of his brother Huail, and from which it
separated by something like fifty years. The date of this visit
Ireland can be fixed with some certainty. Ainmire became supreme
only in 564, and the Annales Cambria give 565 as the date of
Navigation of Gildas into Ireland.
2
The lapse of the Irish from their first faith has been hotly contested,

yet it is exceedingly probable. It would be but in accordance

with human nature that there should have been a reaction, and it

agrees with the experience of missionaries in all ages. The rapid

conversion of the Irish had been superficial, a relapse was inevitable.

"
Eo tempore regnabat Ainmericus rex per totam Hiberniam, qui et ipse
1

misitad beatum Gildam rogans, ut ad se veniret," etc. Vita i*, pp. 338-40.
The date of Ainmire's death is uncertain. The Annals of Ulster give 568 and
575 the Chron. Scott. 569
:
Inisfalien 561
;
Four Masters 566.
;

9
Zimmer, Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland, London, 1902.
 124 Lives of the British Saints

5. Patrick's policy had been that of gaining the outward adherence

of the adult members of a clan, tolerating old superstitions, and reserv-
ing to himself to carry the true principles of the faith into the hearts,
"
arid to mould the minds of the people. Adhesion to Christianity,
which was in a great measure only the attachment of a clan to its
chieftain,and in which Pagan usages, under a Christian name, were
of necessity tolerated, could not, in the nature of things, be very
1
lasting."
Ainmire desired Gildas to remain in Ireland. He declined to do
"
this, but he went about all the territories of the Hibernians, and
restored the churches, instructed the whole body of the clergy in the
Catholic Faith, that they might worship the Holy Trinity and . . .

drove away from them heretical conceits with their authors." 2 This
is the exaggeration of a biographer who wrote several centuries later.

He did something, no doubt, but not much. He built monasteries,

and furnished the churches with a form of Mass as said at Rhuis. 3
But, whatever success he gained in Ireland, his visit there must
have been sad. S. Brigid, to whom he had given a bell, was dead ;

so was his friend Finnian of Clonard. He himself was old and weary,
and he did not remain long in Ireland. He returned to Armorica,
feeling that his end was approaching, and he departed from the monas-
tery of Rhuis to die in peace in the island of Houat.
The Rhuis biographer gives a lengthy harangue addressed by Gildas
from death-bed to the monks, but as the writer lived something
his
like seven centuries later, he doubtless excogitated it himself. The
last request made by Gildas was that hisbody might be placed in a
boat and committed to the waves. It perhaps shows a lingering in
his mind of the pagan idea of shipping the dead to the Isles of the
Blessed beneath the setting sun.
His wish was complied with, but the people from Cornugallia, in
their greed for relics, pursued it in boats. However, before they
could reach the drifting coracle, a wave upset it and the body sank. 4
;

Three months later, a corpse was washed ashore on the sands of

the little bay of
Crouesty by Arzon, which may or may not have
been that of the Saint. After three months' immersion and knocking
against the cliffs and among the reefs, it must have been totally
1 2
Dr. Todd, 5. Patrick, 1864, p. 503. Vita I*, p. 342.
Hii ritum celebrandi Missam acceperunt a sanctis viris de Britannia,
scilicet a Sancto David et Sancto Gilda et Sancto Doco." De Tribus Ordinibus
55. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., ii, p. 293 ActaSS. Hib. in Cod. Sal., col.
;

162.
"
Sed hi qui de Cornugallia venerant, qui plures erant, conabantur cum
tollere et in patriam suam transferred' Vita i"*, p. 368.
 S. Gildas '25
recognizable, if it were that of Gildas. And be it remembered,
that he died in January, and this body was not found till May, so that
it had been exposed to winter and spring storms. However, the monks
of Rhuis were easily satisfied ;they assumed that this was the corpse
of their late abbot, and they conveyed it to their church and buried
it there.
Gildas died on January 29, and the body that passed as his was
found on May n.
The Annales Cambria give as the date of his death, 570, so do those
of Tighernach. Those of Ulster give 569, but as these Annals are
a year in arrear through the early portion, this gives the same date.
The Annals of Inisfallen give 567.
The Rhuis author does not give us the date, nor the age of Gildas
when he died. He merely says that he was senex et plenus dierum. * ' ' ' '

If our calculation be correct, he was aged 94 In Brittany,

years.
relying on the entry in the Chronicon Britannicum, that he was born
in 490, it is assumed that his age when he died was 80.
The points given in the Life by the Monk of Rhuis are these :

Gildas was aged 30 when he arrived first in Houat over against Rhuis :

"
Sanctus igitur Gildas triginta habens annos venit ad quandam
insulam, quae in Reuvisii pagi prospectu sita est."
The date given in the Chronicon Britannicu'm is 520.
He remainedseven years in Armorica and then returned to Britain :

"
mare Gallicum, et civitatibus Gallise remansit
Transfretavit
studens optime spatio vii annorum et in termino septimi anni cum
magna mole diversorum voluminum remeavit ad majorem Brit-
tanniam." This we get from the Second Life, attributed to Caradog
of Llancarfan. The Rhuis biographer did not consider how ab-
surd it was to suppose that Ainmire should have invited over
a young man under thirty years of age to renovate Christianity in
Ireland. He makes Ainmire, who came to the throne in 565, a con-
temporary of S. Brigid, who died in 525. What can be more obvious
than that he has confounded together the two visits of Gildas to

Ireland, the first in 510-2, the second in 565.

We venture to suggest the following chronology of the Life of
Gildas, by which the only statement rejected is that of the Rhuis
biographer, who says that he was aged thirty when he settled at Rhuis.

Gildas, born in Arecluta, the year of the victory of Ambrosius 476

The sons of Caw take refuge in Gwynedd from the Picts and
Scots, and are granted lands in Mon by Cadwallon Lawhir c. 506

1
Vita l m , p. 368.
126 of the British Saints

under S. Illtyd ....

Gildas loses his wife, and embraces the religious profession

Gildas leaves S. Illtyd and goes to Ireland, where he makes

c. 507

acquaintance with S. Brigid c. 510

Gildas recalled from Ireland by the slaying of Huail by Arthur c. 512
Lands granted in blood fine by Arthur to the family of Caw.
The Battle of Mount Badon. Gildas goes to Rome, and on

there
Is visited at
........
his way back lands at Rhuis, and obtains a grant of land

Rhuis by S. Brendan . . .
520
winter of 523-4
Returns to Britain to obtain recruits. Meets S. Finnian in
Pepidiauc, #/. 51 . . . . c. 527

Goes to Glastonbury ......

Takes charge of Llancarfan for a twelvemonth
.

After seven years in Britain he returns to Rhu s, ^.58

:
c. 528-9
c. 530
c. 534

.......
Composes De Excidio Britannia, ten years after his return to
Rhuis
Flight of his brother and sons from Wales
c. 544
545
The Yellow Plague, and death of Maelgwn Gwynedd. Visit
of S. Cadoc to Brittany and settlement at Belz
Marriage of Conmore with Triphena ..... 547
549
Conspiracy formed against Conmore
Defeat and death of Conmore ..... 550
555
Grant made of lands in Domnonia to Gildas by Judual
Death of Canao, Count of Broweroc
Macliau becomes Count as well as Bishop of Vannes. Gildas
.... 556
56o

is summoned to Ireland

Gildas returns to Rhuis

Death of Gildas,
.......
aged ninety-four years.
by Ainmire, at. 89 565

570

The reason for allowing Gildas seven years in Britain is that the
author of the Second Life says that Cadoc and Gildas spent seven
years together on the islets in the Severn Sea, Ronech and Echni ;

but this only to be understood of the Lent of those years.

is And this

may be an exaggeration of the time spent in Britain. 1

After his return to Rhuis ten years elapsed before he wrote De
Excidio. 2 This cannot have been in 530 after his first arrival, as
he speaks of a generation having grown up since peace had come on
Britain in consequence of the victory of Mount Badon it must ;

therefore have been ten years after his return. If he had written
in 440, as is generally supposed, that makes twenty years of peace.
It is better to allow twenty-four years, and if we do that, then we
find the seven years in Britain collecting disciples accounts for the
dates.
1 "
Visitabat unus alterum ;
remanentia talis duravit spacio vii annorum."
Vita 2 da, p. 408.
"
Sanctus vir post decem annos, ex quo inde recesserat, scripsit epis-
. . .

tolarem libellum in quo quinque reges ipsius insulse redarguit diversis sceleribus
atque criminibus irretitos." Vita ima, p. 352. This may be a conclusion drawn
"
from the words of Gildas Silui, fateor, cum immense cordis dolore
: . . . spatio
bilustri temporis vel eo amplius." Pr<zfat., ed. Williams, p. 2.
 Gildas 127
One curious and bewildering divergence in the two Lives of Gildas

ly perhaps be reconciled. The Rhuis biographer says that Gildas

ied in Houat off the coast of Rhuis, and he is certainly correct. But
iradog of Llancarfan, or whoever wrote the Life of Gildas that we
Vita Secunda, says that he died and was buried at Glastonbury.
Now Gildas may have resided awhile, and probably did so, at
jtonbury. But he returned to Rhuis. There he became foster-
itherof a child of Triphena and Conmore, who was called after him,
iildas. It is by no means improbable that this younger Gildas may
ive gone to Britain and settled at Glastonbury. His life would
)bably not be very safe in Armorica, under the turbulent Canao
id the unscrupulous Macliau, and if this younger Gildas did live and
lie and was buried at Glastonbury, what more probable than that
after ages he should be confounded with his foster-father, who
is famous, whilst he himself was obscure ?

The day of S. Gildas is January 29. He is commemorated on

lat day in the Felire of Oengus, and the Martyrology of Tallaght.
Jut in the Martyrologies of O'Gorman and of Donegal on November 4.
)n January 29 in the Leofric Missal brought from Glastonbury
Exeter its date is 1050.
: In the calendar, Cotton MS. Vitell. A.
of the twelfth century. In a calendar in Saxon characters of
le eleventh century. Cotton MS. Nero, A. ii. In the Altemps Martyr-
of the end of the thirteenth century on January 27, as also in
le Norwich Martyrology of the fifteenth century. Cotton MS.
[ulius B. vii.This is based on the Altemps Martyrology.
"
But on January 29 Why t ford has The feest of Saynt Gyld, a
:

"
)ly man and Roscarrock
; gives him on that day as Gildas Albanicus.
the same day in the fifteenth century Missal of S. Men, and in
the Breviaries of
Vannes, 1589, 1660, 1757 ; the S. Brieuc Breviary
)f1548, and a MS. Missal (fifteenth century) of S. Melanius, Rennes.
hit the Breviary of Leon 1736, and a Quimper Breviary of 1835,
m February 6.

On May n the finding of the body is commemorated in the diocese

)f Vannes, Missal 1530, Breviary 1589, and is locally observed by a
rocession to Crouesty from Rhuis.
The only foundation of Gildas in Wales has been already mentioned,
Wig Fawr, in Glamorganshire, which rests on the doubtful authority
)f the loloMSS. Those in Brittany have been already referred to.
addition to those of his founding are churches at Auray, dedicated
him in the twelfth century, and S. Gildas des Bois, founded in 1026.
A very fine wooden statue of him of the fifteenth century, and
irown into a corner, discarded, is in the chapel of N. D. de Plasquen
 128 Lives of the British Saints

at Locmine. It represents him with his symbol, a snarline cur, at

his side.
A beautiful modern statue at Rhuis standing over the tomb in the
apse of the church shows him as a young and amiable monk, with
circular tonsure and Benedictine habit. A silver bus't in the treasury
contains the skull of the corpse washed ashore at Crouesty and accepted
as his.
At Plouegat Guerand, near Lanmeur, in Finistere, is his statue on
the porch door, 1536.
" "
The lolo MSS. have among the Sayings of the Wise one that
*
is attributed to Gildas
" Hast thou heard the
saying of Gildas,
Of the Golden Wood, a man of great dignity ?
Fortune never will favour the hateful."
(Ni ryfein ffawd i atgas.)

In the same work occurs a short religious tract entitled The Principles.
2
of Prediction of Gildas the Prophet. It is not of the vehement char-
acter of his genuine writings, and might well, as it stands in the original,
be of the seventeenth century. In Welsh Gildas is often given the
"
epithet Prophet."
"
Among the seven questions put by Catwg the Wise to seven wise
men of his choir at Llanfeithin, and their answers," is the following :

"
Who is the richest man ? " to which Gildas of the Golden Wood
"
replies He who covets naught that belongs to another." 3
:

The and fragments of lost letters are published

Penitential of Gildas

by Mommsen in Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist., Chronica Minor a, iii. pp.

86-90 and by Prof. Williams in his Gildas, pp. 256-85. His Lorica.
;

by Prof. Williams in the same, pp. 304-13 also in the Liber Hym- ;

norum, Henry Bradshaw Society, i. pp. 206-10, and Zimmer,.

Nennius Vindicatus, 1893, pp. 337-40. This Lorica would seem
to have been composed in 547, when in a panic lest the Yellow Plague
should extend its ravages to Armorica.
"
Suffragare, quaeso, mihi possito
Magni Ynaris velut in periculo,
Ut non secum trahat me mortalitas
Hujus anni, neque mundi vanitas."
In deadly fear for himself, he invokes apostles,
prophets, martyis r
1
P. 252. The " saying" differs in the " Stanzas of the Hearing,"
"
Arch., p. 129. It occurs also in the form, Ffawd i ddiriaid ni ryfain."
z
lolo MSS., pp. 195-6.
3
Myv. Arch., p. 776. Needless to say, these questions and answers are of
very late date.
 S. GILDAS.
From i
$th century Statue at Locmint.
 S. Gildas
129
rgins, confessors, angels of all degrees, as well as the Almighty, to
rotect him.

" and
Skull, head, hair eyes,
Forehead, tongue, teeth and their covering (the lips),
Neck, breast, side, bowels,
W;iist, buttocks and both hands.
For the crown of my head with its hair,
Be thou the helmet of salvation on the head ;
For forehead, eyes, triform brain,
Nose, lip, face, temple,
For chin, beard, eyebrows, ears,
Cheeks, lower cheeks, internasal, nostrils.
For the pupils, irides, eyelashes, eyelids,
Chin, breathing, cheeks, jaws,
Fo '

teeth, tongue, mouth, throat,

Uvula, windpipe, root of tongue, nape.
For the middle of the head, for cartilage,
Neck thou kind One, be near for defence,"

and so on, no part of the body is forgotten.

This extraordinary prayer was taken to Ireland, and tradition
attached to it that to any man who should repeat it frequently, seven
iditional years would be added to his life, and a third portion of
issins would be blotted out. Nor would the man die on the day
it he repeated it.

The Lorica of Gildas belongs to a class of compositions that were

ittle better than magical charms of which the Deer's Cry of S.
;

itrick is another example, as hymn Sen De by S. Colman

is also the
Ui Cluasaig, composed on account of the pestilence in 697.
a critical consideration of the Lorica and of the question whether
were composed by Gildas, see Professor Williams' Gildas, pp. 289-303.
The fragments of letters of Gildas give us a higher opinion of him
lan do his hateful Increpatio or his absurd Lorica. In them are
>rds full of real charity and liberality. In one he argues strongly
linst narrowness and self-righteousness in those who hold them-

Ives aloof from others who are imperfect and even evil. "Aaron
lid not cast
away the table of the priest of the idols of Midian. Moses
entered into hospitality and peaceful entertainment with Jethro.
IT Lord Jesus Christ did not avoid the feasts of publicans, so that
te might save all sinners and harlots."
"
Abstinence from animal food without love is profitless. Better,
icrefore, are they that fast without display, and do not fast exces-

sively from what God has created, but anxiously preserve a clean
jart within."
"Many," says he, "eat bread by measure, but
>ast thereof
beyond measure ;
whilst using water, they drink the
VOL. ni. K
 130 Lives of the British Saints

cup of hate ; they simultaneously enjoy dry dishes and back-biting."

"
When a ship is wrecked, who can swim let him swim."
He recommends gentle rebuke of evil doers Had he learned by !

experience that his venomous Increpatio had done much harm and
"
little good ? Miriam is condemned with leprosy, because she agreed
with Aaron in blaming Moses on account of his Ethiopian wife. This
we should fear when we disparage good princes on account of moderate
faults." "To the wise man truth shines from whatsoever mouth
it has issued."
Giraldus Cambrensis has an explanation of the fact that no mention
is made of the great deeds of King Arthur in his History. He says :

"
De
Gilda vero qui adeo in gentem suam acriter invehitur, dicunt
Britones, quod propter fratrem suum Albaniae principem, quern rex
Arthurus occiderat offensus haec scripsit. Unde et libros egregios
quos de Gestis Arthuri et gentis suae laudibus multos scripserat,
audita fratris sui nece omnes, ut asserunt, in mare projecit. Cujus
rei causa nihil de tanto principe in scriptis authenticis expressum
invemes.
2
Gildas is commemorated in the Diptychs in the Stowe Missal.

S. GISTLIANUS, see S. GWESTLAN

S. GLASSOG
THElolo MSS. genealogies give two saints of this name, for whom

they are the sole authority.

(1) Glassawg, the son of Coedwallawn, and fifth in descent from
Bran Fendigaid, a pedigree as mythical as could well be. It is added
that he lies buried in Gwynedd, and that the church dedicated to him
is Llanynglassawg. He was the father of Glas, the father of S. Mabon
3
Wyn.
Glassawg, the son of Glassar ab Geraint ab Nynnio ab Cyn-
(2)

ddilig ab Nwython ab Gildas ab Caw. He was bishop at Caer Gybi,

or Holyhead, and had a church dedicated to him in Arllechwedd,
in the neighbourhood of Bangor. He bestowed lands upon Bangor
Deiniol. 4

1
De Illaudabilibus Wallics, prol.
2
Warren, Liturgy of the Celtic Church, p. 240.
3
P. 136. The Glesius mentioned in the boundary of S. Bride's-super-Ely,
Glamorganshire (Book of Llan Ddv, p. 263), is now the Glasswg.
4
lolo MSS. pp. 139-40.
 S. Glywys Cernyw 131
One saint only is intended the pedigrees having been manufac-
ired and he clearly owes his existence to S. Tegai's
entry in the
"
lerBonedds, which in Hafod MS. 16 runs, Tegai ym Maes Llan
"
yn Arllechwedd," and in Hanesyn Hen (p. 115), Tygai y
[eisyn Glassog." Llandegai is meant.

S. GLYWYS CERNYW, Martyr

"
GLYWYS CERNYW, or the Cornishman," was son of Gwynllyw Filwr -f
Glyvvys abTegid ab Cadell Ddyrnllug, by Gwladys, daughter of
chan Brycheiniog. He was thus a brother of the great S. Catwg,
"
Cadoc. 1 He is mentioned as an honoured saint." 2
To him is said to have been formerly dedicated the church of Coed
"
-Cernyw, the Cornishman's Wood," now Coedkernew (All Saints),
in Monmouthshire. He appears to have died a martyr, for a Merthir
3
Gliuis is mentioned in the Book of Llan Ddv, the name of which is
believed to be preserved in Clivis, in Newton Nottage, Glamorgan-
shire.

The Cornish S. Gluvias, of whom nothing is known, is probably

the same as Glywys.
There was a chapel in the valley of Lanherne, and the farm by it

-
is called

In
Gluvian, which seems to point out that the chapel bore the
e dedication as the parish

Domesday, however,
church of Gluvias.
this latter is called San Guilant, and in the
Exeter transcript Sain Guilant. certainly quite out of the
Gluvias is

ion occupied by the Brecknock-Gwentian settlers, but as Glywys

.onged to a later generation, and did not probably come into Corn-
wall till the settlement in the North was a fait accompli, and the excite-
ment and resentment caused by the invasion had somewhat abated,
r may explain his church being found on the Fal. The Feast is
ontthe first Sunday in May. He is not commemorated in the Welsh
calendars.
A S. Cleuzen is patron of a parish in the diocese of Treguier near Pon-
eux. 4 He has been displaced to make way for S.Cletus, Pope. Glywys
y have become Glewz and then Cleuzen, with the suffix. But

Peniarth MS. 178 ; lolo MSS., p. 130 ; Myv. Arch., p. 426. The name is
tinized Gluiguis, Gliuisus, etc.
2
Peniarth MS. 178, p. 23. 3
Pp. 225, 412.
4
Lobineau, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, ed. 1836, i, p. xiv.
132 Lives of the British Saints

without further evidence nothing can be concluded towards the identi-

fication. The cult of S. Cadoc, brother of Glywys, is, however, in.
force in the parish, where he has a chapel.
is in one passage in the
Glywys's grandfather, Glywys ab Tegid,
lolo MSS. said to have founded
1 the church of Machen (now S. Michael),.
in Monmouthshire. But there is no evidence for his sainthood. This-

name to the of Glywysing, which included

Glywys gave principality
courses of the Usk and
approximately the district between the lower
the Towy, and was not quite conterminous with the Mlorganwg of
3
later times. 2 In the to the Life of S. Cadoc
preface he is stated to
have had ten children, among whom Glywysing was apportioned,,
" and
but Pedrog gave up a transitory for a perpetual inheritance,"
left for Cornwall.

S. GNAWAN, Confessor
A DISCIPLE of S. Cadoc, from Ireland, was so called. 4 When Cadoc
"
returned from Ireland he brought with him a large company of
Irish and British clerics, among whom were the religious and very
learned men, Finian, Macmoil, and Gnauan, said to be the most cele-
brated and skilful of all the British disciples."
"
Later on, when Cadoc saw the wicked acts of his father ... he
sent faithful messengers of his disciples, Finnian, Gnauan, and Elli,.
that they might convert him from the errors of his malice and wicked-
ness, and dispose him to divine obedience."
Manorowen (B.V.M.), Pembrokeshire, possibly takes its name
from Gnauan. It is locally called Manernawan by the old Welsh-
5 "
speaking inhabitants. This is
very probably the person meant
by the
'

Mynach Naomon (or

'

Nawmon) mentioned in the mythical]

Red oo& Triad No. n ;
6
Trioeddy Meirch (Peniarth MS. 16).
and in
The same element, -nawan, seems to occur in Kilnawan in the parish,
of Llanboidy." 7 There is a Kilawen at S. Issell's, near
Tenby.
A " Gnouan abbas altaris Catoci," at Llancarfan, occurs among
the signatories to a grant in the Book of Llan Dav. 8 He was contem-
1
P. 148. In Jesus College MS. 20 he is given a different pedigree.
2
Owen's Pembrokeshire, p. 208.
i,
3
Cambro-British Saints, p. 22. In the Life of S. Gwynllyw, ibid., p. 145,.
is divided
Glywysing
4
among seven brothers.
Cambro-British Saints, pp. 36, 85.
6
In the parish list in Peniarth MS. 147
(c. 1566) it is Maner nawon.
*
Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 301.
7
Owen's Pembrokeshire, \, pp. 290-1.
8
P. 180.
 S. Goleu 133
ary with Bishop Berthwyn, the successor, it would appear, of
idoceus.

S. GOFOR, Hermit
THE genealogy of this saint is not given, but his name is entered
the lolo MSS., 1 with Gwarwg and others, as one of the saints of
<;\\vnt, from which we are to infer that he is, or rather was, the patron
of the church of Llano ver (now S. Bartholomew), in Monmouthshire.
His cell pointed out
there is and he is " believed to have been buried
;

under a ponderous tombstone, on which is carved an ancient British

5, laid in the doorway of the church of his name within the front

porch. In the grounds at Llano ver is the Ffynnon Over and its eight
2
surrounding wells, all flowing different ways, but uniting in a bath."
His festival, Gwyl Ofor, is given on May 9 in the lolo MSS. calendar.
So much for Gofor. The old forms of the name Llanover, however,
distinctly point to a personal name being involved, which we might
write to-day Myfor. Llanover occurs in the Book of Llan Ddv 3 as
Lanmouor, and elsewhere under similar forms. 4 The old forms of
the name of Merthyr Mawr, Glamorganshire, which appear in the
Book of Llan Ddv as Merthir Mimor, Myuor, Mouor, etc., point to the
ie name.

bs.
in
iu

heskyn."
me
U was one
Cognatio of
of the
Colt.
GOLEU,

Lan eschin," and in that of Cott. Domitian i,

Peniarth
"
Virgin
unmarried daughters of Brychan Brycheiniog.
Vesp. A. xiv her name is entered,
"
Goleu
Gloyv in Lann
MSS. 131 (fifteenth century) and 75 (sixteenth
"
century) give, Goleu in Llanhesgyn in Gwent." In the Jesus College
1
Pp. 144, 549.
8
A nnals and A ntiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales,
Nicholas,
London, 1875, ii, p. 782. Others give the number of springs as seven and nine.
Tegid wrote some verses to the well, Gwaith, 1859, p. 90. After this well a well
in Kensington Gardens was named S. Cover's Well. The late Lady Llanover,
in her book, Good Cookery, London, 1867, feigns to have derived her recipes and

knowledge of Welsh cookery from the Hermit of S. Cover's Cell, who lived in
the eighteenth century " in a house cut out of a rock adjoining the cell and
opposite the well of S. Cover."
3 *
P. 321. Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 301.
 134 Lives of the British Saints

MS. name is omitted. In the later genealogies x her name-

20 her
usually occurs as Goleuddydd, and the church of which she is patron
2
is said to be in Gwent, but its situation is not known.

A Goleuddydd is mentioned in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen. She

was the daughter of Amlawdd Wledig, and wife of Cilydd ab
Celyddon.

S. GONANT, Hermit, Confessor

OTHERWISE called Gomond. He was a hermit at Roche, where
the parish church is dedicated to him. The popular tradition is that
he was a leper, who lived in the hermitage on a rock, and was-
daily attended by his daughter, who brought him meat and other
necessaries. He had a well cut in the rock whence he drank.
The date at which he lived is unknown.
His feast is on the Sunday before the second Thursday in June..

S. GONERY, Priest, Confessor

GONERI, or Gonnery, was a native of Britain, who migrated to

Armorica. What his original British name was is difficult to dis-
cover. There was a Gwynoro, son of Cynyr Farfwyn, one of the five
saints, who, according to tradition, were born at one birth. There
is no further record of Gwynoro in Wales, but he and his brothers

are commemorated and formerly

at Llanpumsaint, Carmarthenshire,
at the now Cynwyl Gaio, in the same
extinct chapel of Pumsaint, in

county. Whether Gonery be this Gwynoro is impossible to say.

Gonery is rendered Vener in Breton, as is also Gwethenoc, and as
is likewise Fingar, in Cornish, Gwinear.
The material for the Life of S. Gonery
is not abundant. Albert
le Grand has given from a MS. Legendarium formerly in the
his story
church of Plougrescent, from the Proper of Vannes, and from the
ancient Treguier Breviary.

1
Peniarth MSS., 178, 187; lolo MSS., pp. in, 120, 140; Myv. Arch., pp.
419, 425-
2
See Cambro-British Saints, p. 607. Hesgyn or hesgen, "
a marsh," occurs
in a number of place-names Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 350 ; Record of Caer-
;

narvon, 1838, pp. 103, 200.

 S. Gonery
In the collection of the Blancs Ma,nteaux Bibl. Nat. Paris, MSS.
r
ranc. 22231,15 acopy from the Life in the Legendarium of Trguier.
lis has been printed by the Abbe Lucas, in Revue historique de V Quest,
1888, and apart, Lafolye, Vannes. It is divided into nine lessons.
The Bollandists endeavoured to obtain a copy of the Life possessed,,
in the time of Albert le Grand, by the church of Plougrescent, but
"
in vain. Frustra legendam latinam expectarunt majores nostri,
>traego ipsam speram hodie," Ada SS. Boll. Jul. T. iv, p. 422.
The Life desired by the Bollandists was in all probability the same
that the Abbe Lucas has published from the MS. in the Blancs Man-
mx. That publication is not very correct. There are in it several
slips that have been pointed out by De la Borderie, in the same Revue
hist, de rOuest, 1888, pp. 243-57, together with a critique on the docu-
ment.
The Vita published is certainly later than the twelfth century.
It speaks of a seneschal of the chateau of Rohan, which was not con-
structed till the twelfth century and there is reference to the fable
;

of Cynan Meiriadog, as given by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is very

deficient in precise details relative to the family of the saint, and to

whence he came and where he landed. One incident, that of his
trouble with Alvandus, is expanded to a prodigious length, and is
" "
based, as the author tells us, on the gesta, the gestes of Alvandus,
a romance or popular ballad. As in the case of all such manufactured
>iographies, where material was scarce, it is stuffed with pious reflec-
tions and descriptions. The Abbe Lucas has further published in
the same Revue a Breton ballad of S. Gonery, but this is not earlier
than the seventeenth century. It is founded on the Vita, but adds
me particular, that Gonery was a fellow disciple with S. Tudwal,
1
ind that he induced Tudwal to sail with him from Britain to Armorica.
Whence this detail whether from a lection in the church
was culled,
of Plougrescent for the Saint's day, or whether it was due to a con-
jecture because Plougrescent is near S. Tudwal's church at Tre"guier,
we cannot tell. No weight can be attached to such a statement.
Tudwal landed on the coast of Le"on above Brest, and Gonery appar-
ently to the south, in Broweroc (Morbihan).
Gonery was a native of Britain. He left his native land and migrated
"
1
Gant Tual eun he vanati
Eon manac'h Sant Koneri.
* * *

Kerkent sant Tual a zentaz

Ha gant Koneri a devaz
Gant Koneri ha kalz ous penn
Ouz penn tre-ugent'nu eur vandan."
136 Lives of the British Saints
" "
to ad Minorem Britanniam applicuit." Gonerius
Brittany,
Britannia venit in Armoricam."
He not specified in Broweroc, and went up
landed somewhere
1
country into the forest of Brecillien to Brenguilli, near Rohan. This
2
place in 1265 was a tref in the vast parish of Noyala. Probably an
ancient road crossed the forest from the Roman town of Sulirn^ now
Castannec, to Corseult, and if so then the settlement of Gonery was
on this highway. The whole of the upper waters of the Blavet seem
to have been taken possession of by British Saints.
At the time that Gonery settled at this place, there lived a rough-
3
tempered chief of the name of Alvandus at Noyala. As he was
4
returning from hunting one day he passed the cell of Gonery, and
saluted him courteously, but the hermit was engaged on his office,
and made no response. Alvandus rode on, highly incensed, and
muttered threats against a man who had settled on his land without
leave, and who had not the good manners to acknowledge his
greeting. Some of his servants, hearing this, fell behind, and thrashed
Gonery with their whips and sticks, and beat him with their fists.
The steward of Alvandus, afraid that they might serve the hermit
too severely, went back to the cell, and found that he had fallen,
and that two of his ribs were broken. He threatened the over-officious
domestics, and obliged them to desist from further ill treatment.
Then he hastened to his master, and represented to him the condition
in which Gonery lay. Alvandus, who was a good-hearted man, if a
little hot-tempered, was greatly concerned, and went himself to the cell

and offered to take the battered and suffering hermit home with him,
and have him properly attended to there. But Gonery declined this,
and Alvandus then readily gave him the patch of land about his cell
to clear and cultivate. After that, he frequently visited the saint
and listened respectfully to his instructions. Gonery had a pleasing
exterior. 5
The
story went that one day as Gonery was celebrating mass
fora marriage, the stone altar slab at which he stood snapped with a
loud report, but happily the two portions did not fall. The altar slab
rested on a single central support, and was long afterwards shown as
miraculously stayed up although cracked. After a while Gonery
" A
castro Rohani per spacium duorum millium fere distat."
2
JLeMene, Paroisses de Vannes, ii, p. 382.
3 "
Alvandus erat sevissimus Christianus, maim atrox in potentes, ferox in
mites, in populum depopulatus."
4 "
In hoc loco sibi casam edificans
quae casa usque in hodiernum diem in
ecclesiam est conversa."
6 "
Corpore magnus, membris robustus, vultu plaudus, risu jucundus."
 S. Gonery 137
quitted the iorest of Brenguilli, and made his way to the north coast
at Plougrescent, near Tre'guier, and there he died and was buried.
The parish church at Plougrescent has been rebuilt, but the
most
interesting chapel of S. Gonery remains. It possesses a superb fif-
teenth century painted ceiling. At the west end, under the tower,
on one side is what is supposed to have been the stone boat in which
Gonery crossed. ver to Brittany. It is an ancient, very rude sarcophagus.
On the further side of the chapel is his tomb. The peasants creep into
it, and take out a little dust which is tied up in a rag, and conveyed
to those sick with fever, and it is supposed to heal them. Then these
little parcels are returned to the church.
At the east end of the chancel are two statues, one of S. Gonery
habited as a priest, in chasuble, with arms extended, and with a
\vri-ath of roses on his head. The other statue represents his mother,
wli< is traditionally held to have crossed over with him.
>
She is habited
queen, as she was of royal descent. The local tradition is that
her name was Elebouban, and she is so named in the Breton ballad
of S. Goner}-. Garaby gives as her day May 23.
" "
Not only is the holy employed as a
febrifuge, but also the
soil
"
water of S.
Gonery." water The
into which the relics
priest blesses
of the saint have been dipped, according to a form that has received

eju-M-opal approval.
S. Gonery is invoked by the who have great
sailors of the coast,
confidence in his protection. They argue that if he crossed the Channel
safely in a stone boat, he can assuredly secure their safety in a vessel
of wood.
Ibert le Grand gives this saint on April 4. The Bishop of Treguier
[514 ordered that his feast should be celebrated on the first Tues-
ly in April, but in 1770 it was transferred to April 7 (Brev. Trecor.
70 ; Brev. Corisop. 1783).
Jut the Breviary of Quimper of 1589, on July 19 and in the MS. ;

[reguier Legendarium of the fifteenth century on July 18, as also

in the various Breviaries, 1630, 1652, 1660.
According to the Acts of the saint he died on July 18. The Pardon
at Plougrescent is on the fourth Sunday in July.
S. Gonery ispatron of the parish that bears his name near Pontivy,
also of Plougrescent, and of S. Connec, near S. Gonery. He has
chapels at Hemoustoir, Langoat, Lanvellec, Locarn, Ploezal, and
Plougras.
At the latter is a statue of the saint bare-headed and long-robed,
over which is cast a mantle. His right hand holds a staff, his left
an open book.
138 Lives of the British Saints

S. Elebouban, his mother, receives a

still vigorous cult,
especially
in the- islet of Plougrescent, where are the ruins of an
Loaven, off

ancient chapel that was dedicated to her. Around it are remains of

dwellings, and among them traces of a village oven and to the ;

chapel attached an ancient disused cemetery. In the gable of the

is

chapel is a niche that contains the statue of the holy woman, behind

folding shutters. She is represented crowned and holding a book.

A procession is made to this chapel on the Monday in Rogation
Week, carrying the head of S. Gonery. If the weather be stormy
and the passage dangerous, the pilgrimage is postponed to the follow-
ing Thursday. On reaching the isle, a hymn of Holy Matrons is sung,
and then come special prayers. Women visit the isle from the begin-
ning of summer, taking their little children with them, to invoke the
1
aid of S. Elebouban to make them strong on their legs.

S. GORFYW, see S. GWRFYW

S. GOUEZNOU, see S. GWYDDNO

S. GOULVEN, Bishop, Confessor

ALTHOUGH was not born in Britain, his parents emigrated

this saint ted
from our and he was born shortly after their arrival in Leon.
island,
It is accordingly permissible to include him in this work.
The Life is found in a copy made of the ancient Vita by Breton
Benedictines in the seventeenth century, and is contained in the
twenty-eighth volume of the collection of the Blancs Manteaux now in
the Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. Francais 22321 from which it ;

was printed by A. de la Borderie in Memoires de la Soc. d 'Emulation

des Cotes du Nord, T. xxix., and published separately, Rennes, 1892.
Another, by Albert le Grand, in his Vies des Saints de Bretagne,
was derived from MSS. in the Cathedral archives of Leon, and the
ancient Breviaries of Quimper, and the Proprium Sanctorum of Rennes.
This was, however, founded on the Life published byDe la Borderie.
A Vita is also given in the Ada 55. Boll. Jul., I, pp. 127-9, derived
from one printed in Gonon Vita Patrum Occidents, Lyons, 1625,
;

lib. ii, p. 85. The Life first mentioned served as the basis of the
Lections in the Breviary and of the other Lives, and is the only one
1
Garaby, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, 1839, pp. 457-8.
 S. Gottlven *
3 Q
t need concern us. It is not ancient, as it was composed after
1186 ; contains an account of a miracle then performed. There
for it

are other indications to the same effect which have been pointed out
by M. de la Borderie.
The author was almost certainly a native of Goulven in Lon, as he
exhibits acquaintance with the localities to a remarkable
degree.
He was an honest writer for he says that he can relate nothing par-
;

ticular of what Goulven did as Bishop, because he could find no written

records, or any relation of what he then did that was
"
worthy of con-
fidence, Quia ad nos nee scripto authentico nee recta relatione per
venit."

Owing to a mention in the Life of relations between Goulven and

Count Even, and the repulse of Danes and Northmen, Dom Lobineau
supposed that the saint lived in the tenth century. But it is possible
enough that there was an earlier Even, who gave his name to Lesneven
(Aula Eveni) and the author may have mistaken earlier pirates for
;

those who created such devastation in the tenth

century.
That Goulven was in relation with S. Paul of Le\>n, and succeeded
him, can scarcely be doubted.
Glaudan, a native of Britain, left his country along with his wife,

Gologwen, who was

expecting shortly to become a mother. They
arrived in Letavia, and their boat entered what is now the Anse de
Goulven, a broad shallow bay, left dry at low tide, and sheltered from
the rolling billows by a sandy spur on which now stands the village
of Plouneour-Trez. 1 They found the country covered with dense
forest. Glaudan arrived only just in time, for his wife was taken with
pangs of maternity. He brought her ashore, as the evening fell,
then hastened in quest of shelter for her head. There was a colonist
tied there, but when asked to receive the poor woman, he chur-

ly refused. Glaudan conducted Gologwen to a place on high ground

called Odena, and which still bears the name Maner an Odena, where
she gave birth to a man-child. There was no spring near, but a rustic
living in a cottage hard by gave Glaudan a pail (cadum) in which he ,

might bring water from the nearest source, and he pointed out to
laudan the path that led to the spring.
Glaudan set the pail on his shoulder and went in quest of water,
was falling, the track lay among dense bushes, and was
t the night

"
Glaudanus, relictis Britonibus transmarinis inter quos oriundus extiterat,
transito, venit in partes Letaniae, quae est pars Armoricae sive Britanniae
noris, cum Gologuena uxore sua praegnante." For Letania should be read
Letavia, and Letavia was not a part of Armorica it included the whole. The
;

name Goulven is probably the same as the Guollguinn of the Book of Llan Ddv
(index, p. 402).
 140 Lives of the British Saints

much overgrown, and he lost his way. Finally, he got back to his
wife, but without water. Discouraged and distressed, he prayed to
God, and thereupon a spring gushed forth, and he was able with the
limpid water thus miraculously provided, to furnish his wife with the
water she required. The spring, which is seven minutes walk from
Odena, still flows, and bears to this day the name of the Fontaine de S.
Goulven.
Putting aside the miraculous element in the story, we see that this
actually was the spring to which the rustic had directed Glaudan
with his The Life goes on to say that considering the sacredness
pail.
of the spring,and that the water ought not to be employed for common
purposes, they dug in another spot and found another source. This
probably means that this was done very much later or else that
;

the rustic demurred to Glaudan employing the spring daily, and forced
him to sink a well for himself. Both springs are shown in the hamlet
of Kerouchen, or Kerouchic, west of the village of S. Goulven.
"
The holy- well is surrounded by a wall of cut stones. The other,
the profane spring, is eight feet distant outside the enclosure." x
There was a colonist named Gothian, 2 rich and fearing God, who
lived hard by at Ker-Gozian on a height now called le Vieux Chatel,
about seven minutes walk from the Holy Well. Hearing of the
arrival of the colonists, and of the distress in which they were, he at
once took care that they should be supplied with the necessaries of
life.He, moreover, stood godfather to the child, and as he was himself
without issue, he adopted the boy, to whom the name of Goulven was
given. He sent him to school, where we are not informed, and the
littlefellow being bright, made great progress with his studies.
That Glaudan and Gologwen were of good family, and that they
had already kindred in the country, is probable. On their death
"
they were buried with their kin, parentibus ejus defunctis et ad
patres suos appositis," and Goulven embraced the monastic life,
contrary to the wishes of his foster-father Gothian, who had designed
him as his successor. Goulven did not go far away ;
he selected a
spot near where he had been born, still called Le Desert, but which
was overgrown with brambles. Here he erected a cabin as his peniti,
and allowed no woman to approach it, and he erected a chapel or
oratory at Odena, where he had first seen the light.
Goulven left his cabin only once a day, and then he walked

1
Kerdanet, in his edition of Albert le Grand, 1837, pp. 368-9.
"
2
Godianus, vir dives ac timens Deum de cuj us nomine usque ad hodiernum
diem Villa Godiani vocata est." It has lost the name now, but it was called
Kergozian as late as 1497. Kerdanet, ibid., p. 369.
 S. Goulven 141
round his little domain, his miniti, and planted three crosses at inter-
vals, which bore long the name of the Stations of S. Goulven. As a
companion he had a disciple named Maden. Many came to the saint
for instruction, for healing, and some took refuge within his sanc-

tuary, which he surrounded with a ditch and mound.

One day a peasant named Joncor, in Plouneour-Trez, found a mass
of gold when ploughing, probably some prehistoric torques, and

sending for Maden, bade him take the treasure to his master. Goulven
ived the gold and made of it three bells, one he gave to his own
church, and one to that of Lesneven the third he reserved, and
;

it finally came to Rennes. He also made of the gold a chalice and

three crosses. 1
At Leon a chieftain named Ewen, or John,
this period there ruled in
who had Lesneven (Lis-an-Even). A band of
his Lis or Court at
Saxon pirates landed on the coast and began to ravage Leon. Ewen
sought the saint, desired his prayers, and then fell on the marauders
and drove them to the coast and cut them to pieces. 2
The biographer has confounded this Ewen with another who lived
in the tenth century, and the pirates he also supposes to have been

Northmen. There is no reason to doubt that there was a chief of

the not uncommon name of John, who immediately succeeded Withur,
and who gave his name to Lesneven.
From the Life of S. Melor we know that there had been inroads of
the Saxons, who are there called Frixones, about this period. 8
Goulven was on intimate terms with Paulus Aurelianus, the Bishop
of Leon, and on the death of that saint was chosen to succeed him.
But he was wholly unfitted for the office, having spent his days in
solitude, and after a very brief episcopate, he fled from his charge
into the country of the RedAones, and settled at S. Didier, a com-

1
In the legend, Goulven sends Maden to Joncor to ask him to give him some-
thing. Joncor is ploughing, and he takes up handfuls of earth and puts them
into Maden's lap to take to his master. As he carries them, the earth is trans-
formed into gold.
2 " Multas provincias
Temporibus illis, insulani piratae Daci et Normani . . .

et maxime Britanniam nostram Armoricam iniestabant cum igitur quadam vice,

navigio adducti, Letaniam Letaviam) quae nunc

(?
manu
est Leonia in valida
intravissent comes Evenus qui cognominatus est Magnus, cujus sedes erat
. . .

in oppido quod ab ejus nomine Lesnevenum, quasi Aula Event, usque in diem
dicitur hodiernum, collectis militibus et peditibus Christianis, praedictis paganis
congredi affectabat," p. 220.
3 "
Is (Jan Reith) post desolationem Frixonum et Corsoldi ducis nostram adiens
desertam Cornugalliam," etc. Vita S. Melori in Anal. Boll., T.V. (1886), p. 166.
This was at an earlier period, but these raids probably continued for over a
century. The second Count Even made a grant to the monastery of S. \\in-
waloeinQ55. Cart. Landevennec, ed. De la Borderie, p. 163.
142 Lives of the British Saints
"
mune of Chateaubourg in Ille et Vilaine. In this parish are pre-
served reminiscences of Goulven, Bishop of Leon, who retired there
S.

into solitude and died as a hermit, about the year 600. To this . .

day a wood near the ancient manor of Motte-Merioal bears the name
of the Bois de S. Goulven the ditches are shown, not now very deep,
;

which enclosed what is called the Garden of S. Goulven there stood ;

an old cross lately replaced by one of granite. Finally, on the fringe

of the wood, in the field des Brousses, are an old well and the oven
of S. Goulven. The hovel occupied formerly by the pious hermit
must, accordingly, have been alongside of these ruins, but the site
is no longer pointed out. Nor is there any traditional record as to
where stood a chapel on this spot. However, annually the parish
of S. Didier assembles at the foot of the above-mentioned cross and
celebrateson July 6 the feast of S. Goulven, who sanctified this wood." 1
The Life of S. Goulven was drawn up late, in the twelfth century,
and contains some anachronisms, as the introduction of " Count " Even,
who lived in the tenth century. But in its broad outlines it may be
trusted, as founded on fairly trustworthy tradition. The blunders
have been pointed out by De la Borderie.
Paul of Leon died about 570. We may suspect that Goulven was
a kinsman, or else he was hardly likely to have been chosen to replace
him. The holding of the headship of a monastery in the hands of a
kinsman, one of the same blood, had not died out in Brittany at so
early a period.
"
The communities were composed of actual or reputed relations,
all related,in a very near degree, by a real descent from a common
ancestor, that is, the heads of the different households which made
up the community, whether tribe, village, or family, were all closely
related to each other. If a man
come within the prescribed
did not
limit of relationship he did not belong to the community, but was
a stranger and, as a stranger, he was primd facie an enemy, and
;

therefore a person to be knocked on the head at the earliest possible

2
opportunity."
This was true largely of the religious communities. Strangers
and refugees were received into the sacred tribe of the saint, but had
no right to succession to the headship of the community. That
must go to one of the blood-relations of the saint. It is consequently
not credible that Goulven could have been chosen to be bishop and
abbot unless he belonged to the family of Paul by blood relationship.
In the Life published by De la Borderie, Goulven is said to have
1
De Corson, Pouille Hist, de VArcheveche de Rennes, iii, pp. 717-8.
2
Willis Bund, The Celtic Church of Wales, London, 1897, P- 55-
 S. Govan '43
died in the year 500. Early Lives never give the date of the year,
solely of the month.
Paul of Leon survived the elevation of Judual to the throne of
Domnonia but a few years, and can hardly have died later than 570.
We may place the accession of Goulven to the episcopal throne then.
That he remained long bishop is improbable, as nothing is recorded
of his episcopal acts, and he was immediately followed by Tenenan.
Goulven is patron of the parish that bears his name. A holy \voll
a little way out of the village has an enclosed space and tank before
it;
and on one side a stone bath in which the infirm were placed and
water from the well poured over them. But the practice has been
abandoned within the memory of man. He is also patron of Goulien,
near Pontcroix, in Finistere he has chapels as well at Caurel, Lan-
;

vellec near Plouaret in Cotes du Nord, and at Henvic. He is second

patron of S. Didier in Ille et Vilaine, where he died also of Locmaria-
;

Plouzane and Plouezoch. His day is July i in the MS. Missal of

Treguier of the fifteenth century, in the Breviary of Dol, 1519, and
in Albert le Grand. But July 7 in the Leon Breviary of 1736. And
July 8 in the Quimper Breviary of 1835, and in the Breviary of Rennes
of 1627. At Goulven his fete is on July i,and this is his day in
Roscarrock's Calendar. There is a statue of him as a bishop at Goul-
ven, and one above his holy well, as a Bishop without any distin-

guishing attribute.
He is invoked against fever and for maladies to cattle.
There is a chapel bearing his name, under the form of Gelvin, in

S. Sithney parish, Cornwall. (Register of B. Stafford, 1398, p. 225).

S. GOVAN, Abbot, Confessor

THERE is a chapel of S. Govan, or, as now called, S. Gowan, on the
south coast of Pembrokeshire, and the saint has given his name to
the bold headland of contorted rock that shoots 160 feet above the
sea. The head is traversed by a fissure, narrow and deep, between
limestone crags, and accessible by a flight of rude steps. The chapel
is built across the chasm, and of a very early and rude character.
is

There can be little doubt as to who this Govan was, i.e., Gobhan,
the disciple of S. Ailbe, known as S. Ailfyw, or Elfyw, in Welsh. The
name is common in the Irish Martyrologies, and it is difficult always
to distinguish the saints of that name one from another. The name
"
means a smith," whence Gobannium ( Abergavenny) ,
"a smithy."
144 Lives of the British Saints

Gobhan, also called Mogopoc, was S. Ailbe's cook. Gobhan was of

the clan of the Hy Cinnselach. As the Saintly Master desired to
have a correct form of the order of the Mass, he sent his disciples
Lugich and Cailcenn to Rome, and his cook along with them.
"
As they were about to start, the three said to Ailbe, Promise us
"
that we shall all return safe and sound to Ireland." I promise

it," answered Ailbe.

On board ship Gobhan was must
so sea-sick that he thought he

die, and the end was at hand. What to do

rest really believed his
without their cook they did not know, and they thought, moreover,
that the promise of Ailbe would fail. From exhaustion Gobhan fell
into fits of fainting and utter prostration. But after a while he rallied,
"
and said to his fellow travellers : You have been guzzling on this
voyage, and not fasting, as was seemly, and that upset me."
Gobhan afterwards, having returned from Rome, became Abbot
of Dairinis in his native country of the Hy Cinnselach, or Wexford.
There was a Gobhan possibly the same who was for a while
disciple of S. Senan of Iniscathy, and he is said to have been
brother of S. Setna. Ailbe died 527-31, 2 and Gobhan may have
gone to Senan after his death.
"
But he is certainly to be distinguished from a namesake, the
father of a thousand monks," who settled in Ulster, although Colgan

supposed there might be identity.

According to local tradition, S. Govan spent his last years in retreai
on the headland in Pembrokeshire that bears his name. Within
"
his chapel there is a wishing place," a fissure in the rock just large
enough to hold one person. Whoever, seated in it, forms his wish,
with full confidence in the merits of S. Govan, and turns himself about
each time that he repeats it, is certain to have his desire accomplished.
Tradition has it that S. Govan concealed himself in this recess from
pirates, and the rock closed about him, and, when they were gone,
opened to allow his exit.
A little below the chapel is his Holy Well, covered by a rude roof,

now almost dry, whither patients were wont to repair to drink of the
miraculous water. But the healing influence of the saint's merits
attaches as well to a deposit of red clay lodged in an angle of the
due to decomposition of the rock. " The lame and blind pil-
cliff,

grims are still conveyed by their friends down the rude steps chiselled
by the holy man, and, after being anointed with a poultice formed of
1
Vita S a Albei in Salam. Cod., col. 255. In the original Gobhan actually
.

dies, but revives and rebukes the others for eating and not fasting.
2
Chron. Scottorum gives the later date. See under S. AILBE, i, p. 13 5-
 S. Govan 14.5

the moist clay, are left there for several hours to bask under the
summer's sun."
The chapel is of the simplest form, consisting of a nave 20 feet
by
12 feet. It has a stone altar and a small tower, and is approached
by a long flight of fifty-two steps, which, according to the popular

story, cannot be counted by any one both ways alike. 1

The tale is told that a silver bell hung above the chapel. This
was stolen by pirates, but a tempest arose and the vessel was
wrecked, but the bell was conveyed by angelic hands to the side of
the well, where it was entombed in a rock, which on being struck
2
gives a metallic sound.
Govan's name cannot be perpetuated, as is generally supposed,
in the Monmouthshire church-name Llangofen. 3
S. Govan or Gobhan's Day is March 26, according to the Martyr-

ologies of O'Gorman, and Donegal.

He is possibly known in Brittany as S. Gavan, at Plouguerneau, in

Finistere, in a thoroughly Irish colonised district.

There was another saint of the same name, who belonged to a later
generation,and who was a disciple of S. Fursa or Fursey. 4 He had
two brothers, Algeis and Etto, whom S. Fursey ordained priests
along with Gobhan. They beheld the Lord Jesus, Who appeared
"
to them in vision by night and said to them, Come unto Me, all
ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. Come,
ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the beginning of the world." Next day, being Sunday, they sought
their master, and told him what had occurred, and how they had
seen the same vision, and heard the same words, and that, having
"
cen counsel together, and remembering the words of Christ, Unless
a man forsake father and mother, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be My disciple," they had resolved to set forth on pilgrimage. Fursey,
on hearing this, was glad, and gave thanks to God but, smiling,
;

" He
said, Certainly ye shall not go, unless I accompany you."
then called to him his two brothers, Ultan and Foillan, and said,
Do ye desire to serve Christ along with me ? " They replied,
Whither thou there will we
goest, also." So Fursey and the
go
departed from Ireland, taking ship for Britain. And after

Fenton, Pembrokeshire, ed. 1811, pp. 414-6, ed. 1903, pp. 226-7 Tour in ;

Quest of Genealogy through several parts of Wales, etc., by a Barrister, London,

1811, pp. 88-90; Arch. Camb., 1880, p. 338.
*
Bye-Gones, second series, vol. vi, p. 278.
3
ii, p. 202. His name enters into the Uuor-govan of the Cartulary of Re-
don.
4
Colgan, A eta SS., Hib., Appendix ad Ada S. Furscni, c. vi, p. 96.
VOL. III. L
146 Lives of the British Saints

having been for awhile among the East Saxons, they departed for
Gaul.
Gobhan travelled along with Fursey to Corbeny in the department
of Aisne, about sixteen miles south-east of Laon, on the way to Rheims.
Here he and a band of brethren separated, after giving each other
the kiss of peace, and each chose his own field for labour. Gobhan
repaired to Laon and spent some time in the church of S. Vincent,
which had been founded by Queen Brunehild after the death of Sigi-
bert in 580. Desirous of making a new establishment, Gobhan,
accompanied by a single disciple, penetrated to a place in the ancient
forest of Vosage (Vosaga sylva, Vosagum foreste), which was haunted

by wild beasts, and where he discovered an old fortress on the summit

of a steep rock now called Le Mont de 1'Hermitage.
There, wearied with his journey, he lay down ;folding his hood
under his head for a pillow, and planting his staff in the ground, he
bade his disciple watch whilst he slept. Singing in his sleep, he
"
chanted the psalm, Lord, remember David and all his trouble how ;

he sware unto the Lord and vowed a vow unto the Almighty God
:

of Jacob ;
I will not come within the tabernacle of mine house nor:

climb up into my bed I will not surfer mine eyes to sleep, nor mine
;

eyelids to slumber neither the temples of my head to take any rest

:
;

until I find out a place for the temple of the Lord :an habitation
for the mighty God of Jacob. Lo, we heard of the same at Ephrata :

and found it in the wood." And then opening his eyes, he saw that
a sparkling rill had broken out of the ground where he had set his
staff, and he resolved on there setting up his rest for ever.
He went to Laon to Clothair II, and asked him to grant the site
to him. This the king did, and thenceforth this portion of the forest
has borne the name of the Forest of S. Goban.
He now set to work to construct a monastery, and to build a church.
The people thereabouts were wild and stubborn, and Gobhan could
not make much way with them. He interceded in prayer for the
"
natives, praying, Take away, O Lord, their guilt from them, or else
take away my life."
In a vision of the night, the Lord spoke to him, and told him that
barbarians more savage than the Vandals, were coming out of the
North, and that he would fall by their swords.
Soon after a horde of invaders swept over the district, laying it
waste, and, penetrating to his monastery, cut off his head. He was
buried in the church afterwards called by his name. On the wall
"
is inscribed : O Gobane gratiam impetres et gloriam his qui tibi
serviant," these being the closing lines of a sequence that gives a
 *S".
Gredfyvo

iary of his life. His day is June 20. 1 As far as can be judged,
date of his death was in 648.
Miss Margaret Stokes gives an interesting account of a visit to S.
)ban near Laon. 2
"
We reached the Hermitage at last I found that it had been ;

ipied by a monk even within last century. It stands, as it were,

>n a tiny island in the middle of a pond filled with those little scarlet

)ld-fish which shoot through the green depths of the forest

like flame
>red in the water. . . . When
I first saw the cave I was almost

ipted to believe that it was a dolmen, but its vast size rendered
it impossible. The chamber underneath the enormous rock which
is the roof, measures 10 feet n
inches wide, and 13 feet in depth,
icn three little cells, or closets, open at the back. It would be easy,
filling up the small open space behind, and by fixing a door and
/ooden plank in the front, to make this cave quite air-tight."
Near the Calvary at S. Goban is shown a large stone with a hollow
it, supposed to have been made by the saint's head, when he used
block for a pillow.
In the parish church are therelics of S. Gobhan, and a statue, as
an interesting sculpture as bas-relief in the retable, representing
the life and martyrdom of the saint. Miss Stokes gives a representation
of one compartment of the retable, showing Gobhan seated reading
near his forest cell.

As Gobhan East Anglia about 634, and Ireland some ten years
left

earlier,he can hardly have been born before 578; this saint cannot,
therefore, possibly be the same as the Gobhan who was cook to S.
Ibe, who died about 530, and the disciple of Senan of Iniscathy,
rtuch latter died about 568.
There is nothing to lead us to suppose that Gobhan, disciple of
Fursey, ever was in Pembrokeshire, but there is a probability that
is earlier namesake
may have been there, as S. Ailbe wa3 a native
)f Menevia and had his church, S. Elvis, now a ruin, at Solva.

S. GREDFYW, Confessor
THE pedigree of " Gredfyw of Llanllyfni " is known to occur in but few
[SS., e.g. Cardiff MS. 5 (1527) and Hanesyn Hen (Cardiff MS. 25),

115, where he is given as the son of Ithel Hael of Llydaw, and the
1
Ada SS. Boll., Jun.
iv, pp. 23-5.
*
Three Months in the Forests of France, London, 1895, pp. 217-25.
 148 Lives of the British Saints
"
brother of Tegai, Gredifael, Llechid, and others. Gredfiw of Llan-
llyfni," without pedigree, is given by Lewis Morris from one of the
MSS. used by him in the compilation of his so-called alphabetical
Bonedd y Saint. 1 The name of the patron of Llanllyfni is usually
written Rhedyw, but this is- an error due to not taking into account
the initial mutation. 2
Llanllyfni is and it is there alone that he seems
in Carnarvonshire,
to have name, indicating it as the scene of his labours. The
left his

parish derives its name from the river. Ffynnon Redyw, his Holy
Well, formerly enclosed within a small rectangular building, supplied
the water for baptism. 3 His shrine, popularly called Bedd Rhedyw,
was, until a restoration of the church in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, to be seen behind the altar, rising about two feet above the
level of the floor and outside the church, above the window of Capel
;

Eithinog, is his effigy now very much defaced, which used to be held
in great veneration. Opposite the effigy is a stone, now built into
the churchyard wall, on which his devotees used to kneel before the
effigy, and on which are said to be visible the impress of their knees.
There is a local tradition that the saint dwelt at a house in the
parish called Eisteddfa Redyw (his seat), and the remains of his chair
are still shown there. print of his horse's hoof, and the mark
The
of his thumb on a stone near it, are also shown. There is besides a
4
cottage in the parish called Tyddyn Rhedyw.
"The wake is holden on July 6, when a considerable number of

persons assemble together to buy harvest implements, horses, and

cattle." 5 Others give Gwyl Redyw on November n. 6 It does not
occur in any of the calendars.

S. GREDIFAEL, Confessor
GREDIFAEL, Gradifael, or Gredifel, was one of the sons of Ithel Hael
of Llydaw, 7 who migrated to Wales in the second half of the fifth
1
Myv. Arch., p. 426.
2
Ridicus, S. Garmon's father, is irregularly given as
Rhedyw in the lolo
MSS., and he once actually
is styled "saint" (p. 131). Gredfyw would be
liable to be reduced to which is the form in Cardiff MS. 5.
Gredyw,
3
Arch. Camb., 1847, p. 209.
4
Ambrose, Hynafiaethau, etc., Nant Nantlle, Penygroes, 1872, pp. 16-7; Y
Gwladgarwr, 1838, p. 44 Lewis, ;
Topog. Diet, of Wales, s.v. Llanllyfni Cymru,
;

November, 1895, P- 226.

5
Carlisle, Topog. Diet, of Wales, 1811, s.v. Llanllyfni.
Browne Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 273 Cambrian Register, 1818, iii, p. 224.
;
7
Hanesyn Hen, p. 115 Myv. Arch., p. 426; lolo MSS., pp. 112, 114, 133.
;

Cynddelw (twelfth century), in his Ode to S. Tyssilio, seems to connect him with
 S. Greit 1 4g
mtury. He and his favourite brother Fflewyn, we are told in the
r
olo MSS. but the statements are utterly unhistorical were " saints
>f Cor y Ty Gwyn ar Daf, in Dyfed, where they were with S. Pawl of
superintending a Bangor," the foundation of which is also
Illtyd,
ittributed to the three. The two brothers certainly founded a church
:h in Anglesey. Gredifael founded Penmynydd church, sometimes
lied Llanredifael. His shrine, Bedd Gredifael is in the little chapel,

ipel Gredifael, in the church. was formerly believed that if

It

person subject to lay for

fits a night on Bedd Gredifael he would
be cured of them. is in Cae Gredifael, near the
Ffynnon Redifael
church. water cured warts, which were first pricked with a pin
Its
until they bled and then washed in the well.
Some half a dozen Welsh calendars, and among them the earlier
ones, his festival entered against November 13
have two have it ;

*
against the I4th and one against
;
the 22nd. Browne Willis gives
the I3th, but Nicolas Owen 2 and Angharad Llwyd 3 the 3oth.
He is included by Dafydd Nanmor in his list of the hundred or more
saints to whose guardianship he commits Henry VII. 4

S. GREIT, Confessor
S. Elgar, the Bardsey hermit, in the Book of Llan
IN the Life of
~>dv,written from the account given by him to Caradog, probably of
lancarfan (died c. 1147), reference is made to one Greit or Graid, who
mentioned as a confessor. The hermit related how Dubricius,
Padarn, and many another saint, who had been buried in
;iniol,
"
constantly administered, in
,
the likeness of corporeal sub-
mce," to his wants, and how one of them advised him one day to
to the grave of the confessor Greit, near to which, on a stone, God
)uldsend him every third morning a fish wherewith to sustain him-
If but of this diet he by and by grew weary. 5
;

Nothing is known of Greit, other than that he was one of the 20,000
saints buried in Bardsey.

Meifod, Montgomeryshire, where he is credited with having performed a miracle

(Myv. Arch., p. 179). He is also mentioned in a poem by Gruffydd ab Meredydd

" "
(early fourteenth century), Pawl pedyr gradivel y del oedv (Red Booh of
Hergest, col. 1203; Myv. Arch., p. 297). Gradifel was also a district name
(Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru, 2nd ed., p. 157).
1 *
Bangor, 1721, p. 282. .
Hist. Anglesey. 1775, p. 58.
3
Hist. Anglesey, 1833, P- 3 28 -
4 Iol MSS ? -?I -*-
-

*
P. 3. See under S. ELGAR. ii. p. 454-
 150 Lives of the British Saints

Two or more persons of the name occur, one, the son of Hoewgi,
in the Gododin, and another, the son of Eri, in Culhwch and Olwen.
These were probably considerably earlier.

S. GRWST, Confessor

GWRWST, Gorwst, or Grwst, was the son of Gwaith Hengaer, des-

cended from Coel Hen (Godebog) through Urien Rheged. His mother
was Euronwy, daughter of Clydno Eiddyn.
1
He is the patron of
"
Llanrwst, in Denbighshire, in which parish is also his Cataract,"
"
Rhaiadr Rwst. There was formerly in the church, a wooden Image
e
of this Saint in y Breod (? Rood) loft." 2 His festival, Gwyl Rwst,
occurs on December I in a good many of the Welsh calendars. A
fair used to be held at Llanrwst on the eve of his festival, O.S., and
is still held on December n. This accounts for the dedication of the
church being sometimes given as to S. Andrew. 3
The name of " Sanctus Grwst " occurs with SS. Daniel and Trillo,
among the signatories to the grant by'Maelgwn Gwynedd to S. Kentigern. 4

S. GUDWAL, Bishop, Confessor

THE Gudwal is a recomposition of a much more ancient
Life 6f S.

biography, by a monk of Blandinberg. The Life exhibits a remarkable

1
Peniarth MSS. 16 and 45 ; Hafod MS. 16 Hanesyn Hen, p. 113
; Myv.;

Arch., p. 425, etc. In the Bonedd in Peniarth MS. 12, where his mother's name
is wrongly given as Creirwy, he is called Gwrwst Letlwm, "the half bare," but
this was the name of an ancestor, the grandson of Coel. Grwst is in Old-Welsh
Gurgust, the literal equivalent of the Irish Fergus = Viro-gustus. The name
occurs also in Pictish and Old-Breton. There are two streams in Carmarthen-
shire bearing the purely Irish form Fferws, i.e. Fergus. In the Taxatio of 1291,
p. 287, Llanrwst is given as Lanwrvst. As a common noun Gwrwst, means the \

cfamp. The name is to be distinguished from that of Gwrgwest or Gwrwest,

daughter of Ceneu, which, however, is matched by the Breton Gourvest or
Gurvest of Plou-gourvest, in Finistere.
2
Bp. Maddox's (1736-43) MS. Z, in the Episcopal Library, S. Asaph.
3
Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 364. December i is entered as his day in the calen-
dars prefixed to the Welsh Prayer Book and New Testament of 1567, and Bibles
of 1588 and 1620. In a sixteenth century list of Welsh fairs (Cardiff MS. 11)
we have, " Ffair yn llan Rwst gwyl ondras."
4 Red Booh
of S. Asaph, p. 118, in the Episcopal Library, S. Asaph.

*/-'
f-
 S. Gudwal 151
knowledge of the localities, such as could only have been acquired by
one living on the spot but along with this occur grotesque blunders,
;

where the Flemish monk who recomposed the Life endeavoured to

improve what he found in the text, and by so doing fell into error.
This Life is found in the Ada SS. Boll, Jun. i, pp. 729-42 ; a critique
thereon in vi, pp. 84-7. The same, abridged by John of Tynemouth,
in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglite, but with the addition of a few
miracles.
The relics of the saint were conveyed to Blandinberg near Ghent
in or shortly after 919, to preserve them from the ravages of the North-
men. With them was doubtless brought the original Vita. This was
laid under contribution by a monk of Blandinberg, who was also the
ithor of a sermon on the Translation of the saint. As in this latter
there is an allusion to the death of Gilbert, abbot of Blandinberg,
which took place in 1138, we may place this Life as a composition of
the middle of the twelfth century. Much confusion has been occa-
sioned by the identification of Gudwal with a totally distinct per-
sonage, Gurwal, Bishop of Aleth. Albert le Grand gives the Life of
S. Gurwal taken from the old Legendarium in MS. of the diocese of S.

falo, and in this there is not a trace of the fusion ;

but in the later
Breviary of S. Malo, the two have been identified.
On account of the devastation wrought by the Saxons, and the
1
ravages of plague, a great exodus took place from Britain.
Cadoc was one of those who fled from the Yellow Plague in 547 ,
id we may assume that he took Gudwal with him. When in
Brittany, Cadoc founded a monastery on an islet in the Sea of Etel
near Belz. After a while he departed, and committed the charge of
his settlement to a monk Cadwaladr* We may suppose that Gudwal
was at the time too young and inexperienced to assume the headship.
The Isle of S. Cadou is very small, too small for it to be possible for
large community to subsist on it, whereas over against it is another
of considerable extent, now occupied by farms. The biographer says
that Gudwalelected this larger island to which to retreat, and that
he carried off with him a hundred and eighty-eight of the brethren,
[e says that he went thither for retirement but that cannot have
;

been a private retreat, when he had such a number of monks with

him. It looks rather as if there had been a schism in the community.

According to local tradition, Gudwal disembarked on

the promontory
of Plec, which the author of the Life calls Plecit. Here to this day is

1
"Sanctus Gudwalus Britanniae finibus ortus, ex nohili prosap'.i 'jus tempos :

nativitatis erat quo se mucro furoris domini a terra ilia suspcndit quam eo ;

usque gladio, fame, et peste afflixit."

 152 Lives of the British Saints

pointed out the hillock, called Verdon, on which the new settlement
was made, and whereon he elicited a spring by striking the soil with his
staff. Here stands now a chapel dedicated to S. Brigid, and near it

a lech bearing the inscription IAOU. 1

On ground in the long peninsula, that was then an
slightly rising
island, Gudwal planted his caer, his stockaded residence, and a farm-
house that recalls him in its name Kergoal, now occupies the site.
But the bustle and distractiqp. of the place was too much for Gudwal.
Going to the extremity of Le Plec he looked across an arm of the still
Island sea, and his eye rested on a nook on another island that took his

fancy. The inland sea of Etel is in shape like an octopus, with its
long, writhing arms extended on every side. The island that now
arrested the imagination of Gudwal was one of promontories and bays,
and in the depth of one of these bays he planted his place of retreat,
Locoal. The land was covered with oak trees.
The Blandinberg monk misunderstood the text of the Life he recom-
posed, in which the spur of land called Le Plec had been noticed
for its length, and it is in fact six miles long. But he took the passage
to mean its elevation, and so has converted the low gravelly strip of
land into a prodigious cliff and knowing nothing of the composition
;

of the subsoil, which is granite, he has made this imaginary cliff to be

of marble. 2 The author of the Life says that Gudwal contrived an

Ingenious apparatus (machina) to keep out the tide, and that he em-
ployed the monks in raising dykes, and that he established a water mill,
probably turned by the outrush of the tidal waters. The embankment
was miraculously constructed, according to the Blandinberg monk, as
a protection against the furious billows of the ocean. But the sea of
Etel ripples under the breeze, the tide enters through a narrow mouth,
and never can be lashed into anything more serious than wavelets.
Many stories are told of the saint, borrowed from various sources,
as that he plucked a thorn out of the foot of a wolf that approached
him limping, asking with pleading eyes to be relieved. The old tale
of Androcles revived, told also of one of the saints of the Syrian desert.
How long Gudwal lived at Plec, with occasional retreats in Lent and
for rest at Locoal we are not told, but after a time he wearied of his
residence there, and departed to the fringe of the forest of Camors.
This lies to the south of the Tarun, a confluent of the Blavet. Here

1
De la Borderie, Hist, de Bretagne,i, p. 493.
8 "
Rupem vastam prominentem, instar habitabilis insulae . . hanc erga
.

marmorese soliditate innitentem, cum mari in gyro concludebat, nullo inter se

compugnantium fluctuum turbine quassat." A eta SS. Boll., Jun. i, p. 730.
 S. Gudwal
resided a chief who had migrated to Cornouaille (in Cornuviam), 1 on
account of the discord that reigned in his native land. His name is
given as Mevor. He probably occupied the old fortress that had
belonged there to Conmore.
Gudwal sent a deputation to him to ask permission to settle on his
land. This was granted, and he formed a colony at Locoal in what
since 1790 has been the commune of Camors, at a distance of three
kilometres to the south of the present parish church. Here Gudwal
collected about him two hundred monks, and here he died.
His body was taken back to his former retreat on the Sea of Etel,
and there it remained till the ravages of the Northmen at the beginning
of the tenth century compelled the monks to abandon the place, and

fly with it to Blandinberg in Flanders.

An outrageous story is told of his relics
by his biographer. In the
year 1043, when the body was being borne processionally round the
church on his festival, the figure of Christ on the rood suddenly, with
a loud report, wrenched out the nails that held the hands, and turning
about, respectfully (humiliter] bowed to the body of the saint.
S. Gudwal's Day and the Vannes Missal
in the Brev. Venet., 1586,
of 1530 is June 6 ; Vannes Breviary of
as Gurval he occurs in the

1583 and that of 1609. In the fifteenth century MS. calendar of S.

"
Meen on June 7. Whytford has on June 6, the feest of Saynt Good-
e
wale, a bisshope borne of y noble blode of Englonde, that for synguler
perfeccyon resygned his mytre and dwelled upon a desolate rockc
where he buylded a monastery, and by miracle had there a well of
quycke water, and there he gadered clxxxviii monkes and because the ;

rome was lytell he went unto the see at the lowest ebbe and charged
see in the name of our Lorde it shold kepe that place and never
e
/e nearer the monastery, and so had y groude for ever he heled ;

seke, reysed ye deed, with many other myracles, and had revelacios
augels."
He is entered also in Nicolas Roscarrock's calendar on the same
ly. A tomb was erected over his grave in Locoal church in 1666,
ith a figure of the saint on it. Butin 1878 the original tomb of the
saint is thought to have been found below the floor of the church. No
church was founded by the saint in Wales or in Cornwall. The sup-
position that Gulval in the latter has him for patron is erroneous.
Gudwal is invoked in the tenth century Celtic Litany in the library
1
He had entered Cornouaille. To reach him the messengers were obliged to
traverse a vast forest. The Bollandists mistook Cornuvia for Cornwall, and
supposed that Gulval by Penzance was founded by S. Gudwal. Cornubia is,

however, clearly the kingdom of Cornubia in Armorica.

 154 Lives of the British Saints

of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury, as Guidguale. 1 In that pub-

2
lished by Mabillon from a MS. at Rheims, as Goidwal and in that ;

3
of S. Vougai as Guidguale. De la Villemarque read Guitgual. Gud-
wal is shortened in Breton into Goal. He has a chapel at Calan in
the parish of Brech, Morbihan, also at Ploemel and Pluvigner and Ste.
Helene in the same department.

S. GUENOLE, see S. WINWALOE.

S. GUERNABUI, Priest, Confessor

A DISCIPLE of 4
he was appointed princeps or
S. Dyfrig, a cleric ;

head Garth Benni. 5

of the monastic settlement at

Pepiau, son of Erb, King of Erging, granted Mainaur Garth Benni

"
usque ad paludem nigrum inter silvam et campum et aquam et jacu-
lum Constantini regis socri sui, trans Guy amnem " to God and Dubri-
6
cius, and delivered it into the hand of Junapeius.
This is identified as Welsh Bicknor, enfolded by the Wye. What
" "
is meant by the jaculum Constantini regis is difficult to conjecture,
but perhaps it was an upright menhir bearing that name.
Guernabui is mentioned as having had an alumnus named Gur-
7
guare, probably a disciple intended to succeed him in the rule of
Garth Benni. He appears to have been associated with Aidan the
8
bishop at the granting of Mafurn by Cinuin, son of Pepiau and at ;

the grant by Athruis, King of Gwent, to Bishop Comeregius aregrant ;

after devastation, of Lann Cinmarch, Lann Deui, Lann Junabui, and

other churches, he appears as Guernapui Gurit Penni, i.e. of Garth-
benni, and his disciple Gurguare as of Lann Enniaun, or Llandogo,
in Monmouthshire. 9 Guernabui does not appear to have been a
founder, nor to have received any cult.

1 2
Revue
Celtique, 1888, p. 88. Vetera Analecta, 1723, ii, p. 669.
3
Vies des Saints de Bretagne, par Alb. le Grand, ed. 1901, pp. 225-6.
4 Book
of Llan Ddv, pp. 75, 77, 80. His name to-day would appear as Gwerna-
bwy. For the second element-fo, see under S. GWENABWY.
5 6 7
Ibid., p. 164. Ibid., p. 72. Ibid., p. 164.
8
Ibid., pp. 162-3. Ibid., pp. 165-6.
 S. Guorboe i
5 5

S. GUNDLEUS, see S. GWYNLLYW

S. GUNGUARUI, see S. GWARW and S. WINWALOE

S. GUNUINUS, Confessor

GUNUINUS, or Gunuiu, was a disciple of S. Dubricius.

1
As Gun-
nuinus (otherwise Gunnbiu) Magister he occurs as one of the leading
clergy that took part in the election of Oudoceus as Bishop of Llandaff,
and were afterwards present at his consecration at Canterbury. 2 He
3
signed two grants to Bishop Berthguin as Gunuiu Lector.
He cannot be identified with the Gumnius~that came over with
S. Padarn from Brittany to Llanbadarn, and was one of the four
duces whom he placed over the churches he had founded in Cere-
4
digion.

S. GUORBOE, Confessor

THE that we know of this saint is to be found in the Book of

little

Llan Ddv. There a grant occurs 5 in which Guoruodu, King of Erging,

"
gave to Bishop Uvelviu an uncia of land, in the midst of which he
erected a building in honour of the Holy Trinity, and there placed
his priest Guoruoe," to perform the offices of the church, which was
named Lann Guorboe from its first priest-in-charge a good illustra-
" "
tion of the mode of Welsh church dedication during the earliest
period. The church has been identified, but wrongly, with Garway,
in Herefordshire. It is said to be in campo Malochu* some distance
to the north of Garway. Two later grants, to Bishops Junapeius and
"
Comeregius, are witnessed by Elhearn Abbas Lann Guorboe." 7
Guoruoe, or Guruoe, was clerical witness to two grants in Erging
to Bishop Grecielis. 8 Possibly the persons are not identical.
The name would to-day assume the form Gwrfwy or Gorfwy, as
Guormui, or Gurmuy, now
9
would also the Herefordshire river-name
known in English as the Worm.
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 80. The name would be to-day Gwynfyw.
Ibid., pp. 131-2, 140. Ibid., pp. 182, 189.
Cambro-British Saints, p. 191.
Ibid., p. 165, and see i p. 109, ii, p. 414 of this work.
6
P. 162. f

8
Ibid., pp. 164, 1 66. Ibid., p. 170.
Ibid., pp. 43, 134-5. Gwrfwy is to be distinguished from Gwrfyw (Gurbiu).
 156 Lives of the British Saints

S. GUORDOCUI, Abbot, Confessor

1
GUORDOCUI was a disciple of S. Dubricius, and appears as a witness
in two grants made to that saint. 2 Later he is given as abbot of
Llanddewi or Dewchurch, in Herefordshire. 3 He must have lived on
to the times of Athruis, King of Gwent, son of Mouric, and father of

Morcant, for he was one of the witnesses of the regranting of a number

of the Dubricius churches to Comeregius, the bishop. But that
Comeregius was ever bishop of Llandaff is more than doubtful. Later
all the churches granted to him fell under the hand of the Bishop of

Llandaff, and then it was feigned that he had been the eighth prelate
in that see. 4
The dateof the death of Morcant is probably 665. This is given
in the Annales Cambria, but the Morcant there specified is not spoken
of as son of Athruis, so that we cannot be certain. If this be Morcant

son of Athruis, usually known as Morgan Mwynfawr, then the date

of Athruis would be early in the seventh century.
Guordocui would in modern Welsh be Gwrddogwy.

S. GUORVAN, Bishop, Confessor

A DISCIPLE of S. Dyfrig,
5
who witnessed a number of grants to him.
His name takes several forms, as Gurvan, Gorvan, and Guoren. As
bishop he is named as present when Teudur, son of Rein, and Elgistil,
son of August, Kings of Brycheiniog, swore to keep the peace on the
altar of S. Dyfrig and the Holy Gospels. After that Teudur slew
Elgistil,and was excommunicated by Gurvan and his clergy, who
stripped the altar, and laid the crosses on the ground, along with the
relics of the saints. Teudur submitted, and paid compensation for
his crime by surrendering Lann Mihacgel Tref Ceriau, in Brecknock-
shire. 6
The grant has been modernised. There were no churches dedicated
to S. Michael before 718, 7 in Wales, and the compiler of the Book of
Llan Ddv altered the ancient name to that by which the place was
known in his own day. The church in question has been supposed to
be Llanfihangel Tal y Llyn, in Brecknockshire. The same compiler
converted Guorvan into the tenth bishop of Llandaff. 8 With Llandaff
;he probably never had anything to do.

In the lolo MSS. 9

it is stated that Bishop Gwrfan of Llandaff
1
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 80. 2
Ibid., pp. 75, 77.
3 *
Ibid., pp. 164, 166. Ibid., pp.
303, 311.
5
Ibid., p. 80 Ibid. 167-8.
pp.
7 8
Annales Cambria, s.a. Bock of Llan Ddv, pp. 303, 311. 9
P. 221.
 S. Guron 157
mded Llansanffraid Fawr, or S. Bride's Major, and the church of
renewydd Ynottais, or Newton Nottage (now dedicated to S. John
Baptist), both in Glamorganshire.

S. GURHAUAL, Abbot, Confessor

GURHAUAL, or, as his name is also spelt, Guorhauarn and Gurthauar
"
was Abbas Ilduti," i.e. Abbot of Llantwit, who was one of the three

great abbots of the Diocese of Llandaff. His name occurs as witness

to a number of grants in the Book of Llan Ddv during the episcopates
of Oudoceus, Berthguin, and Trichan. 1

S. GURMAET, Confessor
A DISCIPLE and afterwards of S. Teilo, 2 and
first of S. Dubricius

patron of Lann Guruaet, now Llandeilo 'r Fan, on the Mawen, in

3

Brecknockshire, and also of S. Wormet, 4 somewhere near Chepstow

and Tintern, possibly where stands Ho wick at present.
His name would appear in modern Welsh as Gwrfaed.

S. GURON, Hermit, Confessor

LELAND gives among extracts from the Cartulary of Bodmin, in
5 "
Cornwall, Bosmana, id est, mansio monachorum in valle, ubi S.
Guronus solitarie degens in parvo tugurio, quod relinquens tradidit
S. Petroco."
probable that Goran in the Deanery of S. Austell was the place
It is
towhich he retired. He had a chapel at Bodmin, and also at Gorran
Haven. The episcopal estate at Goran is called Polgorran. S. Goran

1
See index to Book of Llan Ddv, p. 403. The name occurs as Guorhaual on
p. 202, and in Brittany as Uurhamal. For the element-haual, see ii, p. 254.
8
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 115. 8
Ibid., pp. 154, 255.
4
Ibid., p. 323, in the fourteenth century Synodalia.
8
Collect, i, p. 75.
158 Lives of the British Saints

is called Gorronus in Bishop Brantyngham's Register, 1270, and

Goranus in those of 1271 and 1272.
According to William of Worcester, he was commemorated in the
Bodmin Antiphonary as Woronocus on April 7. His Holy Well is in
the churchyard at Bodmin, on the south-west side of the parish church.
The village Feast at S. Goran is on Low Sunday.
Nicolas Roscarrock conjecturally identifies him with Gwron ab
Cunedda. 1

S. GURTHIERN, Confessor
THE
authority for this saint is a Life in the Cartulary of Quimperle,
published by Leon Maitre and Paul de Berthou, Paris, Le Chevalier,
1896, pp. 3-7. It is a document of very slender historic value.
It opens with a pedigree of Gurthiern, whom it makes son of Bonus,
son of Gloui, son of Abros, son of Dos, son of Jacob, son of Genethan,
son of Judgual, son of Beli, son of Outham the Old, son of Maximian
(Maximus), son of Constantius, son of Constantine the Great.
Bonus is given by Nennius as the son of Gloiu, and brother of Gui-
tolin, who was grandfather of Gwrtheyrn, the recreant Vortigern.
But all the earlier pedigree above Gloui is fictitious.
Gloui is the Gloiu who is said to have built, and given his name to,
Caer Loew, or Gloucester (Jesus College MS. 20).
The author also gives the maternal ancestry of Gurthiern. His
mother was Denoi, daughter of Lidin, King of all Britain. Clearly
Tenoi is meant, daughter of Lleuddun Luyddog. She was married to
Dingad ab Nudd Hael. The pedigree would stand thus :

Gloiu
I

Guitolin Bonus = Tenoi = Dingad

Gui'taul S. Gurthiern S. Lleuddad S. Baglan And others

Gwrtheyrn
Gwrtheneu,
d. c. 464

There is some chronological blunder in Nennius, in making Gwrtheyrn

grandson of Guitolin. In fact, his pedigree cannot be trusted at all.

The Life goes on to say that Outham the Old was father of two
1
See ii, p. 192.
 S. Gurthiern

>ns,Beli and Kenan (Meiriadog), and so identifies him with Eudaf

m, the father of Helen or Elen, wife of Maximus. 1 This will suffice
show how worthless the genealogy in the Life is. Gurthiern was
igaged when a young man in a contest, in which he killed his sister's

m, and, with compunction, he retired from the world into a

filled
"
in the northern part of Britain." There he spent a year,
liter which, attended by two servants, he departed, and meeting a
^oman who was carrying a human head, he asked her what" she was
ibout. She replied that her son had been decapitated, and that as
le could not carry away his body, she was conveying his head to his
"
>mb, ad monumentum ejus."
Gurthiern then miraculously restored the dead man to life, having
it
replaced the head on his neck.
Then he departed to the neighbourhood of the River Tamar, where
he and his followers resided for a long time. 2
An angel appeared to him, and bade him enter a vessel 3 which he
would see floating on the sea. This he did, and was wafted to a cer-
tain island off the coast of Armorica, the Isle of Groix, where he re-
mained till he received another call to depart to the place prepared
for him, named Anaurot (Quimperle), where he remained to the end
of his days.
The writer of this Life informs us that he obtained his material
from a certain faithful layman named Juthael, son of Aidan.
In addition, we have a document narrating how that in or about
1037 the relics of Gurthiern were discovered in the Isle of Groix. In
" made
this document, Gurthiern is entitled Rex Anglorum," and is

.a
contemporary of Grallo, King of Cornouaille (470-505), and of
'eroc, Count of Vannes (500-550). It makes Grallo the donor to
im of Anaurot or Quimperle and it further states that at a time
;

the crops were ravaged by insects, Goeroc (Weroc) sent to

Gurthiern an embassy consisting of three men, Guedgual, Catuoth and
Cadur, to solicit his aid. The saint blessed some water and bade
that the crops afflicted should be sprinkled with it, which done
the insects disappeared. In return for this, Weroc granted to him

"
Ipse Kenan tenuit principatum quando perexerunt Britones ad Romam.
1

Illic tenuerunt Leticiam " (Llydaw). The genealogy further makes Anna
-cousin of the B.V. Mary, to have been wife of Outham, who was son of Maxi-
mus, killed in 388 Gloiu as a man's name is well attested three are indexed
1 ;

>in the Book of Llan Ddv.

3 "
Exierunt ad ripam fluminis quod dicitur Tamar, et ibi manserunt long
tempore."
* "
Aspicite mare cotidie et veniet ad vos vas in quod intrabitis."
160 Lives of the British Saints

the plou of Kervignac on the Blavet, in Morbihan. The name by

which Gurthiern is known to the Bretons is Gonlay or Gondle.
Where he tarried on the Tamar can only be matter of conjecture.

Poughill, near Stratton, near, but not on the Tamar, is dedicated to

S. Olaf. It is possible enough that a king saint such as Olaf may
have been substituted for a British royal saint with a name unpro-
nounceable by English mouths.
The Feast of Gurthiern was observed in Brittany in the diocese of
Quimper on June 29, but was transferred to July 3, on account of its.
incidence on the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul.
There is a statue of S. Gurthiern in his chapel on the He de Groix,.
representing him as an aged hermit, in long habit, bareheaded, and
holding a staff.

The name Gurthiern is the same as Gwrtheyrn or Vortigern. Usu-

ally, and in calendars and liturgically, the saint is called Gimthiern..

S. GURUID
IN the Book of Llan Ddv occurs the grant of Meurig, King of Mor-
1

ganwg, to Bishop Oudoceus, of Ecclesia Guruid, which seems to be

the Llan Irwydd of the Myvyrian Parish-list, 2 where it is entered
between the parishes of Llangoven and Llannhangel Tor y Mynydd,.
in Monmouthshire. Guruid is presumably the name of a Welsh saint,.
but of him nothing is known.

S. GURVAN, Hermit
ALL that we know of Gurvan occurs in the Life of S. Clydog, and.
a grant in the Book of Llan Ddv. 3 He, his brother Lybiau (Llibio),.
and his sister's son, Cinuur (Cynfwr), left Penychen, one of the ancient
cantrefs of Central Glamorgan, owing to some dispute, and settled at
ClodocK, on the River Monnow, in Herefordshire, and there led an.
"
eremitical and solitary life. With the advice and assistance of the
1
P. 143.
2
It does not occur in the same list in Dr. Gwenogvryn.
Myv. Arch., p. 749.
Evans' Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 919, Llan IsseiTlSeing substituted for it.
3 '

Pp. 194-5 see ii PP- 154, 245, of this work.

 . Gurwa/ 161
"
Bishop of Llandaff, they built an improved church on the spot, and
Pennbargaut, King of Morganwg, made a grant to it of lands on both
sides the Monnow.
"
These three hermits were the first inhabitants and cultivators of
the place after the martyrdom of Clydog." Cinuur had four sons.
Ithel, son of Morgan, King of Glywysing, subsequently made a grant
of the territory to Bishop Berthguin of Llandaff.

S. GURWAL, Bishop, Confessor

THE authorities for S. Gurwal are : a Life in three lections in the
Breviary of S. Malo, 1517 and 1537, Acta SS. Boll. Junii i, p. 727 ;
also a Life in Albert Le Grand's Collection, from a Legendarium in
MS. of the church of S. Malo, now lost. There is a Life in MS. Bibl.
(

Nat., Paris, MS. Frangais 22321, p. 776.

S. Gurwal was a native of Britain, and almost certainly related to

S. Machu (Malo) and to S. Samson. He is said to have led a religious

life from early childhood, and to have been a disciple of S. Brendan,

and then to have founded a monastery of which he became abbot.

The introduction of S. Brendan is due to his history having been
vitiated by the interpolated Life of S. Machu, who was said to have
been educated at Llancarfan by Brendan, who was its abbot. Bren-
dan never was abbot there after Cadoc came Elli, and the names of
;

the successors are known through the Book of Llan Ddv and the car-
tulary that follows the Life of S. Cadoc. When Machu retired to
Saintes, about the year 614 or 615, he informed his monks that he
had designated Gurwal to be his successor, no doubt because he was
nearest of kin.
On the death of Malo in or about 621 Gurwal was visited by a dele-
gation from Aleth, and he reluctantly consented to leave Wales and
accompany them to Armorica. He remained over the see but a year
and a few months, and then resigned in 622 or 623. He probably
found himself incompetent as a bishop.
He then retired to Gwern, now called Guer, in the forest of Brecilien,
near Ploermel in the diocese of S. Malo, formerly, now included in
that of Vannes. There he remained till he died.
The parish church there is dedicated to him. The site of his re-
treat is 1'Abbaye, now a hamlet. An ancient building remains there
with round-headed windows, and walls of herring-bone masonry.
VOL. Ill M
160 Lives of the British Saints

the plou of Kervignac on the Blavet, in Morbihan. The name by

which Gurthiern is known to the Bretons is Gonlay or Gondle.
Where he tarried on the Tamar can only be matter of conjecture.
Poughill, near Stratton, near, but not on the Tamar, is dedicated to
S. Olaf. It is possible enough that a king saint such as Olaf may
have been substituted for a British royal saint with a name unpro-
nounceable by English mouths.
The Feast of Gurthiern was observed in Brittany in the diocese of
Quimper on June 29, but was transferred to July 3, on account of its.
incidence on the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul.
There a statue of S. Gurthiern in his chapel on the He de Groix,.
is

representing him as an aged hermit, in long habit, bareheaded, and

holding a staff.
The name Gurthiern is the same as Gwrtheyrn or Vortigern. Usu-
ally, and in calendars and liturgically, the saint is called Gunthiern..

S. GURUID
IN the Book of Llan Ddv occurs the grant of Meurig, King of Mor-
1

ganwg, to Bishop Oudoceus, of Ecclesia Guruid, which seems to be

the Llan Irwydd of the Myvyrian Parish-list, 2 where it is entered
between the parishes of Llangoven and Llanfihangel Tor y Mynydd,,
in Monmouthshire. Guruid is presumably the name of a Welsh saint,.
but of him nothing is known.

S. GURVAN, Hermit
ALL that we know of Gurvan occurs in the Life of S. Clydog, and.
a grant in the Book of Llan Ddv. 3 He, his brother Lybiau (Llibio),.
and his sister's son, Cinuur (Cynfwr), left Penychen, one of the ancient
cantrefs of Central Glamorgan, owing to some dispute, and settled at
ClodocE, on the River Monnow, in Herefordshire, and there led an.
"
eremitical and solitary life. With the advice and assistance of the
1
P. H3.
*
Myv. Arch.,
p. 749. It does not occur in the same list in Dr. Gwenogvryn.
Evans' Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 919, Llan IssefTlSeing substituted for it.
3
Pp. 194-5 see ii, pp. 154, 245, of this work.
;
 S. Gurwal 1 6 1

"
Bishop of Llandaff, they built an improved church on the spot, and
Pennbargaut, King of Morganwg, made a grant to it of lands on both
sides the Monnow.
"
These three hermits were the first inhabitants and cultivators of
the place after the martyrdom of Clydog." Cinuur had four sons.
Ithel, son of Morgan, King of Glywysing, subsequently made a grant
of the territory to Bishop Berthguin of Llandaff.

S. GURWAL, Bishop, Confessor

THE authorities for S. Gurwal are : a Life in three lections in the
Breviary of S. Malo, 1517 and 1537, Ada SS. Boll. Junii i, p. 727 ;
also a Life in Albert Le Grand's Collection, from a Legendarium in
MS. of the church of
(
S. Malo, now lost. There is a Life in MS. Bibl.
Nat., Paris, MS. Francais 22321, p. 776.
S. Gurwal was a native of Britain, and almost certainly related to

S. Machu (Malo) and to S. Samson. He is said to have led a religious

lifefrom early childhood, and to have been a disciple of S. Brendan,
and then to have founded a monastery of which he became abbot.
The introduction of S. Brendan is due to his history having been
vitiated by the interpolated Life of S. Machu, who was said to have
been educated at Llancarfan by Brendan, who was its abbot. Bren-
dan never was abbot there after Cadoc came Elli, and the names of
;

the successors are known through the Book of Llan Ddv and the car-
tulary that follows the Life of S. Cadoc. When Machu retired to

Saintes, about the year 614 or 615, he informed his monks that he
had designated Gurwal to be his successor, no doubt because he was
nearest of kin.
On the death of Malo in or about 621 Gurwal was visited by a dele-
gation from Aleth, and he reluctantly consented to leave Wales and
accompany them to Armorica. He remained over the see but a year
and a few months, and then resigned in 622 or 623. He probably
found himself incompetent as a bishop.
He then retired to Gwern, now called Guer, in the forest of Brecilien,
near Ploermel in the diocese of S. Malo, formerly, now included in
that of Vannes. There he remained till he died.
The parish church there is dedicated to him. The site of his re-
treat is 1'Abbaye, now a hamlet. An ancient building remains there
witli round-headed windows, and walls of herring-bone masonry.
VOL. Ill M
1 62 Lives of the British Saints

Cela sent, a n'en point douter, 1'art remain en decadence, on le

41

roman primitif cest un debris curieux et rare, qui merite d'etre re-
;

1
ligieusement conserve."
Gurwal is given in the MS. Missal of S. Malo of the fifteenth cen-
S.

tury on June 12, but in the S.

Malo Breviary of 1537 on June 6, the
same day as S. Gudwal, with whom he is often confounded, but with
whom he has no connexion. The S. Malo Breviary of 1627 on June 6.
Under the name of Gurguaer or Gurguall, he is invoked in the
2
eleventh century Litany published by D'Arbois de Jubainville. It

is difficult to discover his name in Gwent, where it should be

3
sought.

S. GUYER or GUIER, Hermit, Confessor

WHENS. Neot came to the place now called after him, he found a

cell had been occupied previously by a venerable hermit, named

that
Guier, and he took up his residence in it.
Nothing is known about him.
"
Nicolas Roscarrock enters on May 7, Deposition of S. Wier, Con-
fessor."
A chapel was dedicated to him at S. Neot.

S. GWAINERTH, Hermit, Confessor

OF this saint we know but little. His church, Lann Sant Guainerth,
4
is mentioned in the Book of Llan Ddv as one of the churches in Erging

belonging to that see. It is now known as S. Weonard's, on the old

coach-road from Hereford to Monmouth. The Welsh form of the
church-name is somewhat unusual. It was not the practice among
" "
the Welsh to style a purely Welsh saint.
The saint is said to have been a hermit, who sought retirement
here, and was formerly represented as an old man sustaining a book
1
Rosenzweig in Bulletin politique, 1872, p. 142.
*
Revue Celtique, iii, p. 449; xi, pp. 136, 143.
3
In Revue de Bretagne, Dec., 1909, M. de Calan maintains the identity of
Gudwal with Gurwal, but this M. Loth, a better authority, will not admit.
4
Pp. 275-7. It is to be distinguished from Lan Waynarth, now Llanwenarth,
on the Usk, in Monmouthshire.
 S. Gwartban 163
and with an ox in the painted glass that adorned the north chancel
1
window of the church.

S. GWALEHES, Hermit, Confessor

AM. we knew of this saint is to be found in the Life of
S. Cadoc 2

(Cotton IV.s/'.
A. xiv). His name is MS. Gualehes,
written in the
(.uale-'s and \Vulees. One day Cadoc sailed with his two disciples,
id (, \\alehes, from the island of Echni (the Flat Holmes)
to the island of Harry, both in the Bristol Channel.
landing he On
1 tin-in for his enchiridion, or manual.
They replied that they
had lost it on the Flat Holmes. In a fury he ordered them to re-embark
it, and cursed them that they might never return. They
-
1

on their errand and found the book, and started on their return

journey. Cadoc was sitting on a hill-top in the island awaiting their

return, and saw in the distance their boat suddenly overturn, and
both men drowned. Barruc's body was cast on Barry Island, and
buried there, but that of Gwalehes "was carried by the sea to the
i>huul of Echni, and there buried." The manual was afterwards
found inside a salmon caught by his attendants for Cadoc's dinner,
1 1 "in all injury by water."
(iwalehes mentioned by Camden, who says that he was a
is

disciple of Barruc, as he learned from an ancient monument in

I. luiuln.fi
Cathedral, but gives no copy of the inscription. Last
century a tombstone was found on the Flat Holmes, conjectured
3
.to be that of the saint, but
simply bore a cross.

S. GWARTHAN, Martyr
<i\VARTHAN was the son of Dunawd ab Pabo Post Prydyn, and
brother of SS. Deiniol and Cynwyl. His mother was Dwywai, daughter
of His title to which is somewhat doubtful,
Lleenog. saintship,
1
Arch. Camb., 1855, P- 161 ; 1861, p. 116. Kerslake, in his Saint Richard,
1800, p. 33, makes a mistake when he identifies Gwainerth with S. Fingar or
Gwinear.
*
Cambro-British Saints, pp. 63-4. The Isle of Gresholm, off the coast of
Pembrokeshire, is called in Welsh G wales. 3
Ibid., p. 357.
 164 Lives of the British Saints

rests entirely upon the late documents in the lolo MSS. 1 He and
his brothers are there credited with having had a share in the establish-
" "
ing of Bangor Iscoed. Previously the three were disciples at
Llancarfan, where Gwarthan was Cadoc's periglawr or confessor,,
" "
and it was Cadoc that sent them to superintend the Bangor. He
"
was killed by the pagan Saxons in their wars in the North. His
church is
2
Llanwarthen, in the Vale of Clwyd." There is no trace
whatever to-day of a church of the name in the Vale.
He was a warrior, and appears to have fallen in the battle of Catraeth.
He is mentioned in the Gododin as " Guarchan, son of Dwywei, of.
3
gallant bravery."

S. GWARW
SOME late writers 4 mention Gwarw or Gwarwg as a saint of Gwent,.
by whom meant the patron of the church still called by the Welsh
is

Llanwarw, but by the English, Wonastow, near Monmouth. It

5

is usually given to-day as dedicated to S. Gwyno or Wonnow. Its

real patron, however, is the well-known S. Winwaloe. In the Book of
Llan Ddv 6 the church is called Lann Gunguarui, which occurs later
as Wonwarrowstow, Wonwarestowe, etc. Gwarw representsLguarui.
The English would appear to have preserved the first, and the Welsh,
the last part of the name. 7
See further under S. WINWALOE.

S. GWAWR, Matron
ALL the authorities, both early and late, agree in the few particulars,
there are respecting this saint. 8 She was a daughter of Brychan
1
126, 129, 150-1
Pp. and ii, pp. 275, 326, of this work.
;
"
Lanwarthan " is the spelling of a submanor name of Narberth in a charter
of 1413-4 (Edw. Owen, Catal. of MSS. relating to Wales in Brit. Mus.,
p. 626).
3
Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, p. 91 i, p. 407. Stephens, in his Gododin,.
;

makes Gwarthan succeed his father in his patrimony of Gododin (see the index,
4
P- 412). E.g. lolo MSS., p. 144.
6
Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 919 Myv. Arch., p. 749. It
;

occurs also as Llanwarwg.

8
P. 201. i
y Cymmrodor, xi, p. 85.
8
Cognatio de Brychan Cambro-British Saints, p. 271
;
Myv. Arch., pp. 4I9>
;
 S. Gweirydd 165
the wife of Elidyr Lydanwyn and mother
Brycheiniog, and became
of the well-known bard Llywarch Hen. Elidyr was a prince of the
Northern Brythons, of the race of Coel Hen, and Llywarch's patrimony
we learn, was Argoed Llwyfain, which Skene locates on the river
Leven. 1
The Progenies Keredic and the pedigrees in Jesus College MS. 20
give a Gwawr who was daughter of Ceredig ab Cunedda Wledig
and mother of Gwynllyw, the father of S. Cadoc but elsewhere she ;

j> (i\v;i\vl. The former document mentions also a Pedyr Lanwaur

who was nephew to Gwawr. Lanwaur here may stand for either
l.liin \VawT or Llan Fawr, but the exact situation of the church
and whether this Gwawr may be regarded as its foundress, are questions
which cannot be satisfactorily determined. 2

S. GWAWRDDYDD, Matron
<r \\A\\RDDYDD is
given as one of the reputed daughters of Brychan,
but her name occurs only in the late lists of his children. 3 According
t-> these she was the wife of Cadell
Deyrnllwg, and mother of Cyngen ;

but she has clearly been confounded with Tudglid, the wife of Cyngen,
and mother of Cadell. She is sometimes said to have been a saint
4
in Merionethshire, in particular at Towyn. Gwenddydd, another
reputed daughter of Brychan, is connected with Towyn, and so is

Cerdech, another daughter. See under both names.

S. GWDDYN, see S. GWYDDYN

S. GWEIRYDD, King, Confessor

ALL that we know of this saint, whose title to a place among the
h saints is
extremely doubtful, is to be found in a document

426 ; lolo MSS., pp. in, 120, 140. Gwawr, and also Gwawrddydd. are names
for Aurora and the dawn.
1
Four Ancient Books, ii.
p. 413.
1

Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, pp. 469-70.

See, however,
Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 426 lolo MSS., pp. in. 120, 140.
; Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth gives a Gwawrddydd, daughter of Efrog.
4
Peniarth MS. 178; Cambro-British Saints, p. 270.
1 66 Lives of the British Saints

printed in the lolo MSS. * from a MS. circa 1580, which gives the
"
Names and Genealogy of the Kings of Glamorgan from Morgan
"
Mwynfawr to lestyn ab Gwrgan," wherein it is stated, Gweirydd
ab Brochfael was a wise, but unfortunate king for diseases and ;

rough, ungenial seasons had greatly damaged the country being ;

the calamitous consequences of wickedness that occurred in his age ;

and which emanated from a prevalent recourse to depravity, ille-

gality, and impious abominations. He built the church of Llan-
is now called Y Caerau, where he had a mansion,
w hich
r

weirydd,
although he held his court at Cardiff."

Gweirydd was the sixth in descent from Morgan Mwynfawr, who

died circa 665. He must, therefore, have lived about the latter part
of the ninth century. He was succeeded by his son Arthfael.
Caerau Church, in Glamorganshire, is now dedicated to S. Mary.
It goes without saying that the name Caerau (the Fortifications),
by which alone the place is to-day known, is considerably older than.
Llanweirydd.

S. GWEN of Cornwall, Matron

GWEN, daughter of Cynyr of Caer Gawch, and sister of S. Non, was-
married to Solomon or Selyf, King of Cornwall, and became the mother
of S. Cybi. 2 Nothing is recorded of her. She must have received her
sister in Cornwall, and obtained for her an extensive grant of land.
And she herself founded a church, now called S. Wenn. Selyf is

thought to have fallen early, in Armorica, to which he had gone, as

the first settlers regarded themselves as still under the rule of their
princes in Britain,and made domain lands for them in their new
colony, and Selyf is said to have been murdered by pagans there.
But the authorities for this are untrustworthy.
A S. Gwenne or Candide is venerated in Brittany in the diocese of
Vannes, but it is doubtful if be Gwen the wife of Selyf.
this She is

Pp. 12-17. Geoffrey of Monmouth mentions a Gweirydd, Bruts, pp. 94-8,

1

who in the Latin text occurs as Arviragus. The name is met with also in the
Record of Caernarvon, p. 60. For a Glamorgan aged hermit of the name, who
dwelt in a cave underground, and was regarded as a sorcerer, see Sir J. Rhys,
Celtic Folklore, p.
189. The name is distinct from Gwerydd.
2
Hanesyn H&n, p. 109; Myv. Arch., p. 421. Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 119
gives Gwen, daughter of Tewdwr Mawr, as mother of S. Elian, but it is a mis-
reading for Cenaf or Cena.
 S. Gwen 167
commemorated there on October 3, according to Garaby, but this is

i Teirbron. and his authority not great.

is

The Fea-t "i S. \\Vnn is on October 18. Oengus in his Felire has
"
on October ;>.
"
Candida, a happy sun but Gorman has, " Candidus,
;

a cha-tr man." On this day in the Roman Martyrology is Candidus,

irtyr
at Rome. He does not appear in Usuardus, but in Bede's
additions and in some of the versions of the Martyrology of S. Jerome
;

Midida c.r On the strength of this doubtful martyr, and

Candidus.
il.lt (iwen has been given this day.
ul sex,
1

, \\vn daughter of Cynvr has received no cult in Wales.

tions to her in Devon and Cornwall are :

'1 lie parish church of S. A ruined chapel

Wenn, and that of Morval.
1 another at Hartland (Bp. Stafford's Register, 1400).
S, \\Vnn in S. Kew is a very early rude cross.
The parish church of S. Wenn is called Ecclesia Stae Wennae in the
of Bishop Bronescombe, 1260; Bishop Grandisson, 1329;
intynghame, 1371.
There is an entry in William of Worcester of a S. Candida or Whyte
"
which is a translation of the name given, at
Whyte-chyrche per
(not filled in] miliaria de Cherde, et dedicata die Pentecosten," and
<d her body.
has been supposed that the name originates from a mistake.
It

When the first stone churches were erected, they were whitewashed,
i
uired the names of Whit churches. But when this practice
me obsolete, then some other reason was sought to explain the
1 it was assumed that a S. White or Candida was the patron-
\Vhitchurch-Canonicorum, near Lyme-Regis in Dorset is placed
under the two-fold dedication of S. Candida and S. Cross. There is
al-<> a \Vhitchurch-cum-Felton near Bristol. The existing church is
dedicated to S. Gregory, but was formerly considered to have been
under the patronage of S. Candida. But see what is said hereon
under S. GWEN TEIRBROX.
mdida. a Roman martyr, was commemorated on August 29.
Another Candida martyr in Africa on January 5, and another martyr
also in Africa on March
9. A S. Candida martyr at Alexandria
"ii March and one of the same name at Carthage on September 20.
21,
A S. Guen
Candida is culted at Scaer in Finistere, and it is sup-
or
that she is identical with S. Ninoca
:
but this is doubtful. She ;

there represented as an abbess, and an abundant

holy well bears her
i-

name.
 1 68 Lives of the British Saints

S. GWEN of Talgarth, Matron

GWEN was
a daughter of Brychan according to both the early and
l
the late She founded the church of Talgarth, in
lists of his children.
"
Breconshire, where, according to the lolo MSS. she was
2
killed by

the pagan Saxons." In the Cognatio she is unmatched, but other

accounts give her as the wife of Llyr Merini, and mother of Caradog
Freichfras.
Clodfaith, a reputed daughter of Brychan, is also said to have been
a saint at Talgarth, as well as in Emlyn. 3 Browne Willis 4 and others
enter Gwendeline against Talgarth, but its true dedication is to Gwen.

,
^^ (rloAM. ,,, (j)

S. GWEN TEIRBRON, Matron

THIS saint was the daughter of Emyr Llydaw, a grand-daughter of
Aldor, an early chief in Armorica, who had his headquarters where is
now Castelaudren. She was married to Eneas Lydewig, probably in
5
Armorica, and became the mother of S. Cadfan.
She was left a widow, and then married Fracan, cousin of Cador or
Cado, Duke of Cornwall, and with him migrated back to Armorica.
They had two children, Jacob or James and Gwethenoc ; and, after
arriving in Brittany, two more, Winwaloe and Cleirve.
Owing to her having been twice married, and having a family by
each husband, she was called Teirbron, or the Three-breasted ; and the
author of the Life of S. Winwaloe, Wurdistan, states that she actually
had this conformation. 6
But there is nothing of this in the Life of her
other sons, SS. James and Gwethenoc. In like manner, a woman who
was thrice married, and had a family by each husband was called Four-
breasted. 7

Jesus College MS. 20

1
Cognatio de Brychan ; Cambro-British Saints, p. 270
; ;

lolo MSS., pp. in, 140; Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 426.
a
P. 120. 3
ii, p. 151.
*
Parochiale Anglicanum, 1733, p. 182. Jones, in his Brecknockshire, ed.
1898, p. 473, thought it should be to Gwenfrewi, as also the church of Vaynor
(supposed to be to Gwendeline), in the same county.
5
Myv. Arch., p. 425 lolo MSS., p. 112. There is an account of her in Arch.
;

Camb., 1864, pp. 40-3, where is also an illustration of the statue in the chapel
of S. Venec.
6 "
Parente eorundem (sc. Uueithnoci et Jacobi) Alba (Gwen) nomine, quae
cognominatur Trimammis, eo quod ternas, sequato numero natorum, habuit
mammas." Vita Sti. Winwaloei in Cart. Landeven, p. 9.
7
Deirinell, mother of SS. Domangart and Mura, was called Four-Breasted,
because she reared three families, a pair of breasts being allowed only to the
first family.
ATUE OF GWEN TEIRBRON AND HER
SONS, WINWALOE, GWETHENOC AND JAMES.
In the Chapel of S. Venec.
 S. Gwen Teirbron 169
As related to the ruling family, she was granted tracts of land in
Domnonia, one, now called Pleguien, is near Lanvollon in Goello.
In the church there she is represented seated, with three breasts, a
child in each arm, and another lying at her feet. The cure" being some-
what a-hamed of the statue has relegated it to the tower. The Pardon
then i> on the Sunday in the Octave of S. Anne.

She also had a settlement in Kemenet Illi, at Plouguin near Plou-

dalmezeau. In the chapel of the chateau of Lisguen in the parish, is
an altar painting representing her, and Fracan, and S. Winwaloe.
11( r third breast is there ingeniously disguised as a broad gold brooch.

In the park are remains of a chapel of S. Winwaloe.

A third settlement was at S. Guen in Cotes du Nord, near Mur.
ML- has, however, been abandoned as patroness for a S. Guenin,
hishop of Yannes. But that the place was originally a plou of
hrrs would appear from there having been in the parish a chapel
an.

\veen Quimper and Chateaulin

is the chapel of S. Venec, in the

i In this chapel is a statue of her, three-breasted,

of J-Jrusparts.

and with her three sons by Fracan, James, Gwethenoc and Winwaloe.
a in >t her statue, of a saint in armour, probably Cadfan, who has a

chapel in the parish.

Mure statues of the Three-breasted Gwens existed, but they have
: id of by the cures, who have
buried them, regarding them as
\\hat outrageous and not conducive to devotion.
1

Nursing mothers offer to her a distaff and flax, to secure the desired
quantity of milk.
aby gives October 3 as the day of commemoration of S. Gwen,
:

but see what has been said thereon in the preceding article but one.
Nic. lasRoscarrock gives June I.
For further particulars see S. FRACAN.
The church of \Yhitchurch-Canonicorum in Dorset is dedicated to S.
Candida or White the shrine of the saint in the transept.
; and in it is

ith the east window is the recessed tomb of the saint. The monu-
nient consists of two
parts. The lower part is composed of an old
thirteenth-century base brought from some other place and rebuilt
in
its present
position. There are openings, three in number, beneath the
tomb for the insertion of handkerchiefs, etc., to touch the shrine. On
the top of this old base is a covered
plain fourteenth-century coffin,
with a Purbeck marble slab. This coffin was opened by the Reverend
Sir William
Palmer, in 1848, and found to contain a stone box in
which were some bones, the supposed relics of S. Candida. The monu-
1
Bulletin de la Soc. Arch, de FinisUre. ii (1874-5), P- 104.
 i
7o Lives of the British Saints
"
ment is locally known as the shrine of S. Candida." In 1899 there
was a dangerous settlement of the walls of the north transept owing to
the sinkage of the clay soil, and in March 1900 an ominous fissure
appeared. The work of underpinning the walls and putting in a
foundation of cement, was carried out by the then Vicar, the Rev.
Charles Druit. It was during the execution of this work that the

re-discovery of the relics was made. The broken end of the coffin
having been withdrawn from under the Purbeck marble slab, there
was seen within the end of a leaden casket of eight inches square, and
on it, cast in raised letters on the lead, was the following inscription of
the twelfth or early thirteenth century :

CT. Reliqe See. W.

Further examination showed that the floor of the coffin was covered
with dust and many fragments of bone, wood, and lead, including two
perfectly sound teeth, one molar and one incisor. The reliquary
itself, on being carefully drawn out, was seen to contain a large num-
ber of bones, presumably those of a small woman of about forty years
of age. These were not disturbed in their resting-place, but one of the
thigh bones which lay uppermost was measured, and was found to be
13! inches long. The larger fragments found on the floor of the cofrin
were placed with the rest of the bones in the reliquary, and all the
smaller fragments and dust were reverently collected into a small
metal box and placed within the coffin. The lead reliquary had been
found torn, but on one side that was uninjured was found, cast in
raised letters, the following inscription :

tgi Hie. Requesct Rliqe, See. Wite.

All the relics were carefully replaced in the stone coffin, the broken
end being securely cemented in its place.
Now, who was this S. Candida, or White ?
The Church of Whitchurch-Canonicorum was founded by King
Alfred. In 919-920, Matuedoi', Count of Poher, " cum ingenti multi-
tudine Britonum," fled from Brittany to England, carrying with them
the relics of their saints. They were kindly received by Athelstan,
who was not then king, and he located them in various places, mainly,
probably, on the south coast and in Cornwall, where they might be
among those speaking the same tongue. At Wareham in Dorset have
been found inscribed stones bearing British names, but in a Breton
form, and similar, if not identical, with forms found in Breton cartu-
laries of the ninth and tenth centuries. It has been conjectured that
these are monuments of some of these Breton refugees. 1
1
McClure, British Place-names, S.P.C.K., 1910, p. 161.
 S. Gwenabwy iji
Xo\\ \ve know
that Athelstan gave relics of various Breton saints to

churches in Wessex, and it is by no means unlikely that he thus en-

dowed the church of Whitchurch, founded by his grandfather, with
>nes of S. Gwen, the mother of such illustrious saints as S. Cadfan
.

\\inwaloe, and which the Breton refugees would certainly

S.

away with them to save them from the depredations of the North-
Athelstan might be the more led to give the body of S. Gwen to
\Yhitchurch, because of the name, Gwen being white in English. In
Brittany she is variously called S. Candide and S. Blanche. Accord-
the legend there told, she was carried off by English pirates to

km, but she climbed down the side of the ship and walked back to
Hrit tany <>ver the water, but not till one of the pirates with an axe had
l
>ed 'if two of her fingers.
;
< In the legend she is not regarded as a
;i. but as a mother of several sons. In the legend there is mani-
.
n iu-ion. There a reminiscence of the pirates, but she is made
is

ried 'lt'
by them, instead of her body being taken away from
them. And she is
represented as conveyed to England ;
which prob-
ably was true of her body. On the Church of Whitchurch are sculp-
representations of a ship, a pike, and an axe, as well as of the
1

ens, and conceivably the ship and pike may bear some refer-
and the axe to the mutilation of her hand in the
to the pirates,

popular legend, whilst the water-avens would symbolise her name.

What helps to make the conjecture more probable, that the Candida
hitchurch is S. Gwen Teirbron, is that Scaer, the church of which
Heated to her under the name of Candida, was in the county of
I '.'her.

S. GWENABWY, Matron
or Gwenafwy was one of the reputed daughters of Caw,
and is said to have a church dedicated to her in Anglesey, where she
lir- buried. 2 No church is dedicated to her in Anglesey or Wales to-
but we may probably regard her as the foundress of Gwennap
rnwall, which has as patroness S. Weneppa. Bishop Brones-

ilot (P.), Petite L6ende DorSe de la Haute-Bretagne, Nantes, 1897-

thMS. 75 ilolo MSS.,pp. 117, 143. The second element of the name,
:nut;itr<l into -bui, -bwy, occurring also in Guorapui (-abui), Gwernalnvy,
Junabui (Latinized Junapeius), Rhonabwy, etc., is the Early Goidelic genitive
"
poi, of a son, or Sir J. Rhys, Celtae and Galli, 1905*
boy, or descendant."
P. 43-
 172 Lives of the British Saints
"
combe's Register, 1226, gives, Ecclesia Sanctae Weneppae." So
also in the Taxation of Pope Nicolas IV, 1288-91, and the Registers
of Bishop Grandisson, 1342, 1349, Bishop Stapeldon, 1310, and
Bishop Brantyngham, 1377, 1392.
If the S. Winnow on the Foye River be a foundation of Gwynog,

son of Gildas, which is uncertain, then Gwenabwy had a nephew in

Cornwall. What
is more certain is that she had there her great-

nephews, and Eval. According to the story of Culhwch and

Ffili

Olwen she was married to Llwyddeu, son of Nwython, and had a son,
"
Gwydre, whom Huail his uncle stabbed and there was hatred
;

between Huail and Arthur because of the wound." 1

Gwenabwy was also the name of a chieftain, the son of Gwen, who
" "
figures in the Gododin. Equal to twelve was he. Gwynabwy occurs
as a lay witness in the Book of Llan Ddv. 2

S. GWENAEL, Abbot, Confessor

ALTHOUGH Gwenael a Saint only doubtfully known in Wales, yet
is

he has presence in Cornwall, and we know from

left faint traces of his

his Life that he spent some years in Britain and in Ireland, where he'
is said to have founded two monasteries. It is accordingly advisable
to give an account of him.
The authorities for his story are as follows :

1. A Life composed in the tenth century, before the translation of

his body to Paris under Hugh Capet, about the year 950. Of this two
MSS. are extant, one in the Bibliotheque royale at Brussels, No. 8,931,
the other, divided into nine Lections was in the Library at Corbeil, but
is now lost, yet a copy exists made by John Baptist Macculdus, S.J.,

in 1635.
This Life has been published by the Bollandists, Ada SS. Nov. 3,
I, pp. 674-8.
2. A second Life by Guido de Castris, Abbot of S. Denys, in the
thirteenth century, published by Menardus, lib. ii, p. 368.
3. A
life by Albert le Grand in his Vies des Saints Bretons, derived

from the Breviaries of Leon, Vannes and Quimper. He also used the
Life composed in the tenth century.
Gwenael was son of Romelius, Count (comes) in Brittany, and of
Letitia his wife. At his baptism he was given his name, which
1 z
Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 109. P. 122.
 S. Gwenael 173
"
signifies
The White Angel." One day, when Gwenael was quite
Winwaloe accompanied Romelius on his way from one
ild, S.

df his cells to his abbey of Landevennec. Albert le Grand says

that the place was Quimper, and that Winwaloe had come there to
S. Corentine, but this is wholly unsupported by the texts we
possess.
and pleasant in the face of the little lad attracted
:nething bright
and he said to him, " Would you like, my boy, to
\Yin\valoe 's attention,
"
follow me to my monastery and there serve God continually?
"
I would desire nothing better," answered the child, and without a

word to his parents, he followed the Abbot to Landevennec.

Albert le Grand gives fuller details, which we have quoted in the Life
Winwaloe. Albert says that Gwenael was seven years old when he
wrnt to Landevennec, and that he remained there three years before he
nvrsted with the monastic habit, and he was forty-three years in
I.andevennec before Winwaloe died. There is nothing of this in the
1
but we cannot suppose that Albert le Grand invented these
1 '

Vila i" ,

very precise statements. He was a conscientious compiler he added ;

tl'iiri>.lii's of his own, but did not manufacture facts. 1

The 'Ha i ma says that when Winwaloe was dying, his monks urged
I

him to nominate a successor, and he indicated Gwenael as the most

suitable to (ill his room. The early Life, on the contrary, implies that
nael was scarcely out of his noviciate when appointed abbot. 2
redible, and we are more disposed to accept the statement of
! ('.rand based on some text that has not come down to us.
<
Landevennec for seven years, 3 and
iwenael remained in charge of
then he betook himself to Britain and to Ireland, attended by twelve
monks. He founded one large monastery in Britain, and another in
Ireland, and fifty congregations of pious men placed themselves under
his direction. At last he resolved on returning, after four years
1

Ireland, and he took back with him fifty monks.

in Britain and 5

He "
rrlird on the Quimper Breviary. Vix septennis," say the Vannes
and that of Quimper. "
;ry Decennis habitum religionis indutus," Brev.
Quimper.
"
Beatus Guenailus in his verbis aggressus est Quo sensu, pater, qua ratione, :

quo consilio, maturis juvenem sapientibus imprudentem, exercitatisneophytum

s?t rudem vis praeponere ? Necdum subesse didici, et praeesse jam cogor nec- ;

<!um monachum feci, et in abbatem eligor ? Imbecillibus humeris imponitur

"
nis onus, cui
frequentissime succumbunt ipsi fortiores ? Vita i ma A eta ,

SS. Nov. i,
'
p. 675.
Septem annos integros . . .
praefuit." Ibid.; and again," Septem annis
expletis . . .
disgrediens."
"
Monasteria duo, alterum in Brittannia, alterum in Scotia construxit."
Quinquagenta coenobiorum conventus patrocinio famuli Dei sese com- . . .

iserunt." Ibid, p. 676. 5

Albert le Grand.
 174 Lives of the British Saints

Gwenael arrived in Cornubia (Cornouaille) in the reign of Rigomalus,

who received him and his monks favourably.
Rigomalus looks like a tenth-century version of Rigmael but no ;

such prince is known. There was a Righael or Rivol, who was the
murderer of his brother Meliau and of his nephew Melor, and the Life
in Albert le Grand calls him by the name. The author of Vita i ma
"
calls this prince, Vir honestate, justitiaque prseclarus, qui et eandem
(Cornubiam) tarn moribus quam legibus venustavit."
But hagiographers painted princes in fair colours if they were large
benefactors, and blackened them if otherwise, regardless of their moral
qualities. It is, however, reasonable to set down this laudation of
Rivol to the ignorance of the biographer, who added the flourish to
fill out a sentence,
concluding that the prince was all that could have
been desired because he received Gwenael well.
In Cornubia the saint now founded three monasteries, after which he
departed to the Isle of Groix, where he remained for several years
and made monastic settlements on it.
Again a spirit of restlessness came over him, and he left the island
and settled on the mainland in the county of Vannes, where he drove
away a wolf with her cubs, and elicited a spring of water.
"
Once, when on his way to the monastery of Chaloteti," a stag that
was being pursued fled for protection to him from the hunters, and this
led to a meeting with Count Weroc, who forthwith made to him a grant
of two vills.

At length, full of days, and worn with labours, Gwenael died on

November 3.
We find a different account of his movements in Albert le Grand.
Onleaving Britain, Gwenael and his party landed on the Isle of
Groix, and not after a course of foundation-making in Cornubia, as
the first biographer intimates.
He did not remain some years on the isle, but a few days only, and
then went on by boat to Landevennec, where he was received with
1
great joy, and where he remained for the space of three years. 2
Then only did he visit Rivol or Rualo 3 as called in the Breviary

lessons, and remained in Cornubia for some as we learn by the sequel-

six years, and after that migrated into the territory of Vannes.

"
Hinc ad suum coenobium perrexit, ubi incredibili omnium religiosorum
laetitia exceptus est." Brev. Quimper.
"
Monasterium Landevenecense, cui sex restituit, triennio . . . inhabi-
tant." Ibid.
"
Hinc ad locum Corisopitensis agri desertum profectus, novum in territorio,
a comite Rualone dato, monasterium erexit." Ibid.
 S. Gwenael 175
He had n<t been there nine months before he encountered Weroc the
( '. ,untwho made a grant of lands to him. Then he returned to Lande-
,

\vnnec, and remained there for four years till his death, which took

was seventy-five according to one account, seventy

pkuv when lu-
1
:dini; to another.
li will be seen that there is a precision as to dates of his life which
ma
larks in tin' Vita i and that the order of events is reasonable and
,

that in the First Life is quite unmeaning. This latter

probable, whereas
not make Gwenael return to Landevennec at all after his return

In -in Britain and Ireland. In the Vita 2*" we have him make this abbey
his headqu, triers from which he undertakes diversions so as to secure
fresh Htcs for cells to his monastery.
1
The seems to have been composed by some one unac-
Vitu i""

quainted with the localities, and who was furnished with scraps of
.iphiral matter that were not in chronological order. He makes his
found several monasteries in the Isle of Groix, which is six miles

long and two broad, and which could not have supported so many
" "
similar institutions. Where
can be, it is perhaps vain Chaloteti
The biographer blundered over a name which he did not
k,

underhand, or misread.
1 1. avoids precise statements as to the periods in the Life of Gwenael,
da
Mich n with much exactitude in the Vita 2
i

and he is also ,

vogue as t<> the localities where he settled temporarily. On the other

li;u.d, he makes up for exact historical matter by much rhetorical
adnrnmrnt, a common trick w ith biographers
r
deficient in matter.
Tlie Life by Albert Le Grand, based on the Acts in the Breviaries,
t<> us a far more reliable guide than that printed in the Ada
mm of the Bollandists.
The (-limnology of Gwenael's Life according to the Vita 2 da is as
follows

the habit ......

aged seven, follows Winwaloe.

.... aged 10 years.

Hi-turns to
rts
l>bot at
for Britain
the age of

Landevennec
...... . . . .
JO
aged 57
61
5 to a solitude in Cornubia . . .
64
Vannes . . . . . .
70
Returns to
& ...........
Landevennec . . . . . .. 71
75

But when we come to fix the dates we encounter numerous diffi-

1
Kerclanet's note to Albert le Grand, ed. 1837.
176 Lives of the British Saints

Three years after his return from Britain, he is brought into rela-
tions with Rivol, Prince of Cornouaille. The date of this prince is-
given with some approach to exactitude by De la Borderie as 538-544.
When aged seventy, he goes into the territory of Vannes, where he
meets with the Count Weroc who makes to him a grant of lands.
There were two of the name, the elder died in 550 as nearly as can
be judged. He was at once succeeded by his son Canao, who murdered
three of his brothers, and would have murdered a fourth, Macliau, but.
for the interposition of S. Felix, Bishop of Nantes. Macliau swore to
submit to his brother, then broke his oath, raised a party, took up arms,,
was defeated by Canao, and flew for refuge to Conmore, Regent of
Domnonia. Canao fell in 560, but before that, Macliau had slipped
into the city of Vannes, got himself elected and consecrated Bishop, and
maintained himself there in defiance of his brother.
On the death of Canao, Macliau seized on the county, and ruled
Broweroc as Count and Vannes as Bishop. He was killed in 577 and.
then his son Weroc II succeeded and ruled till about 594.
Consequently, if we take 544 as the date when Gwenael received,
grants from Rivol, we have 550 as the date when he encountered
Weroc, but thiscannot have been Weroc I, who died about this date ;.

and Weroc II was not count till twenty-seven years later. This
presents a difficulty that can only be got over by supposing that
Macliau had his domain about the place where Gwenael settled,,
and that his son as a youth hunted there and met the saint and
prevailed on his father to concede to the saint certain trefs that ;

this took place during the temporary reconciliation between Macliau

and Canao, and that, further, the biographer has given to Weroc the
title of Count before he had any right to it.

That this assumption is not destitute of probability may be gathered

from the precipitate return of Gwenael to Landevennec shortly after
having received the promise of the two estates. We might have ex-
pected that he would have remained in Broweroc to consolidate his
foundation there instead of that, he remained in the district in all
;

but nine months and left it never to go there again. Hostilities

broke out between Macliau and Canao immediately after the donation
had been made. Macliau was defeated and fled for his life, and any grant
he or his son had made was no longer effective. But later, after
Canao 's death and that of Gwenael, the disciples of the saint probably
reminded Weroc of his undertaking, and when he actually was Count,
he may have confirmed it to the representatives of Gwenael and thus,,
;

the biographer was led to antedate his title.

We come next to a much more difficult problem, that concerning the
 S. Gwenael 177
date of the death of Winwaloe, and the succession of Gwenael to the
abbacy of Landevennec.
Winwaloe died on Wednesday in the first week in Lent, which fell
that year on March 3. 1
The fast of Lent among the Celts began, as in the Church of Milan,
not on Ash Wednesday, but on the Monday after the First Sunday. 2
Moreover, had Wurdistan, the biographer of Winwaloe, meant Ash
"
Wednesday, he would have said, Wednesday, the first day of Lent,"
"
and not, the fourth day in the first week of Lent."
March 3,
We might suppose that in
the sixth century, the Church in Armorica
observed the Celtic computation and not the Roman. Now by the
only years in which Easter Day fell on April n,
Celtic reckoning, the
and Wednesday in the first week in Lent on March 3, were 499,
583 and 594. The first date is too early, and the others too late.
But did the Church in Brittany in the sixth century observe the
Celtic reckoning for Easter ? It many Celtic usages re-
is true that
mained in force in that Church till
In 818 the Emperor Louis the
late.

Pious, having defeated Morvan, the Breton prince, received Matmonoc,

abbot of Landevennec, and inquired of him what were the peculiar
customs in the Breton monasteries. The abbot informed him that
they followed the usages of the Scots or Irish. Thereupon Louis
issued an order addressed to all the monasteries in Brittany, requiring
the abandonment of the Celtic tonsure, and such other customs as
were peculiar, and the acceptance of the rule of S. Benedict. 3
1
Sanctus ergo Wingualoeus quinto nonas Martias, quarta feria in prima
. . .

quadragesimae hebdomada integer et corpore et mente obiit." Vita S. Winwaloei

auct. Wurdistan, Anal. Boll. T. vii (1888),
pp. 248-9.
1
The Jour days before the first Sunday in Lent were not added to the fast
of Lent till after the time of
Gregory the Great, at the close of the sixth century.
In his sixteenth "
Homily on the Gospels, he says There are from this day
:

(the first Sunday in Lent) to the joyous feast of Easter, six weeks, that is, forty-
two days. As we do not fast on the six Sundays, there are but thirty-six fasting
.
which we offer to God as the tithe of the year." But from the sixth
. .

century on, sporadically the four days were added, here and there in the Western
Church, but their observance as part of the fast of Lent was not made obligatory
Urban II in the Council of Beneventum, 1091, enjoined their observance.
They never have been, and are not to this day, observed in the Church of Milan.
The alteration was not made in Scotland till
Margaret, a Saxon princess, married
to King Malcolm III, A.D. 1069, promoted a religious change, to bring the Scot-
:ish Church into
uniformity with that of Rome. Warren, The Liturgy of the
Celtic Church, London, 1881,
p. 7; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen Lexikon, 1886.
iv. p. 1,261 Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year (trs. L. Shepherd), Dublin,
;

1876, Septuagesima, p. 2.
"
Hludowicus imperator* Augustus omnibus episcopis et universe ordini
ecclesiastic Britanniae cognoscentes quomodo ab Scotis sive de conversa-
. . .

tione sive de tonsione

capitum accepissent dum ordo totius sanctae apostolicae
atque Romanae Ecclesiae aliter se habere dinoscitur . Et ideo jussimus ut et .

VOL. III.
178 Lives of the British Saints

The ordinance is remarkable in this, that it does not mention and

make a point of the observance of Easter at a different time from the
Franko-Roman Church, which it certainly would have done had the
Breton Church varied from the Latin in this particular, at the time.
Further, it is noticeable that there is absolutely no trace of contro-
versy on this burning question, which agitated men's minds and excited
such strong feeling in England, Wales and Ireland. This must have
been due to the acquiescence, at an early period, of the Breton Church
1
in the revised computation followed by the Frank Church.
When we consider the intimate relations in which the Breton saints
were with the Frank princes and bishops, we may be confident that
the question as to the time when Easter was to be celebrated was not
a mooted point between them. S. Albinus, a native of Broweroc,
became Bishop of Angers, beyond the Breton pale S. Samson of Dol ;

had a monastery, Penitale in the diocese of Paris, and he was on the

most intimate terms with its bishop, Germanus the position would ;

have been strained had they observed Easter at different times.

Nantes, Rennes, Vannes were in a country overflowed by British
colonists ;
in these anciently established dioceses the Roman
computation was observed, but we hear jar of the
of no on account
colonists observing the Paschal solemnity at a different time. Paul
of Leon visited Childebert at Paris to receive confirmation of the grant
of land made to him by Count Withur of Leon. Childebert consented
on condition that Paul was consecrated bishop we may be sure he would ;

have insisted as well on conformity to the Roman usage with regard to

the celebration of Easter. It would accordingly appear most probable
that the Breton Church from the first acquiesced in the change.
The impossibility of making Winwaloe's death agree with the Celtic
computation renders it certain that this was so at Landevennec. The
Roman Easter, in the sixth century, fell on April n, in the years 510,
521, 532 and the last of these is the only date that can be reconciled
;

with the particulars as given in the Life of Gwenael. e are now able WT

to determine the dates in this Life with some approach to accuracy.

S.
He
Gwenael was born in the year
followed Winwaloe to Landevennec
.

.....
. . . . .482
489

juxta regulam Sti. Benedict! patris viverent, et de tonsura capitis juxta taxatum
modura cum sanctse Romanae Ecclesiae . concordent unitate." Cart. Land.,
. .

ed. De Rennes, 1888, pp. 75-6.

la Borderie,
1 "
Leur contact avec 1'eglise gallo- franke puissamment organisee parait
avoir de bonne heure modifie ces coutumes speciales, du moin sur le point le plus
essentiel, 1'epoque de la celebration de la Pique. II n'y eut jamais a cet egard
de dissidence entre les Bretons de 1'Armorique et leurs voisins de la Gaule, clu
moms, on n'en trouve nulle trace." De la Borderie, Hist, de Bretagne, ii. p. 2^4.
 S. Gwenael X
79
He
S.
received the monastic habit, aged ten
Winwaloe died, and Gwenael succeeded as abbot
.... . .
492
532
Gwenael departed for Britain and Ireland . . .
.539
After four years absence he returned . . . .
.543
Made foundations in Cornubia 546
Departed for Broweroc, where he remained nine months. .
552
Returned the same or succeeding year to Landevennec .
553
Died at Landevennec, aged seventy-five . . .
-557
We will now consider the various epochs in the life of Gwenael
in more detail.
He was a native
of Languenoc in the parish of Lanrivoare' in Le"on.
This we learn from one of the charters of the Cartulary of Landevennec
"
which calls Languenoc, Hereditas Sancti Uuenhaeli, qui primus post
Sanctum Uuingualoeum abbas fuit " (No. 39). A local tradition,
however, makes Ergue-Gaberic near Quimper the place where he was
born. Such a tradition is not, perhaps, worth very much, but it is
possible enough that, though his patrimony may have been in Leon
he may have been born elswehere. Languenoc is now Lanvenec on
a confluent of the river Aber Ildut, that takes its name from S.
Illtyd.
We may 10
dismiss the story in Vita i" that Gwenael was appointed
abbot whilst a boy in his teens, and accept that of Vita 2** which states
that he had been an inmate of the
abbey of Landevennec for forty-
three years when Winwaloe and that he succeeded him as abbot.
died,
He remained in that monastery for seven years and then went about in
Cornubia founding churches. Landevennec at the time was probably
included in the County of Poucaer, of which Conmore was chief, though
owing some sort of allegiance to the King of Cornubia. Grallo,who
had favoured Winwaloe, died,
according to De la Borderie, between
475 and 505 according to Dom Plaine, between 500 and 520.
1
;

The history of the period that ensues is confused. The Cartularies of

Landevennec and Quimper and Quimperle give as his successors, Daniel
Dremrud, and then Budic and Maxenri, two brothers. But from the
^ife of S. Melor we find that his father Meliau was
king for seven years
till assassinated
by his brother Rivol. It is not however clear that
this was in Cornubia and not in Leon. Rivol usurped authority,
however, in Cornubia, and he occurs in the Life of Gwenael as a favourer
of the saint. There is no mention of any prince in the Life of Gwenael
before his
meeting with Rivol.
Before that he had
gone, in 539, to Britain and Ireland, where he
founded two monasteries, and undertook the
supervision of fifty others.
There are no traces of Gwenael's work left in Ireland, but in Wales is

1
Dom Plaine, GraJlon le Grand.
 I 8 o Lives of the British Saints

S. Twinells, a corruption of S. Winells, the prosthetic t belonging to

"
the word Saint." William of Worcester says of the place and saint,
"
Sanctus Wymocus (sic) Anglice Seynt Wynelle, confessor, distat a
Pembroke per n
miliaria." 1 In the Taxatio of 1291, p. 275, col. 2,
the church appears as Ecclesia Sancti Winnoci," and in the Valor of
2 "
1535 as Vicaria de Sancto Wynoco."
We
should be inclined to accept the popular name, rather than
official documents, the writers of which may have been
that given in the
guided by their acquaintance with the more famous S. Winoc, and
have supposed that Winel was a corruption of that name. Phonetic-
ally it is not possible to deduce Winel from Winoc.
In Cornwall there is also a S. Wynol, a chapel in the parish of S.
Germans. There were Winwaloe settlements in Devon and Cornwall,
probably affiliated to Landevennec, and it is probable that these are the
establishments over which Gwenael exercised some supervision.
On his return from Britain, Gwenael landed in the Isle of Groix,
where, however, he remained but a few days, and then by boat went
to Landevennec, where he was joyfully received. After three years
exercising the office of abbot, he went, in 546, into Cornouaille to found
subsidiary houses and cells. There it was that he was so favourably
received by Rivol. In the Cartulary of Landevennec are no charters
bearing that prince's name, as a donor of land to the abbey, but there
are several grants made by Budic. This prince had been driven into
Wales by a dynastic quarrel. Probably he and Meliau were grand-
sons of Grallo, and in the struggle for the mastery Meliau got the upper
hand and Budic was expelled.
According to the Life of S. Oudoceus, Budic, a native of Cornugallia
or Armorican Cornubia, was forced to leave his country, and he took
refuge in Dyfed where he married Anaumed, sister of S. Teilo. After
a while messages from his principality announced the death of the
usurper, and they invited him to return. This he did, and his son Oudo-
ceus was born in Armorica. The return of Budic was after the death of
Rivol about 544 or 545, which is about the time when, according to the
Life of S. Gwenael, that saint had relations with Rivol. It is possible
that these relations began with the usurper and continued with Budic,
who certainly made grants to Landevennec.
In, or about, 552 Gwenael went into Broweroc. What his founda-
tions were in Cornouaille can
only be conjectured. He is patron of
Ergu6-Gaberic where he is supposed to have been born, of Bolazec
near Huelgoat, and of Plougonvelen near S. Renan in Leon, and these

1 2
Itin., p. 163. iv, p. 384.
 S. Gwenael i 8 i

the years 54 6 ~552. The

iay represent his settlements during activity
shown at this period points to Landevennec having somewhat declined
in importance and in recruits, to and
having endeavoured by the his

formation of branch houses to supply the mother-house with addi-

tional members. It was apparently for the same purpose that he

essayed his fortunes in Broweroc.

There he settled in the present parish of Caudan, near Lorient, on
a creek of the river Blavet. Here, at Locunel (Locus S. Gwenaeli) he
met with Weroc son of Meliau. Near the chapel is a lech, or early
Christian tombstone. On the other side of the water is a chapel of S.
Gwenael and near it another lech.

In later times, after the devastation by the Northmen, and the res-
toration after their expulsion, it became a priory under S. Gildas de
Rhuis.
The saintly abbot died at Landevennec and was buried there, but in
^57 Nominoe visited the abbey, and carried off the body of Gwenael
mnes, and it was laid on the epistle side of the choir.
In 913 or 914 the Northmen destroyed Landevennec and ravaged the
whole coast. The body of Gwenael was transferred for safety to Cor-
beil near Paris, where it was torn from its shrine and burnt at the
Revolution.
In Brittany Gwenael is and Wynol.
variously called Guinel, and Vinol
The churches of which he is patron have been already named.
At
Treguidel in Cotes du Nord is a late seventeenth-century statue of him
in ihe chapel of S. Pabu,
representing him mitred, with cope and stole,
and arms extended one formerly held a crosier. At Plougonvelen is
;

a retable, on which Gwenael is represented as a monk, and Count

Weroc, with plumed hat and arquebuse, approaches him.
At Pouldergat is his Holy Well, that is much frequented by such as
suffer from rheumatism.
He has and had numerous chapels in Finistere and Morbihan.
His Pardons are on the Monday in Whitsun week, and on the last
Sundays in August and November.
The day of S.Gwenael is, however, November
3. Albert le Grand,
MS. Missal of Treguier, fifteenth century, Brev. Corisop., 1701, 1789 ;

Imt transferred to November 9, Brev. Corisop., 1835, Brev.Venet, 1589,

Miss. Venet, 1530 Brev. Leon, 1516.
;

He occurs in Whytford as Gwenady. In the Auctuaria Usuardi

as Guinaldi.
 I 82 Lives of the British Saints

S. GWENAN, Virgin
1
THE
authorities for this saint are quite late. They represent her
to be the daughter of Brynach Wyddel by Corth or Cymorth, a sup-

posed daughter of Brychan. Brynach was Brychan's confessor, and

he had two other daughters, Mwynen or Mwynwen and Gwenlliw.
Gwenan was the name borne by King Arthur's favourite ship, which
was wrecked in Bardsey race or sound, between that isle and the main-
2
land, whence called Cas Wenan, Gwenan's Aversion.

S. GWENASEDD, Matron

GWENASEDD, or Gwenaseth, is entered in the lolo MSS. 3 among

the Welsh Saints. She was the daughter of Rhiain or Rhain of
Rhieinwg, according to the oldest copies of Bonedd y Saint, but accord-
ing to the late pedigrees, of Rhufawn, otherwise Rhun Hael, the son of
Cunedda Wledig, who, on the partition of Wales after the expulsion of
the Goidels by the Sons of Cunedda, received as his share the cantref of
Rhufoniog (called after him), in North Denbighshire. She was the
wife of Sawyl Benisel (incorrectly Benuchel), the son of Pabo Post

Prydyn, by whom she became the mother of S. Asaph. No churches

4

are known to be dedicated to her ; in fact, the authority for her as a

saint is of the feeblest.
The form Guynnassed, or Gwynasedd, also occurs, and a district
"
name, Lleudir Gwynasedd, which was situated where the Lliw enters
the Llwchwr," i.e., near Loughor, in Gower. 5
The name seems to mean
"
White-spear."

Myv. Arch., p. 428. The name of Gildas's son

1
lolo MSS., pp. 121, 141 ;

Gwynog, is in Hafod MS. 16 (Myv. Arch., p. 416).

wrongly spelt Guenan For the
Carnarvonshire legend of Gwenan, one of the three sisters of Arianrhod, see Sir
J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp. 207-10. The Breton equivalent Guenan occurs in
Lanvenan (Finistere) and Penvenan (C6tes-du-Nord).
2
Additional MSS. 14,866, and 14,903; cf. Peniarth MS. 216, p. 59.
3
P. 125, but she is wrongly made to be the wife of Pabo.
4
Harleian MS. 3859 Peniarth MSS., 12, 16, 45
; Hafod MS. 16 Hanesyn
; ;

Hen, p. 113 Cambro-British Saints, p. 266 Myv. Arch., pp. 417-8 lolo MSS. f
; ; ;

p. 122, 128. Probably the Rhufawn who gave his name to Rhufoniog was rot
a son of Cunedda.
5
Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, pp. 32, 95.
 .
Gwenddydd 183
S. GWENDDOLEU
THE lolo MSS.
include Gwenddoleu, the son of Ceidio ab Arthwys,
as well as his two brothers, Nudd and Cof among the Welsh saints, and ,

add that they were saints of Bangor Illtyd, at Llantwit. l But there is
no ground whatever for regarding Gwenddoleu as a Welsh saint he ;

was simply a warrior, and fell at the battle of Arderydd, now Arthuret
in Liddesdale, in 573. According to the Triads he was head of
"
one of the three Faithful Hosts of Britain," and his men main-
tained the war at Arderydd for six weeks after he was slain. 2 In
"
another Triad he is designated one of the three Battle-bulls of
3
Britain."
At Arthuret are a place and stream called Carwinlaw or Carwinelow,
and mediaeval surveys of the Forest of Liddel, Caerwyndlo. 4
in the
The name is that of the stronghold Caer \Venddoleu, called after this
chieftain.

S. GWENDDYDD
GWENDDYDD was one of the reputed daughters of Brychan. Her
name does not occur in the Cognatio de Brychan, only in the late lists
of his children. 5 She is said to have been a saint at Towyn, in Merioneth-
6
shire ;
but the same is also said of her sister Gwawrddydd, which leads
one to suppose that the same saint is intended, and both names bear
rather similar meanings the morning star and the dawn. Another

daughter of Brychan, Cerdech, is associated with Towyn in the Cog-

natio. See under the two names.
In Peniarth MS. 178 (sixteenth century), p. 24, it is stated that
she was the wife of Cynfor, and mother of, among others, Cadell
Deyrnllwg and Brochwel Ysgy throg but this confuses her with another
;

daughter of Brychan, Tudglid, the wife of Cyngen ab Cynfor Cadgathwg,

and mother of Cadell and others.

Pp. io6 j[28 > ; cf.Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd (Peniarth MS. 45).
Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 305.
Myv. Arch., p. 389. For a " saying " attributed to him, see ibid., p. 130. His
ch ssboard was one of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain.
Bye-Gones, 1889-90, p. 483 Skene, Four Ancient Books, i, p. 66.
;

Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 120; Harleian MS. 4181, f. 266 (but omitted as
nrinted in Cambro-British Saints, p. 271, no. 65) Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 425 ;
;

lolo MSS., pp. in, 120, 140.

6
Peniarth MSS. 131 (fifteenth century) and 75 (sixteenth century).
 184 Lives of the British Saints

No
churches are mentioned as being dedicated to her, but Capel
Gwenddydd was one of the now extinct pilgrimage chapels in the parish
of Nevern, Pembrokeshire, that were used for solemn processions on
1
Holy Days.
There was also a Gwenddydd, the sister of Myrddin.

S. GWENFAEL
IN the lolo MSS. 2
is entered, without pedigree, Gwenfael as a saint
in Brecknockshire. It is not stated what church the saint is intended to
be patron of, but we suspect it is Llanllywenfel (Peniarth MS. 147),

in the cantref of Buallt, now generally spelt Llanlleonfel. The church

to-day is not given any dedication.
The name Gwenfael or Gwynfael occurs on two early inscribed stones,
"
the one in South Wales and the other in North Wales, (i) Vendu-
"
magli Hie Jacit," at Llanillterne, near Llandaff and (2) Vinne- ;

3
magli Senemagli," at Gwytherin, Denbighshire.
Fili It is not

impossible that the name Gwenfyl or Gwenful, borne by a reputed

daughter of Brychan, may be the same as Gwenfael.
There is a parish called Loquenvel, i.e. Loc-Guenvael, in Cotes
du Nord, Brittany.

S. GWENFAEN, Virgin
GWENFAEN was the daughter of Paul Hen, variously said to be
" "
of Manaw by which, no doubt, is meant the Manaw on the Firth of
"
Forth and
of the North." Her brothers were Peulan, the patron of
Llanbeulan in Anglesey, and Gwyngeneu, to whom was dedicated the
now extinct Capel Gwyngeneu in Holyhead parish. 4
The only dedication to Gwenfaen is the church, formerly called
Llanwenfaen, but now Rhoscolyn, in Anglesey, near the foundations
of her two brothers. The site of her original church is still pointed out.
4
Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, p. 509.
2 *
P. 144. Sir J. Rhys, Welsh Philology, 1879, pp. 372, 385.
4
Peniarth MS. 75 (" Pevl Hen o Vanaw ") Myv. Arch., pp. 426, 429. Their
;

"
mother is said to have been Angad Coleion," which looks like a corruption of
"
the (Bod) Angharad in Coleigion (or Coleion)," near Ruthin, of the Hafod Bonedd
(Myv. Arch., p. 416, Cambro-British Saints, p. 268), See ii, p. 201.
 S. Gwenfrewi 185
Nothing is known of her history. Her Holy Well still exists on
Rhoscolyn Head, in form oblong, after the fashion of a bath, and is
constructed of slabs of stone, and is roughly paved. The water is
about four feet below the present level of the surrounding ground. At
the western end the walling is cut through by a small aperture, through
which the bather passed down a flight of three steps into the water.
Two triangular seats have been let into each corner of this western end
forwaiting devotees, and are still in situ.The well chamber does not
appear to have been covered over. The water flows in from a spring
outside the eastern end of the bath, and escapes by a small conduit
beneath one of the steps at the western end. It is received in a small
which, it loses itself in the sea at a spot
artificial basin, after filling
"
called Forth y Saint, the Saints' Haven."
Lewis Morris, the well-known antiquary of the eighteenth century,
resided forsome years at Holyhead, and in one of his poems he men-
tions this well, and from it we learn that it was used as a charm against
mental disorders, and two white spar pebbles were cast in as an obla-
l
tion, or perhaps for the sake of divination.
Gwenfaen's Festival occurs on November 4 in the Calendar in
Peniarth MS. and on the 5th in that in John Edwards of Chirk-
186,
land's Grammar, 1481 (See Gwenvavn). The latter day is also given by
Browne Willis 2 and Nicolas Owen. 3 A Gwenfoe occurs in the lolo
MSS. calendar on November 3. Gwenfo (Peniarth MS. 147, Cardiff
MS. 14), is the name of a parish known now as Wenvoe (S. Mary),
near Cardiff.

S. GWENFREWI, or WINEFRED, Virgin, Martyr

THE authorities for the Life of this saint are not of a good quality.
She died in the seventh century, and the earliest Life of her that
exists is the anonymous Vita Sanctce Wenefreda in the Cotton MS.
in the British Museum, Claudius A. v. (of the end of the twelfth

century), published rather inaccurately by Rees in the Cambro-British

Saints, pp. 198-209, and correctly by the Bollandists in the Ada
Sanctorum, November 3, i, pp. 702-8.
This Life has an appendix of miracles, certainly not earlier than
the twelfth century ; but the Life itself may be somewhat earlier.

1
Edward Owen, " Holyhead Antiquities," in North Wales Chronicle, Sep-
tember 19, 1903.
1 3
Smvey of Bangor, 1721, p. 279. Hist. Anglesey, 1775, P- $8.
 I 86 Lives of the British Saints
"
The appendix speaks post expulsionem Francorum a
of the time
tota Venedotia," which refers to the driving of the Normans out of
Gwynedd in 1135.
This Life was very probably written by a monk of the neighbour-
ing monastery of Basingwerk. It speaks of her body as being still
at Gwytherin.
The Vita 2 da by Robert, Prior of Shrewsbury, was written some
,

time between 1140 and 1167, when he died. Of this three MS. copies
exist, one in the Bodleian Library, Laud Miscell. 114 (possibly the

original) a second in Trinity College Library, Cambridge, 0.4.42

;
and ;

a third in the Royal Library, Brussels, 8072, which was formerly in

the Bodleian. From these it has been printed in the Acta SS. of the
Bollandists, November pp. 708-26.
3, i,

Robert had not seen the as is evident from his prologue.

first Life,

He drew his material partly from written matter that came into his
hands, and partly from oral tradition. In dedicating his work to
"
Guarin, abbot of Worcester, he says, Tibi nuperimam digestam
beatae virginis Wenefredae vitam direxi, quam partim per schedulas
in ecclesiis patriae in qua deguisse cognoscitur collegi, partim quorum-
dam sacerdotum relationibus addidici, quos et antiquitas veneranda
commendabat et quorum verbis fidem adhibere ipse religionis habitus
compellebat." He probably means by the written material the
Legendaria of the churches of Basingwerk and Gwytherin. His is
much the fuller Life but the facts in both are few, and are, especially
;

in Robert's, mixed up with much frothy declamation and exhortation.

All later Lives are worthless, as a metrical story of her by Peter

Langtoft, ed. Hearne, i, p. cxcvi, and reprinted in Analecta Bolland-

iana, vi, p. 305 and a condensation of the Life by Robert and the
;

Vita i ma by John of Tynemouth (in Cotton MS. Tiberius E. i), printed

in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglice.
The Lyfe of St. Wenefreide, written in 1401, is from the Vita i ma ,

at least mainly. A version of the Vita 2 da with amplifications of

,

" "
no value, was published permissu superiorum in 1635, at S. Omer,

by J(ohn) F(alconer), S.J., and republished, with some hostile com-

ments, by William Fleetwood, Bishop of S. Asaph (London, 1713).
The nine Lections in the Sarum Breviary were taken, almost word
for word, from the Life by Robert of Shrewsbury.
There is mention of S. Winefred, and an abstract of her story, in the
fourteenth century Buchedd Beuno. 1 It does not appear to be derived
from either of the Latin Lives.
1
Llyvyr Agkyr Llandewivrevi, ed. J. Morris Jones and Rhys, 1894, pp. 122-5 ;

Cambro- British Saints, pp. 1617.

 S. Gwenfrewi
Several copies of her Life in Welsh exist :
e.g., in Peniarth MS
27, part ii and Llanstephan MS. 34 (sixteenth
(fifteenth century),
century). They appear to be translations, in part at any rate, of
the Life by Prior Robert. The Franciscan friar and bard, Tudur
Aled (ftor. c. 1480-1530), wrote a cywydd in her honour, 1 in which
her legend and posthumous miracles are set forth. There is another
2
short cywydd, sometimes attributed to lolo Goch, Glyndwr's laureate ;

and another by leuan Brydydd Hir in Panton MS. 42.

There is no reference to her in Bede, William of Malmesbury, Henry
of Huntingdon, Florence of Worcester, Matthew of Westminster,

or, in fact, in any of the early English historians. Bede was pro-
foundly ignorant of British matters, and that the later writers should
not allude to her, mainly concerned as they were with English history,
is not surprising.
What more difficult to account for is the silence of Nennius, Geof-
is

frey of Monmouth, and Giraldus Cambrensis. But Nennius says

nothing, or next to nothing, about ecclesiastical matters. Geoffrey
of Monmouth was not Bishop of S. Asaph till he had published
after
his fabulous History of the Britons ; Giraldus, although he stayed
the night at Basingwerk Abbey, a little over a mile from Holywell, and
wrote his Itinerary and his Description of Wales, is silent relative to
S. Winefred although he wrote later than did Robert of Shrews
;

bury, yet nothing can be concluded against the cult of S. Winefred at

Holywell from his silence. Curiously enough, she is not entered in the
Calendar of Welsh Saints in Cotton MS. Vesp. A. xiv,of the early
thirteenth century.
The MS. of Vita i* has written against it, in Claudius A. v,
"
Per Elerium Britanum Monachum, An
660," in a seventeenth cen-
"
tury hand, to which is further added, aut Robertum Salopiaensem
an 1140, ut vir quidam eruditus melius docet." The first hand is
that of Thomas (or Robert) James, Librarian of Oxford, and the
latter is that of Thomas Smith but this latter made a sad blunder
;

in supposing it to be identical with the Life by Robert of Shrewsbury.

It has been objected that there is no notice of S. Winefred in Domes-

day ;
but Domesday takes account of the manors, which are the units
of composition, and not of the churches, with which its compilers had
" "
no concern. Its Weltune may be Holywell, which is called Tre-
"
ffynnon, Well-town," by the Welsh. The English name Holywell

1
It has been several times printed. For a copy, collated with some half
a dozen MSS., see Bye-Gones, Oswestry, 1874-5, pp. 290-1.
a
Gwaith I. G., eel. Ashton, 1896, pp. 600-3.
 i 8 8 Lives of the British Saints
"
seems to occur for the first time in a grant of 1093 (as Haliwcl "),
and next in one of 1150.
name does not occur in any early Welsh pedigrees
Gwenfrewi's
of saints. She cannot have belonged to a royal family. This agrees
with the account in her Life, which certainly represents her as the
daughter of a man of some means, but not as wealthy and noble.
Her father was Teuyth, the son of Eylud, who lived in Tegeingl (the
"
greater part of modern Flintshire). He is described as a valiant
" da
soldier ;
but the Vita 2 makes him a powerful chieftain in the

country, second only to King Eliuth.

1
No such a king in Tegeingl
is known from other sources but a petty king in a province of Gwy-
;

nedd may well have escaped notice by historians, and the historical
records of Wales at this period are meagre in the extreme. His wife's
name only known to us through some late pedigrees.
is She was
2
Gwenlo, the daughter of Bugi, the father also of Beuno. Winefred
was their only child.
Beuno came to Tegeingl and lodged with Teuyth, his brother-in-
law, who asked him to train his daughter for Heaven. This her uncle
consented to do, but stipulated that he should have in return a grant
of lands. Teuyth was not able to give him this without the consent
of the king so he went to Eliuth, who demurred to the request, as
;

separating the land from the common land of the tribe. 3 However,
"
he finally consented to the surrender of one villa or tref, Abeluyc,"
out of the three that he possessed and on this Beuno built a cell
;

and chapel. This was at Sychnant, the " Dry Valley," the chapel
being probably on the site of the present parish church.
One Sunday, whilst Teuyth and his wife were at Mass, Caradog,
the son of Alauc (Vita i ma ) or Alan (Vita 2 da ) a youth of royal blood,
,

was out hunting, and feeling hot and thirsty, he halted at the cottage
of Teuyth, and went in to ask for something to drink. He found the
beautiful Winefred alone there, and being a young man of ungovern-
able passions, and without scruple, attempted familiarities. Winefred
" da "
1
Vita i ma ,Teuyth Eylud films." Vita 2 Theuith, filius unius suromi
,

atque excellentissimi senatoris et a rege secundi, Eliuth nomine." The Life

"
of S. Beuno calls him, Temic, son of Eliud." In Winefred's Welsh Life he is
given as Tybyt and Tyuyt, and in the pedigrees mentioned in the next note,
Tyvid and Tyfyd. The name occurs elsewhere as Temit, a donor to Llancar-
fan, in the cartulary appended to Vita S. Cadoci, 58 and as Tyvit and Tyvyt
;

in the Record of Caernarvon, 1838, pp. 262, 265, 280.

"
2
Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 119, Gwen vrewy verch dyvid o wenlo verch Jnsi
vrenin Powys J mam " so in LlanstephanMS. 81 (eighteenth century). Jnsi =
;

Bugi.
8 "
Nequaquam mihi vel tibi sortitur tuum sequestrare rus a provinciae com-
munione, ne sibi sit inutile vel mese necessitati." Vita i""\ c. 2.
 S. 189
Gwenfrew
ran trom him through the door into the inner room, pretending that
she was going to put on her Sunday gown, and, opening the back door
of the house, fled down the valley to the little chapel of S. Beuno.

Caradog, finding that the girl did not return, jumped on his horse
and pursued her. He caught her up at the chapel door, and then
in a rage cut off her head with his broad-sword. Where the head
fellthe rock opened and a spring bubbled up. S. Beuno rushed to
the chapel door, and so roundly cursed Caradog that he melted away
"like wax before the fire." Then he set on Winefred's head, and
she recovered, but always retained a scar. 1 This occurrence took
place on June 22. In commemoration of the miracle, when Beuno
left, Winefred undertook to send him a habit (casula) of her own

weaving every year in gratitude.

Higden has preserved a tradition of Caradog's descendants which
has been thus Englished by Trevisa 2

He )>at dede ]?at dede, Ha]? sorwe on his sede ;

His children at alle stoundes Berke]? as whelpes of houndes.

For J>y pray J>at mayde grace Ri5t at ]?at welle place,
O]?ir in Schroysbury strete pere )>at mayde reste]? swete.
;

The name of his father, Alauc, is supposed to survive in Penardd

Halawg,
3
now Penar-lag, the Welsh name of Hawarden.
Beuno some little time later departed for Clynnog, from some
unexplained cause. In a few years Winefred also left, and went
first to Bodfari, where was a hermit, S. Deifer, who sent her on to S.

Sadwrn at Henllan but he did not want to be troubled with her,

;

and sent her to S. Eleri at Gwytherin, who placed her under the super-
vision of his mother, Theonia, and on the death of Theonia she
became superior over the virgins the latter had ruled.
The Vita i ma says she went on pilgrimage to Rome, and says
nothing of her journey to Gwytherin and her interviews with Deifer
and Sadwrn. 4 On her return a council of British bishops was held,
1 " If the
Fuller, in his usual quaint manner, observes, tip of his tongue who
first told, and the top of his fingers who first wrote, this damnable lie, had been
cut and had they both been sent to attend their cure at the shrine of S. Beuno,
off,

certainly they would have been more wary afterwards how they reported or
recorded such improbable untruths." Worthies, ed. 1840, iii, p. 538. Beuno
is credited with
having raised six persons in all from the dead.
*
Cf. Penictrth MS. 163,
" Ef
Polychronicon, ed. Babington, 1865, i, p. 428.
a vydd plant oi lin Ef yn kyvarth val kwn hyd pann ddelwynt yno [Holywell]
i offrwm nev i
"
mwythic."
Pennardd Alavc " is given as a variant reading in Brut y Tywysogion,
Rolls ed., p. 372, from the Book of Basingwerk (Gutyn
Owain). The name seems
to mean " Alog's Hill."
"
Eo tempore, ut memorant, Romam petiit, visitandi causa sanctorum
apostolorum loca, ut ibi in praesentia reliquiarum sanctorum, se totam Deo devote
offeret," c. 9.
 I
9o Lives of the British Saints

which she attended, where a canon was passed requiring those saints
1
who lived dispersed to congregate in monasteries.
da
.
According to the Vita 2 she founded a convent of virgins at Beuno's
church in Holywell, and remained there after his departure for seven
years, until his death.
She was constituted superior over eleven virgins at Gwytherin,
and there she died, and was buried by S. Eleri, 2 having survived her
decollation fifteen years. Her relics were translated with great pomp
to the Abbey at Shrewsbury in H38. 3 At the Dissolution her shrine
was rifled of its contents, and only one portion of her relics, a finger,
it is alleged, escaped destruction.
We come now to a consideration of some of the difficulties that
occur in the story, and make it impossible to accept it, without con-
siderable deductions. The initial difficulty is with her name, in Welsh
Gwenfrewi, which is suspiciously descriptive of the Holy Well. Some
writers have regarded it as being equivalent to Gwenffrwd, a some-
what common brook-name in South Wales, meaning "a Fair or Clear
"
Brook but this cannot be admitted. Her name is Gwenfrewi, and
;

is matched by the Coll ab Coll-frewi of the Triads. It was not her

original name. To quote her Welsh Life in Llanstephan MS. 34,
"
The people of that country say that her name at first was Brewy,
and that it was on account of the white thread round her neck that
" 4
she became called Gwenn Vrewy that is, from her decollation.
;

But it should be remembered that Gwyn or Gwen was not an uncom-

mon prefix and affix in the case of Welsh saints' names. There is no
notice of the change of name in the Vita ma but we i. ,
are told that
she was generally known as " Candida Wenefreda."
It is popularly assumed that Winefred is the English form of the
Welsh Gwenfrewi ;
but it would be quite impossible to philologically
" In1
diebus illis, totius Britanniae sancti ad synodum Wenefredi conciona-
bantur. Ad quam cum aliis sanctis etiam beata Wenefreda ascendit. Ibidem-
que omnibus ritu synodal! religiose institutis, videlicet, ut sancti qui antea
disparati singillatim vivebant, nullam habentes regulam nisivoluntatem postea ;

gregatim convenirent in ad hoc congruis, et eorum conversationem sub

locis
prioribus provectis sibi praefectis emendarent." Ibid.
2
Vita i ma states that she was buried on June 24, and Vita 2'< a that she died
on November 2. Edward Lhuyd, in his Itinerary, 1699, gives a sketch of her
tombstone in Capel Gwenfrewi at Gwytherin, and also of her arch or shrine in
the church.
3
A portion of her shrine abbey, by one of the north-west pillars.
is still in the
Her great bell there was famous It weighed 35 cwts., and
for its fine tone.
required four men to ring it. It was broken in 1730, and sold.
4 "
Cf. of the well, Fons martyris trium dierum spatio lacteo liquore emanare
visus est," Vita 2^, c. 26. The name of one of the three villa owned by Teuyth
"
was Gwenffynnon, the White or Fair Well." This may have been the original
name of the well.
 S. Gwenfrewi 191

square the names. As a matter of fact, there is no relationship what-

ever between them. Gwenfrewi has been simply guessed into the
purely English name Winefred, earlier Winefridu, compounded of
" " 1
wine, a friend," and fridu, peace."
The story of the head being cut off is a commonplace in Celtic
hagiography. S. Sidwell and her sister, S. Jutwara, whom we equate
with the Breton S. Aude, had their heads cut off so had S. Noyala or
;

Newlyna so
; had a daughter of Ynyr Gwent, S: Tegiwg, whose
head also S. Beuno put on so had the carpenter who married Tegiwg,
;

with the same results and there are many more instances.
;

What really happened was probably no more than this, that Wine-
fred ran away from Caradog, he overtook her, and in the struggle
she was wounded by him in the throat, but was easily cured by her
mother and Beuno.
As to the fountain springing up on the spot, that also is a common-
place in Celtic legend. The damsel whose head was cut off in the
hazel brake by the wife of Boia, in the Life of S. David, gave occasion
to a miraculous spring rising where her head fell. It was the same
with S. Jutwara, and with S. Tegiwg and S. Noyala.
The spring is remarkable for the volume of water that
of Holywell

gushes forth,and doubtless was in veneration in pre-Christian times.

That Beuno had his chapel near it is probable enough, and also
probably employed it as a baptistery. He may have regenerated
Winefred in it.

The red ferruginous veins in the stones of the well, and the crimson
Muscus subrubeus or (Lin.) Byssus iolithus found growing on them in
the water, was easily supposed to be the blood of the martyr miracu-
2
lously reproduced in testimony to the truth of the story.

"
1
See Prof. Skeat, The Corrupt Spelling of Old English Names," in The
Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, vol. xiii (1908).
It is said in Vita i* of the well,
"
Cujus lapides usque in hodiernum diem,
8

utpote in die prima, sanguinolenti videntur massa etiam utthus odorat." In

;

"
Vita 2**, Et quoniam de corpore in decensu devexi mentis jacente multus
ffusus sanguis, lapides aspergine ipsius infecti tarn in fontis scaturigine quam
seu in amborum margine passim jacebant
in rivo illius et, quod dictu vel auditu
;

mirabile est, lapides conspersi sanguine adhuc pristinam conspersioncm

illi

retinent. Xam sunt quasi coagulato cruore perfusi . . . muscicula vero, quae
eisdem lapidibus adhaeret, quasi thus redolet."
The violet-scented moss clinging to the side of the well is Jungermannia as-
pic nioides, and is found in many other wells, as are also pebbles streaked with
red. The moss is popularly known as S. Winefred's Hair. In Peniarth MS.
" in his Polyolbion,
118, p. 693, it is called Gweryd Gwenbhrewy." Drayton
2nd part, 1622, p. 59, refers to it :

"
her mosse most sweet and rare.
Against infectious damps for Pomander to weare."
192 Lives of the British Saints

The following occurs in Cardiff MS. 50, of the sixteenth century :

"
The Mosse y* groweth vppon Stones w hin yt ys very sweete o
l

odour and smell, whereof there bee Garlandes made and caryed many
e
myles for y rarenes of the matter. Yt ys sayde that Stones, Wands-
or handkercherffs cast into yt do gather as yt were redd spottes of
the Colour of blood."
Count de Montalembert says "At the spot where the head of this
:

martyr of modesty struck the soil, there sprung up an abundant

fountain, which is still frequented, and even venerated, by a popula-
tion divided into twenty different sects, but animated by one common
hatred for Catholic truth. This fountain has given its name to the
town of Holywell. Its source is covered by a fine Gothic porch of
three arches, under which it forms a vast basin, where, from morning
to evening, the sick and infirm of a region ravaged by heresy, come to
bathe, with a strange confidence in the miraculous virtue of these
icy waters."
The source had, of course, flowed for thousands of years before
Winefred existed.
From Holywell Winefred migrated to Gwytherin, where she had a
monastery, and died. With regard to Deifer, Sadwrn, and Eleri
we have dealt with them elsewhere, under their respective names.
Of the conclave of prelates passing the canon for collecting the
hermits into communities we know nothing. There was indeed a.
Council held at York in 660, in which S. Cedd was consecrated by
two British bishops, but it is most unlikely that this conclave can,
have been attended by S. Winefred.
We come now to the chronology of her Life,
We are told that she was a young girl when Cadfan was king. 1
Cadfan, whose tombstone is at Llangadwaladr, in Anglesey, is gener-
ally held to have died about 630, and this is about the date of
Beuno's departure to Clynnog, which was in the reign of Cadwallon,
his son. 2
The Vita 2 da says that Winefred remained seven years at Holywell
after the departure of Beuno, i.e. to 637, when she went to Gwy-
therin. She did not live to an advanced age, for S. Eleri outlived
her and buried her, and we may put her death as occurring about
650-60.
On the whole, we are not justified in rejecting the broad outline

1
Vita ma " In
i , c. i, diebus agitur quibus Catuanus super Venedociae provin-
cias regnabat," etc.
"
A gwedy marw Katuan yd aeth Beuno y ymwelet a Chad wallawn vat>
Catuan oed vrenhin gwedy Catuan." Buchedd Beuno in Llyvyr Agkyr, p. 123.
 S. Gwenfrewi 193
of the story of S. Winefred because of the fabulous and adventitious
matter that has grown about it, and we are disposed to regard her
relations with Deifer, Sadwrn and Eleri, and her residence at Gwytherin,
as the most certain points in her story. That as a young girl she was
solicited by a certain young cub of a noble, that she resisted him, and
thfit she was scratched in the scuffle w ith him
r
is all that can be
admitted out of that a huge overgrowth of fable has arisen.
;

*
Archbishop Arundel, in 1398, and Archbishop Chicheley, in 1415,
ordered the celebration of her festival, with nine lessons from her
legend, and it was then introduced into the Sarum Breviary. Before
that her name occurs in no calendars afterwards it was introduced
;

frequently.
She has two commemorations June 22, that of her decollation or
martyrdom, and November 3, that of her second death and, after-
wards, her translation. The latter is her principal festival. The
two (lays occur in a good many Welsh calendars from the fifteenth
century. A few calendars give Gwenfrewi against September 19 and
20.

It is somewhat remarkable that there are, or have been, but very

few churches in Wales dedicated to S. Winefred. The parish church

of Holywell was originally dedicated to her (with festival on Novem-
ber but apparently from the eighteenth century it has been dedi-
3),
cated to S. James the Apostle. The chapel over the Well is still dedi-
cated to her. At Gwytherin, within a few yards of the church, on the
south side, and within the churchyard, stood Capel Gwenfrewi, until,
"
it was
as stated in its Terrier of 1749, some years agoe demolish'd
by one Edwards lately Rector of the Parish." The modern parish
church of Penrhiwceiber, and a church in the parish of S. Pagan (Aber-
dare), both in Glamorgan, are dedicated to her. She is not, how-
ever, the patron of Vaynor, in Breconshire^ as sometimes given.
There is a S. Winefred's Well at Woolston, in the parish of West
Felton, Sal6p a cruciform bath, with a cottage, evidently a chapel
formerly, above it, as at Holywell. The spot is supposed to have
been one of the resting places for her relics on their way to Shrewsbury.
In Devon there are Manaton and Branscombe, the latter having

changed patron, probably after 1415, from S. Branwalader to S.

its

Winefred. Kingston-on-Soar and Screveten, in Nottingham, and

Stainton, in Yorkshire, have her as patron, unless it is a mistake for
1
Wilkins, Concilia, iii, pp. 234, 376. The collects, in Welsh, for the two
commemorations may be found in Allwydd Paradwys, Liege, 1670, pp. 361, 373.
" "
Caniad Gwenfrewi is given as the name of an old Welsh air. Myv. Arch.
p. 1,075.
VOL. III. O
 194 Lives of the British Saints

S. Wilfrid. The modern church of Bickley, in Cheshire, is dedicated

to her. The parish of Holy well, in the city of Oxford, is so named
from the Well of SS. Wine fred and Margaret, near the church.
In the legend, is said to have sent annually the habit
S. Winefred
"
she had woven for Beuno on a stone in the well, 1 where
S. the
parcel was not wetted by the water, and the stream carried it, dry
and uninjured, down into the broad estuary of the River Dee. All
that day and the following night it was borne forward by the waves,
and in the morning was cast on the shore close to the spot where
Beuno had fixed his habitation. In the morning, when Beuno came
out of the church, he stood for some time on the shore, admiring the
expanse of waters and watching the ebb of the tide, when his eye was
caught by the folded cloth left on the shore by the retreating waves.
He went forward and raised it, unfolded the cloth wrapped round it,
and found the cloak unharmed by the waves even the outer ;

cloth was perfectly dry." 2 And that after a voyage of some sixty
miles or more !

The Well of S. Winefred, issuing from the upper beds of the chert,
is a really singular phenomenon on account of the enormous quan-

tity of water it yields. It is the most copious natural spring in Britain,

and is justly regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of Wales. The
stream formed by the fountain, formerly called by the Welsh Afon
Wenfrewi, runs with a rapid course to the sea, which it reaches in a
over a mile. Dr. Johnson, who passed through Holywell in 1774,
little

notes in his Diary that it then turned no fewer than nineteen mills.
An analysis of the water shows that " there is nothing remarkable
in its composition, as regards either the
quantity or the quality of
the substances dissolved in it, excepting perhaps its freedom from
3
organic "Its peculiarities are that it never freezes,
matter."
although intensely cold, and scarcely ever varies in the supply of
water, the only difference after wet weather being a considerable
"
1
Vita 2 da
Kalendis Mail, venit beata virgo cum pluribus aliis ad fontem
,

in quo praecepto viri del munus suum depositura erat ; acceptamque casulam
albo prius mantili involvit sicque in medio fontis earn deposuit
; ;
se dicens
fontis ministerio hanc beato viro Beunoo dirigere. Et ecce, mirabile dictu,. . .

panniculus ille quo casula involvebaturnullamlesionem ab aqua patiebatur nee

vel minimam aquae infusionem sentiebat, etc." With the story compare that
of Brigid, the daughter of Cii Cathrach, sending a chasuble to S. Senan, which
she sent to Inis Cathaig in a basket, placing it on the Shannon. Lives of Saints
from the Book of Lismore, ed. Dr. Wh. Stokes, 1890, pp. 218-9. The large stone
now in the bath, near the steps, is known as S. Beuno's Stone, and regarded as
a wishing stone.
2
The Life of Saint Winef ride, edited by Thomas Swift, S.J., Holywell, S.
Winef ride's Presbytery, 1900, p. 36.
2
Barrat in Quart. Journ. Chem. Soc., xii (1860), p. 52.
 S. GWENFREWI.
From i$th century Glass in Llandyrnog Church.
 S. Gwenfrewi 195
discoloration of a wheyey tinge. It rushed out of the rock with
such rapidity, that the basin, which could contain 200 tuns of water,
was, when emptied, refilled in two minutes, proving that there was
a continual supply at the rate of 100 tuns a minute. The supply is
now reduced to about 21 tuns a minute. The chapel over the well
isan exquisite specimen of late Perpendicular work, and was erected
by Margaret, Countess of Richmond, and mother of Henry VII. The
groined arches which rise from the polygonal sides of the well are
particularly rich and graceful, and are adorned with figures and escutch-
eons of the Stanley family, Catherine of Aragon, and others. The
five angular recesses are, no doubt, intended to represent the five
l
porches of the pool of Bethesda."
At the well, under a niche, is a pretty statue of S. Winefred, with
palm branch in one hand and crozier in the other but she is incor- ;

rectly represented as wearing a crow'n, as though of royal race. There

is a figure of her, as well as of S. Beuno, in one of the panels of the

fourteenth-century refectory pulpit of Shrewsbury Abbey. She is

also represented in fifteenth-century glass in the chancel window of

Llandyrnog Church, in the Vale of Clwyd ; and was formerly in Clynnog

Church.
"
As the Bollandist De Smedt, very judiciously observes:
S.J., Is
the history of S. Winefred to be admitted as certain and proved, such
as we have it in the two Lives ? That I would not dare to affirm, for
we receive the story only from traditions of uncertain origin, perhaps
only committed to writing in the twelfth century, some five hundred
years after the period at which S. Winefred lived, as we judge from
the authority of these same traditions. And this authority, forsooth,
is not sufficient to enable us to believe
firmly in the stupendous mir-
acles attributed to this
holy virgin."
z
The opinion of De Smedt
is sure to be shared by all men of intelligence, their minds unclouded by
prejudice. No amountof frothy verbiage can obscure the fact that
five hundred
years elapsed between the supposed decollation of S.
Winefred, and the story being committed to writing plenty of time
for the growth of fable. That the crimson moss was believed to be
the saint's blood held its own till recently, and is only reluctantly
abandoned because scientific evidence is too strong to be overcome.
1
Murray's Handbook of North Wales, 1885, pp. 40-1. See also Mrs. Thrale's
observations on the well in her Journal (1774), recently published for the first
time; Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale, by Broadley and Seccombe, London, 1909,
pp. 187-8. The Well is now held on a lease by the Jesuit Fathers of the
Holywell Mission from the Holywell Urban Council.
1
Acta SS. Boll., Nov. i, p. 694. See also " The Bollandists on S. Winefride "
in the Month for
1893, PP- 421-37, by Herbert Lucas, S.J.
 i
g6 Lives of the British Saints
"
The Apostle cautioned his converts against giving heed to cun-
"
ningly devised fables ;
this is not even cunningly devised.
Haddan and Stubbs go too far when they class her among saints
"
who almost certainly never existed at all." l The documentary
evidence as to her existence, it is true, is not of the best kind. At
most, in early times she was a purely local saint. By the twelfth
century, some 500 years after her death, she had at Holywell and at
Gwytherin a notable cult and a definite story. The celebrity of the
Well named after her, and her translation, may be regarded as having
been mainly responsible for her eminence as a saint.

S. GWENFREWI, Daughter of Brychan

A GWENFREWI is entered in some of the later lists of Brychan's
children as a daughter of his, 2 but she is entirely unknown to the

Cognatio and other early authorities. No particulars are given of

her except in Peniarth MS. 131 (fifteenth-sixteenth century), where
"
it is stated that she was the wife of Cadrod Calchfynydd, whom
Tynwedd Faglog violated at Rhydau Tynwedd." This, however,,
is a mistake, for the Cognatio gives Brychan's daughter Gwrygon
Goddeu as wife of Cadrod.
The churches of Talgarth and Vaynor, in Breconshire, have been
3
supposed, but wrongly, to be dedicated to this Gwenfrewi.

S. GWENFRON
CAPEL GWENFRON is given by George Owen in his Pembrokeshire 4
as one of the ruined pilgrimage chapels in the parish of Nevern, Pem-
brokeshire, that were formerly used for solemn processions on Holy
Days. Gwenfron is a female name, but it is not borne by anyone
included among the Welsh saints.
In the Third (or latest) Series of the Welsh Triads a Gwenfron, daugh-
ter of Tudwal Tudclud, is distinguished as being one of the three
"
Chaste Women of the Isle of Britain," 5
but in the same Triad in
the so-called First Series her name is given as Gwenfadon.
6

1
Councils, etc., i, p. 161. Sir J. Rhys in Revue Celtique, ii (1875), p. 336, is
"
disposed to regard her as a water-nymph or dawn-goddess."
2
Peniarth MS. 131, p. in Cambro-British Saints, p. 271 lolo MSS., p. 140.
; ;

3
Jones, Breconshire, ed. 1898, pp. 331, 473.
4
i, p. 509. With its elements transposed the name occurs as Bronwen.
6 8
Myv. Arch., p. 410. Ibid., p. 392.
 S. Gweiillwyfo 197
S. GWENFYL
GWENFYL, reputed to have been a daughter of
or Gwenful, is

Brychan, and her name occurs, with Gwynan, Gwynws, and Call-
wen, as children of his, not included in the ordinary lists, that occur in a
Demetian calendar, of which the earliest copy is in Cwrtmawr MS.
1
44, of the sixteenth century. Gwenfyl and her sister Callwen are
commemorated therein on November
In the calendar in Addi-
I.
"
tional MS. 12,913, written in 1508, occurs Urvul a Gwenvul "
on July 6. Her chapel, Capel Gwenfyl, stood in the village of Llan-
geitho, Cardiganshire, but was allowed to fall down in the seventeenth

century. Marriages are known to have been celebrated in it, and it

had a cemetery. 2 There is a Ffynnon Wenwyl or Wenfyl on a farm
of the name, near the Alun, less than a mile from the church of Llan-

armon-yn-Ial, Denbighshire.
3
Browne and Meyrick 4 give Capel Gwynfyl or Gwynfil,
Willis

subject to Llanddewi Brefi, as dedicated to S. Gwynfyl, with festival

on November 2. It was situated in the township of Gwynfyl,
and separated from the village of Llangeitho proper by the river
Aeron. The same saint and chapel are intended.

S. GWENLLIW, Virgin
SOME late accounts give Gwenlliw, with her sisters Mwynen and
Gwenan, as daughters of Brynach Wyddel by Corth or Cymorth,
5
daughter of Brychan but they are also said to have been daughters
;

of Brychan.* All that may perhaps be safely said of them is that

they were of Brychan's saintly tribe. The authorities for their exist-
ence are quite late.
Nothing is known of Gwenlliw.
A Gwenllian is given in Peniarth MS. 178 as a daughter of Brychan,
but the name is a mistake for Lluan.

S. GWENLLWYFO, Virgin
GWENLLWYFO, or Gwenllwyddog, is simply entered, without pedi-
7
gree, in the Myvyrian Archaiology as the patroness of Llanwenllwyfo,
1
Denominated S.
2
Cymni, 1903, p. 56.See further under SS. ERFYL and GWENFAEL.
3 *
Pdrochiale Anglic., 1733, p. 195. Cardiganshire, 1808, p. 47.
5
lolo MSS., pp. 121, 141. With the name cf. Gwynlliw or Gwynllyw.
' 7
Myv. Arch., p. 428 cf. p. 417..
; P. 426.
 ig8 Lives of the British Saints

1
in Anglesey. Her festival, according to Angharad Llwyd, is Novem-
ber 30 ; but beyond this nothing seems to be known of her.

S. GWENNOLE, see S. WINWALOE

S. GWENOG, Virgin
THE pedigree of nowhere given. 2 She is the patroness
Gwenog is

of Llanwenog, in Cardiganshire, the two divisions of which parish

are called Blaenau Gwenog and Bro Gwenog. The festival of Gwenog

Wyryf is January 3, and occurs in the calendar in Cwrtmawr MS. 44

(sixteenth century), and jn that in Additional MS. 14,886 (written
1643-4) as well as in Browne Willis and a number of Welsh Almanacks
,

of the eighteenth century. On her festival is " a fair at which for-

merly offerings were made." The fair, called Ffair Wenog, is now
on January 14. Her holy well, Ffynnon Wenog, is in a field near
the church, and gives an abundant flow of crystal water, which was
believed to be efficacious in the case of young children with weak
backs. They were to be bathed or immersed in the well early in
the morning before sunrise.
The fifteenth century Llanstephan MS. 116, a copy of the Laws of
Hywel Dda, contains several invocations to S. Gwenog, from which
it is inferred that the MS. was written in the parish of Llanwenog, or
by a native of it. It furnishes an interesting specimen of the dialectal
South Cardiganshire. 3
peculiarities of
"
Haved Wennok " (Hafod Wenog), somewhere in the neighbour-
hood of Neath, occurs in inspeximus charters (1289, 1336) of Neath
4
Abbey.

S. GWENONWY, Matron
GWENONWY was the daughter of Meurig abTewdrig, King of Mor-
gan wg. Though nowhere expressly mentioned as a Welsh saint, she
1
Hist. Anglesey, 1833, p. 282.
2
Gwenog was also a man's name. It occurs as that of a clerical witness in
the Book of Llan Ddv, p. 186 ; cf. also the Black Book of S. David's (1326), ed.
Willis Bund, 1902, pp. 187-9. The name is to be distinguished from Gwynog.
3
J. Gwenogvryn Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., ii, pp. 567-8. See also
Aneurin Owen's ed. of Welsh Laws, 1841, p. 579, and Myv. Arch., p. 946, where
"
at the end of a legal Triad we have " Gwenoc helpa (Gwenog help us !).
!

4
G. T. Clark, Cartes, ii, p. 195; iv, p. 159.
 S. Gwerydd i
gg

might well be included among the number. She was the wife of S.
Gwynda'f Hen, by whom she became the mother of S. Meugant and
S. Henwyn. She was sister to Athrwys, King of Gwent, Comereg,
Bishop of Llandaff Ffriog and Idnerth, as well as of Anna and Afrella.
,

In the Book of Llan Ddv l are two documents recording the grant
of the villa of Guennonoe or Guinnonui to the church of Llandaff,
"
in the time of Bishop Berthwyn. It was situated juxta paludem
Mourici," and is supposed to be in Mathern, Monmouthshire, near
"
Pwll Meurig. The ruins of the chapel exist in a brake between
Pwll Meurig Village and Mounton." 2

S. GWENRHIW, Virgin
GWENRHIW was one of the daughters of Brychan Brycheiniog.*
She entered as Gwenrhiw Forwyn, or Virgin, against November I
is

in the Calendars in Peniarth MSS 187 and 219, and the Prymer of
.

1618. No churches are known to be dedicated to her. '

Gwenrhiw (also Gwenthrew) is the name of a township of Kerry,,

in Montgomeryshire. V ~^J
^ ''
J
, .
\
,
f

if?... A<:^\ . vtf'

<>//.<.>* i
/
S. GWERYDD, Confessor

GWERYDD, is known to us only through the lolo MSS.*

as saint,
and very doubtful. He is said to have been a son
his existence is
of Cadwn ab Cynan (or Cenau) ab Eudaf descended from the mythical ,

Bran Fendigaid. His church is said to be Llanwerydd, afterwards

called Llanddunwyd, San Dunwyd, and S. Donats, in Glamorgan-
shire. 5
He is also credited with having had a chapel formerly dedicated
6
to him at Emral, near Bangor Iscoed. Caer Werydd is usually given
as the Welsh name of Lancaster.
1
Pp. 179, 191.
8
Wake man, Supplementary Notes to Liber Landavensis, 1853, p. 12.
3
Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 120; Cambro-British Saints, p. 271.
cf. Taliesin Williams, Doom of Colyn Dolphyn, London.
4
Pp. 100, 135, 370 ;

1837, p. 154. Guerith is the father of a lay witness in the Book of Llan Ddv,
p. 150.
5
ii, p. 386. Bye-Gones, Oswestry, 1882-3, p. 164.
 2OO Lives of the British Saints

S. GWESTLAN, Bishop, Confessor

IN the Llyfr Ancr Welsh Life of S. David, this saint's name is spelt
Gwestlan, Gweslan and Goeslan, and is latinized as, among other forms,
Guistilianus and Gistlianus. He was maternal uncle to S. David,
being the son of Cynyr of Caer Gawch, and brother of SS. Non and
Gwen. He was a bishop in the district of Menevia, but no churches
are known as bearing his name. He resided at the Old Bush, which
is probably where was later Ty Gwyn on the slope of Cam Llidi.
David must have owed his education in part to him. David said to
"
his uncle, From the place where you propose to serve, scarcely one
in a hundred will go to the kingdom of God." This he said an angel
"
had told him, and he added that the angel had shown him a place
from which but few would go to hell for every one who should be ;

buried in the cemetery in sound faith would obtain mercy." l This

is
Rhygyfarch's story. As has been said, under S. DAVID, there were
practical reasons for 'moving the site of the monastery. Gwestlan
would seem to have acted as bishop in this monastery under Mancen,
who was superior.
From the Welsh Life of S. David we learn that one summer there
was a great drought at S. David's. Gwestlan and Eliud (Teilo) prayed
to God, and obtained two fountains possessing healing properties,
which were called after them Ffynnon Gwestlan and Ffynnon Eliud. 2 <

His Festival occurs as March 2 in the calendar in Cotton MS. Ves-

pasian A. xiv, but as the 4th in that in Additional MS. 22, 720.

S. GWETHENOC Abbot, Confessor

GWETHENOC and James were twin brothers, sons of Fracan and

Gwen Teirbron, and born in Britain, probably in Cornwall (see
S. FRACAN).
The Life of the brothers is contained in a MS. in the National Li-
brary at Paris (MS. Lat. 5296, f.
62) ;
it has been extracted in part
by De Smedt, and these portions printed in Catalogus Codicum hagio-
graphicamm Latin., 1887, T. i, pp. 578-82. They are also spoken
of in the Life of S. Winwaloe, their brother, who was born after Fracan
and Gwen had come to Armorica.
1
Cambro-British Saints, p. 124; cf. Giraldus, Opera, iii, p. 386.
2
Llyfr Ancr Llanddewi Brefi, ed. Profs. J. Morris Jones and Rhys, 1894, p. I ib.
 S. Gwethenoc 201
On reaching the north coast of Brittany, after Fracan and his
wife had formed their settlement, they committed their three boys to
S. Budoc, who was living an eremitical life in the island of Brehat, but
kept there a school for young Britons.
One day, as the twins left their class, andall the other lads
indulged
in romps, they lighted on a blind beggar. Thereupon one anointed his
eyes with spittle, and the other made the sign of the cross over them.
Then, the legend says, he recovered his sight probably the attempt
failed, but the writer of the biography could not admit this. The
man made such an outcry, that a rabble of boys collected round him
and drew him and the twins before Budoc, who inquired into the
matter.
Another day, when he was alone, James encountered a leper, who
extended his diseased hand for alms. James in an access of com-
passion, stooped and kissed the loathsome palm.
After having spent several years under Budoc, the brothers went
to the peninsula of Landouart, and founded there a little
community,
of which Gwethenoc undertook the direction.
On
a certain day, when they were harvesting, a harmless grass-
snake bit one of the brothers, in whose sheaf it lurked. He was in
deadly alarm, not being aware that such snakes are innocuous, and it
was thought miraculous that he was none the worse for the adventure.
At last the monastery became so crowded that the twins yearned
for a more quiet life, and they retired the Life says together, but
according to the Life of S. Winwaloe, it was Gwethenoc alone who
departed, and confided the charge of the monastery to James.
There was an islet at no great distance from the settlement that
could be reached by boat. However, an unusually low tide happen-
ing to occur, the brothers walked on the sand and waded till they
reached it, and found there a fresh-water spring.
Here they established another monastery, which also in time became
populous, and the brothers ruled it together as fellow abbots.
They became so famous that, even whilst they were alive, sailors
when invoked their aid. When they did so, suddenly the
in danger

heavenly twins appeared in light upon the vessel, one at the head, the
other at the stern, and went about handling various parts of the ship,
"
quasi curiosi," and conducted the vessel safely into port. They
had obviously usurped the position of Castor and Pollux.
The monastery founded by the brothers was afterwards known as
S. Jacut-de-la-Mer, on a peninsula, near
Ploubalay in Cotes du Nord.
It never was an island, but a peninsula.
It is said that the brothers one night dreamt that
they saw S. Patrick,
2o2 Lives of the British Saints

who informed them that in heaven they would occupy thrones on a

level with his own.
There is a chapel, half buried in sand, now called S. Enodoc, on the
Padstow Harbour, that appears in Bishop Lacey's Register, Septem-
ber 16, 1434, as Capella Sti. Gwinedoci, and which is described as
" "
the chapel of Guenedouci in an inventory of the goods of the

chapel made in 1607-13.

William of Worcester gives a commemoration of S. Wethenoc from
the Bodmin Calendar on November 7, but although he possibly means
the same saint as Gwinedoc of the Register of Bishop Lacey we cannot
say for certain that he does.
At S. Enodoc the Feast was formerly held on July 24, but in 1434
Bishop Lacey transferred it to July 13.
The Welsh dd and Cornish th in Breton becomes z, and Gwethenoc
has been altered into Goueznou, the final c falling away. By this
he has been confounded with another saint, also called Goueznou,
and who originally, doubtless, was a Gwethenoc, and was the son of
Tugdo and Tugdonia, and is commemorated on October 25, and whose
Life we
shall give presently (under S. GWYDDNO).
There is a chapel of S. Goueznou at Pleguien near S. Brieuc, and
as this is the plebs of his mother Gwen, who has her statue in the
church, unquestionably the chapel belongs to her son Gwethenoc, and
not to the Goueznou son of Tugdo.
Garaby gives November 5 as the day of S. Gwethenoc ; as we have
seen, the Bodmin Calendar gave November 7. July 6 was observed
as the feast of the translation of the relics of SS. James and Gwethenoc
MS. Missal of S. Malo, fifteenth-century MS. Breviary of S. Melanius,
Rennes, and the S. Malo Breviary of 1537.

S. GWLADYS, Matron
GWLADYS was one daughters of Brychan, and the
of the many
wife of Gwynllyw Filwr, Gwynllywg, by whom she became
King of
the mother of Cadoc and others. 1 John of Tynemouth, in his Life
"
of S. Keyna, mentions her as Brychan's primogenita filia."
There are two very different accounts as to how Gwynllyw ob-

1
Cognatio de Brychan Jesus Coll.
;
MS. 20 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 426 ; lolo
MSS. pp. in, 120, 140.
 S. Gwladys 203
tained Gwladys for his wife. That in his Life 1 is commonplace
" "
enough. Having heard of the gentleness and beauty of Gwladys,
he sent ambassadors to Brychan asking him that she might become
his wife, and he was accepted as an eligible suitor without ado.
In the other account, given in the prologue to the Life of her son,
2
S. Cadoc, Gwynllyw is said to have carried her off by force. She
"
was of
very high reputation, elegant in appearance, beautiful in
form, and adorned with silk vestments." He sent messengers to
"
Brychan earnestly requesting that she should be given to him in
marriage but Brychan was angry, and, full of rage, refused to be-
;

troth his daughter, and slighted the messengers." Gwynllyw there-

"
upon armed as many as three hundred slaves, who should take the
young lady away by force." They came to Brychan's court at Talgarth,
"
and found the young lady before the door of her residence, sitting
with her sisters, and passing the time in modest conversation whom ;

they immediately took by force, and returned with speed."

"
Brychan followed whom when Gwynllyw saw, he
in hot pursuit,

frequently ordered the said young lady to be brought forward,

and he made her ride with him ; and not flying, but taking her slowly
on horseback, he preceded his army, waited for his soldiers, and man-
fully exhorted them to battle." He arrived safely with her at the hill

Boch riu earn (now Vochriw) , which formed the boundary between
Brycheiniog and Gwynllywg. Sitting on top of the hill happened
to be King Arthur with his two knights, Cai and Bedwyr, playing
"
dice, and they observed what was taking place. Arthur was imme-
diately seized with love towards the lady," but his companions dis-
suaded him from taking her away from her captor, and, on learning
"
that Gwynllyw was within his own territory, they rushed upon his
enemies, who, turning their backs, fled with great confusion to their
own country." Thus, with the assistance of Arthur, Gwynllyw
"
brought his prize triumphantly to his palace that was on that hill,"
which was afterwards called Allt Wynllyw.
" "
King Gwynllyw united himself in lawful wedlock to Gwladys,
"
and four lamps were seen shining every night, with great brightness,
in the four corners of the house where she remained, until she brought
forth her first-born son," Cadoc.
The same Life, further on, 3 does not speak favourably of Gwynllyw
and Gwladys. Gwynllyw, now advancing in years, still clung to his
free-booting habits, and otherwise "disgraced his life with crimes."
Cadoc was grieved at hearing this, and sent three of his faithful dis-
1 * *
Cambro-British Saints, p. 146. Ibid. t pp. 23-4. Pp. 84-6.
 204 Lives of the British Saints

upon him to mend his ways. Gwladys rea-

ciples to try to prevail
"
soned with her husband, Let us trust to our son, and he will be a
father to us in heaven." He gave way, and they both " confessed
their crimes with the satisfaction of penance." They now devoted
"
themselves to religion, and in expiation of their sins, Gwladys built
for herself a church in Pencarnou Gwynllyw also soon erected an-
;

other monastery." Pencarnou is probably to be identified with Pen-

earn, in the parish of Bassaleg, Monmouthshire. On a cliff over-
looking the River Ebbw is an old building which has been converted
into two cottages, called Rock Cottages. This is supposed to have
been her church. The old people of the neighbourhood used to say
that they had always heard that there had been a church there, with
a graveyard attached. A large mound behind the cottages is thought
to be her grave. 1 Her spring is in Tredegar Park.
The church that Gwynllyw erected was Eglwys Wynllyw, now known
as S. Woolos, in Newport, close to which he had his dwelling, and near
" "
it, on the bank of the Ebod or Ebbw, as stated in the Life of S.
2 "
Gwynllyw, Gwladys had her abode. Here they both lived religiously
"
and abstemiously," and bore their penance, enjoying the fruits of
their own labour." 3
The situation of another church dedicated to S. Gwladys is well
known, viz. Eglwys Wladys, or Capel Gwladys, on Gelligaer Moun-
tain, about two miles to the north of Gelligaer Church. It has been
in ruins for many centuries, but its foundations, consisting of west
tower, nave and chancel, within an enclosure, are still visible. It was
" "
privately occupied as a house in 1584.* The parish attached to
it now forms part of the parish of Gelligaer, the parish church of which

is dedicated to S. Cadoc.
To dedicated also the modern parish church of Bargoed,
her is

formed out of Gelligaer in 1904. Forest Gwladys is on Gelligaer Moun-

tain, Llwyn Gwladys in Llangynwyd, and Bryn Gwladys in Pentyrch.
Edward Lhuyd gives Croes Wladys among the crosses of Bangor
Iscoed, but this cannot have been named after Brychan's daughter.

1
Mrs. Harcourt Mitchell, Some Ancient Churches of Gwent, 1908, p. 28.
3
2
Cambro-British Saints, p. 148. See further under S. GWYNLLYW.
4
Cardiff Records, i (1898), p. 398. For the grant to Margam Abbey by Wil-
"
liam, Earl of Gloucester, 1 147-83, of all the land of S. Gladus, with its pastures
as far as the Bohru earn," etc., see Birch, Hist, of Margam Abbey, London, 1897,
p. 1 6.
 S. Gwrddelw 205
S. GWNWS, see S. GWYNWS
S. GWODLOYW, see S. GWYDDLOYW
S. GWRDAF, Confessor

GWRDAF, reducible to Gwrda, is a Welsh personal name, occurring

.
r
ly rarely, but quite clistinct from the common noun gwrda, meaning
an optimus or nobleman. The name does not occur in any pedigrees
of the Welsh Saints, 1 but the church of Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire,
is under the invocation of S. Gwrdaf. Sometimes Cawrdaf ab Cara-
dog Freichfras is given as its patron, but this is impossible, on philo-
2
logical grounds. In the Talley Abbey charter of 1331 the church
"
is called Lanurdam." 3 Rees took the name as simply bearing the
" "
more obvious meaning of the Church of the Holy Man not em-
bodying the name of any particular saint and adds that the Wake ap
Llanwrda depended upon November 12, i.e. All Saints' Day, O.S. 4
By the Gwrda on December 5 in the calendar prefixed to Allwydd
Paradwys, 1670, is meant S. Cawrdaf, whose festival falls on that day.
Of Gwrdaf nothing is known.

S. GWRDDELW, Confessor
IN the various lists of Caw's children given in the lolo MSS. occur
the following names, Gwrddelw (in four lists), Gwrddwdw (one list),
5
Gwrddyly (two lists), and Gwrthili (one list). There can hardly
be a doubt that the four forms represent but one name. None of
1
As might be expected, the lolo MSS. (p. 144) duly enter Gwrda as patron of
"
Llanwrda. Castell " Kelli Wrda in Brut y Tywysogion, ed. Rhys and Evans,
" "
p. 378, is a curious corruption of Kenilworth Castle. In his list of wells in the
parish of Cwm, near S. Asaph, Edward Llwyd enters "Ffynnon Wrda corruptd
proDhwrda." Browne Willis, ParochialeAnglicanum, 1733, p. 176, gives an imagin-
ary Cwrda as patron of Jordanston, Pembrokeshire. The Welsh name of the
parish is Tre Iwrdan (Peniarth MS. 147, c. 1566; the Jordanus of Geoffrey's
Hist. Reg. Brit.,vin,c. 19, appears as Jwrdan in the Welsh text), one name being
a translation of the other.
2
Jones, Breconshire, ed. 1898, p. 37, thought the parish-name might be a
corruption of Llangawrdaf !

Daniel-Tyssen and Evans, Carmarthen Charters, 1878, p. 63. The termina-

3

tion-dam (later-cfa/) = -tamos, occurs also in Cyndaf, Gwyndaf, Maeldaf, etc. On

the chalice (1673) the parish-name is spelt " Lanworda."
4
Welsh Saints, p. 270.
6
Pp. 109, 117, 137. 142-3-
 206 Lives of the British Saints

them can be identified with any of Caw's sons mentioned in the tale
of Culhwch and Olwen. Gwrddelw appears in Brittany as Gourdelw
or Gurdelw. 1
2
In the Myvyrian Archaiology Gwrtheli or Gartheli is entered as
a chapelry
patron of Capel Gartheli (or simply Gartheli), formerly
within the parish of Llanddewi Brefi, Cardiganshire, but now, with
3
Bettws Leiki, a separate benefice. The lolo MSS. state that Gwr-
ddyly had a church in Caerleon on Usk.
January 7 occurs in the Calendar in Peniarth MS. 219 (circa 1615)
as the festival of Gwrddelw, and in Nicolas Roscarrock as that of
Gwrthelu.

S. GWRDDOGWY, see S. GUORDOCUI

S. GWRFAED, see S. GURMAET

S. GWRFAN, see S. GUORVAN

S. GWRFWY, see S. GUORBOE

S. GWRFYW, Confessor

GWRFYW, or Gorfyw, was the son of Pasgen ab Urien Rheged,

and father of S. Nidan. 4 He is said to have a church dedicated to
him in Anglesey, but its situation does not appear to be now known.
There was formerly a Capel Gorfyw at Bangor, but it has long since
5
disappeared.
A
Gurbiu occurs as a clerical witness to a Monmouthshire grant
to Llandaff in the time of Bishop Oudoceus. 6 The name is evidently
the same as the Breton Gorve of Locorve, at Plouray (Morbihan)
and Glomel (C6tes-du-Nord).

1
Lan Gwrdeluu occurs in the Cartulary of Landevennec, p. 41.
2 *
P. 426. P. 117.
4
lolo MSS., p. 1 02.
6
Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 285 ; Y Gwyliedydd, 1832, p. 162 ; Myv. Arch.,
p. 426.
6
P. 150. Gwrfyw is to be distinguished from Gwrfwy (Guorboe).

^
 S. Gwrhai 207
S. GWRGI
THE lolo MSS. reckon Gwrgi, the son of Elifer Gosgorddfawr, among
the Welsh saints, but as those documents are of late compilation, and
as there is no other evidence to support this, his inclusion is extremely
doubtful. He and his brother Peredur are therein said to have been
" "
saints or monks Llantwit, Peredur being
of Bangor Illtyd at
peiirhaith, or principal. He
mentioned as being of Cor Dochau, is also
at I.landough, near Cardiff, and to have founded the church of Penarth.
*

"
One of the stanzas forming the " Sayings of the Wise says
2
:

Hast thou heard the saying of Gwrgi,

Counselling on the Sunday ?
"
The lucky needs but to be(or happy) born."
(Xid rhaid i
ddedwydd namyn ei eni.)

(ixvr^i figures rather as a character that is partly historical and

partly mythical. The Triads have a good deal to say about him.
His mother, Eurddyl (the Euerdil of the Cognatio de Brychari), the
daughter of Cynfarch Gul and sister of Urien Rheged, gave birth to
3
triplets, Gwrgi, Peredur and Ceindrech Benasgell. He and others
" "
formed the horse-load that rode on their horse Cornan
(or Corfan) to
see the funeral pile of at Arderydd, 4 now Arthuret, where
Gwenddolau
the latterhad been slain in battle, in 573. Another Triad 5 speaks
of Gwrgi and Peredur as being deserted in battle by their retinue
4t Caer Greu and of both being killed by Eda Glinmawr, Nennius's
Aetan or Eata Glinmaur of Deira. This was in 580. 6 According
"
to the Verses of the Graves the grave of Gwrgi, the lion of Gwynedd's
7
br.ives," is in Gower.

S. GWRGON, see S. GWRYGON GODDEU.

S. GWRHAI or GWRAI, Confessor
GWRHAI, or Gwrai, was one of the many sons of Caw, or as his name
" "
Is given in Gwrhai's pedigree, Cadw. 8 He is said to have been a saint
1 " "
Pp. 105, 128, 221. Gwrci presbiter Sancti Catoci signs two grants to
Llaiulaff during the episcopate of Herwald, who was consecrated in 1056 (Book
of Llan DAv, pp. 272-3). The name occurs in Breton as Gurhi and in Irish as
"
Ferchu, and means man-dog." The Irish Ferchon (the genitive of Ferchu) is
represented in Welsh by Gwrgon.
2
lolo MSS., p. 253 Myv. Arch., p. 129. ;

3
Myv. Arch., p. 392. Elifer had seven sons in all (Black Bk. of Carmarthen,
ed. Evans, p. 5).
Myr. Arch., pp. 394, 396; Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 301.
5
Myv. Arch., pp. 390, 398, 408 Mabinogion, p. 305.
;

1
Annales Cambrics, p. 5.
7
Black Bk. of Carmarthen, ed. Evans, p. 66.
8
Hafod MS. 1 6 (c. 1400) ; Myv. Arch., p. 425 Cambro-British Saints, pp.
;
 1

208 Lives of the British Saints

or monk of Bangor Deiniol in Carnarvonshire and to have settled

at Penstrowed, in Arwystli, near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, and
founded the little church there. l See under SS. GARAI and LLONIO.
2
Gwrai, son of Glywys, was the eponym of Gurinid, or Gorwenydd,
which formed one of the nine divisions of the old principality of Gly-
wysing. It is his sepulchrum and mons, in S. Bride's Major, that
3
are mentioned in the Book of Llan Ddv.

S. GWRHIR, Confessor
THIS saint's pedigree is not given. He is styled Gwas Teilo, the
" "
Servant of Teilo, and is said to have been a saint of Bangor .Catwg,
at Llancarfan. 4 He was the original patron of Llysfaen or Lisvane,,
under Llanishen, near Cardiff, now dedicated to S. Denis. He is_
"
mentioned as a bard; and a Triad 5 states that Gwrhir, Teilo's
Bard was one of "the Three Cynfebydd (or Primitive
at Llandaff,"

Bachelors) of the Isle of Britain," whatever the precise meaning

of that may be. The other two were Tydain Tad Awen and Menyw
Hen, which places him in rather mythical company. S. Ystyffan
is also accounted a Bard of Teilo.

One of the " Sayings of the Wise " stanzas is as follows 6 :

Hast thou heard the saying of Gwrhir,

The Servant of Teilo, a bard of truthful language ?
"
Whoso deceives shall be deceived."
(A wnel dwyll ef a dwyllir).

S. GWRIN, Confessor
GWRIN was the son of Cynddilig ab Nwython ab Gildas,
7
but of
him next to nothing is known. He is patron of Llanwrin, in Mont-

268-9; lolo MSS., pp. 102, 136. The name occurs as Guorai, Gurhai, and
Gurai in the Book of Llan Ddv.
1
B. Willis, Bangor, p. 278, who is followed by most others, is wrong in giving
2
its patron as Gwrci. Cambro-British Saints, p. 22, 53.
3
Pp. 176, 190; Owen's Pem'jyokeshire, ii, 305.
4
lolo MSS., p. 107.
5
Myv. Arch., p. 409. For Gwrhyr, " Interpreter of Tongues," see Sir J.
Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, p. 489, and Celtic Folklore, pp. 511-2.
6
lolo MSS., p. 255.
7
lolo MSS., pp. 137, 139. His name occurs in the Guurgint barmb truch of

A/t^ -- /I /
 S. Gwrnerth 209
gomeryshire, which had been previously dedicated to SS. Ust and
Dyfnig. In the lolo MSS. he is stated to have been a saint at Trefwrin
or \Yrinston, the Castle of which and part of the Manor are in the

parish of Wenvoe, near Cardiff.

His festival does not occur in the calendars, but Browne Willis
"
of I. lumvrin that it is dedicated to S. Wrin, November I, tho*

the Wake is kept May I." l

S. GWRMAEL, Confessor

GWRMAEL, or, as we should expect his name to be written, Gwrfael,

is have been the son of Cadfrawd (saint and bishop) ab Cadfan
said to

(ab Cynan) ab Eudaf ab Caradog ab Bran.

2
He was brother to
Cadgyfarch, saint and bishop, the patron of Bryn Buga or Usk. The
church of Gwrmael is said to be that of Caerloyw or Gloucester.
Gwrmael's pedigree isso mythical that his existence is very doubtful.

S. GWRNERTH, Confessor

GWRNERTH was the son of S. Llywelyn ab Tegonwy ab Teon ab

Gwineu Deufreuddwyd. 3 In one entry in the lolo MSS. 4 he is given
a brother, Gwyddfarch, a saint of Bangor Cybi, in Anglesey. Both
Gwrnerth and his father are said to be of Trallwng, i.e. Welshpool,
Montgomeryshire.
There is a religious dialogue, in verse, between Gwrnerth and his
father in the fourteenth-century Red Book of Hergest (col. 1026),
the composition of which 5
is attributed to S. Tyssilio. It bears
the following inscription "Llywelyn and Gwrnerth were two peni-
tent saints at Trallwng in Powys and it was their custom to meet
;

the old Welsh pedigrees. in Harleian MS. 3859, which would now be Gwrin Farr
drwch, but out of whose name has been evolved the mythical Gwrgant Farf-
drwch.
1
Bangor, p. 361 ; Parochiale Anglic., p. 221.
a
lolo MSS., pp. 1 1 6, 136.
3
Pcniiiith MSS. '

16,45 Myv. Arch., pp. 416, 426; Cambro-British Saints

12,
pp. 267, 270 lolo MSS., pp. 107, 129 (at the former reference he is made a
;

brother to Llywelyn).
* 5
P. 104. Skene, Four Ancient Boots, ii, pp. 237-241.
VOL. III. p
 2 I o Lives of the British Saints

together during the last three hours of the night and the first three
hours of the day to say their Matins (Pylgeint) and the Hours of the
day besides. And once upon a time Llywelyn, seeing the cell of
Gwrnerth shut, and not knowing why it was so, composed an englyn."
"
A postscript adds Tyssilio, the son of Brochwael Ysgythrog,
composed these verses concerning Gwrnerth's coming to perform
his devotions with S. Llywelyn, his companion and they are called ;

the Colloquy of Llywelyn and Gwrnerth."

The inscription, if not the poem itself, cannot be much older than
the MS. in which it occurs. The poem consists of thirty triplet verses,
nearly half of which begin with the catchwords Eiry mynyd '(Moun-
tain snow), which occur also in a similar poem, but not religious,
"
that follows it. In the poem one addresses the other as brother,"
but in the postscript they are spoken of as companions.
The festival of Gwrnerth and his father Llywelyn is on April 7,
and occurs in the majority of the Welsh calendars.
No church is attributed to Gwrnerth as patron. The speedwell
is called in Welsh both gwrnerth and llysiau Llywelyn (whence the

English ftuellen) from these two saints, as suggested long ago by Dr.
John Davies in his Botanologium, 1632.

S. GWRTHEFYR (VORTIMER), Prince, Martyr

GWRTHEFYR Fendigaid (" the Blessed "),
1
the son of Vortigern or
Gwrtheyrn Gwrtheneu, is accounted a saint and a martyr, but nothing
is known of him
"
beyond what is related by Nennius. Vor timer, the
son of Vortigern, valiantly fought against Hengest, Horsa, and his
people he drove them to the isle of Thanet, and thrice enclosed
;

them within it and beset them on the Western side." The Irish
;

Nennius says, "The Britons took this island thrice from them," and
says nothing of any movement to the West.
"
The Saxons now despatched deputies to Germany to solicit
large reinforcements, and an additional number of ships having :

obtained these, they fought against the kings and princes of Britain,
and sometimes extended their boundaries by victory, and sometimes
were conquered and driven back.
1
Vortimer is in old Welsh Guorthemir, becoming later Gwrthefyr. The name
Vortiporius of Gildas appears as Guortepir in the old Welsh genealogies in Har-
leian MS. 3859, and later in Jesus College MS, 20 as Gwrdeber. The two are
liable to be confused.
 S. Gwrthefyr 211
"
Four times did Vortimer valorously encounter the enemy the ;

firsthas been mentioned, the second was upon the river Darent, the
third at the Ford, in their language called Epsford, though in ours Set-

thirgabail, there Horsa fell, and Catigern, the son of Vortigern ;

the fourth battle he fought was near the Stone on the shore of
the Gallic sea, where the Saxons, being defeated, fled to their
ships.
"
After a short interval Vortimer died ; before his decease, anxious
for the future prosperity of his country, he charged his friends to
inter his body at the entrance of the Saxon port, to wit, upon the
' '
rock where the Saxons first landed ; for though,' said he, they
may inhabit other parts of Britain, yet, if you follow my commands,
they will never remain in this island.' They imprudently disobeyed
this last injunction and neglected to bring him where he had
appointed."
In the Irish Nennius "
it stands somewhat differently, a battle
on the bank of the Deirgbeint a battle on the bank of Rethenergabail,
;

in which Orsa and Catigern, son of Gortigern, were slain and a ;

battle on the shore of the Ictian Sea (the Channel), where they drove
the Saxons to their ships, muliebriter and a battle on the banks
;

of Episfort."
We may follow this struggle better from Mr. Green's account of
The Making of England, though he does not even allude to the gallant
Vortigmi. "In the first years that followed after their landing,
Jute and Briton fought side by side and the Picts are said to have
;

at last been scattered to the winds in a great battle on the eastern

coast of Britain. But danger from the Pict was hardly over when
danger came from the Jutes themselves. Their numbers probably
greu fast as the news Thanet spread among
of their settlement in
their fellow pirates who were haunting the Channel and with the ;

increase of their number must have grown the difficulty of supplying

them with rations and pay.
"
The dispute which rose over these questions was at last closed
by Hengest's men with a threat of war. But the threat was no easy
one to carry out. Right across their path in any attack upon Britain
stretched the inlet of sea that parted Thanet from the mainland,
a strait which was then traversable only at low water by a long and
dangerous ford and guarded at either mouth by fortresses."
That they did attempt to cross, and were met and driven back
by Yortimer, we learn from Nennius, but Mr. Green entirely dis-
regards his testimony. Here was fought the first battle and the ;

Jutes when foiled summoned aid from Germanv.

212 Lives of the British Saints

By some means, however, when so reinforced, they succeeded in

crossing ;
probably they took the Britons by surprise, as some time
had elapsed before the assistance arrived, and the Britons had with-
drawn in fatal security.
"
The inlet may have been crossed before any force could be col-
lected to oppose the English onset, or the boats of the Jutes may
have pushed from the centre of it up the channel of its tributary, the
Stour, itself at that time a wide and navigable estuary, to the town
that stood on the site of our Canterbury, the town of Durovernum.
Durovernum had grown up among the marshes of the Stour, a little
cluster of houses raised above the morass on a foundation of piles . . .

and the military importance was marked by the rough

of its position
oval of massive walls that lay about it. ... But neither wall
nor marshes saved Durovernum from Hengest's onset, and the town
was left in blackened and solitary ruin, as the invaders pushed along
the road to London.
"
No obstacle seems to have checked their march from the Stour
to the Medway. Passing over the heights which were crowned with
the forest of Blean, they saw the road strike like an arrow past the
line of Frodsham Creek through a rich and fertile district, where

country-houses and farms clustered thickly on either side of it, and

where the burnt grain which is still found among their ruins may
tell of the smoke-track that marked the Jutish advance. As they
passed the Swale, however, and looked to their right over the potteries
whose refuse still strews the mud-banks of Upchurch, their march
seems to have swerved abruptly to the south. The march of
. . .

the Jutes bent along a ridge of low hills which forms the bound of the
river-valley on the east. The country through which it led them
was full of memories of a past which had even then faded from the
minds of men for the hill-slopes which they traversed were the
;

grave-ground of a vanished race, and scattered among the boulders that

strewed the soil rise cromlechs and large barrows of the dead. One
mighty relic survives in the monument now called Kit's Coty House,
a cromlech which had been linked in old days by an avenue of huge
stones to a burial ground some few miles off near the village of Adding-
ton. It was from a steep knoll on which the grey, weather-beaten
stones of this monument were reared, that the view of their battle-
ground would break on Hengest's warriors and a lane which still
;

leads down from it through peaceful homesteads would guide them

across the river-valley to a ford which has left its name in the village
of Aylesford that overhangs it. At this point, which is still the lowest
ford across the Medwav, and where an ancient trackway crossed
 S. Gwrthefyr 213
the river, the British leaders must have taken post for the defence of
West Kent but the Chronicle of the conquering people tells nothing
;

of the rush that may have carried the ford, or of the fight that went
straggling up the village. We hear only that Horsa fell in the moment
<>l
victory; and the flint -heap of Horstead, which has long pre-
served his name, and was held in aftertime to mark his grave, is thus
the earliest of those monuments of English valour of which West-
minster is the last and noblest shrine."
After this success the conquerors pressed on, and the Britons
made another stand on the Darent, and here apparently the natives
were victorious, for the Jutes retired, and did not make further
advance till the next year. But with the spring of 456 they were
again on the move a battle, was fought " near the stone on the
;

shore of the Gallic sea, where the Saxons being defeated, fled to their
ships." This can hardly be Stone, between Dartford and the Thames,
for both the Latin and the Irish Nennius speak of it as on the English
Channel, and we may conjecture it was at Folkstone. Perhaps,
instead of at once pushing towards London, the invaders ravaged
the south of Kent.
In the following year, however, the decisive battle of Crayford,
"
a ford in a little stream that falls through a quiet
valley from the
chalk downs hard by at Orpington. The victory must have been
complete, for, at its close, as the Chronicle of their conquerors tells
'

us, the Britons forsook Kentland, and fled with much fear to Lon-
" l
don.'

Shortly after this disastrous battle, Vortimer died, probably of

his wounds and immediately after, the discontent and resentment
;

of the Britons rose against Vortigern, and he was driven from his
position as king, by his people, headed by Ambrosius Aurelius, and
Germanus (afterwards Bishop of Man). 2

Gwrthefyr does not seem to have founded any churches. Geoffrey

ofMonmouth says that he " restored churches " and he is followed
by Matthew of Westminster and Henry of Huntingdon.
The name of Gwrthefyr does not occur in any Calendars.
In a Welsh Triad it is said that his bones formed one of the three
41 "
Precious Concealments (Madgudd) of Britain, for as long as they
1
Green, The Making of England, London, 1897, i
PP 35~4i.
8
Henry of Huntingdon tells the story differently, but we do not know what
was his authority. He makes Ambrosius leader in the Battle of Aylesford, with
Yor timer and Catigern under him. Matthew of Westminster does not make
Ambrosius supreme till later he also graphically describes the battle, but this
;

is taken from
Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey says that Vortimer was poisoned
by Rowena, wife of Vortigern his father, and daughter of Hengest.
214 Lives of the British Saints

were concealed in the chief harbours of the island no invasion of

the Saxons could ever take place, but they were revealed by his father
" 1
Gwrtheyrn, for love of a woman."
" " 2
Among the Sayings of the Wise triplets occurs the following :

Hast thou heard the saying of Gwrthefyr

The Blessed, of wise import?
" A string too tight is easily broken."
(Llinyn rhy dynn hawdd y tyrr.)

S. GWRTHELI, see S. GWRDDELW

S. GWRTHWL, Confessor
OF this saint nothing is known. His name has come down to us
in that of the church of Llanwrthwl, in North Breconshire. We
have it also in Maes Llanwrthwl, the name of an old mansion in the
parish of Caio, Carmarthenshire, not far from which, near Pantypolion,
where the Paulinus stone originally stood, is Llech Wrthwl. Theo-
3
philus Jones doubtfully suggested as the person involved Morddal

Gweilgi, whom the Triads

4
Gwr state taught the Welsh people, in
the time of Alexander the Great, the art of building in stone and
mortar ; but this no other reason than that the
is impossible, if for
initial letter and not M. Ecton and Browne
would have to be G
Willis give Mwthwl as the saint's name.
The most likely name approaching Gwrthwl that we can suggest
5
is Gwrthmwl, which was borne by more than one person living at
an early period. One was Gwrthmwl (or Gyrthmwl) Wledig, who,
6 " "
according to a Triad, was pen hynaif, or chief elder," of the
"
throne-tribe at Penrhyn Rhionedd in the North, which acknow-
"
ledged Arthur as supreme King." It may be inferred from another
7
Triad that he was slain in Ceredigion.
"
March 2 is given as " Gwyl Wthwl or
"
Wrthwl " in the Demetian
Calendar (denominated S). The Prymers of 1618 and 1633. enter
"
Mwthwl " on the same day.
Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans,
1
p. 300 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 391, 396, 406.
2
lolo MSS., p. 255.
3
Breconshire, ed. 1898, p. 283. He followed
by Carlisle, Topog. Diet., 1811,
is

and *
others. Myv. Arch., p. 409.
6
The m should properly become /, as in gwrthfynegi, etc., and in such a position
would further be liable to disappear, as in Cynfyw, Cynyw Gredfyw, Gredyw. ;

6
Skene, Four Ancient Bks., ii, p. 456 Myv. Arch., pp. 389, 407. One Triad
;

"
(e.g. Mabinogion, pp. 305-6), mentions his carw (or tarw) ellyll." He occurs
ibid., 60 cf. Skene, ii, p. 287.
p. 1 ;

7
Mabinogion, p. 301. According to one (no. 39) of the Englynion y
E.g.,
Beddau, the grave of a certain Gyrthmul is in Kelli Uriauael, Briafael's Holt.
 S. Gwryd 215
S. GWRW
THE name Eglwys Wrw, borne by a church in Pembrokeshire,
would most naturally suggest Gwrw 1 as its patron saint, and it is
foi this reason alone that our notice has been placed, somewhat

oddly, under the above heading. The name is spelt in a variety

" "
of forms. In the Valor of 1535 2 it is Eglusero in the parish ;

" "
list in Peniarth MS. 147, c. 1566, Eglwys Irw and by Owen ;

" 4 "
in his Pembrokeshire 3 Eglosserowe," who also gives Capell
Erow " as a pilgrimage chapel in ruins in the same parish, which
latter affords clear proof that the initial letter of the saint's name is

a vowel, but whether E it is doubtful. Later writers give it as Erw

and Eirw. The name clearly, despite the local etymologists, has
" "
nothing to do with erw, hence the Church of an acre and to ;

"
connect with gwryw or gwrw,
it male," would be absurd.
Nothing is known of the saint, not even the sex for certain. In
the Demetian Calendar (S), the earliest MS. of which is Cwrtmawr
MS. 44, written in the second half of the sixteenth century, the saint
" s
is designated Virgin." Later writers say the male sex. Fenton,
who took the latter view, says that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth
there sort of chantry chapel in the churchyard, wherein, on
was a
the south side, was shown the tomb of the saint in hewn stone. The
parishioners never buried in the chapel, from a superstitious belief
that corpses there interred would in the night-time be ejected.
The which occurs only in the Calendar already
saint's festival,
" "
mentioned, is Gwyl Urw (Wrw) Forwyn
entered as on October
21. Fenton gives it on November 3, which is the festival of S. Cristiolus,
and Carlisle, in his Topographical Dictionary, 1811, says the church
is dedicated to that saint ;
but this is surely a mistake. A large
fair, called FfairFeugan, was held at Eglwys Wrw on the Monday
after Martinmas, O.S. but Meugan was the great saint of the deanery
;

of Kernes.

S. GWRYD, Friar
"
IN the Demetian Calendar occurs the following entry,
(S) Gwryd
the Friar (Y Brawd Wryd) on All Saints' Day. This Friar drove
1
Sir J. Rhys, Welsh Englyn, 1905, pp. 23-4, is disposed to connect the Gwrw
of Eglwys Wrw with the Irish gorm, " conspicuous, famous."
* 3
iv, p. 399. i, pp. 288, 298, 312, 398, etc.
6
Pembrokeshire, 1811, pp. 531-2.
 2 1 6 Lives of the British Saints

the oppression (gonnes] from Einion ab Gwalchmai, which had been

following him for seven years."
1
We are not told what the oppression
was, but, inferentially, something mental.
Einion ab Gwalchmai ab Meilir was a bard of Trefeilir, Anglesey,
who flourished circa 1170-1220. Five poems by him, mostly of a
religious character, are printed in the Myvyrian Archaiology. 2
In the lolo MSS. 3 occurs "The Fable of Einion ab Gwalchmai
and the Lady of the Green Wood," by Hopkin ab Thomas of Gower,
who lived, at the end of the fourteenth century. In it Einion, who
had married Angharad, the daughter of Ednyfed Fychan, is enticed
away from his wife,and son by a hideous goblin (ellylles), who appears
to him in the form of a lady of surpassing beauty. The illusion is
"
taken off him by a man in white apparel, mounted on a snow-white
horse," who brings him back, after an absence of twenty-nine years,
to his wife on her wedding-day.
" "
By the oppression referred to in the Calendar is evidently
meant the illusion of the Fable, and the man in white would be Gwryd.
He lived about the year 1200, an exceptionally late instance among
the Welsh saints.

S. GWRYGON GODDEU, Matron

GWRYGON of Goddeu was a daughter of Brychan. In the Vespasian
Cognatio her name is given as Gwrycon Godheu, in the Domitian
version as Grucon Guedu, and in Jesus College MS. 20 as Grugon.
In all the later lists of Brychan's children her name is spelt Gwrgon. 4
She was the wife of Cadrod Calchfynydd, Lord of Calchfynydd, which
Skene has identified with Kelso in Roxburghshire. 5 He identified
Goddeu with Cadyow, near Hamilton. 6
1
is not a name of frequent occurrence.
"
A certain Gwryd ap gwryd
Gwryd
"
glav was buried at Maes y Caerau, near Dinas Emrys (Dr. J. G. Evans, Report
on Welsh MSS., ii, p. 355 see also pp. 369, 453). Hafod Wryd is a place in the
;

Machno Valley, near Bettws y Coed.

z
Pp. 230-2 ; Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, 1876, pp. 48-51.
Pp. 176-9. The same story is told of Ednyfed Fychan, whose daughter
3

Einion had married. With variants, it is a widely spread folk-tale. Tennyson's

Enoch Arden is a well-known instance.
4
Peniarth MS. 75 (sixteenth century) ;Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 426 lolo MSS.,
;
"
pp. in, 120, 140. Tynwedd Faglog violated her at Rhydau Tynwedd " (first
reference). In Peniarth MS. 131 (fifteenth century) she is called Gwenfrewi
by mistake. Gwrgon is a man's name.
6
Four Ancient Books, i, pp. 172-3. See ii, p. 42, of this work.
6 Sir J. Rhys, Celtic Britain, 1904, "
Ibid., ii, p. 414. p. 156, says that it was
possibly Lothian but more likely Galloway."
 217
Gwrygon's name occurs in the Cair Guricon of the Catalogue
of Nennius (
Cities in 76), the Old- Welsh name of Viroconium
(Uriconium), whence our Wrox-eter and Wrekin. 1 The Roman
town is supposed to date from about A.D. 50.
No churches are known to be dedicated to Gwrygon, nor does
her name occur in any of the Calendars.

S. GWYAR, Confessor .

IN one document printed in the lolo MSS. Gwyar is mentioned 2

"
as one of the twelve sons of Helig ab Glanog, of Tyno Helig, in the
North, whose lands the sea overwhelmed and they became saints ;

at Bangor Fawr in Maelor afterwards some of them went to Cor

;

Cadfan in Bardsey. They lived in the time of Rhun ab Maelgwn,"

that is, about the middle of the sixth century.

This is the only entry wherein his name occurs, and his existence
must rest entirely upon this document, printed from a transcript
made in 1783.

S. GWYDDALUS, Martyr
IN the parish of Dihewyd (subject to Llanerchaeron),in Cardigan-
shire is a place called Llanwyddalus, well-known formerly for its

great fair held on April 26 (O.S.), later May 9. It preserves the name
of a now extinct church or chapel dedicated to S. Gwyddalus or Gwy-
ddalys, whom some regard as a Welsh saint, but Browne Willis, Mey-
3

4
rick, and others treat the name as the Welsh form of Vitalis, whose
festival they give on April 28. He is thus identified with the S.
Vitalis, who, with his wife Valeria, was martyred in the second century,
and are commemorated together on April 28. He is venerated at
Ravenna, where he suffered martyrdom. But we should hardly
expect to find a comparatively obscure Roman saint culted in the
1
Y Cymmrodor, ix, p. 183 xi, p. 49
; ; xxi. The Dinlle Urecon of Llywarch
HOu'.s Elegy to Cynddylan was probably the camp on the Wrekin.
1
P. 124.
*
Parochiale Anglicanum, 1733, p. 193. In a list of parishes, written in 1606,
the parish-name is given as " 11. Vitalis " (Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh
MSS., i, p. 916). Cardiganshire, 1808, pp. 43, 46, 185.
 2 1 8 Lives of the British Saints

wilds of Cardiganshire. Besides, it would have been impossible for

Vitalis to assume in Welsh the form Gwyddalus at any period down
to the late Middle Ages. In Old-Welsh the equivalent of Vitalis
was Guitaul, the name of Vortigern's father or grandfather, which
" "
became later Gwidawl and Gwidol, as in the Ellyll Gwidawl
of the Triads, and the brook that has given its name to
Aber Gwidol, on the Dovey. However, the identification of Gwy-
ddalus with Vitalis is at least as old as the sixteenth century, and
the church of Dihewyd is to-day given as dedicated to S. Vitalis.
The saint's festival, which only occurs in the Demetian Calendar (S),
" l
is entered as Gwyl Fidalis [martyr] a Bidofydd," on April 26, on
which day, it is added, was a fair. The fair was known far and wide
"
as Ffair Dalis Fawr." 2
When Lampeter became a railway centre
it gradually migrated thither, where it is still a very prosperous fair,

extending over three days.

The water supply of the village of Dihewyd comes from the Saint's
Holy Well, Ffynnon Dalis, near the village, above which formerly
stood a small chapel.

S. GWYDDELAN, Confessor
THE is not given, but his festival, August
pedigree of this saint
good number of the Welsh Calendars from the sixteenth
22, occurs in a
century downwards. He is the patron of Llanwyddelan, in Mont-
gomeryshire, and Dolwyddelan (sometimes, but wrongly, written
" 3
Dolydd Elen, Elen's
Meadows"), in Carnarvonshire. The former
4
church has been guessed by Browne Willis and others to be dedicated
to a S. Gwendolina, with festival on October 18.There is a holy well
inDolwyddelan, near Gelli'r Pentref, commonly called Ffynnon Elan,
which was originally covered with a small building. Its water is
1
F is properly a mutation of B or M, but it here evidently represents V. There
was a Fidelis, a disciple of SS. Dubricius and Teilo, who is coupled with a disciple
whose name may probably be represented to-day by Llywel (Book of Llan Dav,
pp. 115, 126-7). There is an. inscription to a certain Vitalis at Caerleon. Vita-
lius is another form of the name.
2
Dalis points to Vi-talis. For the aphaeresis cf. Llan Dogo (on the Wye),
for Llan Euddogwy ( = Oudoceus), seiet for society, taten for pytaten, etc.
s
The early spellings of Dolwyddelan invariably end in an e.g. the " Ecc'a;

"
de Doluythelan of the Norwich Taxatio, 1254 the Record of Caernarvon, pp.
;

9-1 1, 211 and the rhyme syllable in mediaeval poetry. With the name cf.
;

" "
Dolbadarn. Gwyddelan means the little Irishman cf. the Gwyddelyn
;

of Trioedd Arthur a'i Wyr. See what is said under S. LLORCAN.

4
Bangor, 1721, p. 360; Bacon, Liber Regis, 1786, p. 1,047.
 S. Gwyddfarch 219
said to possess tonic qualities and to steam slightly in frosty weather.
It was considered beneficial especially for weakly children and para-

lyzed limbs. Cloch Wyddelan, a handbell, made of sheet metal,

and supposed to have belonged to S. Gwyddelan, is now preserved
at Gwydir, Llanrwst.

S. GWYDDFARCH, Confessor

GWYDDFARCH was the son of Amalarus or Malaras, who is des-

" "
cribed as tywyssawc y Pwyl," literally, Prince of the Pwyl." l
" "
Y Pwyl is probably the Welsh modification of the French La

Apulia (Puglia), in South Italy, and does not mean Poland,

Pouille, for
Holland, or Welshpool as has been variously suggested.
Gwyddfarch was the founder of Eglwys Gwyddfarch (or Wydd-
farch) in Meifod, Montgomeryshire, which has now entirely dis-

appeared. The local legend speaks of him as an anchoret, who

had his rocky bed, Gwely Gwyddfarch, on the slope of Gallt yr Ancr,
the Anchoret's Hill, a bold eminence standing out above the village
and commanding a magnificent view, and it was his warning voice,
soon after his death, heard in the dead of night, that determined the

precise spot
whereon the church of Meifod should be built. He
breathed his last in his Gwely. So the current tradition. 2 The
G \vrly, to-day, is a trench some eight yards in length.
Eglwys Gwyddfarch stood, according to the Meifod terriers of
1631 and 1663, on the west side of the present churchyard, just out-
side the wall, and had a small churchyard attached to it. At the
date of the earlier terrier it was inhabited as a cottage, with its church-
yard converted into gardens. This church, so called, was merely
an oratory which was soon to be superseded by the more imposing
edifice erected by S. Tyssilio. Besides these two churches another,
Eglwys Fair, was consecrated on the spot in 1155. The churchyard
encloses about four acres. 3
There is a grant of 1467, by several cardinals, of a remission of
100 days to those who should repair to the chapel of S. Gwyddfarch,

Peniarth MSS. 16, 45 Hafod MS. 16 Hanesyn H&n, pp. 34 (" or Pwyl "),
1
; ;

117 (" Afalarus ") Llanstephan MS. 28 (" Maelarus ")

; Myv. Arch., p. 426;
;

^-British Saints, p.267; lolo MSS., p. 104. His name, which is totem-
istic, is occasionally written Gwythfarch. Marchwydd is a transposition of the
name-elements. Yr Hen Gyrys o lal, the early collector of Welsh proverbs, is
sometimes called Gwyddfarch Gyfarwydd. As a common noun it means a
wooden horse, and occurs in poetry as an epithet for a ship.
8
Gwaith Gwallter Me chain, 1868, iii, pp. 95100.
3
Archdeacon Thomas, Hist, of Dio. S. Asaph, i (1908), pp. 496-7.
 22o Lives of the British Saints

Abbot and Confessor, or to the cemetery at Chirk of S. Tyssilio, and

1
perform certain acts of devotion. The local tradition, however,
always speaks of him as an ancr, an anchoret or recluse.
At the end of the eighteenth century there was in the chancel window
"
of the present church a legend containing the invocation, Scte
Guydvarch."
His festival occurs in none of the Welsh Calendars but that in

LlanstephanMS. 117, of the middle of the sixteenth century, where

" "
Gwyddyfarch is entered against November 3.

According to the Life of S. Tyssilio or Suliau, preserved by Albert

le Grand, Gwyddfarch was abbot of Meifod. 2

Tyssilio, who had no love for a military life, came to Meifod to

study letters and enjoy the peace of the religious life.
Brochwel would not hear of his son becoming a monk, but at the
earnest solicitation of Tyssilio, Gwyddfarch consented to shear
his head and invest him with the habit, and then, to escape from
pursuit, fled to Ynys Suliau, where he spent seven years.
When this period was over Gwyddfarch recalled him, and informed
him that it was his desire to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Tyssilio,
thinking that trouble would ensue should the abbot quit Meifod,
entreated him to remain, but Gwyddfarch had set his mind on the
journey. However, one day when the two were together, the abbot
was weary, lay down and went to sleep, and dreamed that he had
seen a great city with churches and palaces. When he awoke he
said that he had seen as much of Rome as he wanted, and that he
would take his pupil's advice and remain at home.
Pf:
Not long after this Gwyddfarch died, and was succeeded as abbot
by Tyssilio.
This took place before the battle of Bangor Iscoed and the fall
of Chester, which was in 613 ; and we may place the death of
Gwyddfarch as occurring about the year 610.
Another Gwyddfarch is entered as a Welsh saint in one of the

pedigrees (written circa 1670) printed in the lolo MSS.

3
He is given
as a son of S. Llywelyn of Trallwng or Welshpool, and brother of S.
Gwrnerth, and said to have been a saint of Bangor Cybi, in Anglesey
Nothing is known of him.

1
Arch. Cavnb., 1880, p. 150. Ibid., 1879, p. 291, it is suggested thatGwydd-
f archmay have been the hermit whom the British bishops consulted before giving
their reply to Augustine.
2
Albert le Grand, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, ed. 1901, pp. 841-3. The Life
was taken from one extant in Le Grand's time in the Church of S. Suliac on the
Ranee, above S. Malo ;also from the Breviary lessons of the churches of Leon
and Folgoet in nine lections. 3
P. 104.
 S. GwyM/ojw 221
S. GWYDDLEW, Confessor

GWYDDLEW was, according to the lolo MSS., 1 a son of Gwynllyw

Fihvr, and a saint or monk of his brother's Cor at Llancarfan. He is

therein said to be the father of a female S. Cannen ; but, as Gwyddlyw,

in another entry, 2 the father of a male S. Canneu.
If we may equate his brother Glywys Cernyw with Gluvias on the
Fal, we may perhaps consider Gwyddlew as represented by S. Wyllow
on the Foye at Llanteglos. William of Worcester, who calls him
Vylloc or Wyllow, says that he was an Irishman, that he lived as a
hermit and was murdered by a kinsman, Mellyn. After his head
;

was cut off, he rose and carried it from the bridge of S. Willow to
Lanteglos church.
If Wyllow be Gwyddlew he was not Irish, but his mother wasGwladys,

daughter of Brychan, and he was consequently half Irish.

The Feast at Lanteglos, according to William of Worcester, is on
the Thursday before Pentecost.
A cave is shown on S. Wyllow's Hill, by Lanteglos, in which he is
traditionally said to have lived.

S. GWYDDLOYW, Bishop, Confessor

GWODLOYW, or GWYDDLOYW, was a son of Glywys Cernyw, the
Gluvias, as we conjecture, of Cornwall, and a nephew of S. Cadoc,
is the
grandfather of Gwodloyw was Gwynllyw Filwr, King of G\vyn-
"
According to the lolo MSS. he was
3
ly\\,C Bishop of Llandaff,
and before that confessor to the saints in Cor Catwg," i.e. Llancarfan.
It is tempting to
identify him with the Gudwal, a native of Britain,
who fled to Llydaw, when his native land was a prey to the sword
and pestilence (see under S. Gudwal), but the final syllables are not
favourable to the identification. It is, however, remarkable that
Gudwal should have been at Cadoc's foundation in Broweroc, and
should have been there as much
junior to Cadoc, who, if the iden-
tification could be established, would be his uncle.
A namesake Gwydlonius, but certainly not the same man, as he
lived much later, appears as the eleventh Bishop of Llandaff in
the catalogue of the Bishops of that see in the Book of Llan Ddv*
but this list is unreliable, and was conjecturally drawn up. The
name of a Bishop Guodloiu, no doubt the same person, appears in a
1 2 108.
P. 130. Ibid., p.
3 4
p. Pp. 303, 311.
222 Lives of the British Saints

single charter,and in it no name of a contemporary King is given.

But among the witnesses who signed with him are some who can be
1
fixed at a much later period than that of the son of GlywysCernyw.
The Welsh do not account Gwodloyw or Gwyddloyw as a founder.
The late and not very trustworthy reference to him in the lolo
MSS. evidently confounds the earlier with the later Gwodloyw.

S. GWYDDNO (GOUEZNOU), Abbot, Bishop, Confessor

THIS invoked in the tenth-century Celtic Litanies as Woed-
saint,
novius, is now called in Breton Goueznou,
as is also Gwethenoc, the
half-brother of S. Winwaloe.
The authorities for his Life are a MS. translation of his Acts from
the Leon Breviary in the Bibl. Nat. Paris, Franais 22321, p. 733 ;

a Life in Albert le Grand from the Lessons in the Leon Breviary

and the Legendaria of Leon and Folgoat. Also a rhythmic com-
position by William, Chaplain to the Bishop of Leon, Eudes, to whom
he dedicated it, in 1019.

Gwyddno was He lost his mother,

born in the Isle of Britain.
and when he was aged 18, his father Tugdon resolved on quitting
his native land and settling in Armorica. He accordingly started,
taking with him his son Gwyddno and his daughter Tugdonia, and
his eldest son, Majan.
They probably landedin the harbour of Brest, for there still exists
a chapel in the parish of Guipavas called S. Toudon, sometimes cor-
rupted into Saint-Hudon.
Majan settled at a place called Loc Majan in the parish of Plouguin,
but Gwyddno planted his lann near Brest, where the parish still bears
his name.
One day, Conmore, Regent of Domnonia, who had not as yet embroiled
himself with the saints, was hunting near Brest when he came upon
Gwyddno, and, taking a liking to him, told him he might appropriate
as much land as he could dyke round in a day.
Gwyddno summoned Majan to him, and the brothers started with
a fork which they dragged behind them, and as they advanced, the soil
miraculously rose on one side in a bank and formed a trench on the
other. By this means they enclosed a square area of about two
leagues.
1
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 168. On the next page his name is spelt Guidlouius.
 S. Gwyddno 223

Ile
he miracle
for
an invention and embellishment. Conmore marked
is

the limits of his minihi, and thenceforth, as Albert

Gwyddno
Grand informs us, it became a sanctuary and place of refuge to
all kinds of malefactors. Having founcT~a spring of good water,
it and form a stone
set his brother to clean it out, enclose
Gwyddno
basin into which it might flow and be retained. This Holy Well
still exists, and is much resorted to it was reconstructed at the
;

end of the sixteenth century.

Gwyddno one day begged of a woman some cheeses. She replied

that she had none, which was false.When the saint had departed,
she found her cheeses turned to stone. These pebbles for they
\\ere round like seaworn pebbles were long preserved in the church
of Lan-Gouezenou. They were actually cursing stones to be turned
by any one who desired to bring down evil on another, whilst for-
mulating his wish. But when this practice passed into oblivion,
the story was made up to account for them. There is a set of them
"
still to be seen at Lanrivoare, and many remain in different cursing
" " "
\vd Is and
cursing stations in Ireland.
As Gwyddno objected to female society, he set up a great stone
beyond which no woman was to pass.
1
as a demarcation
Houardon, Bishop of Leon, fell ill and died, and Gwyddno was
chosen to succeed him. The date of this event cannot be fixed.
^Gwyddno ruled the church of Leon for twenty-four years. At the
end of this time he went to visit S. Corbasius, where is now the town
of Quimperle and where the saint was constructing a monastery.
As the bishop was standing under the planks of the scaffold on which
the workmen were standing, one of them let fall his hammer, and it
struck Gwyddno on the head, broke in his skull and killed him. He
died on October 25.
The usual date given for the death of Gwyddno is 675, but this
is
clearly impossible, as he received his grant of land from Conmore
before 550. The biographers were embarrassed by this difficulty
and supposed a second Conmore, son of the first, but history
knows of no other. The Chronicon Briocense calls him the pestilent
Conmore. 2
"
1
Faeminarum imprimis contubernium, familiaritatemque sic abhorrebat
ut ne accessum quiclem ad sui coenobii septa iis, ullo modo, permitteret, praefixo
utique termino, quern ultra progredi nefas esset." Lect. Brev. L&on.
2 "
Conmore pestiferii, quamvis homo pessimae conditionis esset, plurimas
tamen dedisti possessiones et franchisas religiose viro sancto Goueznovo et ejus
ecclesiae in territorio Ossimorensi sitae." The Chron. Brioc. is so late that it is
not of much it may have followed the lost Life
authority, but in this instance
more faithfully than Albert le Grand, who saw the chronological difficulty.
224 Lives of the British Saints

Under these circumstances it is impossible to determine approxi-

mately even the date of Gwyddno's death. S. Goueznou's day is
October 25 in the Brev. Leon., 1516 and 1736, and the Brev. Corisop.,
1835-
The saint is very liable to be confounded with Goueznou, Gwethenoc,
son of Fracan and Gwen Teirbron, but he can be distinguished if
we bear in mind that the Goueznou found in Cotes du Nord is Gwethenoc,
and that the saint Of this same degraded form of name in Leon is

Gwyddno.
Gwyddno or Goueznou is invoked as Guidnove in the tenth-cen-
tury Litany in the Library of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury, and
in that at S. Vougai, and as Guodnou in the eleventh-century Litany
1
published by D'Arbois de Jubainville.
He is mentioned in the Life of S. Paul of Leon under the name of
" 2
Woednovius, qui alio nomine Towoedocus vocabatur," as having
been a priest under S. Paul. Under this form, corrupted to Touezec,
he is patron of a chapel near S. Brieuc. 3
In Cornwall we have his name perhaps in the parish of Perran Uthno,
otherwise Little Perran, near Marazion, called Lanuthnoe in Bishop
Bronescombe's Register at Exeter, and Udnou Parva in the Taxatio of
1291, where we also find a Lanudno, now extinct, but is represented
by the manor Lan Uthno, in the parish of S. Erth. 4
of
In the lolo MSS. 5 Gwyddno Garanhir, of the race of Maxen Wledig,'
is included among the Welsh Saints. His territory, Cantre'r Gwaelod
(the Lowland Hundred), was overrun by the sea, and now lies in
Cardigan Bay. There is no foundation whatever for regarding him
as a Welsh saint.

S. GWYDDYN, Hermit
GWYDDYN, or Gwd.dyn, is only known to legend as a hermit 6 at

Llanwddyn, in Montgomeryshire. Gwely Wddyn, his Bed or Grave,

Revue Celtique, 1890, pp. 137, 142.
Vita S. Pauli Leonensis, ed. Plaine, p. 28.
J. Loth in Revue Celtique, 189, op. 143.
Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, p. 246.
P. 138; cf. p. 145. Gwyddno seems to mean "skilled in wood"; cf.

Tudno, Machno, etc. A bye-form of the name is Gwyddneu.

6
Sometimes he is made to be a giant, who lived here. A brook, sometimes
called Nant Owddyn, is a tributary of the Vyrnwy, and flows by Gwely Wddyn.
It is generally called Ceunant Pistyll.
 SS. Gwyn, Gwyno, etc. 22 $

is mound on a hill, a little to the south of the now submerged

a smooth
village, on the other side of the Vyrnwy. His cell is a recess in the
rock not far from the Gwely. It is popularly believed that there are
great treasures hidden about his cell, but every attempt at discover-
ing them has been frustrated by tremendous storms of hail and
thunder. A German miner named Hennings met with this experience
in 1869. Llwybr Wddyn is the path, still traced over the mountain,
along which it is said that he used to go to visit S. Melangell at Pen-
nant, five miles off. Sarn Wddyn, his causeway over the Vyrnwy
near his Gwely is now beneath the lake.
To Gwyddyn was originally dedicated the church of Llanwyddyn
or Llanwddyn, afterwards to S. John Baptist, the Patron Saint of the Jl

Knights Hospitallers. The manor, with the church, came into the
possession of the Knights at an early date hence the rededication.
;

The site of the old village of Llanwddyn, with the church and church-

yard, is now covered by Lake Vyrnwy, which supplies Liverpool with

water. The church erected by the Corporation of that city to replace
it is situated about two miles from the old site, near the crest of a hill

overlooking the great embankment. It was consecrated in 1888,

when the original dedication was restored.
Llanwddin, or Llanwdden, was the name of one of the two ancient
townships of Llangystenin, in Carnarvonshire, and may possibly pre-
serve the designation of an extinct chapel dedicated to Gwyddyn.

SS. GWYN, GWYNO, GWYNORO, CELYNIN, and

CEITHO, Confessors
IN the Demetian Calendar (S), of which the earliest known copy
is Cwrtmawr MS. 44 (sixteenth century) occurs the following entry
in ,

"
The Festival of the Five Saints (Y Pumpsaint] is on the Festival of
All Saints. These five were brothers, who were born the same time,
at one birth, of one woman. Their father was named Cynyr Farf-
wyn, of the parish of Cynwyl Gaio, in Carmarthenshire and their ;

names were Gwyn, Gwyno, Gwynoro, Celynin, and Ceitho. Ceitho

" *
has a special Festival (August 5). Their Festival occurs in no other
In the copy of the calendar in Panton MS. 10 (c. 1780) the words " er yn-
1

weth " (at one time) of the Cwrtmawr copy have been read " i Erinwedd," con-
vert ing them into a name for their mother Four out of the five brothers (Gwy-
!

noro omitted) are mentioned by Lewis Glyn Cothi (fifteenth century) in a verse
of his Ode to Caio (Gwaith L. G. C., Oxf., 1837, The editor's notes,
p. 313).
however, are entirely wrong. For the Celtic legend of Five, Seven, or more
Saints born at one birth, see Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, pp. 409-12, and this
work, ii, pp. 398-405.
VOL. III.
Q
.226 Lives of the British Saints

Calendar on this day, but in the Additional MS. 14, 886 (1643-4) we
" "
have Gwyl Pymsaint against January 7, and this is the festival
*
day which Browne Willis gives for Llanpumpsaint. In the Book of
Llan Ddv 2 they are called "Pimp Seint Kair Kaiau."
Their father has been supposed to be the same as Cynyr Farfdrwch,
said to be the son of Gwron ab Cunedda, 3 but this is a mistake ;

neither can he be identified, as has also been done, with Cynyr Far fog (or
Ceinfarfog), the father of Cai, the Sir Kay the Seneschal of Arthurian
romance, and from whom Caer Gai in Merionethshire derives its name.
This latter Cynyr is associated with Penllyn, in which district Caer
Gai is situated.
To the Five Saints is dedicated the church of Llanpumpsaint in
Carmarthenshire 4
; also, formerly, a
chapel called Pumpsaint, in the
parish of Cynwyl Gaio, in the same county. To Ceitho is dedicated
Llangeitho, in Cardiganshire.
A curious legend connects the Five Saints with a large block of sand-
stone at Cynwyl Gaio called Carreg Pumpsaint. It stands upright
at the foot of the hill below the Ogofau, the old Roman gold mines,
and is shaped like a basalt column, with
large artificial oval basin-
shaped hollows on its sides. It is three and a half feet high and a
little over two feet in width. The legend says that, time out of mind,
there lived in the neighbourhood five saints who had a wide reputa-
tion for sanctity, and were objects of ill-will to a wicked magician who
dwelt in caverns near. He had in vain tried to bring them into his
power, until one day they happened to be crossing the Ogofau, and
he, by his wicked enchantments, raised a terrific storm of thunder,
lightning and hail, which beat upon and bruised the saints, and they
laid their heads against a large boulder standing near for shelter.
So great was the force of the hail that the impression of their heads
can be seen to this day upon the four sides of the stone. The enchanter
transported the saints into his caverns (the Ogofau) where they sleep.
Tradition says they will awake, and come back to the light of day,
when King Arthur returns, or when the Diocese is blessed with a truly
5
pious and apostolic prelate !

According to another version they were five young pilgrims on their

way to the shrine of S. David, who, exhausted with fatigue, reposed
on this pillow theirweary heads which a violent storm of rain and
1 2
Parochiale Anglic., 1733, p. 189. Pp. 56, 62, 287.
3
Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 212. He is not to be identified either with Gwryn
{or Cynyr, as later corrupted) Farfdrwch of Meirionydd.
*
It is called in full in the Booh of Llan Ddv, ut supra, Lann Teliau Pimp Seiut
Kair Caiau.
6
Arch. Camb., 1878, pp. 322-3.
 SS. Gwyn, Gwyno, etc.
227
lailstones affixed to the stone. A malignant sorcerer appeared and
carried them off to his cavern, where they are destined to remain
1
leep until the happy day mentioned.
The
block, supposed to have on it the impression of the five
;ads on each of its four sides, has been extracted from the mine,
id was originally horizontal. The hollows are actually mortars in
rhich the quartz was crushed for gold.
Another legend relates that once upon a time a certain woman
lamed Gweno was induced to explore the recesses of the cavern beyond
frowning rock which had always been the prescribed limit to the
of the inquisitive. She passed beyond it, and was no more
;n. She had been seized by some superhuman power, as a warning
others not to invade those mysterious penetralia; and still on

>rmy nights, when the moon is full, the spirit of Gweno is seen to
>ver over the crag like a wreath of mist.
Gweno has given name to Ffynnon Gweno (the actual position of
rfiich is now not known), which had
formerly a high reputation for
iling virtues, and.it is hardly out of memory that crutches were

ispended above it and also to Clochdy Gweno, an isolated rock

;

mding up in the midst of the great gold excavations. 2

Legend associates also the Five Saints with Llanpump saint, for-
lerlya chapelry in the parish of Abergwili, but now a separate parish.
first, it is said, intended to found their church there on Moelfryn
icy at
lynneuadd, where are still some remains, but nothing but ill-luck
ttended their labours. Ultimately they decided upon the present
)t. Their Holy Well, Ffynnon Bumpsaint, is near the church. 3
ic following, relating to this parish, is extracted from Archdeacon
fennison's Visitation of the
Archdeaconry of Carmarthen, July and
"
August, 1710 There are five wells or pools in the river which tra-
dition says were made use of
by the five saints, and that each particular
tint had his
particular well. On S. Peter's day yearly between two
id three hundred people got together, some to wash in, and some
to see these Wells.In the summer time the people in the neighbour-
hood bathe themselves in the wells to cure aches." 4 A large flat j

and other marks, formerly lying in the

tone, bearing incised crosses

mrchyard, has been removed into the church, and on it now stands
le altar. It was
popularly called Carreg y Pumpsaint.
1
Cambrian Register, iii (1818), pp. 40-1 ; The English Works of Rev. Eliezer
7
illiams, London, 1840, pp. 155-6.
Arch. Camb., ut supra. 8
Yr Haul, 1849, pp. 222-4.
4
Given in Evans (J. T.), Church Plate of Carmarthenshire, London, 1907,
80.
228 Lives of the British Saints

x
Gwyn ab Nudd isgiven in one entry in the lolo MSS. as a Welsh
saint ;
but he is a well-known figure in Welsh mythology the
King of Annwn, the Welsh Under-world.

S. GWYNAN, see S. GWYNEN

S. GWYNDAF HEN, Confessor

GWYNDAF HEN (the Aged) was one of the many sons of EmyrLlydaw.
No pedigrees but those in the lolo MSS. appear to include him among
the Welsh saints. He is there said to have been " confessor (periglor}
Garmon ab Ridicus, and to have come to this Island with the said
to S.
Garmon in the time of Gwrtheyrn Gwrtheneu." He married Gwe-
nonwy, the daughter of Meurig abTewdrig, King of Morganwg, and
sister to Anna, the wife of Amwn Ddu. He was the father of SS.
Meugant and Henwyn, the former of whom seems to have remained
with him. He was also periglor in Cor Illtyd at Llantwit and it is ;

"
added that he was afterwards made principal of Cor Dyfrig at
Caerleon on Usk, and in his old age went to Bardsey where he lies
buried." 2 No reliance can be placed on some of these statements.
Gwyndaf is the patron of Llanwnda, in Carnarvonshire, and of
another church of the name in Pembrokeshire. In the parish of
Troedyraur, Cardiganshire, was formerly a chapel known as Capel
Gwnda. It stood on the banks of the Ceri, where now is the Rectory.
In the bed of the river there is a rock with a flat surface in which
are holes, visible in summer, said to have been made by Gwyndaf's
knees whilst engaged in prayer when once journeying through the
country. From these holes was derived a medicine for wounds and

sores, which effected a cure for the people of this parish only, who used
to bathe their feet etc. in them. His piety and good deeds becoming
known, he was invited to his residenceby the great man in the neigh-
bourhood, who gave him the land on which he erected this chapel.
Gwyndaf bestowed his blessing upon him and the neigh-
in return
bourhood. Near the chapel is a small waterfall, which forms a pool
in the river, known as Cerwyn Gwynda (his brewing tub), and on
the other side of the river in the parish of Penbryn are two places
called Felin Wndaand Capel Gwnda, the latter a farm.
1
P. 123.
2
lolo MSS., pp. 108, 132-3 cf. p. 112.
; The element -daf, for old Welsh
-tarn, occurs in Cyndaf, Maeldaf, etc.
 S. Gwynel! 229
There is a legend current in Llanwnda, Pembrokeshire, that one
day whilst returning there from Fishguard, in crossing the brook that
divides the two parishes a fish leaped and frightened his horse, so
that he was thrown and fractured his leg. He thereupon cursed the
brook that never a fish should appear in it and so it came to pass.
;

There is here a Carn Gwnda.

His festival does not occur in any of the Calendars. Browne Willis,
however, gives November 6 for his church in Pembrokeshire, and
2
April 21 (S. Beuno's Day) for that in Carnarvonshire.
In Additional MS. 3i,o55, 3 in the autograph (1594-6) of Sir Thomas
" "
Williams, are a number of Sayings attributed to him, called
"
Geiriau Gwynda Hen." They are of the aphoristic, ethical char-
acter of collections well-known in late mediaeval Welsh literature,
which, by their sentiments and diction, are rarely older than the MSS.
in which they occur.

S. GWYNDEG, Confessor
GWYNDEG was one of the sons of Seithenin, King of Maes Gwyddno,
whose land was overflowed by the sea and now lies under Cardigan
" "
Bay. They all afterwards became Saints in Bangor on Dee. He
was the father of Cynyr of Caer Gawch, S. David's grandfather, and
of a S. Padrig. He is known to us through one late document only
in the lolo MSS. 4 A certain Gwndec (Gwyndeg) is mentioned among
"
the dozen seamen
"
who formed S. Cybi's teulu or " family," 5
who were nearly all saints associated with Anglesey.

S. GWYNELL
IN a list of Welsh parishes circa 1566, and others later, 6 is given a
ish in Monmouthshire as Llanwynell or Llanwnell, which is entered
1
Y Traethodydd, 1856, p. 378. The legend of Gwyndaf, more particularly
traditions current in the Troedyraur Valley, has been put into verse by
tionydd in his Briallen Glan Ceri, 1873, p. 9.
2
Parochiale Anglicanum, 1733, pp. 176. 209.
3 "
They occcur at ff. I56 b -i57 a , and are followed by "Geiriau Selyf Ddoeth
>mon).
4 5
P. 141. Their names are given in a short poem, Teulu Cybi Sant.
*
Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 919 ; Myv. Arch., p. 749.
 230 Lives of the British Saints

between Llanfihangel Torymynydd and Llangwm. Its exact situation,

itwould appear, is not now known, but it was probably at, or in
the neighbourhood of, Wolves Newton, so called from the Wolff
1
family, which lived there in the fifteenth century. The name sug-
gests a S. Gwynell as the church patron, but the ordinary hagiological
sources have no record of even his name. Lewys Dwnn, however,
'"
gives the following note Syr Vwniel L. off Wolffs Newton Knight.
He accepted the Christian Faith afio 188, and erected a church at
his own expense."
2
The editor suggests that this was Llanwnell,
being, as usual, named after its founder.

S. GWYNEN, Virgin
OF Gwynen, or Gwnen, usually regarded as a female saint, no more
is known than that she has given her name to the church of Llanwnen,

Cardiganshire. She is invoked, along with Gwenog of the neigh-

bouring parish of Llanwenog, in a copy of the Laws of Hywel Dda in
Llanstephan MS. 116, of the second half of the fifteenth century ;

and also in Dafydd Nanmor's Ode to Henry VII, in a long list of Welsh
and other saints, to whose guardianship he commits the King. 3 Lewis
4 " "
Glyn Cothi mentions Teml Wynen Ian," the Temple of Holy

Gwyneh."
Llanwnen is now generally believed to be dedicated to S. Lucia,
and Willis 5 and Meyrick, 6 give the parish feast on December 13, the
festival of S. Lucy of Syracuse. In the earliest copy (Cwrtmawr
MS. 44) of the Demetian Calendar (S) is entered against this day,
"
Gwnnen 7 and Gwnns ( = Gwynws), two sons of Brychan," by the
former of whom the Llanwnen patron is evidently meant, but here
made to be a male and not a female saint. This is the only calendar
in which the festival occurs. A fair is held at Llanwnen on December
13, which was also its date O.S., no account, contrary to the usual
custom, having been taken of the eleven days difference between
the two Styles. On December 13 is also commemorated the illus-
trious Finnian of Clonard, whose name may be equated with Gwynan,
:
G. T. Clark, Genealogies of Morgan and Glamorgan, London, 1886, p. 432.
2
Heraldic Visitations, ed. Meyrick, Llandovery, 1846, i, p. n.
*
lolo MSS., p. 314. The copy in Cardiff MS. j (sixteenth century) reads
"
Gwnan." Several persons named Guinan, lay and cleric, occur in the Book
of Llan Ddv.
4
Gwaith L. G. C., Oxf., 1837, p. 208; cf. p. 120.
5 6
Parochiale Anglic., 1733, p. 194. Cardiganshire, 1808, p. 46.
"
7
The Greal (1806) copy has Gwynan."
 S. Gwynhoedl 231
though his namesake of Moville, as we take him, was culted under the
form Ffinan in Anglesey.
Capel Gwynen or Gwynan, near Beddgelert, now extinct, stands
for (in full) Capel Nant Gwynain, being so called from the river there
of the name.

S. GWYNFYL, see S. GWENFYL

S. GWYNGENEU, Confessor
"
GWYNGENEU was the son of Paul Hen, 1 sometimes said to be of
" "
the North and at other times of Manaw," no doubt the Manaw,
a district lying on the Firth of Forth, and not the Isle of Man.
He was brother to SS. Peulan and Gwenfaen, who have dedications
at Llanbeulan and Rhoscolyn in Anglesey. To Gwyngeneu was
dedicated the now extinct Capel Gwyngeneu in the parish of Holyhead.
His festival is not known. His name occurs sometimes as Gwrgeneu
"
and Gwylgeneu. Ceneu, a whelp or cub," is a somewhat common
name-element in Welsh.

S. GWYNHOEDL, Confessor
GWYNHOEDL was one of the sons of Seithenin, King of Maes Gwyddno,
whose territory the sea submerged and now lies under Cardigan Bay. 2
He and his brothers, after this catastrophe, are said to have become
" "
Saints at Bangor Iscoed. He is the patron of Llangwnadl, Car-
narvonshire. The church is sometimes said to be dedicated to the
Holy Trinity, and at other times to S. Michael and S. Gwynhoedl.
The name " Vendesetli " occurs on an inscribed stone, of about
1
MS. 75 (sixteenth century) Myv. Arch., pp. 426, 429. His father's
Peniarth ;

name usually given, but wrongly, as Pawl Hen. At the first reference it is
is
"
Pevl Hen o Vanaw." See further under S. GWENFAEN.
Peniarth MSS. 16, 45 Hafod MS. 16 ; Cardiff MS. 5 (1527) Myv. Arch.,
2
',
;

pp. 419, 426. 428 Cambro-British Saints, pp. 267-8 ; lolo MSS., p. 141. His
;

name variously spelt Gwynnoedyl, Gwennoedyl, Gynodyl, Gwynodl, and

is
Gwnadl. He is no doubt the Geneddyl of the Seithenin list on p. 105 of lolo
MSS. Gwnodl is a township of the parish of Llangar, Merionethshire. Hoedl
was rather a common name-element among the Brythonic Celts. Gwynhoedl
had a brother named Hoedloyw.
232 Lives of the British Saints

the sixth century, found in the neighbouring parish of Llannor. It

" "
occurs also as Vennisetli on an inscribed stone at Llansaint,
Carmarthenshire. Both forms would to-day be represented by this
name, and
saint's highly probable that the Llannor stone com-
it is

memorates him. An inscription, in Gothic capitals, on the pier sup-

porting the easternmost aisle arch in Llangwnadl Church has been
thus read :

I H S S' GWYNHOYDYL IACET HIC.

"
The name means him of the blessed or happy life."

His festival does not occur in any of the Calendars, but it is given
2
by Browne Willis as January I.

S. GWYNIN, Confessor

THIS was a son of Helig ab Glanog. 3 Some of the earlier

saint
4
"genealogies have by mistake substituted his grandfather's name for
his father's, making him son of Glanog ab Helig Foel of Tyno Helig.

They ascribe to him two brothers, Bodo, or Boda, and Brothen. The
late lolo MSS. pedigrees are, as usual, more circumstantial. Accord-
5 "
ing to these, Gwynin was one of the twelve sons of Helig ab Glanog,
of Tyno Helig in the North, whose lands the sea overwhelmed, and they
became Saints in Bangor Fawr in Maelor and, afterwards, some of ;

them went to Cor Cadfan in Bardsey. They lived in the time of Rhun
ab Maelgwn," i.e. about the middle of the sixth century. Their
territory is now covered in part by the Lavan Sands, on the Carnarvon-
shire coast.

Gwynin is the patron of two churches in Carnarvonshire Llan-

6
dygwynin or Llandegwning (subject to Llaniestyn), and Dwygyfylchi
(" the two converging passes "), which is retained as the name of the
parish and of a hamlet, Penmaenmawr being that of the town. His
festival does not occur in any of the Welsh Calendars, but it is given

Cathrall, Hist, of North Wales, 1828,

1
ii, p. 122 Arch. Camb., 1848, pp. 147-;

150. has been supposed that it terminated with the date 750.
It
2
Bangor, 1721, p., 274 so also Cambrian Register, iii (1818), p. 224.
;

Cardiff MS. 25 (Hanesyn Hri), pp. 30, 35, 118

3
Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. ;

118 Myv. Arch., pp. 418-9, 426, 429. The termination is also given as -un,
;

-wn, and -yn. The name occurs in Brittany as Guenin.

E.g., Peniarth MS. 16 (his name as Gwymin)
4
Hafod MS. 16. ;

5
P. 124 cf. p. 1 06, where it is stated that he was a saint in
;
Ceredigion.
implies that he was sometimes known as Tygwynin, with the
6 This form

honorific prefix to ; cf. Tyfaelog for Maelog, etc. We should, however, have
expected the name to appear as Tywynin.
 S. Gwynio 23 3

as having been observed on December 31 in the former parish and on

1
January 31 in the latter.
2
In the Penmaenmawr Survey, written by Sir John Wynn of Gwydir
"
(died 1626), it is stated, Beda (Boda) and Gwynn (Gwynin) weare
both sainctes in Dwygyfylchi, and doe lye buried att the end of the
Churche in a litle Chappell annexed to the west end of theChurche."
This makes the church to be dedicated to the brothers conjointly.
There are no traces now of the chapel.
The Wynnin who has given name to Kilwinning, in Cunningham,
with the S. Winning's Well there, and to Caerwinning, at Dairy, was
41
born in the Scotic province," and his legend is in the Breviary of
Aberdeen. His festival is January 2i. 3

S. GWYNIO, Martyr
OF this saint very little is known of his parentage nothing.
; In
Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 117, there is the following note, in Welsh
"
Gwnio of Llanwnio was killed by the Irish (y Gwythel) whilst going
to Cil Sant (the Saint's Retreat), and Ffynnon Gwnio sprang up
"
where his head fell that is, he was decapitated there by them.
;

Llanwynio is a parish in Carmarthenshire, the church of which is

dedicated to him, and Cil Sant is about a mile and a half south of the
church. The situation of his Holy Well does not appear to be known,
but there a Ffynnon Felan between the church and Cil Sant.
is Lewis
"
Glvn Cothi 4 mentions Gwynio Wyn," Blessed Gwynio.
5 "
The Book of Llan Ddv enters
(pel Guiniau) ubi Eccluis Gunniau
"
natus est Sanctus Teliaus the possessions of the church of
among
Llandaff in the old cantref of Penfro, in Pembrokeshire. This church,

Eglwys Wnio or Wynio, is believed to be S. Twinnel's, dedicated to S.

Winnocus, 6 but Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans plausibly suggests that
"'
it

was Penally.
His festival at Llanwynio is given by Browne Willis on the same day
in two months, on March 2
different 8
and May 2 with, 9 apparently,
an error as to the month.
1

Willis, Bangor, 1721, pp. 273, 275 Carlisle, Topog. Diet., 1811
;
Cambrian ;

*
Register, iii (1818), pp.222, 224. Reprint, Llanfairfechan, 1906, pp. 18, 19.
Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, 1872, pp. 463-6.
Gwaith, Oxf., 1837, p. 412 cf. p. 295.
;
The name Guinniaw occurs in Brit-
(Revue Celtique, xxix, 1908, p. 300).
Pp. 124, 255. Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, pp. 292, 321.
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 402. 8
Parochiale Anglic., 1733, p. 188.
Browne Willis MS. 37 (1720), fo. 137, in Bodleian Library. Rice Rees,
sh Saints, p. 308, gives the two dates.
 234 Lives of the British Saints

S. GWYNLLEU, Bishop, Confessor

GWYNLLEU, or Gwynllef, was the son of S. Cyngar ab Garthog ab
Ceredig ab Cunedda Wledig.
1
He had a brother S. Cyndeyrn (not
Kentigern). Some of the pedigrees, more especially the later ones,
give his name as Gwynlliw.
His festival, November
I, occurs only in the Demetian Calendar (S)
as Gwyl Wnnlle and he is entered as Bishop, and patron of Llangwnlle,
2
in Cardiganshire, by which is meant Nantcwnlle.

S. GWYNLLYW, King, Confessor

THE authorities for the Life of Gwynllyw are :

1. The
Life of S. Cadoc, already described under S. CADOC.
2. Life of S. Gundleus in MS. Cotton. -Vespas. A. xiv. (early
The
thirteenth century), printed by Rees in Cdmbro-British Saints, pp. 145-

157, but collated with the copy in MS. Titus D. xxii (fifteenth century).
This a most unsatisfactory composition, inasmuch as the author
is

deliberately and wantonly altered facts so as to write for edification.

It is significant of the method of mediaeval hagiographers to compare
the picture of the early life of Gwynllyw, as revealed in the Life of S.
Cadoc, with that presented by the panegyrist in the other Life. There
is a condensation of it in Capgrave from John of Tynemouth, which has

been reprinted in Acta SS. Boll., Mart, iii, p. 781.

To deal with the second authority. The basis of this would seem
to have been a Welsh poem on the Conversion of the King. But most
assuredly tampered with, in the facts, by the hagiographer, and we may
suspect that the story in the Life of S. Cadoc more nearly represents
"
the theme of the poet. The writer says Britannus quidam versifi-
:

cator Britannice versificans, composuit carmina a sua gente, et Britan-

nico sermone laudabilia de conversatione Sanctissimi Gunlyu, et de
miraculis conversati que Deus pro illius amore concessit operari, nondum
eadem finita erant carmina a compositore quarta eniin pars carminum
;

defuerat in compositione, quesierat autem materiam compositurae,

1
Peniarth MSS. 16, 27, 45 Hafod MS. 16 Hanesyn Hin, p. 112
; ; Myv. ;

Arch., p. 426; Cambro-British Saints, p. 26$; lolo MSS., pp. 102, no, 125.
Gwynlleu is compounded of Gwyn, and the Lieu of the well-known Mabinogion
name, Lieu (Llew) Llawgyffes.
2
The instances in which Llan becomes Nant are few e.g. Nant Nyfer (Nevern)
;

Llanhyfer. Nant to Llan are more numerous Nant Carfan Llan Carfan
: ;

Nant Honddu Llanthony, etc.

 S. Gwynllyw 235

non fuit tamen facultas ingenii ultro invenire. Interea marina undosi-
tas vehementissima cum fortissimo rigore, contexit campestria, sum-
mersit cunctos habitatores et edificia incepit quartam partem. . .

carminum componere, timens submergi tune pro timore. Dum in-

cepisset impleta est fluctibus post haec ascendit trabes superius, et
;

secutus est iterum tumens fluctus tercio super tectum, nee cessat ille
1
fungi laudibus. Illis finitis, Britannus poeta evasit."
Gwynllyw Filwr, or the Warrior, as he
generally called in Welsh,
is

was the son of Glywys ab Tegid ab Cadell. 2 His pedigree as given in

the Life of S. Cadoc 3 differs from this. It makes him the son of

Gluiguis ab Solor ab Nor ab Ouguein ab Maximianus. His mother is

said to have been Gwawl (Gwawr in the Progenies Keredic and Jesus

College MS. 20), daughter of Ceredig ab Cunedda.

4
The latter
pedigree is the one given him also in Jesus College MS. 20, but it reads
Filur for Solor, both, in fact, taking his epithet for his father's name.

iwynllvw was regulus of Gwynllywg, i.e., Gwynllyw's Land, a district

(

lying between the Usk and Rumney Rivers. It was anciently in

Morganwg, but is now in Monmouthshire. It is generally anglicized

into Wentloog. 5

Gwynllyw had several brothers, who natalico more divided their

kingdom between them Etelic, who obtained the principality
father's
over Edelygion, in Monmouthshire Paul, who had Penychen, in
;

Glamorgan Seru, to whom fell Seruguunid, or Senghenydd, in Gla-

;

morgan Gurai, who had Gurinid or Gorwenydd, the present Deaneries

;

of Groneath Upper and Lower, in Glamorgan Mar was given possession ;

of Margam, Cettil of Kidwelly, and Cornouguill of Carnwyllion, in Car-

marthenshire. Again another named Metel had to his share Cruc-
metil. But one, Pedrog, loving the kingdom of God above the posses-
sions of earth, migrated to Cornwall and embraced the ecclesiastical

profession.
The Life of S. Petroc by John of Tynemouth does not confirm this
last makes Petroc son of Clement, a regulus in Cornwall,
statement ;
it

and chronologically it is most likely that Petroc was nephew and not
brother of Gwynllyw.
1
Cambro-Briiish Saints, p. 151. His name is latinized Gundleus. In one
MS. in the lolo MSS., p. 149, he is called Cynlais. Theophilus Jones, Breconshire,
ed. 1898, p. 485, supposed Ystradgynlais Church to be dedicated to him.
2
Peniarth MSS. 12, 16, 45, etc.
3 *
Cambro-Bntish Saints, p. 81. Ibid., p. 82.
6
The name occurs in a variety of forms, the oldest being the Guinnliguiauc
of the Annales Cambria (Cymmrodor, ix, p. 167), which appears later as Gwyn-
llyawg, to be treated as a sister form of Gwynllywg (Gunliviuc in the Book nf
Llan Ddv). Gwentllwg (whence Wentloog) and Gwaunllwg are late corrupt
forms.
236 Lives of the British Saints

The older genealogies give Gwynllyw three sons, Bugi, Catwg (Cadoc),
and Cemmeu (Cynfyw). One late document printed in the lolo
MSS. 1 gives the following children, all of whom were saints :
Catwg,
Cammarch, Hywgi (Bugi), Glywys Cernyw, Cynfyw, Gwyddlew, Cy-
flewyr, Cannen, and Maches.
Gwynllyw, having rioted as a bachelor, deemed it advisable to
settledown to the matrimonial estate. How he got married is differ-
ently described by the two writers, his panegyrist and the author of
the Life of S. Cadoc.
.

"
The former says :
When, by the common advice of the inhabitants,
he desired to get married, he sent ambassadors to Brychan, King of
Brycheiniog, for he had heard of the gentleness and beauty of his
daughter, Gwladys. She being requested as a bride and promised, was
given that he might enjoy legal nuptials."
The other version of the transaction is very different. Gwynllyw
sent messengers to the father of the virgin, who was called
many
Brychan, being inflamed with passion at her delightful report, and
desiring to marry her respectably. The father of the girl, on recep-
tion of the legation, was indignant and filled with fury, and absolutely
refused to betroth his daughter to him he treated the messengers
;

with contumely and sent them home. This they took amiss, and re-
turned and related what had been done to them, to their master.
Having heard this, the King, drunk with fury, armed as many as three
hundred serfs, so as to carry off the girl by force. They immediately
set out and reached the court of the aforesaid regulus, at Talgarth,
and found the damsel outside the gate, sitting with her sisters, and
passing the time in modest conversation. Her they immediately
carried off by force, and returned at full speed.
"
When Brychan, her father, learned this, he was touched with grief
to the heart, and mourning the loss of his most dear daughter, sum-
moned all his friends and neighbours to recover his child. All his
auxiliaries having assembled, with haste he pursues his enemy and his

accomplices. Now when Gwynllyw saw them, he ordered the girl to

be brought to him, and to ride along with him on the same horse.
Hardly deigning to fly, he preceded his soldiers slowly, with the girl
behind him, and exhorted his men to fight gallantly. But Brychan
and his men, boldly attacking the ungentle King and his followers,
slew two hundred of them, and pursued them to the hill which bounded
their respective territories, and which in the British tongue is called
Boch riw earn, which signifies the cheek of a stony road." This is now
Vochriw.
1
P. 130. See also this work, ii, p. 417.
 S. Gwynllyw 237
Now it happened that Arthur and
two knights, Cai and Bedwyr
his

jdivere), were at the time seated on the top of the

hill and were
play-
ig dice. When they saw what was going on, Arthur, who was of an
lorous complexion, proposed to knock over Gwynllyw and carry off
llie had behind him. But his comrades dissuaded him from so
ss an act and told him that he had best first
inquire who the man
as who had the damsel en croupe. When Gwynllyw gave his name,
id stated that he was on his own lands, then Arthur and his men
;ent to his assistance, and drove back the soldiers of Brychan.
"
Then Gwynllyw went with the aforesaid virgin Gwladys to his
lace, that was on that hill, which from his name was afterwards called

British, Allt Wynllyw, or the Hill of Gwynllyw."

In due course of time Gw ladys conceived, and there were
r

prospects of
jr becoming shortly a mother.
Now about this time " some of Gwynllyw's thieves (quidam ex
rundleii latronibus) went, with the purpose of committing a robbery, to
town wherein dwelt a religious Irishman, who was a hermit, and
ved God devoutly, which thieves the aforesaid Gwynllyw loved, and
tigated to robbery (eosque sepius ad latrocinia instigabat)."
This hermit had no other possessions save one cow, the finest in the
nmtry, and he and his twelve ministers lived on its milk. This cow
thieves carried off, on the very night upon which Gwladys became a
lother.
Xrxt day the hermit, whose name is variously given as. Meuthi and
ratheus or Tathan, hastened with his disciples to the caer of Gwynllyw
demand back his cow. The King saw him coming, and resolved on
tying a practical joke on him. He ordered his servants to place a
ildron of scalding water on the floor, to cover it with reeds, and
row a cloth over the whole.
As soon as the Irish hermit entered, Gwynllyw courteously waved
lim to this seat, but the shrewd old man, either suspecting mischief,
seeing some steam escape from under the covering, seated himself
gingerly on the edge as not to fall in and be scalded as the King had
posed. As told by the hagiographer, the reeds became miraculously
iff and sustained him.
1

(iwynllyw was perhaps ashamed of himself, or perhaps saw he might

;t an
advantage out of the hermit if he cultivated his friendship, so he
ive him back the cow, and engaged him to baptize the new-born son,
id this was done, and the child called Cathmail. Afterwards the boy
given to Tatham, to be educated by him.
1
Vita S fi Tathei in Cambro-British Saints, p. 260. The story is told dif-
?ntly in the Life of S. Cadoc. In it the practical joke is not mentioned.
238 Lives of the British Saints

picture drawn by the professional hagiographer of S. Gwynllyw

The
"
isvery different. He reigned over the seven districts of Glamorgan
on account of himself and his brothers all the inhabitants were
;

obedient to the laws, no one then dared to injure another. If any one
committed an injury, he suffered punishment for bribery he would
;

justly lose his patrimony. Peace being confirmed, there were no con-
tentions in his time, he was a pacific king, and a liberal governor in his
court ... his countrymen gloried in such a lord, they frequently
returned bounteously laden on the annual attendances." x
Side by side with this comes the testimony of the other biographer
"
Gwynllyw was given up to carnal allurements, and frequently in-
stigated his guards to robbery and plunder, and lived altogether con-
2
trary to what was just and right, and disgraced his life with crimes."
The conversion of the King did not take place till he was advanced
in years. His son Cathmail (Cadoc) became an important monastic
founder, and ruled as prince-abbot at Llancarfan.
The account of the conversion differs in the two Lives. According
to that of Gwynllyw, an angel came to him in a dream and read him a

long theological discourse. But the Life of S. Cadoc says that this
"
latter, seeing the wicked acts of his father sent faithful messen-
. . .

gers of his disciples to him, to wit, Finnian, Gnavan, and his loved
pupil Elli, that they might convert him from the errors of his malice
and wickedness." This they did, and Gwladys backed up their exhort-
"
ation. She said to the old King, Let us trust to our son, and he will
be a father to us in heaven."
Gwynllyw was brought to repentance and surrendered the rule over
his principality,and resolved on building a church. In true Celtic
fashion he looked out for an omen, and one day, finding a white ox on
the high ground where now stands S. Woolo's church, Newport, with
one black spot on its forehead, 3 he thought that a significant token of
where he was to settle. He received the consent of Dubricius, the
Bishop, and marked out a cemetery, and in the midst of it built a
church of boards and rods (tabulis et virgis).
A little distance from the church was an old caer or camp, and in this
"
Gwynllyw and his wife lived. They did not wash themselves in the
frosty season of winter more seldom than in the heat of summer they ;

rose from their beds in the middle of the night, and after a bath re-
turned to their coldest apartment, put on their clothes, and visited the
1
Vita S li Gundlei in Cambro-British Saints, p. 146.
2
Vita S'* Cadoci in pp. 84-5.
ibid.,
8
The ox was called Dutelich, which is explained (p. 148) as meaning " the
ox with the black forehead." Thelych occurs as the name of a monk in the
Life of S. Brynach (ibid., p. 12). See also the Book of Llan Ddv, p. 420 (index).
 S. Gwynllyw 239
church, praying and kneeling before the altars until day. Thus they
led an eremiticallife, enjoying the fruits of their labour, and taking
x
nothing which belonged to other persons."
The position of the old fort occupied by Gwynllyw can be identified.
We must premise that the church is now known as S. Woolo's, a
building of unusual length, and standing on the summit of a lofty hill,
called Stow Hill.
"
In a field within a short distance of the church there was, not
long ago," writes Mr. C. O. S. Morgan,
2
on the "a moated mound,
summit which was planted a clump of fir-trees. There are several
of
of these mounds about the country. They consist of a circular, conical
mound, having a flat table-top, usually about fifty feet in diameter,
and surrounded by a deep fosse or moat. The summits are always flat.
This mound is now in the grounds of Springfield, laid out by the late
Mr. Gething. It is, however, no longer a mound, but is buried up to
the top with the spoil brought up by the shafts during the excavation
of the tunnel of the Great Western Railway, which runs underneath.
however, is still marked for, in order to preserve it, as the fir-
Its site, ;

treeswere all cut away, I suggested to Mr. Gething to collect the large
masses of rock brought up out of the tunnel, and place them in the form
of a cairn on the summit of the mound. This mound used to be some-
' '
times called The Grave of S. Woolos ; but that was incorrect, as
..these mounds were not burial-places, but the dwellings or strongholds
of the chieftains or rulers of the district, and in subsequent times were
converted into castles by the erection of stone edifices on their summits
in lieu of the timber or wattled structures which originally crowned
them. This mound I believe to have been the dwelling of Gwynllyw,
the prince of this district, where he founded his church in close prox-

imity to it and I fully believe that that mysterious portion of S.

;

Woolo's Church, generally called S. Mary's, is the church, or rather the

site ofthe templum first erected by our saint, and enlarged and altered
at various subsequent periods (but
always spared) by adding on the
east end, like the church of S. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury,
when the great abbey was added on to the east end of it."
But this promenade of the old couple down to the Usk in a state
of nudity, and their
bathing together, as well as their promixity to
one another, did not approve itself to the mind of their son Cadoc,

" Nocte enim media surgebant de lectulis, et redibant post lavacrum later!
bus frigidissimis, inde induti visitabant ecclesias." Cambro-British Saints, p.
149. They seem to have stalked naked down hill to the Usk, and back again.
1
Arch. Cantb., 1885, pp. 261-3. S. Woolo's is from a colloquial Eglwys
Wnlhv. The mound was called in Welsh Twyn Gwynllyw.
240 Lives of the British Saints

and he insisted on a separation. 1 It was hard on the old people,

but Cadoc was a severe rigorist, and he insisted on it. So he fixed
on a point on the bank of the River Ebbw, where was a spring of the
coldest water, in which his mother might continue her daily ablutions.
The precise spot has probably been fixed by Mr. Morgan. He says
"
the banks of the river, just above Ebbw Bridge, is a cliff, on the
On
top of which is a small spot of ground, adjoining Tredegar Park walls,
of less than half an acre, on which there is a very old cottage. This
small detached spot of ground has always belonged to the church of
S. Woolo's, and was part of the glebe land and when the glebe lands
;

were sold, a few years ago, it was purchased by Lord Tredegar. A short
distance off, in the Park, there issued from the bank a remarkably
beautiful spring of very cold water, over which a bath-house was
erected in 1719, and it was always called The Lady's Well.'
' '
Mr.
Morgan conjectures that Lady's Well is a corruption of Gwladys' Well,
and that the explanation of this piece of land having belonged from
time immemorial to the church of S. Gwynllyw is, that it was the site
of the hermitage of the mother of S. Cadoc. There was once probably
"
a chapel on the rock, as the place is still called The Chapel."
Recently, moreover, Lord Tredegar has discovered the tumulus in
which, it is conjectured, she was buried, hard by the chapel and the
well.
At last, worn out with age and austerity, and feeling that the end was
near, Gwynllyw sent for Cadoc and Bishop Dubricius, and received
at their hands the last rites of the Church. He was buried by Cadoc
in his own
church, Eglwys Wynllyw, i.e. S. Woolo's.
2

There was formerly in the parish of Llanegwad, Carmarthenshire,

a Capel Gwynllyw, which is only remembered as a cowhouse. It was
situated about half a mile from a place still called Nantergwynllyw,
on the banks of the Towy, about a mile above Dryslwyn Castle.
Gwynllyw is supposed to have retired here some time or other. This
" "
Chaple of Gwnllow (orGwnllew) is mentioned in the inventory of
Church goods taken in 1552, as is also another " Chaple of Saynt
Gwnlei," in the parish of Llanelly, in the same county, at Capel
3
Isa, in the hamlet of Westfa. The ruins of this chapel also have
practically disappeared.
"
The following occurs among the ' '

Sayings of the Wise triplets :

1 "
Noluit ut tanta vicinia esset inter illos, ne carnalis concupiscentia invisi
hostis suasione a castitate inviolanda perverteret animos." Cambro-British
Saints, p. 149.
2
Ibid., p. 63. Until about 1836 S. Woolo's was the only church in Newport.
The district called Pilgwenlly (Gwynllyw's Creek) is in the parish of Holy Trinity
3 Carmarthen Charters, 1878, pp. 4
(1864). 30, 33. lolo MSS., p. 255.
 S. GWYNLLYW.
From Statue at S. Woolo's*
 S. Gwyno 24.1

Hast thou heard the saying of Gwynllyw,

The son of Glywys, in mutual upbraiding ?
" It avails not to reason with a
madman."
(Cymhwyll ag ynfyd nid gwiw.)

In the Calendar (as well as his Life) in the MS. collection of Lives of
Welsh Saints in Cotton. Vesp. A. xiv. Gundleus or Gwynllyw is entered
on March 29 ;
so also in the Calendars in the lolo MSS. , Peniarth MS.
219 (c. 1615), and Allwydd Paradwys,
1670. Nicolas Roscarrock gives
the same day so does Whytford, as Gundlewse.
; In the Calendar in
Hafod MS. 8 (late sixteenth century) it is March 28.
l
Under the
r
form of Gwenleue he is invoked in the tenth-century Exeter Litany,
published by Canon Warren, and also in the tenth-century Celtic Litany
in the Dean and Chapter Library, Salisbury. 2
S. Gwynllyw is represented, in a niche, in the tower of S. Woolo's,

Newport, as a warrior crowned.

His name has gone through strange mutations. Leland says of the
"
Church of Newport, The Chirch is S. Guntle, Olave in Englisch." 3
It possible that Poughill
is near Stratton, in Cornwall, was
originally dedicated to him, but is now regarded as having S. Olave
as its patron. A
good number of the family of Gwynllyw settled in
Cornwall. The inscribed stone at Stowford bears the name on it of
GVNGLEI, which is akin to that of Gundleus. The Brychan family to
which he was allied through his wife are in force over the north-east of
Cornwall. His son Cadoc had a chapel and Holy Well near Padstow ;

his brother or nephew, Petroc, was the apostle of the county his ;

json Glywys is probably the S. Gluvias of the Fal.

KS. GWYNO,
\. SAINT of this name is entered in the
Confessor

genealogies in the lolo MSS.,

where he is stated to have been of the lineage of the mythical Bran
Fendigaid, and to be the patron of Llanwyno, or Llanwonno, in Glamor-
6
*

ganshire. Elsewhere, in the same work, we are told that this church is
dedicated to S. Gwynog, the son of Gildas, whose name is deliberately
cut down to Gwyno to match the church-name.
1
Browne Willis, Survey of Llandaff, 1719, append., p. 8, gives his day by
mistake as March 2.
1
Revue Celtique, 1888, p. 88.
3
I tin., iv, fo. 53. See further on S. Gwynllyw being called S. Olave, Johns
(W. N.), History of the Church of S. Gwynllyw, Newport, 1891, p. 24.
4
Pp. 101, 135. * pp< II7> I37 .

VOL. III. R
 2^.2 Lives of the British Saints

There was, however, a S. Gwyno, who was one of the Five Saints of
Caio (see SS. GWYN, etc.), but probably we have another of the name
here. To him is dedicated Llanwonno, which was formerly one of
"
the five capellcB under Llantrisant the Church of the Three
Saints," of which latter Gwyno is also considered to be patron in con-
junction with SS. Illtyd and Tyfodwg. He is likewise the patron of
1
Vaynor, formerly called Maenor Wyno, in Breconshire ; but he is
not the patron of Wonastow, near Monmouth, as is sometimes sup-
2
posed. The saint's Holy Well, Ffynnon Wyno, is near Llanwonno
Church, and also a farm called Dar (or Daear) Wyno.

SS. GWYNO and GWYNORO, see SS. GWYN, etc.

S. GWYNOG, Bishop, Confessor

3
GWYNOG, son of Gildas, is probably the Guiniauc invoked in the
4
tenth-century Celtic Litany from Rheims published by Mabillon.
There is, however, liability to confusion, owing to there having been
several saints bearing the same name. A Winnoc belonged to the
family of Judicael, and died in 717, but he left Armorica at an early
5
age, and lived monastic life in Flanders, and it is there rather
all his

than in Brittany that he was culted.

Gwynog, son of Gildas and grandson of Caw, must have been born
between 487 and 507, if our chronology of the life of Gildas be correct.
We may with confidence regard the Genocus of the Latin Life of S.
Finnian of Clonard, as this Gwynog.

1 In the British Museum Harley Charter III. B. 29, dated 1481, the parish is
"
called, in error, parochia Sci. Gwynoci." In another Harley Charter, III. 6.43,
<?f 1387-8, it is mentioned as the parish of Gwinau, i.e. Gwyno. Browne Willis,
Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 181, gives S. Gwendolina as its patron, with festival
on October 18. Theo. Jones, Brecknockshire, ed. 1898, p. 473, again, imagined
it was S. Gwenfrewi.
8
Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 345. -This church is dedicated to S. Winwaloe.
3
Gwynyawc in Peniarth MS. 45 and Myv. Arch., p. 416 Gwynog in Cardiff ;

MS. 5 Myv. Arch., pp. 426, 428 and lolo MSS., pp. 102, 137 Guenan
(1527) ; ; ;

(by mistake) in Hafod MS. 16, and Cambro-British Saints, p. 268. In the lolo
MSS., pp. 117, 137, his name has been purposely cut down to Gwyno. At the
last reference but one he is said to have been a " saint " of Llantwit and Llan-
carfan. He is to be distinguished from S. Gwenog and S. Gwyno.
*
Revue Celtique, 1888, p. 88 also J. Loth in same, 1890, p, 135.
;

6
He was disciple from childhood of S. Bertin at Sithin. " Winnocum a
puero sua disciplina instructum . . .
quern ab infantia nutriebat." Ada SS.
O. S. B., iii, p. 1 10.
 S. Gwynog 243
Finnian came to .Britain in 527-9, and settled a controversy that
had arisen between Gildas and David. Then he went on to Llancarfan,
where, having been affectionately greeted by Gildas and Cadoc, he
l
returned to Ireland with his two British disciples, Buite and Genoc.
Whether he had received Gwynog as a pupil before this, or only now,
we are not informed. We can well understand Gildas committing his
young son to Finnian to be trained by him in Ireland, to be his spiritual
foster-father, before he himself departed for Rhuis, doubtless intend-

ing that his son should rejoin him, when fully educated and disciplined.
In Ireland, Genoc made a foundation at Kilglin, near Kilcoch, in
Meath, and he is commemorated in the Irish Martyrologies on December
26, under the names of Genoc and Mogenoc.
On his way home, Finnian visited S. Coeman at Dairinis, and S.
Loeman. He arrived in Ireland when Muiredach mac Aengus was
king of the Hy Cinnselach, who is supposed to have died in 525 after a
reign of nine years. We must
either suppose that this arrival in Ire-
land refers to a previous crossing thither, which is most probable, or
that Gwynog had been confided to Finnian at an earlier period ; that

is, if the identification be admitted. The reception given to Finnian

isdescribed as effusive, as given to a stranger, so that the former con-

jecture is most likely to be right. How

long Gwynog remained
with Finnian we do not know we next find him settled in Wales. His
;

most noteworthy church there was Llanwnog, near Caersws, in Mont-

gomeryshire. The position was one of importance, as Caersws was an
old Roman town at the junction of three rivers that combine to form
the Severn, in an extensive basin surrounded
by mountains. To the
dome-shaped height surmounted by a fort-
orth of Caersws stands a
ress ofearthworks, and on the slope of the mountain, commanding the
plain and the gorges down which stream the rivers, facing the sun,
:as the spot chosen by Gwynog for his church.
In or about 540,
perhaps as late as 544, appeared the Increpatio of
Gildas against the princes of Wales. If Cuneglas, against whom r\

Gildas hurled abuse, and whom

he called by offensive names, were, as is -0T>

supposed, the King of Powys, the son of Gildas could not remain in
n
his
enjoying his protection.
territory,
It is not credible that a prince, against whom Gildas had railed as
'

a bear, a rider of
many, wallowing in the old filth of his wickedness,
.
tawny butcher," would endure the presence on his lands of the son of
1 ' '

Complete peregrinationis sue anno xxx cepit iter cum Sancto Biteo et Sancto
Genoco, et cum aliis quibusdam religiosis Britonibus, qui propter vite ejus sanc-
titatem adheserunt ei. .
Accepta igitur benedictione a sanctis viris Cath-
. .

maleo et Gilda pervenit cum suis ad mare. Igitur navigantibus Finnianus et

hii qui cum eo erant
mare, cum Deo adjutorio pervenerunt ad portum quendara
in campo Itha, nomine Dubglais." Ada SS. Hibern. in Cod. Sal., col. 195.
 244 Lives of the British Saints

the man who had so publicly and grossly insulted him. The sons and
brothers of Gildas must have cursed the day when that intemperate
epistle was flung at the heads of the princes, and have forced them to
quit their pleasant settlements.
That Gwynog went now to Rhuis is a mere matter of conjecture.

That he was for a while at Cadoc's monastery on the Sea of Etel is ren-
dered probable by there being a Church, Plouhinec, dedicated to him,
near it. We venture on a suggestion. Gildas had lived on the best
possible terms with Weroc,Count of Broweroc. The country round
Vannes was occupied by immigrant Britons. He had interfered in the
domestic arrangements of the Count, had persuaded him against his
better judgment to give his daughter in marriage to Conmore, the
regent of Domnonia, and had received the grandson of Weroc, also
named Gildas, into his monastery.
Weroc died about 550, leaving five sons, Canao, Macliau, and three
others. To divide the county into five equal portions was to give
meagre mouthfuls to men with large appetites, and following Celtic
precedent, Canao murdered three of his brothers, and sought the life of
Macliau, who, however, managed to make his escape to Conmore.
About 552 Macliau crept back into the country and secretly stole into
Vannes, which was a Franco-Gallic city not in the power of the Counts
of Broweroc, had his head tonsured, and offered himself for the throne
of bishop, which was then vacant. He was elected and consecrated.
About eight years later, Canao accorded protection to Chramm, the
fugitive son of Clothair, who had revolted against his father, and had
been defeated. What follows has been already described, but may
be repeated here to make clear what we suggest.
Clothair marched into Brittany at the head of a large army, and a
battle ensued in which Canao was defeated and slain. No sooner
did Macliau know of the death of his brother, than he donned military
equipment, recalled his wife and children, whom to satisfy Franco-
Roman prejudice he had dismissed, and claimed to be Count of Bro-
weroc. The bishops of the province of Tours excommunicated him,
but he disregarded the sentence. Then he entered into a compact
with Budic II of Cornugallia, in virtue of which each was to stand by
the children of the other in the event of the death of one of them.
Budic died in 570, whereupon, with total disregard of his oaths,
Macliau drove Tewdrig, son and heir of Budic, from his domains, and
annexed them to his own. Tewdrig for some time wandered as a
fugitive, but having collected a band of adherents, suddenly came
down on Macliau, killed him and one of his sons, Jacob, and reinstated
himself as King of Cornugallia. This was in 577. At once, another
 S. Gwynog 2 4. 5

son of Macliau, named Weroc, assumed the countship, and ruled Bro-
weroc for twenty years, engaged nearly the whole time in conflict with
the Merovingian kings. The Church of Vannes must have been in a sorry
its bishop had been leading a purely secular life, and
plight, when
was under a sentence of excommunication. When Macliau was dead,
it was important that it should have over it a man of integrity, morals

and piety, as its chief pastor. Gildas died in the same year that Macliau
unfrocked himself. The Church of Vannes chose as his successor one
whom Gregory of Tours calls Eunius. Was this Gwynog the son of
Gildas ? We cannot be sure.1 Welsh tradition represents Gwynog
as a bishop he is so figured in stained glass in the Church of Llanwnog.
;

None, might well be supposed by the people of Vannes, could be better

it

calculated to redress the disorders caused by Macliau than a son of

Gildas summoned for the purpose from the neighbouring monastery of
Rhuis.
We do no more than offer the identification as possible.
After the defeat ofCanao for seventeen years (577-594) hostilities

were almost incessant.

The Franks had devastated Broweroc, and had established them-
selves in Vannes itself. Macliau had not attempted to expel them,
but it was other with Weroc II. He took the town by surprise directly
after his father's death.

Next year (578) so as to recover it, Chilperic collected a large force

and marched to the river Vilaine, but was attacked in the night, and a
rout and slaughter ensued. Weroc II, however, was not in a condi-
tion topursue his success he came to terms with the Frank King,
;

and promised to pay arrears of tribute, and surrender the city of

Vannes. Thereupon Chilperic withdrew. No sooner was he gone,
than Weroc made difficulties about fulfilling his engagement, and sent
the bishop, Eunius, to Chilperic with a catalogue of grievances and
demands. Chilperic was furious at the breach of' engagement, and
resented it on the unoffending bishop, whom he sent into exile, and
hostilities recommenced.
Weroc, on his part, was highly incensed at the treatment his envoy
is receiving, and he carried fire and sword into the country of the

anks. 2

Gregory of Tours does not speak highly of the character of Eunius.

Nimium vino deditus erat, et plerumque ita deformiter inebriatus,

t 1
gressum facere non valeret." He was taken from Angers, whither
Gregory of Tours does speak of a Winoc, Hist. Franc., v. 24, viii, 34 but
he was a mere ascetic, and, not having an ecclesiastical position, would not have
his name latinized. a
;

Greg. Turon., Hist. Franc., v, cc. 27, 41.

.
 246 Lives of the British Saints

he had been relegated, to Paris. Whilst there he was celebrating the

Divine Mysteries, one morning, when he broke out into a snort, like the
neighing of a horse, and fell down with blood streaming from his mouth
and nose. He had, in fact, broken a blood-vessel. 1
Eunius was reconducted to Angers, where he died in 580.
The only church in Wales that we know for certain to be dedi-
cated to Gwynog is Llanwnog (at the foot of Allt" Wnog), in Mont-
gomeryshire. The church of the adjoining parish of Aberhafesp is
sometimes given (by Browne Willis and others) as dedicated to him, and
sometimes to S. Llonio, of the neighbouring parish of Llandinam. At
Penstrowed, adjoining Llanwnog, Gwynog's uncle, Gwrhai, has a
dedication. The chapels of SS. Gwynog and Noethan,
near the Church
of Llangwm Dinmael, Denbighshire, have long ago been converted into
a mill and a kiln. 2 A chapel, Llanwynog, under Clodock, in Hereford-
shire, is now extinct, as is also the little chantry chapel, Capel Gwynog,
in the parish of Caerleon, mentioned in the Chantry Certificates, 1548,
and Bishop Kitchin's Return, 1563. There was formerly a Capel
Gwynog in the parish of Llanfachraith, Merionethshire.
According
to tradition, Gwynog paid a visit there to S. Machraith, and caused a

crystal spring to burst forth near the church, whose water was effica-
cious in various ailments. A small chapel was afterwards erected -over
3
it, and the well is still called
Ffynnon y Capel. The church of S..
Twinnels, Pembrokeshire, which appears, for instance, in the Taxatio<
of 1291 as Ecclesia S. Wynnoci, cannot be regarded as a dedication to
him. 4
In Wales Gwynog is generally found coupled with his brother,
Noethan or Nwython.
The Welsh Calendars do not agree upon the day for his commemora-
tion. The festival of SS. Gwynog and Noethan occurs on October 22,
in the Calendars in Peniarth MSS.27 (part i.), 186, 187, 219, Mostyn
MS. 88, Llanstephan MS.117, Jesus College MS. 6, Additional MS.
14,882, and the Welsh Prymer of 1546 ; on the 23rd, in the Calendars
in the lolo MSS. and the Prymers of 1618 and 1633 ; and on the 24th
1
Greg. Turon., Hist. Franc., v, c. 41.
2
Myv. Arch., p. 428. The mill still exists. Edward Lhuyd (Peniarth MS.
"
251, p. 96) mentions it as Melin y Capel, and also says that Fynnonwnnod ",
i.e. S. Gwynog's Well, was situated a quarter of a mile from the church.
*
Taliesin, Ruthin, 1859, p. 136.
4 In Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, p. 503, is mentioned Coedywinoke, i.e. Coed
"
Wynog, in Nevern parish. Bottwnog (" Botwynnok in the Record of Caer-
narvon, pp. 30, 257), dedicated to S. Beuno, does not appear to have been called*
after S. Gwynog. Guinoc occurs as a lay witness in the Book of Llan Ddv, p.
"
143. D61 Wnnog " (now Tylwnog) is the seventeenth-century spelling of the-
name of a tenement in the parish of Cefn, S. Asaph.
 S. GWYNOG.
From stained glass at Llanwnog.
 S. Gwynws 247
in the calendar in Peniarth MS. 172. There is very little doubt, how-
1
ever, that the correct day is the 22nd.
In a window in Llamvnog Church, Gwynog is represented, in stained
glass of the fifteenth century, as a bishop. The inscription underneath,
" "
Sancte Guinoce [ora pro nobis], is imperfect. 2

In an Ode to Henry VII, Dafydd Nanmor commits the King to the

guardianship of upwards of a hundred saints by name, among whom he
3
gives Gwynog.
A Guinochus, Bishop and Confessor, commemorated on April 13,
S.

is known to the Scotch, being honoured in Buchan, but he is assigned

to the ninth century, and sometimes to the thirteenth. 4

S. GWYNWS, Confessor

IN the Demetian Calendar (S), of which the earliest copy is of the

sixteenth century, are entered two brothers, Gwynen and Gwynws, 5
who are said to have been sons of Brychan ; but the name of either does
not occur in any one of the numerous lists of Brychan's children. They
are commemorated on December 13.
Of Gwynws but next to nothing is known. It is quite possible that
he was the Guinnius mentioned in the Vita S. Paterni 6 as one of the
"
four persons (duces) whom that Saint set over the monasteries and
"
churches that he had founded in Ceredigion.
Gwynws is esteemed the patron of Gwnws, sometimes called Llan-

wnws in Cardiganshire. On the chalice (1574) the name is spelt

"
Llanonose." Edward Lhuyd says Ffynnon Wnws was famous for
curing eyes. There is a farm called Penlan Wnws in the parish of
Xantcwnlle.

1
Browne Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 277, gives the 26th, and he is followed by
Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 258, and others.
2
Gwallter Mechain in Quarterly, i (1829), pp. 30-1, gives as
The Cambrian
the inscription, " Sanctus Gwinocus, cujus animae propitietur Deus. Amen."
" "
This is absurd. Moreover, the Sancte Guinoce still extant show that it was
an invocation of the saint. The glass was removed about 1860 from the east
window to a small one on the rood-loft stair in the north wall.
3
lolo MSS., p. 314.
4
Forbes, Kal. Scott. Saints, 1872, p. 358.
5
The name is generally spelt now Gwnws or Gwnnws.
8
Cambro-British Saints, p. 191.
 Lives of the British Saints

S. GWYRFARN
REES enters Gwyrfarn, with Festival on Trinity Sunday, in his list
l

"
of Welsh Saints who lived between 664 and 700, including those of
uncertain date." We may confidently say that a saint of this name
never lived ;
he owes his fictitious existence entirely to a misreading.
Rees evidently came upon him in the Cambrian Register (1818) copy 2
of the Demetian Calendar (S) first published in the Great (1806). The
"
entry therein runs, translated, S. Gwryfarn (or Gwyrfarn) on Trinity

Sunday, with a great festival on the Saturday evening before, when it

is customary to bathe against the tertian ague." In the copies in the
Gwyliedydd (1825) an d the Archceotogia Cambrensis (1854), it is read,
"
Gwyl y Gwyryfon," meaning the Feast of the Eleven Thousand Vir-
gins (Oct. 21). The Great copy reads, " Gwyl y gwr a vu varw,"
and the earliest copy of all, that in Cwrtmawr MS. 44, of the second half
"
of the sixteenth century, Gwyl y gwr yfarw," whatever may be the
actual allusion.

S. GWYTHELIN, Bishop, Confessor

"
IN the lolo MSS. S occurs the following entry Gwythelin (saint :

and bishop) ab Teithf alch ab Nynniaw, of the lineage of Bran Fendigaid.

It is not known where he was bishop."
In all probability the same person is meant by the Cyhylyn of the
next entry. See under S. CYHYLYN. 4
A Guethelinus (Kuelyn) is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth
as metropolitan of London. He was sent to Armorica for help against
the Saxons, and was the instructor of Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther. 5

S. GWYTHERIN, Confessor
THIS saint, of whose parentage nothing is known, isthe patron of
the church of Llanvetherin (pronounced Llanverin), in Monmouthshire,
2
1
Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 308. iii, p. 221.
3 4
P. 137. ii, p. 217.
5 2-6.
vi, cc. He has also (iii, c. 13) a Guithelinus (Kuelyn), King of the
Britons. Nennius 49) gives Guitolin as the name of Vortigern's grandfather,
(

and mentions 66) a Guitolinus as having quarrelled with Ambrosius.

(
The
name is the Welsh form of the Latin Vitalinus. One of the Welsh names of
Warwick is Caer Wythelin.
 S. Gwythian 249
dedicated to Rees l
S. James the Apostle. wrongly gives S.
[erin as its patron. A
grant of the church, under the name Ecclesia
Gueithirin, was made to the Church of Llandaff, in the time of Bishop
Nud. The document is printed in the Book of Llan Ddv, 2 and in the
fourteenth century appendices to that work the name occurs as Lr n-
3
wytheryn. The sepulchral
effigy of a priest, now in the church-
yard, but formerly in the chancel of this church, bears the
inscriptions,
" " 4
S. Vetterinus," and The personal name involved
lacob P'sona."
is the same as that the parish-name Gwytherin, in Denbighshire,
of
and is a derivative from the Latin Victorinus.
The S. Gwytherin ab Dingad, made to be brother of SS. Lleuddad,
Baglan, and others, owes his existence to a misreading, and only occurs
In quite late documents. 5 The entry out of which he has been evolved
"
runs thus in the earlier genealogies, Eleri ym pennant gwytherin yn
6 "
rywynnyawc," that is, Eleri in Pennant Gwytherin in Rhufoniog."
The name has now been cut down to Gwytherin. The saint meant is the
and there can be no doubt as to the
Elerius of the Life of S. Winefred,
church having been originally dedicated to him. To-day, it is, like
Llanvetherin, dedicated to S. James the Apostle. Edward Lhuyd
" "
mentions Lhech Gwrtheryn as the boundary between the parishes
of Ysbytty If an and Penmachno. 7

GWYTHIAN, Confessor
THE parish church of S. Gwythian, or Gwithian, on the north coast of
rnwall, is dedicated to this Saint, and S. Gothian's chapel remains

IS. the sands a ruin

izabuloe.
S.

foundation.
Gwythian is

The
probably as ancient as that of S.

a daughter church to Phillack, and therefore a later

Piran at Per-

royal manor and seat of the prince was at Connerton,

parish, and it remained a royal manor continuously. Leland
5 it Nicanor or Cenor. The creek of the Hayle estuary running
nd here was called Connordore, or Connor's Water.

Welsh Saints, pp. 236, 343. *

P. 228.
f'he Pp. 320, 327.
! In the Taxatio of 1291 the spelling is Lanwetheryn.
Arch. Camb., 1847, PP- 248-250; 1876, pp. 338-9.
lolo MSS., pp. 113, 139; Myv. Arch.,
p. 426, etc.
Peniarth MSS. 12 and 16 Hafod MS. 16, etc.
;

One of the forms of the oldest recorded Welsh name of Glastonbury, given
>by William of Malmesbury, is Ynes-witherim, which might well be -witherin.

V
 250 Lives of the British Saints

S. Gwythian can hardly have been one of the Irish party. A Gwy-
thian was Count in the East of Cornwall, when S. Samson arrived there,
and found the people in Trigg performing idolatrous rites about a
menhir.
A
boy tearing about the field on a horse was thrown and taken up
insensible. Samson took the lad in his arms and' was successful in
restoring him and the people supposed that a miracle had been
;

wrought. That the story is not a fabrication of the writer we con-

clude. Had it been so, he would assuredly have made the boy son of
the Count.
wa
The name Gwythian is variously given as Guidianus (Vita i ),
of
da
Widianus (Vita 2 ),
and Gedianus (Vita 3''*).
It is noticeable that we have Lawhitton, Lan-Gwidian, in the neigh-

bourhood, though not indeed in the same deanery. The Cornish names
of parishes on the Tamar, where brought in contact with English, have
been as much altered as have the Welsh names in that part of Pem-
"
brokeshire which is called Little England beyond Wales." Thus,
as in Pembrokeshire, Llan Aidan has been altered into Llawhaden,
and Llan Dyfai into Lamphey, so has Lan Gwidian become Lawhitton,
Lan Sant has become Lezant, and Lan Winoc has been converted into
Lewannick. Landrake has in vulgar parlance become Larrick.
In Domesday Lawhitton appears as
Languit|etone.
We cannot be
at all sure that this is a Llan founded by Gwidian or Gwithian, but it is

probable.
Then we find a Langwithian in S. Winnow parish, near S. Samson's
foundation at Golant, and this leads to the supposition that for a while
he followed this great Saint.
He seems after a while to have entered the congregation of S. Win-
waloe.
That he was no obscure Saint appears from his inclusion in the
Litany of S. Vougai, as also in that published by Mabillon. In the
former his name immediately precedes that of S. Winnow. The form
assumed by his name in the former is Guidiane, in the latter Guoidiane. 1
His name occurs in the Life of S. Gurthiern in the Cartulary of Quim-
perle.
Ifhe followed Winwaloe into Cornwall, then we can understand
how that he should found his chapel of S. Gothian not far from the
Winwaloe settlement at Towednack, and it may have been he who gave
up to his master the land where are the Winwaloe churches in East
Cornwall in a cluster, all in the Trigg district and near Tregeare, which
perhaps may be the Tricorium where he had his dwelling.
1
Revue Celtique, 1890, p. 137.
a I
, , ,/g .
$,
 _ _ CS&/*~~{ )

*$*.
Gynaid 251
S. Gwithian is called the chapel of S. Gothian in
Bishop Lacy's
Register, September 28, 1433. The S. Gwithian feast is
on November i.
The relics of S. Gwithian (Guedian), together with those of S.

Gurthiern, S. Paulennan, and some others, were "invented" in the

Mo < (' (
by Benedict, Abbot of Quimperle (1066, Bishop of Nantes,
iroix,

They were supposed to have been concealed there from fear

1
loSi).
of the Northmen in 843-878.

S. GWYTHYR
GWYTHYR occurs in one entry in the lolo MSS. 2 as a son of Maxen
Wledig, who is included among the Welsh Saints but there is no
;

authority for so regarding him. Wythyr) is the

Eglwys Wythwr (or
\\Vlsh name
Monington, in Pembrokeshire, but it is said to mean
for
"
The Church of the Eight Men," from the number of freeholders which
tradition assigns to the parish at one tune. The church is dedicated
to S. Nicholas.
The Emperor Maximus had a son named Victor, on whom he con-
ferred the title of Augustus. Maximus was defeated and beheaded at
Aquileia in 388, and Victor was put to death shortly after. Gwythur
or Gwythyr is the form which Victor would assume in Welsh.

S. GYNAID, Hermit
AT the end of Buchedd Llewddog Sant in Llanstephan MS. 34 (six-
mth century) we are told that, after two monks from the South,
"
icre came to Bardsey, Malysgedd, Gynaid, Luwsianus, and Cipri-
uis, pilgrims, who wrought miracles. The said Gynaid lived in a
ive, his sustenance being drops of water to drink, 3 and he still heals
sick. It is on this account that the island was first called the
id of the Saints."
1
Cartulaire de QuimperU, ed. L. Maitre et P. de Berthon, Paris, 1896, p. 7.
1
P. The name occurs in Brittany as Withur.
138.
3
This seems to be the meaning of the Welsh, " ai ymborth ef oedd ddeigyr o
" "
ddyfwr yw yfed." In the cywydd to the Twenty Thousand Saints by Hywel
ab Dafydd (fifteenth century) Bardsey is called " tir gwnaid " (a/, gnaid), which
iy possibly comprise the hermit's name.
 2 $2 Lives of the British Saints

S. HAWYSTL, Virgin
HAWYSTL is said to have been a daughter of Brychan, but she
occurs only in the later lists of his children. 1 The name in the Cog-
natio de Brychan that approaches it nearest in form is Tudhistil, of

which, if we are to regard her as a daughter of Brychan, it must be

a corruption. It appears in the later lists also as Tangwystl and
Tanglwst.
"
In Peniarth MS.
178 (sixteenth century) we are told that Ha-
2
wystl is a saint (female) in Caer Hawystl," but in the lolo MSS. 3
"
the statement is expanded, her church is at Llan Hawystl in Caer
"
Loyw (Gloucester). The latter has been supposed to be Aust,
under Henbury, near Bristol. Llan Awstl, in Machen, Monmouth-
has also been suggested. 4
shire,

Hawystyl or Awystyl Gloff is given in the early genealogies as the

father of Deifer of Bodfari, of Llandyrnog, etc.
Teyrnog and Ha- ;

wystyl Drahawc (the Arrogant) occurs in the Triads also as the name
of a man.

S. HEILIN, Confessor
IN the list of the children of Brychan in the sixteenth century
"
Peniarth 5
MS.
75, p. 21, is given as a son, Heilin, in Dyffryn Aled."
The Aled is a river in northern Denbighshire, a tributary of the Elwy,
which runs past the village of Llansannan ; but there does not appear
to have ever been a dedication to Heilin anywhere within its
valley.
There was, however, a chapel dedicated to a saint of this name at one
time in the township of Trefollwyn, in the parish of Llangefni, Angle-
sey. Henry Rowlands1723), the historian of Anglesey, wrote
(d.
of 6 "
it It (the township) had for-
in his Antiquitates Parochiales

merly a chapel dedicated to a certain S. Heilin, which now, through

the injury of time and the coldness of ancient piety, has fallen into
ruins." Lewis Morris 7 (d. 1765) also mentions " Cappel Heily (al.
Heilin)/' and its churchyard, as in Llangefni.
1
E.g., lolo MSS., pp. in, 140; Myv. Arch., p. 419.
2 So also Myv. Arch., p. 426. 3 P. 120.
4
Cambro-British Saints, p. 607.
5
This seems to be the only Brychan list in which the name occurs. Heilin
or Heilyn is not a rare name. At an early period there was a Heilin, son of
Gwyddno, and a Heilin, son of Llywarch Hen (Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii,
pp. 56, 266; cf. p. 155).
6
Arch. Camb., 1849, p. 265. 7
Ibid., 1896, p. 140.
 S. He/an 253
William of Worcester gives Helye as one of the children of Brychan
who migrated to Cornwall, and founded a church there. He gives
this saint as the twentieth child, and again as twenty-third Adwen

Helye. Evidently Heilin is intended. Leland, in his list, gives Adwen

as twenty-second and Helic as twenty-third, but he gives Delic as
the fifth, which is the Delyan of William of Worcester.

Delyan is probably Endelion, and Helye seems to have been sup-

posed to have founded Egloshayle, but the name signifies no more
than the church on the salt marshes.
Nicolas Roscarrock gives him as Helim. 1

S. HELAN, Priest, Confessor

ACCORDING to Leland, there was a Helena of the company of S.
Briaca. He
probably meant Helen or Helan, the brother of Germoe
or German, who was one of her companions as well. The party of
seven brothers with their three sisters, after having left some traces
in Cornwall, crossed to Armorica, and landed probably in the estuary
of the Ranee, from which they proceeded up the river, founding
churches on their way and finally reached Rheims in the time of
;

S. Remigius (see under SS. ACHEBRAN and GERMAN MACGUILL).

By the Ranee S. Helan founded Lanhelen and S. Helen, the former

in Ille-et-Vilaine, the latter in Cotes du Nord, but they are adjoining

villages.
In the east window of S. Helen the saint is represented habited
as a bishop in fifteenth century glass, giving his benediction to a
field of spring corn.

Very little is known life, beyond the

of the saint's mention by
Flodoard. But from the Rheims Breviary is given by the
his office
Bollandists in the Ada SS. for October 7, iii, pp. 903-5.
The brothers must have remained some time on the Ranee and in
its neighbourhood, as there are several churches there that bear their

names.
S. Ailbe, returning to Ireland through Gaul, encountered them, and,
as his Acts relate, settled them in a monastery there. The legend
is this.
Arriving in this region he found the river dried up, and, pity-
ing the people, he struck a rock with his staff four times, whereupon
four streams gushed forth from it which, flowing in different directions,
watered the whole province, 2 " In ilia autem regione magnum edifi-
cavit monasterium,in quo reliquit filios Guill." If the map be looked
1 2
See i, pp. 313, 318-20. Acta SS. Hibern. in Cod. Sal., col. 244.
254 Lives of the British Saints

at in vol. i, p. 106, it will be seen that four or even five rivers rise

from the same elevated ground near S. Aubin du Cormier, in Ille-et-

Vilaine these are the Diet, the Chevre, the Veuvre, and the Ille.
;

The Couesnon rises more to the east. The monastery founded by

S. Ailbe must have been situated in this district.
After having tarried some time in the district, the seven brothers
and their sisters moved on to Rheims, where they were well received

by S. Remigius, and Helan settled at Bucciolus, near Biscuil, sur-

rounded by pleasant meadows, near the Marne.
Here he lived for many years instructing the people in the Faith,
and here he is supposed to have died and been buried. He is com-
memorated on October 7 in the Martyrology of SS. Timothy and Apol-
linaris, Rheims, and in that of Molanus and he has been introduced
;

into the modern Roman Martyrology. In the Irish Martyrologies of

Tallaght, Donegal, and 0' Gorman he is entered, as a priest, on
October 8, and Chellan or Ceallan was doubtless the Irish form of his
name.
In the Martyrology published by Molanus "In pago Remensi,
:

vico, qui vocatur Busciolus, depositio Sancti Helani, presbyteri et

confessoris."
A S. Helen, Bishop of that see, is imagined, but his name occurs in
no authentic list of the bishops.
There are several chapels in West Cornwall dedicated to S. Helen,
one at S. Just in Pen with, and one in Burian. One also in Landewed-
nack, and another in Ruan Major. One also is mentioned in Bishop
Stafford's Register, at Ingleby, in Crantock parish.
S. Helen, of Scilly, is a modern corruption of S. Illid ;
and we
cannot be sure that some confusion may not have arisen respecting
the others.

S. HELEDD, Virgin.
IN Monmouthshire there is a church called Llanhilleth, dedicated
to S. Illtyd. In parish lists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
the name is spelt Llan-hyledd, -hiledd, with, in one MS., vorwyn,
"
virgin," added. 1 The Llan Helet of the Englynion y Beddau
2

1
Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 920 Myv. Arch., p. 749.
;

Coxe, Monmouthshire, 1801, p. 253, imagined the church to be dedicated to a

S. Ithel. Yr Heledd Wen and Yr Heledd Ddu are respectively the Welsh names of
Nantwich and Northwich in Cheshire. " Gyru halen i'r Heledd," to send salt
to the Wiches, is a proverbial saying. Heledd means a brine or salt pit.
* Black
Book of Carmarthen, ed. Evans, p. 64; Skene, Four Ancient Books,
ii, p. 29.
 S. He/en 255
would appear to be the same name. Heledd is rare as a personal
name, and we are probably right in assuming that Hiledd is a variant
1

form.
The Welsh saintly genealogies know nothing of a saint of
this name, but Cyndrwyn, the grandfather of SS. Aelhaiarn, Cyn-
haiarn and Llwchaiarn, had a daughter so called. Cyndrwyn lived
towards the close of the fifth century, and was prince of that part
of ancient Powys which included the Vale of the Severn about Shrews-

bury. He is said to have been of Llystinwynnan, in Caereinion,

now represented by Llysyn, in Llanerfyl, Montgomeryshire. He
was the father of the celebrated Cynddylan and seven other sons,
most of whom, if not all, were killed in the wars with the Saxons. He
had also nine daughters. Their names are recorded in the elegy by
Llywarch Hen on the death of Cynddylan, Heledd being twice men-
tioned by name. 2
" " 3
Among the Sayings of the Wise triplets occurs the following :

Hast thou heard the saying of Heledd,

The daughter of Cyndrwyn, of extensive wealth ?
" "
Prosperity cannot come
of pride
(Ni ellir llwydd o falchedd).
" " " " 4
The saying differs in the Stanzas of the Hearing :

"
"It not conferring a benefit that causes poverty
is

(Nid rhoddi da a wna dlodedd).

\Yhether Llanhilleth takes its name from her it would be difficult to

say.

HELEN ELEN, Queen, Widow

IS.
MUCH difficulty exists relative
been confounded with Helena, mother of
or

to this Saint, on account of her having

Constantine the Great.
The latfer was~eir6neously supposed to have been a daughter of Coel,
a British king, whereas, actually, she was a native of Drepanum, in
Asia Minor, and is said to have Ibeen there a stabularia, or female
tier, whom Constantius Chlorus took as his concubine or wife it is

t
easy to say which.

given as a man's
1
In one of the Triads (e.g., in Mabinogion, p. 306) Heledd is
irae apparently, despite the footnote in Myv. Arch., p. 392.
8
Skene, ut supra, ii, p. 288.
3 *
lolo MSS., p. 254. Myv. Arch., p. 128.
256 Lives of the British Saints

Helen, or as in Welsh, Elen, the British Princess, was the daughter

of Eudaf ab Caradog, 1 and is generally known in Welsh tradition as
Elen Luyddog, 2 or Elen of the Hosts. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his
Historia has two Elens, which have been confounded. One he makes
"
to be daughter of Coel, who in the Latin text is called Coel dux
" "
Kaercolvin, id est Colecestriae (v, c. 6), but in the Welsh text, Koel
jarll Kaer Loyw," or Earl of Gloucester, and the same text adds^of
"
Elen, a honno uu Elen Luydawc," 3 identifying her with the daugh-
ter of Eudaf, words, however, which have nothing equivalent to them
in the Latin. This Elen he also makes mother of Constantine and
the Welsh legend attributing the Invention of the Cross to Elen Luy-
" "
ddog is complete. But it should be mentioned that Helen Luicdauc
is given as the mother of Constantine, and credited with the Invention,

in the Old Welsh pedigrees in Harleian MS. 3859, a MS. of circa noo,
but containing pedigrees which were collected, it is believed, in the
tenth century. He gives the other Helen's father, in the Latin, as
" "
Octavius dux Wisseorum," and, in the Welsh, as Eudaf jarll Ergig
ac Euas," names which it would not be possible to equate and he ;

locates her father, not at Carnarvon, but in Herefordshire, or (so

San Marte) in Essex. By the former Elen is meant STHelena, and
" "
by the latter Elen of Carnarvon. The epithet Lluyddog has
become applied to both properly it can belong to the latter only.
;

No doubt the genuine Welsh tradition about Elen Luyddog is that

contained in the Welsh saga, The Dream of Maxen the Gwledig.* There
Eudaf and Elen are associated with Caer Aber Sain, i.e., Segontium,
the old Roman town of Carnarvon. She had been seen in a dream,
as a maiden of transcendent beauty, by the Roman Emperor Clemens
Maximus, called in Welsh Maxen Wledig, and he comes hither with
his army to make her Empress of Rome. He remained in the island
so long that the Romans made an emperor in his stead. He and Elen,
and her two brothers Cyjian and Adeon, set out for Rome and take
it by storm. Maxen, being re-instated, allowed his brothers-in-law and
wherever they chose. Adeon returned to Britain,
their hosts to settle
while Cynan reduced Brittany and settled there. Geoffrey makes
Cynan, whom he calls Cynan Meiriadog, to be Elen's cousin.
1
Peniarth MSS. 12 and 45 ; Hafod MS. 16, etc. The classical Helena is
called in ihe Welsh translation of Dares Phrygius Elen Fanog, Elen with the
Love-spot.
The epithet Lluyddog applied also to Lleuddun, Llyr, and Yrp, more
2 is
3
especially in the Triads. Bruts, ed. Rhys and Evans, pp. 107-8.
4
Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, pp. 82-92. For the mythical treatment
of the story see Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 161-7, where other Elens are also
mentioned.
 S. Helen 257
iens Maximus was raised to the purple
by the legions in Britain
3^3. He was a
Spaniard,
and had acquired great reputation under
imcUSsius, in the war against the Picts and Scots (368). He was a
uimane and good ruler, who showed favour to the native Britons.
n fortunately for himself and for Britain, Maximus did not content

linisdf with establishing himself as King in Britain, but aspired to

be Emperor of Rome. He assembled a large army of Britons, prepared
a fleet, and crossed the channel. His wife's brother Cynan threw
in his lot with him, and led to his assistance the flower of the native
youth.
On reaching Gallic soil, Maximus was joined by the troops there
placed, and he proceeded to attack the feeble Emperor Gratian, then
in Paris. Gratian fled with three hundred cavalry, with intent to
join his brother, Theodosius the Younger, in Italy. On his way, he
found the gates of every city closed against him, till he reached Lyons,
win -re he was treacherously detained by the governor, till the arrival
of Andragathius, general of the cavalry of Maximus, when he was
His death was followed by that of Melobaudes, King
-inated.
of the Franks, but these were the sole victims, and Maximus was able
to boast that his hands were unstained by Roman blood, except that
which had been shed in battle.
Theodosius now
agreed to resign to Maximus the possession of the
countries beyond the Alps ; nevertheless in his heart he was resolved
revenge.
"
Gildas pours a flood of abuse over Maximus. He says :The
inland retained the Roman name, but not the morals and law ;

ty, rather, casting forth a shoot of its own planting, it sends out
:imus to the two Gauls, accompanied by a great crowd of followers,
an emperor's ensigns in addition, which he never worthily bore
legitimately, but as one elected after the manner of a tyrant and
lid a turbulent soldiery. This man, through cunning art rather
in by valour, first attaches to his guilty rule certain neighbouring

mntries or provinces against the Roman power, by nets of perjury

id falsehood. He
then extends one wing to Spain, the other to
:aly. fixing the throne of his iniquitous empire at Treves, and raged
such madness against his lords that he drove two legitimate em-
)rs, the one from Rome, the other from a most pious life. Though
)rtified by hazardous deeds of so dangerous a character, it was not

ere he lost his accursedhead at Aquileia he who had, in a way,

:

it off the crowned heads of the empire of the whole world." x Gildas
lys nothing of Helen anywhere.
1
Gildas, ed. Hugh Williams, p. 31.
VOL. III. S
258 Lives of the British Saints

Maximus had established himself at Treves as the capital of his

portion of the Empire, and doubtless Helen was there with him.
The tradition at Treves is that the present Cathedral was the palace
of the Empress Helena, which she gave up to the Church. To this
day bears evidence of having been adapted from a domestic purpose
it

to sacred usages. The atrium, open to the sky, was only domed
over comparatively late in Mediaeval times. At Treves, however,
Helen the British Princess, wife of Maximus, has been confounded
with Helena the mother of Constantine ; and there is no historical
evidence for asserting that the more famous Helena was ever there,
and this misconception has been made to serve as a basis for the origin
"
of the Holy Coat," shown as a relic in the Cathedral.
Maximus soon became dissatisfied with the government of half
the Empire of the West, and resolved on the conquest of Italy. He
accordingly collected an army, and marched into Italy. He entered
Milan in triumph, but was defeated, and lost his life at Aquileia, in
388. His followers were dispersed and Cynan and his Britons never
" "
again saw their native land. Britain," says Gildas, is robbed of

all her armed soldiery, of her military supplies, of her rulers, cruel

though they were, and of her vigorous youth, who followed the foot-
steps of the above-mentioned tyrant, and never returned." But
he says nothing of the populating of Brittany by Maximus's soldiers.
To Welsh tradition Helen is much better known as the great road-
maker than as a saint. The latter role she has probably entirely
"
derived from her namesake. In Maxen's Dream it is said, Elen
bethought her to make high-roads from one town to another through-
out the Island of Britain. And the roads were made. And for this
cause are they called the roads of Elen Luyddog." 2 Roman roads
and old mountain tracks are still most commonly called in Wales
Sarn Elen (often Helen), Ffordd Elen, and Llwybr Elen, meaning
respectively Elen's Causeway, Road, and Path. For instance, Sarn
Elen, running through the site of Beddau Gwyr Ardudwy, near Fes-
tiniog, and another south and the old road or track,
of Dolwyddelan,

Llwybr Elen, or fuller, Llwybr Cam! Elen, between Llandderfel and

Llangynog. The site of Cagr^JElfijC near Llanfihangel yn Nhowyn,
Anglesey, is on the old Roman road to Holyhead.
The spignel or baldmoney (meum) is called in Welsh Ffenigl Elen
Luyddog (her fennel), or Amranwen Elen Luyddog (her white wort).
" "
In the Triads she is simply Mistress of the Hosts (Lluyddog).
One of the three expeditions, called "The Three Silver Hosts," that

1 2
Gildas, ed. H. Williams, p. 33. Mabinogion, p. 89.
 S. Helen 259
left and never returned, was that which went with Elen
these shores

Luyddog and her brother Cynan. 1

Local tradition says that she once led an army along Ffordd Elen
9
to Snowdon, and whilst passing through Cwm Croesor her youngest
.

son (who is not named) was killed with an arrow by the giant Cidwm.
There is a Ffynnon Elen there.
Elen was the mother by Maxen of Owain Finddu, Ednyfed, Peblig
(of Llanbeblig, Carnarvon), Cystenin
and Gwythyr, all of whom are
2
in the later genealogies entered as saints. Other sons of Maxen
were Anhun (Antonius) and Dimet.
There are but few churches in Wales dedicated to S. Helen or
LK-ii, doubtful whether they are dedicated to Elen Luyddog
and it is

or to the mother of Constantine. There is a

" "
irejcalled Eccl. de Sancta Elena in the Norwich Taxatio, 1254),
! a now extinct Llanelcn in the parish of Llanrhidian, in West Gower.
Bletherston, in Pembrokeshire, now dedicated to S. Mary, is called
^\f^ ^jL
in \\'elsh
Tref^lenj,
and there is an Elen's Well in Llawhaden parish
is a chapelry), wTucTTmakes it
which Bletherston
(of probable that the
church originally bore this dedication. Eglwys Ilan, in Glamorgan-
shire, and Tref Ilan, in Cardiganshire, are sometimes doubtfully
ibed to her. There is a Ffynnon S. Elen, near Yr Hen Waliau,
at Carnarvon, and by it were formerly to be seen the remains of a
small chapel. 3 Coed Helen, near the same town, is a modern corrup-
tion of the old name Coed Alun. A villa named " Lanelen," with
"
land held of
la Sea Elena," is mentioned in the Record of Caernarvon 4
in the commote of
Twrcelyn, Anglesey.
In Cornwall and Devon there are the following Helen dedications :

The Parish Church of Helland (Lan Helen). The Parish Church of

Paracombe (N. Devon). The Parish Church of Abbotsham (N.
Devon). A Chapel at Davidstowe, licensed by Bishop Lacy, August
30, 1443. A Chapel on Lundy Isle. The chapels in the Land's End
and Lizard districts bearing her name were probably named after

imp Helen or Helan and not after Helena.

In the Tavistock Calendar, " Sancta Elena, regina," was com-
memorated on August 25.
The Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, was not introduced
to Calendars till
comparatively modern times, on August 18. Her

K.g., Peniarth MS. 45 (Skene. Four Ancient Books, ii, p. 462).

//<> MSS.,
;

pp.
113, 138.
3
John Ray, among others, mentions it in his Itinerary of 1662, Select Remains,
omlon, 1760, p. 228.
4
London, 1838, p. 67.
260 Lives of the British Saints

name is not found in any ancient Latin Martyr ologies, nor in the Exeter
Calendar of the twelfth century, nor in that of Bishop Grandisson.
But she is inserted in Capgrave's Nova Legenda, compiled in 1450
and published in 1516, in Whytford's Martiloge, 1526, in Wilson's
Martyr ologies, 1608 and 1640, and in seven or eight Welsh Calendars
of the sixteenth century.
"
There was a Helena, virgo," commemorated in a Dol Calendar
of the fifteenth century, and the Welsh Calendars in the lolo MSS.
and Prymer of i6i8,on May 22, and in the modern Roman Martyr-
ology, as of Auxerre, on this day there were two more, one at
;

Troyes, the other at Ar$is, commemorated on May 4, but of them

also nothing is known.
" ta
William of Worcester says that S Elena, mater Constantini
imperatoris," was commemorated in the Church at Launceston, but
does not give the day. This shows that in the fifteenth century the
cult of S. Helen, wife of Maximus, had been transferred to the w idow r

of Constantius Chlorus.
The Church of S. Helen's, Bishopsgate Street, London, was a founda-
tion of the thirteenth century, and the dedication is to the mother
of Constantine. At this period, the fable of her having been a British
princess was accepted.
S. Helen was a popular saint in Cheshire, where several churches
are dedicated to her.
At Paracombe, the Revel with fair is held on August 18. At
Abbot sh am ," trie Feast is observed on the Sunday, after Midsummer
Day. At Helland, the Feast is kept on the first Sunday in October.

S. HEUCGUID, see S. ELICGUID

S. HELIE or HELYE, see S. HEILIN

S. HELIG
SOME
of the late genealogical lists * include Helig ab Glanog among
the Welsh saints ; actually he was the father of three Welsh saints,
and the account we have of him in a well-known legend scarcely
him to that distinction. Our notice of him shall therefore
entitles
be brief.
1
Myv. Arch., p. 426 ; lolo MSS., pp. 124, 147 ; also Rees, Welsh Saints.
p. 298.
 S. Helig 261

The three saints, Boda, Gwynin, and Brothen are in the older pedi-

given as sons of Glanog ab Helig Foel, of Tyno Helig. The

1
grees
transpose the names Glanog and Helig, so that the latter
2
later ones
becomes their father and not grandfather. They also ascribe to him
five, six, and even twelve sons. Helig is almost invariably mentioned
"
as is also Gwyddno of Cantre'r Gwaelod as the man whose
territory the sea over-ran."
3
Tyno Helig, or Helig's Dale, was a low-lying tract of land on the
north coast of Carnarvonshire, stretching from Puffin Island to Pen-
maenmawr. Traeth Lafan, or the Lavan Sands, of to-day forms a
part of it. Tradition fixes the spot where Llys Helig, Helig's Palace,
stood about midway between Penmaenmawr and the Great Orme's
, over against the hill, Trwyn y Wylfa (neither this name nor
" "
ii Lafan have anything to do with the weeping after the
inundation, as is popularly supposed). The neighbouring sailors
still affirm that they can trace in calm weather its ruins in the waters
below. 4

John Wynn of Gwydir, in a tract written between 1621 and 1626,

"
an account of Helig and the inundation that befell his moste
"
ite fruytfulle and pleasant vale," in which stood his chieffest

palhuv the ruynes wherof is nowe to bee scene uppon a grownd

. . .

>ome two myles within the sea directly over against Trevyn yr
\Yylva unto which hyll Helyg ap Glannog and his people did
. . .

runn upp to save themsealves, beynge endaungered with the sudden

vnge in of the sea uppon them, and there saved there lyves . . .

-rynge there handes togyther, made a greate outcry bewaylinge

* .ere misfortune and callyng unto God for mercy, the poynt of which
hill to this Trwyn (r) Wylfa, that is to say the poynt of
day is called
"
the dolefull hill or the
mowrnynge hill." He adds, Helig ap Glan-
og hadd another manor house att Pullheli, the ruyns wherof is to bee
ne neere unto the house of Owen Madryn on the right hand as you

."//, MS. 1 6 and Hafod MS. 16.

2
Hancsyn Hen, pp. 35, 118 Cardiff MS. 5, pp. 118-9;
lolo MSS., pp. 42, ;

106, etc., and the references in note i.

3 For
the use of tyno (in the Book of Llan Ddv, tnou, tonou) in Breton place-
anu-s see Loth, Chrestomathie Bretonne, Paris, 1890, p. 167. Traeth Lafan
is
pleonastic, traeth being prefixed when the meaning of llafan, shore, strand,
nad "en lost.
i

*
The " ruins " have been inspected on several occasions, e.g., in 1864 (Owen
Jones Cynini, i, p. 627), and between 1906 and 1909, but with small results.
Mr. Win. Ashton (Battle of Land and Sea, 2nd ed., 1909, pp. 183-7), wno visited
r. \\

them, under favourable conditions, in September, 1908, reports that he observed

\vnil perfectly straight lines of tumbled remains of walls, with rectangular
and calculated the entire ruin to be from 400 to 500 yards in circum-
,

nce.
 262 Lives of the British Saints
goe out of the towne towardes Abererch ; this towne was called 'Pull-
*
helig, and of late Pullheli."
The popular version of the story is of a different cast. This relates
that the calamity had been foretold as a judgment upon Helig for his
wickedness four generations before it came about. As he was riding
through his territory one evening he heard the voice of an invisible
" "
follower warning him, Vengeance is coming, is coming (Dial a !

"
ddaw Dial a ddaw ). He asked excitedly,
! ! When ? " The
"
answer came, In the time of thy grandchildren, great grandchildren,
and their children." Helig probably calmed himself with the thought
that thus it would not happen in his lifetime. But on the occasion
of a great feast held at the palace, and when the family down to the
fifth generation were present taking part in the festivities, the butler

noticed when going to the cellar to draw more drink for the revel-
lers that the water was forcing its way in. He had time only to
warn the harper of the danger, when all the others, in the midst of
their carousing, were overwhelmed by the flood. 2
Helig's father, Glannog, has given his name to Ynys Glannog (or
Lannog), the old name of Puffin Island. It occurs as Insula Glan-
nauc under the year 629 in the Annales Cambria. Giraldus Cam-
brensis 3 thought the name Enis Lannach (or Lenach) meant "the
ecclesiastical island, because many bodies of saints are deposited
there, and no woman is suffered to enter it."

S. HENWG, Confessor
THIS saint's name does not occur so much as once in any of the

saintly pedigrees, and all that is known of him is to be found in some

1
AnAncient Survey of Pen Maen Mawr, Llanfairfechan, 1906, pp. 8-n.
The is printed also in Cambrian Quart.
tract Mag., iii (1831), pp. 39-48, and
Arch. Camb., 1861, pp. 140-55. For some interesting details relating to Helig
see Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, pp. 454-5. Sir J. Wynn calls Tyno Helig by
the name of Cantre'r Gwaelod, which was borne by the land now under Cardigan
Bay.
2
YTraethodydd, 1859, pp. 159-160 Y
Brython, 1863, pp. 393-4. For an
;

amplified version see Cymru Fu, Wrexham, pp. 244-7. Lady Marshall founded
"
upon it her poem, Helig's Warning, A Cymric Legend of the Seventh Century,"
London, 1854. For a Welsh libretto on the legend see Odlau Can, by Robert
Bryan, 1901, pp. 153-93.
3
I tin. Camb., ii, c. 7. He evidently took the second part of the name as a.

derivative of llan.
 S. Henwyn 263
notices of Taliessin in the lolo MSS. 1 "The Chief of the Bards"
is therein said to have been the son of S. Henwg (or Einwg Hen)

of Caerleon on Usk, the son of Fflwch Lawdrwm ab Cynin ab Cynfar

(or Cynfarch) ab Clydog

Sant of Euas on to Bran ab Llyr. One
of the notices mentions him as Henwg Fardd (the Bard) of S. Catwg's
"
Cor at Llancarfan, whilst another assures us that Taliessin, Chief
of the Bards, founded the church of Llanhenwg at Caerleon on Usk
in memory of his father, named S. Henwg, who went to Rome to

Cystennin Fendigaid to bring SS. Garmon and Bleiddan to Britain

to ameliorate the Faith and renew Baptism." There is, of course,
no truth whafever in, at any rate, the latter extravagant statement.

Llanhenwg, or Llanhynwg, now written Llanhenog or Llanhennock,

is situated a short distance to the N.E. of Caerleon, and its present
2
dedication is S. John Baptist. The tower was huge and lofty, but
3
is now no more ; only a few stones remain. Tennyson refers to it in
i id

Now thrice that morning Guinevere had climb'd

The Giant Tower, from whose high crest, they say,
Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset,
And white sails flying on the yellow sea.

early memorial stone, now at Cefn Amwlch, Carnarvonshire, but

An
formerly at Gors, near Aberdaron, bears the following inscription :

SENACVS PFfSB HIC IACIT CVM MVLTITVDNEM FRATRVM

(Here lies the priest Senacus with many of the brethren). Senacus
was a Goidelic name which appears in Irish as Senach, Seanach, and
in Welsh as Henog. 4 It can hardly be that the patron saint of Llan-
henwg is intended.

S. HENWYN, Confessor

[N the pedigrees of Welsh saints in the thirteenth century Peniarth

MSS. 16 and 45, Henwyn is said to have been the son of Gwyndaf
Hen of Llydaw, and periglawr or confessor to Cadfan (his cousin)

Lady Llanover in her Good Cookery, London,

1
Pp. 71-3, 79 cf. p. 144.;

" the three

1867, p. i, names him as one of primitive Saints of Gwent," the other
two being Gover and Gwarwg. Henog is the name of a brook which falls into
the Irfon at Llanwrtyd. For -wg and -og see ii, p. 40.
2 B. Willis, Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 206.
3
Papers relating to the History of Monmouthshire, 1886, pp. 57-8.
Sir J. Rhys, Y Cymmrodor, xviii (1905). PP- 92-3-
 264 Lives of the British Saints

and the saints that were contemporaries with them in Enlli. 1 In the
later genealogies his name occurs under a variety of forms, Hewnin,
Hefnin, Hefin, Honwyn, Howyn, Hewyn, and Hywyn. The last
is the form most frequently met with to-day.
S. Gwyndaf's wife, and the mother of S. Meugant and it may be
supposed also of Henwyn was Gwenonwy, daughter of Meurig ab
Tewdrig, King of Morganwg. Henwyn's father and brother lie buried
in Enlli. In the late lolo MSS. 2 it is stated that he was a saint or
monk of Cor Illtyd at Llantwit, and that he afterwards became a
bishop in Enlli.
In Buchedd Llawddog we are told that that saint, who had aban-
doned his title to succeed his father Dingad as King, used to retire
daily to some secret place for private meditation and prayer. His
brother Baglan, to gratify his curiosity, one day requested Henwyn
to take with him his hand-bell and follow Llawddog to his retreat,
that he might know where he went. In the Cywydd to Llawddog by
" "
Lewis Glyn Cothi, Henwyn with his holy bell is again mentioned,
and it would appear from it that this incident took place at Llanfaglan,
in Carnarvonshire, and that Henwyn was instrumental in inducing
Llawddog to migrate to Bardsey, where he afterwards became abbot
in succession to Cadfan.

Henwyn is the patron of Aberdaron, at the extreme end of the Lleyn

promontory, whence pilgrims generally crossed over to Bardsey.
Aberdaron Old Church has been replaced by another about half a mile
off. The saints, or pilgrims, used to meet at a large stone here, called
Allor Hywyn, for prayer. The " Altar "
no longer exists, having been
blasted many Ffynnon Saint is close to where it stood.
years ago.
His festival day is not entered in any of the Calendars, but the
wakes at Aberdaron are said to have been on January i or 6. 3
In an obscure poem in the thirteenth century Book of Taliessin,
containing allusions to a number of celebrated horses of Welsh legend,
occurs the following :

The good Henwyn brought tidings from Hiraddug. 4

There was formerly in Bristol, in the very centre of the city, a church

1
Also Hanesyn Hen, p. 114. In the copy of the Bonedd in Hafod MS, 16
(circa 1400) his name is spelt Hennen. It is Henwyn in lolo MSS., p. 103.
As " Hywyn, in Aberdaron " he is entered among the
children of Ithel Hael
in Hanesyn Hen, p. 115. There is a Bod Hywyn in the parish of Llanegryn,
and over against it, in the adjoining parish of Llangelynin, a Bod Gadfan.
2 lolo
MSS,, p. 132.
3
Willis, Survey of Bangor, 1721, p. 274; Cambrian Register, iii (iSiS),
p. Cathrall, JV. Wales, 1828, ii, p. 118.
224;
4
Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, p. 176. Geoffrey of Monmouth (Bruts, p. 69)
mentions Henwyn (Henuinus), Earl of Cornwall.
 S. Herbauld 265
>f S. Ewen, now covered by the Council House. At Gloucester and
at Hereford were also churches of S. Ewen, destroyed at the Great
Rebellion, as they stood outside the walls.
An extinct church of S. Owen or Ewen was in Chepstow, now con-
verted into two dwelling-houses. Just within the mouth of the Wye,
on the left or the English shore, at the southern extremity of Offa's
Dyke, is an ancient landing-place, called in the Ordnance Survey
"
Hewan's Rock," but in an inquiry by a Court of Survey in 1641
"
called Ewen's Rock."
It has been suggested that these are dedications to S. Hywyn ;
*

but it is very doubtful.

S. HERBAULD, or HERBOT, Hermit, Confessor

" "
AMONG
the saints of Brittany," says Canon Thomas, none has
a more extended cult than S. Herbot or Herbauld, and yet, although
the peasants offer him their butter, and recommend to him their
cows, they know nothing of his life." 2
His Life was preserved in his church at Berrien, in Cornouaille, till
between 1340 and 1350, but perished during the wars of Blois and
Montfort, when the English pillaged the church. However, a Life
existed there in MS. before the French Revolution, based on oral
tradition,and the Bollandists obtained a copy of it and published it
in the sixth volume of the Ada Sanctorum for June. It is not an
cient account, and was written in the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
Therein he is said to have been a native of Britain, who crossed
e sea into Armorica. The period is not stated, but it was, we may
pose, at the time of the great migration in the fifth or sixth century.
He is said to have settled at Berrien on the southern slope of the
Monts d'Arree, but the women were angry with him
ain of the
because he drew men away from the work of the fields to hear his
sermons, and they stole his linen which he hung on the hedge after a
sh. One day they pelted him with stones. He was so angry that
cursed Berrien that it should thenceforth produce little else but
Eones. According to a proverb, there are four things the Almighty
cannot do, level Brazpartz, clear Plouye of fern, rid Berrien of stones,
d make the girls of Poullaouen steady.
1
Thos. Kerslake, S. Ewen, Bristol, 1875, pp. 2-5.
2
Vies dcs Saints de Bretagne, by Albert le Grand, ed. 1901, p. 663.
266 Lives of the British Saints

Leaving Berrien he came to Nank and asked a farmer there to lend

him a pair of oxen for ploughing. The man replied, he had none to
spare. So Herbot cursed Nank that thenceforth it should produce
only good-for-nothing cattle.
Coming Rusquec he met with a better reception. A farmer
to
there bade him take from his herd what oxen he chose. Herbot
selected two that were white. He harnessed these with the bark
of a willow to a bough of a tree, from which he had not stripped the
leaves, and thus ploughed his land. Afterwards the two white oxen
would not leave him but always, even after his death, were to be
;

found at nightfall couched by the porch of his chapel. Any men

needing their services had only to borrow them of S. Herbot at night
and return them before daybreak. On one occasion, however, a
grasping farmer did not restore them, but locked them into his shed.
Thenceforth they have been no longer at the service of men, though
it is said that sometimes they are still visible at night couched
by
the porch of S. Herbot.
When S. Herbot had built his oratory he asked for slates to roof it.
"
"Yes," said the man, ifyou will chip the slates for me." S. Herbot
took off his cap, placed the slates on it and trimmed them thus,
giving the slates a perfect shape and doing his cap no harm.
S. Herbot is reckoned one of the richest saints in Brittany. To
him are offered cows' tails ; some ten or a dozen of these may be
seen suspended on the left-hand side of his altar. The sale of the
hair of the tails offered amounts in the year to a good sum, as many
as i, 800 Ib. of hair being given, and this sells at from 80 c. to I fr. 25 c.

per Ib.

Pilgrims arrive in the month of May. Mondays and Fridays are

the days preferred. The cattle are driven round the church, then
led to the Holy Well, where they are allowed to drink, and whence
also bottles of water are taken for use at home in the event of the
cattle falling ill.

The chapel of S. Herbot is near Huelgoet, but in the parish of

Loqeffret. It is beautifully situated among beech trees in a valley,
comes brawling down in a pretty
at the foot of bleak hills, and a stream
cascade near by. The chapel of the saint is actually a large church.
A few houses about it are converted, during the Pardon, into as many
hostelries, and the ample stables and sheds receive the cattle that
have come to offer their tails to the saint.
The church possesses a fine square tower without spire or pinnacles.
The date is 1516. The west front is fine. Throughout, the carving
of the granite is admirable, the foliage is treated with great boldness.
 S. Hia 267
the south is a deep porch also well sculptured, with the aposcles
it hin, and twenty-four little statues in the arcade of the entrance.

The date of the porch is 1498. The apse is

flamboyant like the rest
>f the church, but the buttresses are later additions in 1618 and 1619.
'he interior is adorned with a beautiful renaissance screen and re-
led stalls, but no roodloft. On the west face the twelve apostles,
>n that inside the minor prophets and the sibyls. In the chancel is
ic tomb of the Saint. a work of the fifteenth century. There
It is

re some old stained-glass windows. That on the south at the east

id represents S. Yves between a rich man and a poor suitor. The
ite is 1556. The central window contains the story of the Passion,
that on the north, S. Laurence on the gridiron. The date 1556, which
is also probably that of the central window. Outside the screen
are two altars piled up with the cows' tails offered to the Saint.

Formerly they were hung about the sanctuary. There is a little

o>siuiry on the west side of the porch.

In the Breton Litanies of the ninth and tenth centuries, is the name
Hoiarnbiu, but it has no relation to Herbot. 1
The Bollandists give June 17 as the day of S. Herbot, but solely
because that is the day of Huarve or Huerve.
He seems
to have had a chapel at Marazion in Cornwall, under the
name Ervetus (B. Stafford's Register, licensed 1397).
of
In Brittany he has many chapels, mainly in Finistere. He is
specially invoked against maladies to oxen and cows.
He is represented on his tomb in monastic garb, with long hair and
jard, the right hand resting on a staff, a book suspended from his
rdle. Also with staff, holding an open book, and with bare feet, in
ic south porch. Another statue over the western entrance. An-
:her as an old man bareheaded and barefooted, with an ox at his
a statue of the sixteenth century at Guipavas. A good statue
)f the fifteenth century at Scaer.

S. HIA, Virgin
THIS was one of the Irish settlers in Penwith, Cornwall. Accord-
"
ig to Leland she was a nobleman's daughter and a disciple of S.
Barricius," i.e. Finbar. He adds that she came with S. Elwyn, and
"
that one _Dinan, a great lord in Cornewaul made a church at Pen-
at the request of la, as it is written in S. le's legend."
1
Loth, Les noms des saints brctons, Paris, 1910, p. 61.
 268 Lives of the British Saints

Unhappily the legends of both S. Hia and S. Elwyn are lost.

Dinan is certainly not the name of the lord, but a word which occurs
"
especially irTplace-names, meaning a little fortress."
William of Worcester gives us the additional information that she
was the sister of S. Euny and of S. Ere.
Now
Ere, the foster father of S. Ita and S. Brendan, died in 514.
According to the glossator on Oengus he was the father of Eoghain
or Euny, but was probably only his spiritual father, as there is an-
other account of Euny's parentage. 1 Eoghain of Ardstraw died
about 570. S. Barr or Finbar is difficult to fix. If, as is stated in
his Life,he was acquainted with S. Senan, who died in 544, then we
may put his death as taking place about 550. Now, it is interesting
to find that he did have religious women under his direction, and
that one of the foundations in Ireland by a disciple of his was Cill la,
afterwards occupied by Bishop Lidheadhan or Livan. In one of the
Lives of S. Barr, a number of women are mentioned as having been
under his direction, but they are nearly all spoken of not by name,
but as daughters of so-and-so. One named is Her, and with her
Brigid. It is probable that this Her is a mistake of the copyist for

Hei, and that she was the foundress of Cill-Ia, and identical with the
S. Hia who came to Cornwall. According to the story given by Anselm,
Hia resolved to be of the party of Fingar and Piala, but they left
Ireland without her. Thereupon she went after them floating upon
a leaf, and arrived in Cornwall before them. The myth of the leaf
is due to a confusion between her and Hia or Bega, the foundress of

S. Bees. This latter is said to have been wafted over on a sod of grass.
What is true in the story is that Hia was one of the earlier settlers
in West Cornwall, before the arrival of the swarm under Fingar.
When this second body of Irish arrived, we are told by Anselm,
"
the author of the legend of Fingar, that they found quoddam habita-
culum non longe a litore ... in quo Virgo quaedam sancta manebat
inclusa ; et nolens S. Guingnerus earn inquietare, salutata virgine,
ad locum transiere pransuri."
aliurn

Fingar and his party landed in Hayle mouth, and went to Hia's
"
settlement hard by she is the
; virgo sancta." But she was ill-
pleased at this arrival of fresh colonists and declined to have anything
to do with them. This is the probable meaning of the story as given
by Anselm.
According to William of Worcester she died and was laid at what is
now called S. Ives. This is likely enough, for she has left no cult in

1
F6lire of Oengus, ed. Whitley Stokes, pp. cxxxii, clxvii.
 S. Hoedloyw 269
reland, nor have several of Barr's disciples, which leads to the surmise
that many migrated.
The name Hia is, of course, identical with that of Hieu, who received
the habit from S. Aidan, and was placed at Hartlepool, but she belongs
to a later date.
Hia had a church, not only at Pendinas, but also at Camborne.
Herfeast, according to William of Worcester, was on February 3.
It is still so kept at S. Ives, but at Camborne on October 22.
S. Hia's Well, called Venton Eia (Ffynnon la), is on the cliff under

tlu- village of Ayr, overlooking Porthmeor. It was formerly held in

"
reverence, but has, of late, degenerated into a wishing well." The
spring is under the walls of the new cemetery, and it is doubtful
whether the water be now uncontaminated.
There is a representation of S. Hia on the churchyard cross, and
she, with S. Levan and S. Senan, are in a window of the church erected
in 1886.
In 1409 some parishioners of Lelant complained that they were
so distant from their Parish Church, that they found great difficulty
in attending service and they prayed that the chapels of S. Trewen-
;

noc, Confessor, and S. Ya, the Virgin, which they had rebuilt at their
own cost might be dedicated, and provided with fonts and cemeteries.
Bulls from Popes Alexander V and John XXIII were procured, and
tin- chapels were consecrated on October
9, 1411.
S. Hia should be represented, clothed in white wool, as an Irish

Abbess, with a white veil, and holding a leaf. 1

S. HOEDLOYW, Confessor
HOEDLOYW was one of the sons of Seithenin, King of Maes Gwy-
ddno, whose territory was inundated by the sea, and now lies beneath
Cardigan Bay. After the catastrophe Seithenin 's sons all became
1
The passage relative to her voyage on the leaf runs as follows in Anselm's
account of S. Fingar: " Paullulum jam altius navigando a terra discesserant,
cum ecce virgo quaedam, nomine Hya, nobili sanguine procreata, pervenit ad
littus, felici sanctorum cupiens adunari collegio cernensque procul a litore
:

j;im remotes, nimio anxiabatur dolore ;

et fixis in terra genibus, manus et oculos
ad sublimia erigens, mente consilium e ccelo flagitabat devota. Et modicum
inferius relaxans obtutum,
contemplatur super aquas folium parvum et protensa ;

quam manu gestabat, tangens illud, volebat probare an mergeretur.

Et ecce sub oculis ejus coepit crescere et dilatari, ita ut dubitare non posset a
Deo illud obsequium missum. Et fide fortis folium audaciter conscendens,
mirabiliter Dei virtute prelata, alterum socios praevenit ad littus." Vita S.
l : im;ari in Ada
SS., Mart, iii, p. 456.
270 Lives of the British Saints

saints or monks of Bangor on Dee. But all that is known of Hoedloyw

is contained in one entry in the lolo MSS. 1 Among his brothers was
Gwynhoedl.

S. HOERGNOUE, Confessor
Is invoked in the Celtic Litany of the tenth century in the Library
of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury. 2
S. Vougai he is called Huarneue.
In that of 3
But De la Villemarque
thought he read Huarve. The writing is faint, and the document
4
greatly injured by damp.
In the list come Hoeiardone, who was bishop of Leon, Hoergnoue,
and Hoiarnuine, Loth equates with Isserninus. He is of
whom M. J.

opinion that this Hoergnoue is the patron of Lan-Houarneau, and that

he is distinct from Hoeiarnbiu 5 or Hoarve,the popular blind saint.
This, however, is inadmissible. Hoarve was certainly the founder of
Lanhouarneau and no trace of a tradition exists as to another saint
;

of a similar name who can have been confounded with him, as supposed

by M. Loth.

S. HOERNBIU, or HUERVE, Exorcist, Confessor

THIS Saint is invoked in the Litany of the eleventh century pub-
by M. D'Arbois de Jubainville, and also, if De la Villemarque's
6
lished

reading be allowed, in that of S. Vougai as well, as Huarve.

7
The
name has gone through many forms, Hoearnveo, Hwrveo, Houarve,
Herve and Harve. 8
He is one of the most popular saints in Cornouaille and Leon.
1
P. 141. With the name compare Hoitliw and Hoydelew in the Record of
Caernarvon, pp. 4, 22, 59, no, and Hoedlyw in the Bruts, ed. Rhys and Evans,
p. 302.
Revue Celtique, ix, p. 88.
A. le Grand, Vies des SS. Bretagne, newed., 1901, p. 227.
Bulletin de la Soc. Arch, de Finistere, 1890, p. 20 seq.
Revue Celtique, xi, p. 144.
Revue Celtique, iii, p. 449.
Le Grand, Vies des SS. Bretagne, new ed. 1901, p. 226.
De la Borderie, Saint Herve, gives the various forms assumed by the Saint's
name, pp. 254-5.
 S. Hoernbiu 271
The Life of the Saint was transcribed in the seventeenth century by
the Breton Benedictines, for their collection now called that of the
Blancs-Manteaux, which is in the Bibliotheque Nat. of Paris.

They made their copy from three sources :

1. The Lectionary of Treguier.

2. The Breviary of Leon.

3. A MS. in the abbey of S. Vincent du Mans.

.Moreover, the Pere du Paz, who made the transcript, collated the
I.ivi^ with other MSS. to which he had access, and has noted the varia-

tions.
This has been published by De la Borderie, Saint Herve, Rennes,
1892, with critical examination and notes.
Secondly, we have the Life in Albert le Grand's collection, based on
tlu-Legendaria of Nantes and Leon and of Folgoet also on the ;

Breviaries of Leon, Quimper and Nantes also on a Life in ;

MS. broken up into lections with hymns and anthems, formerly

preserved at le Faouet.
The Life of S. Herve has also been dealt with by Dom Plaine in
de V Quest, Rennes, 1893, published separately. Dom Plaine is
of no weight as a critic.
The Life of the Saint in De la Villemarque's La Legende Celtique,
Paris, 1859, pp. 318-329, is utterly worthless. It is based on forged
l>all;ids, of which a great number appeared under the auspices of De
la Villemarque.

The ancient Life, according to De la Borderie, is of the thirteenth

century, but his grounds for basing this opinion are slender. In
the Life he is said to have been buried in a shrine made strong with

plates of iron and lead. De la Borderie says that wooden coffins

only came into use in the twelfth century. But that oaks were
scooped out and employed as coffins from a very early period is certain.
Stone sarcophagi were indeed employed for all great men, temporal
or sacred. But in Brittany there may have been some difficulty in
digging one out of granite no other stone was available and the earlier
use of an oak block sawn in half or dug out may have continued.
However, the character of the Life, its prolixity, the introduction
of dialogue, its affectations, show that it is late. Nevertheless it

certainly contains some early traditions quite inconsistent with the

ideas Mediaeval cloisters.
prevalent in The redactor took great
with his story and doctored it up to suit his idea of what
liberties

ought to have taken place. We shall attempt an analysis and

point out the alterations made the redactor.
by
Although Huerve never was in Britain, yet he was the son of a
272 Lives of the British Saints

British bard, and his Life is a valuable contribution towards Celtic

hagiography.
De la Borderie arbitrarily distinguishes between what he conceives
to be ancient and what modern elements in the text. We shall not
follow his division but it may be pointed out that portions of the
;

Life seem to belong to an earlier text, as the style is ruder and the
structure is obscure.
Hoarvian was a Briton and a bard, who crossed the seas 1 and
where he delighted the cour-
visited the Court of Childebert at Paris,

by singing his own ballads, to melodies of his own composition.

2
tiers
At length the desire came on him to revisit Britain, but he desired
first of all to see his countrymen settled in Armorica. Childebert
loaded Hoarvian with presents, gave him a letter to Conmore, who
was his viceroy in Armorica, ordering him to prepare for the bard a
"
boat to carry him over to his native isle. Short is the passage
between our Domnonia and further Britain," 3 says the author. The
King further gave instructions that Hoarvian should be lodged on his
4
journey in the Royal villes on the way.
Here we have the early and genuine record but when the mon- ;

astic biographer tells us that as a bard in kings' courts, he was a

"
great giver of alms, assiduous in prayer and vigils and ab omni .

mixtione muliebri semper sejunctus," he is putting his own colours

on the picture.
He arrived at the castle of Conmore, who was then in Leon, and
rode about with him, and doubtless amused him with his harp and
songs at night.
One day as they were out together, they lighted on a spring and
saw there a singing girl (quaedam psalmista puella), whose good looks,
and possibly her voice, charmed Hoarvian he asked her name, and
;

learned that it was Rivanon, that she lived with her brother Rigur,
and that her parents were dead. The chief of their plou was Maltot.
Hoarvian urged Conmore to obtain the girl for him to be his wife ;

the brother and the chief gave their consent, the girl herself does
not seem to have been consulted, and the same night they were mar-
ried. There was no losing time between love-making and wedlock
in those days, apparently.

1
This not stated at the outset, but later on.
is
2 "
magnae industries plurimarumque linguarum peritus, sed cantor
Hie,
ngmentarius novos enim fingebat cantus rythmicis compositionibus, quibus
:

imponebat neumatum modos antea inauditos." Saint Herv6, p. 256.

3 "
Brevis est transitus maris inter nostram Domnoniam et ulteriorem Britan-
niam." Ibid.
"
1
Qui dum abiret per regias sedes," etc. Ibid.
 S. Hoernbiu 273
The spot where Hoarvian had met Rivanon was Landouzan-, a
trcf of Drenec near Plabennec in Leon.
morning Rivanon cursed the child that would be conceived
.\\-xt
1
in her womb, that it should never see the light. Hoarvian was
greatly shocked at this outburst but the curse had been uttered and
;

could not be recalled. When the child was born, he was named
Hoernbiu or Hoarve, and he was born blind. Rivanon hated her
child; Tibwever, she reared it to the age of seven.
All this portion of the story seemed so inhuman and horrible that
the compilers of the Lectionary of Tre"guier cut it clean away.
The redactor touched it up, and gave it an
aspect not quite so
.:e. He says that Hoarvian had no idea of marrying, indeed had
vowed celibacy ;
but an angel appeared to him in a dream and foretold
that he would find a girl by a spring, named Rivanon, and that it was
marry her, and beget a son who would
the Divine will that he should
be a great saint. 2
This smacks of the monastery.
The truth was that Hoarvian fell in love with the girl and married
her, against her wishes, and this occasioned the explosion of rage and
resentment which .caused her to curse her unborn child. The im-
precation was omitted by Albert le Grand and by De la Villemarque"
from their versions of the story. It scandalized them as it did the
compilers of the Treguier Breviary. Both assert what is not said
in the Life, that the damsel had also been visited
by an angel before-
hand, ordering her to marry the bard.
But even De la Borderie reads into the story what he is hardly
"
justified in doing. La passion ardente et absolue de la virginite*
nous raporte aux premiers ages duchristianisme." Rivanon, we have
no reason to suppose, resented being married, only she objected to
being married without her consent to a, perhaps, aged bard. He
"
goes on upon his assumption, la vengeance impitoyable du voeu
"
viole we have no hint given us that she had made a vow of chastity
"
exerce pas la mere meme sur son fils, pauvre enfant innocent encore
Ji
naitre, est un trait de ferocite qui sent 1'antique barbaric. Et
cela est si vrai que, saufe cette de S. Herve,
premiere version de la Vie
ne trouve ce trait nulle part. Tous les legendaires de datte pos-
"
Si in me genuisti filium,
cunctipotentem deprecor Deum ut non videat
lumen humanum. At ille O mulier, quam ingens commissum suas soboli
:

matrem tarn destestabile detrementum "

imprecari Saint Herv&, p. 258.!
"
Vult Deus ut filium habeatis electum Sibi non est execrabilis con-
. . .

cubitus, ex quo editus fuerit nlius saluti

plurimorum in aeternum profuturus.
quam bonum semen et quam preciosum, quod nunquam desinet Domino
facere fructum." Ibid., p. 257.
VOL. III. T
 274 Lives of the British Saints

terieures out recule devant 1'odieuse de ce fait une mere, par res-
;

sentiment, infligeant au fils qu'elle porte dans ses flancs une infirmite

cruelle ;
la cecite de saint Herve ayant pour cause la volont6 et la
"
vengeance de sa mere et cependant cette mere tenue pour sainte !

The author of the Life gives no motive for the curse. De la Borderie
supposes one a previous vow of virginity.
Happily we can compare the procedure of a modern redactor with
the old monastic recomposer of the Acts of S. Huerve. This modern
redactor is De la Villemarque, and he is the worse offender of the
two. He makes Hoarvian a disciple of S. Cadoc, and quotes the
lessons given by S. Cadoc to a pupil, Ystudfach, recorded in the Myvyrian
Archaiology,
1
as actually delivered to Hoarvian. He does more.
He forges a song sung by Rivanon at the fountain as that heard by
"
the bard when he became enamoured of her. Although I be, alas,
but a simple iris at the water's edge, I am called the Little Queen,"

and so on and he gives a dialogue held with " the Frank

;

"
count he did not recognize Conmore as contained in a popular
Breton poem. He describes from another ballad, manufactured by
himself, the banquet at the wedding. He makes Huerve born three
years after the marriage, and Hoarvian to die two years later, and
then introduces another fictitious ballad, as the address of Rivanon to
her son, and gives the pretended original among the Pieces Justifica-
tives.
If a man who set up to be a scholar, and was held to be honourable,
could thus try to impose on his generation, in the nineteenth century,
there is some excuse for the hagiographers in the thirteenth playing
the same tricks.
This barbaric incident certainly belonged to the earliest Life of the
Saint which was re-edited in the thirteenth century, or later. There
are other indications of antiquity. The commendation of the bard

by Childebert to be lodged in the royal villes on the way, and the men-
tion of the spring being beside the via regalis this was the old Roman
;

road that led from Vorganium (Carhaix) to Aber Vrac'h, and which
in the Middle Ages had certainly fallen into disuse. So also is the
description of the negotiation of the marriage with the chief of the
plou or tribe to which Rivanon belonged.
Huerve was born at Lann Rigur, now Lann'oul in the parish of
Plouzevede, but he was brought up by his mother at Caeran, now
Queran, in Treflaouenau, near Plouzevede. How this came about
is not
very easy to discover, as this district is far from the place where
Rivanon was married. The idea may have arisen from the fact that
1
P. 780.
 S. Hoernbiu 275
" "
a scooped out cradle was preserved as a relic at Caeran, probably
the original tomb of the saint. 1
All his early life seems to have
been passed further west. Rigur, brother of Rivanon, is supposed
to be the same as Rivor, founder of Lanrivoare, where he is repre-
sented as a priest.
We hear no more of Hoarvian. His relations with Rivanon were
strained, and he probably abandoned her, and returned to Britain.
From a very early age Huerve" wandered about as a beggar, with
another boy as his guide, whose name is variously given as Guurihuran
Wiuharan, and in late times Guiharan.
As they passed through a village, the peasants who were at their
2
dinner, charitably gave the blind boy some cakes, and Huerv6,
seated on a stone, sent his guide to collect alms. Whilst thus seated,
a fit of sneezing came on, and one of his milk teeth fell out, and he
put it on the stone. The inhabitants of the village saw it blaze like
a lamp and increase in splendour till it became a globe of fire radia-
3
ting light in all directions. So as not to frighten the people, Gui-
haran picked up the tooth and carried it off.
The luminous tooth is a mythologic feature imported into the story.
The Harpies had a shining tooth between them, and Odin's horse
one golden tooth inscribed with runes. In the Legend of S.
r.itrirk tooth plays a part.
liis "One day as he was washing his
hands in a lord, a tooth fell out of his head into the ford. Patrick
the hill to the north of the ford, and sends to seek the tooth,
ii

and straightway the tooth shone in the ford like a sun." 4

Another day the two boys were traversing a village, when a group
of little shepherd children "
yelled after Huerve, Where are you off
"
to, little blind boy ? No gross insult, but enough to enrage Huerve*,
who turned and cursed them that they should ever be stunted in their
growth, in fact be dwarfs. 5 Some little time after, passing by
the same spot, Huerve" struck his foot
against a stone and hurt it,
whereupon he cursed all the stones of the place that neither iron nor
steel should be able to cut them. 8
The vindictive character of the Saint dominates his whole
history,
and is very Celtic in appearance but it must be remembered that
;

in the Apocryphal
Gospel of the Infancy, the same vindictive char-
acter is attributed to our Lord.
1 "
Ubi ante fores ecclesiae ejus adhuc exprimitur lectulus." Saint Herue,
p. 258.
"
Occurerunt sibi incolae afferentes ex sua farina caritatis amore cibaria.
JW&. p. 3
Hid., p. 259.
Tripartite Life, ed. Stokes, i, p. 197. Saint Herve. p. 260.
Ibid., p. 260.
 276 Lives of the British Saints

One day when Huerve was a full grown man, a British Hern or chief
of a plou, named Mallo, was robbed by a couple of his serfs, who
fled to the coast to take boat, and escape beyond the seas. Mallo
went them, and passed where Huerve was in too great haste
after
to salute him. Huerve cursed him, a storm came on and drove the
tiern back, and he was constrained to offer an apology.
1
We shall
meet with another instance further on.
The story of the cursing of the children and of the stones looks
likea late local legend imported into the Life, and of no more value
than that of the men of Stroud having been cursed by S. Thomas a
Becket to ever after grow tails, because they had docked his horse.
At the age of seven, Huerve went to a saintly monk named Har-
thian or Arthian, whom Albert le Grand calls Martianus, and re-
mained with him he was fourteen, learning grammar and the eccle-
till

siastical chant. Then he departed to a kinsman (consobrinus) S.

Urphoed, in the land of Ach.
He asked Urphoed where his mother was, she having retired from
the world to lead an eremitical life. Urphoed replied that he did not
know, but if Huerve would occupy his cell, and the guide, Guiharan,
would attend to his farm and harrow the ground with the ass, he
would depart in quest of her. The MS. of S. Vincent du Mans adds,
that Urphoed told him she had taken with her a little maid, named
Christina. 2
. After some search, Urphoed found Rivanon, and she consented to
see her son.
Meanwhile, a wolf had carried off the ass and eaten it. Huerve
prayed, and the beast came to him and submitted to the yoke and
did all the farm work hitherto performed by the ass. Much the same
story is told of S. Malo and of S. Thegonnec.
Urphoed now returned and informed Huerve of where his mother
was to be found, and added that she was in failing health. The
youth then departed and saw her, and she begged him to revisit her when
she was at the point of death, and that he might be within reach, she
bade him request Urphoed to abandon his cell to him. Huerve
did so, and Urphoed obligingly departed into the forest of Duna,
that once covered Bourgblanc, near Plabennec, and much country
round.
"
Huerve now occupied the old cell cum suis familiaribus et manci-

piis," so that he seems already to have been gathering a party about

him. 3
When Rivanon was dying, Huerve was with her, and administered
1 2 3
Saint Herv&, pp. 266-7. Ibid., p. 261, note. Ibid., p. 262.
 S. Hoernbiu 277
to her the last Communion. He was only a layman at the time, and
1
it must have been entrusted to him by a priest to convey to her.
After having buried his mother, he remained for three years in the
cell Urphoed had surrendered to him, and he
had many scholars
who came to him.
Then he considered it his duty to inquire after Urphoed, and he

\\vnt in quest of him, but found him dead, buried in his cell, which
had fallen into ruins.
He S. Hoardun, Bishop of Lon, who ordained him
next visited
exorcist, and wandered about taking with him Christina, his mother's
niece and companion. His scholars accompanied him wherever
2
he went, so, we are assured, did the wolf.
At he resolved on making a permanent settlement, and decided
last
on planting himself by the stream Lyssem, the present La Heche, that
separates the parishes of Lanhouarneau and Ploune venter. He
arrived here when the crops were green, and demanded of the owner
of a field, named Innoc, to surrender part of it to him. The man
demurred ;
however he consented at last, and Huerve cut down the
green corn where he purposed constructing
his monastery. At har-
the remainder of the crop yielded a double quantity. The place
has since been called Lanhouarneau.
In or about the year 550 a great conjuration was formed against
Conmore, regent of Domnonia. At the bottom of it was S. Samson,
hut certainly also Gildas was influential in the matter, for he hated
Conmore with a deadly hate. Probably also Budoc II was in it,
worked up by S. Teilo, acting as a messenger from Samson.
The object aimed at by the conspirators was the destruction of
Conmore, and the elevation of Judual or Juthael, son of Jonas, to
the throne of Domnonia and L6on.
In order to strike terror into the mind of Conmore, and to impress
on the minds of the people a conviction that he was predestined to
defeat and death, a convocation was summoned to meet on the Menez
fire", a rounded hill only some 700 feet high, but the most conspicuous

in the district, as standing by itself. The author of his Life de-

scribes the gathering as "an assembly of bishops and people for the
excommunication of Conomerus, prefect of the king." 3
It was probably a gathering of saints to curse him, after the manner
" sanctum viaticum
1
Hoarveus matrem adhuc viventem adiit, cui praebuit."
5<itn* HerveS., p. 263.
"
Inde perrexit (Hoarveus) cum discipulis et praevio atque Cristina nomine,
genetricis nepta et ancilla." Ibid. p. 264, note.
8 " Conventus ut excommunicarent
praesulum ac populorum, praefectum
regis Conomerum." Ibid., p. 269.

*&^
 278 British Saints

usual among Celtic bards, who ascended a hill, and standing back to
back looking every way, and stabbing in the air with thorns, uttered
a curse which must inevitably bring destruction on him against whom
it was launched.
Huerve, who was only an exorcist, was summoned to it, and almost
certainly Gildas, who was but a priest.
Huerve, impeded by his infirmity, arrived late, and the assembly
waited for him twenty-four hours. When he appeared, ill-formed
and covered with rags, one in the gathering exclaimed, " What, have
we been kept all day for this little blind fellow ? " The remark was
not courteous, but Huerve took it in great dudgeon and cursed the

man. 1 Thereupon he fell down, his face covered with blood and
blinded. At the interposition of the bishops present, Huerve restored
sight to the man, by washing his face in water from a spring he miracu-
lously called into existence on the hill.
If we translate this out of the language of a monastic hagiographer,
it comes to this Huerve was late, one of those present found fault
with him. This the blind man resented and knocked the man down,
by a blow in the face that drenched him in blood. However, when
the fellow had washed the blood away, he was all right.
A chapel was erected on the hill to commemorate the miracle, and
it still stands there, and the spring is still shown.

A curious story follows.

Huerve returned from Menez Bre with Bishop Hoardon, and the
bishop expressed his wish that he could look into heaven and see
its glories. Then Huerve prayed and lo heaven was opened, and !

he saw the celestial orders there. Then said Huerve, " I will tell you
2
all their names."
Then Huerve chanted the hymn of Miriam Cantemus Domino ,

that occurs in the Irish Liber Hymnorum, as one employed in the

monastic offices. It was appropriate to the destruction of Conmore,
the new Pharaoh. But Huerve added thereto, giving in order the
names of all those in heaven beheld by the bishop. 3 The writer
"
adds the remark, Recitabat carmen :Cantemus Domino. Quod,
quamvis sit vulgariter editum a praedecessoribus sanctis, est vener-
abiliter autenticum." By which he probably means that the hymn
"
1
Cur me detrahis ? Detrimentum luminis quod patior patiaris." Saint
HervS, p. 269
2 "
Aspice sursum, Ccelestium enim spirituum. personas et nomina vobis
revelabo." Ibid., p. 271.
3 "
Apertum est igitur super eos ccelum, et viderunt omnes chores coelestium
civium, discernentes quosque ordines angelorum atque singulos ordines patriarch-
arum, prophetarum, apostolorum, martyrum, confessorum atque virginum,
audientes suaves melodias eorum." Ibid., p. 271,
 S. Hoernbiu 279
Miriam, with the addition in the vernacular, was of old, but that
nevertheless it was or the Cantemus Domino was an accepted eccle-
siastical canticle. But it is not specifically stated that Huerv< did make
an addition to the hymn. Nothing of the kind exists in Breton at this
and the saints by Michel de
day except one on the celestial hierarchy
Nobletz (1577-1654), which some have supposed to be a recast of the
earlier ballad-hymn. But before we can accept this we must first
be satisfied that Huerv did more than chant the Cantemus Domino
of the Celtic Church in the vernacular.

One day a fox carried off one of his hens. He addressed himself to

prayer, and Reynard

returned and delivered up the hen unhurt, to
"
the admiration of S. Hoardon and of_Guiharan, his inseparable

companion." At their desire the prayer he had made was written

dmvn, and served for centuries after as a sort of charm against the
1
incursions of foxes into poultry yards.
He visited the monastery of S. Majan, at Loc Maljan in Plouguin,

near Ploudalmezeau, and Majan presented to him monks and

all his

diM-iples. Amongst was one whose name Huerve asked. The

these
"
man replied :
My name is Huccan, and I am an Irishman, and a
blacksmith and carpenter. I am also a mason. Also a skilful sailor;
in a word, I can do anything with my hands."
" "
Very well," said Huerve", make the sign of the cross on the ground
and worship it."
Huccan hesitated. Thereupon the blind saint ordered him to
reveal who and what he really was. And Huccan was compelled
to admit that he was an unclean spirit.
Then Huerv ordered the man to be bound and led to S. Goueznou,
the brother of Majan. This was done, and the three abbots decided
to throw Huccan over the rocks into the sea. From that time the
rock has been haunted, as the author informs us. The incident has
been softened down by the late biographer. What really occurred
was the execution of a troublesome Irishman, who was a scandal
to the monastery of S. Majan. To disguise this the biographer repre-
sents him as a devil.
As Huerve was now growing old, he announced to S. Hoardon that
lu would
shortly die. When Christina " nonna et consobrinus ejus "
heard that, she made petition of him that she might be allowed to
die at the same tune. On the sixth day of his last sickness, he was

"
Quam ipsi, nee mora, scriptam posteris reliquerunt. Quoniam saepe
is, nostrisenim temporibus, per hanc fures produntur; vel furta negari
iu-(jueunt, aut reperiuntur. Conludium sancti Hoarvei ipsa nuncupata." Saint
pp. 2-1-2.
 28 o Lives of the British Saints

visited by Hoardon, and after receiving his benediction, expired.

At the same time Christina sank beside the bed and died.
At the death of S. Huerve were present the bishop Hoardon and
the three abbots, Conogan, Majan and Mornrod. Conogan or
Guenogan became afterwards Bishop of Quimper. Mornrod cannot
be traced. Huerve died on June 17.
We know the period at which Huerve lived, but not the date of
his death. Conogan was not yet bishop. He is known to us by a
grant made by him to S. Winwaloe, and a pact between them. Win-
waloe died in 532. The revolt against Conmore was in 550, and he fell
in 555- Unhappily we have no data for fixing the period of Hoardon.
S. Huerve was buried at Lanhouarneau. In 878 his body was
taken to the Castle of Brest to save it from the devastations of the
Northmen. It remained there till 1002, when
Geoffrey, Duke of Brit-
tany, made a present of it to his confessor, Herve, Bishop of Nantes,
who placed it in his cathedral. These relics were lost at the Revolu-
tion. At Rennes, however, it is supposed that the skull is preserved.
He is patron of Faouet-Lanvollon, of Lanhouarneau, of Malestroit,
of Ploare, of Saint-Herve, etc., and has chapels in a great many places.
Thestatues and representations of S. Huerve are numerous. There
is one, a statue of the seventeenth century, at Guimiliau, where he
is represented with his wolf. Another at Lampaul-Guimiliau, accom-
panied by his little companion, Guiharan, and the wolf at his
feet with the harness of the ass upon him. One at Kerlaz near
Douarnenez, very rude but realistic. He is shown with his eyes open,
Guiharan at his side with a whip, leading the wolf.
At Loc Melar near Landivisiau is a side altar with a painting above
\A it of the
eighteenth century, very faded in the centre is the saint
;

conducted by his boy guide. On each side are compartments repre-

senting scenes in his life. i. The Saint, on Menez Bre,
eliciting a
spring. 2. Huerve with S. Paul of L&JiTin place" of S. Hoardon,

with heaven open above. 3. The saint led by Guiharan, and a

ladder up which his mother's soul is mounting to heaven. 4. The
wolf drawing a cart, under the conduct of Guiharan.
To S. Huerve are attributed certain sayings.
1. Guell eo diski mabik bihan Better teach a child
Eged dastum madou d'eghan. Than store wealth for him.

2. An den iaouank en diegi! The idle youth

A zastum poan var benn kozni. Collects trouble for age.

3. An neb a zizent ouz ar stur Who will not obey the helm
Ouz ar garrek a zento sur. 1 Will fall on a sandbank

1
A. le Grand, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, new ed., 1901, p. 245.
 S. HUERV WITH HIS WOLF AND GUIHARAN.
Church -
*V| a
fortncrlv in the of Kerlaz, near Douarnenez.
gQ

L >") C

C
 S. Hoiernin 281

In the MS. Treguier Missal of the fifteenth century, the Leon Breviary
of 1736, that of Quimper, 1835, that of Leon, 1736, that of Redon,

1627, and in the Treguier Breviary of S. Yves of the thirteenth century,

he commemorated on June 17.
is

S. Huerve is invoked for sore eyes.

At Marazion in Cornwall was a chapel of S. Ervet (B. Stafford's

Register, licensed 1397). It is uncertain whether by Ervet is meant

Huervetus or S. Herbotius.
A story Huerv6 that he silenced the croaking of frogs
is told of S.
in a marshthe same is told of S. Bruno. On this De la Ville-
;
much
"
marqu remarks, Or, par une espece de prodige de la tradition,
un chant populaire, intitule les Vepres des grenouilles, est venu jusqu'a
nous, et il est 1'ceuvre des bardes pai'ens d'Armorique, represented
dans les recits populaires pieux sous la figure grotesque de ces bestioles
e
croassantes : il offre un resume des doctrines
druidiques du iv siecle,
et il a paru si necessaire de le detruire aux premiers missionnaires
l
chretiens, qu'ils en ont fait une contre-partie latine et chretienne."
"
Now this Vesper of the Frogs none other
is than the Sing a Song
"
of One, O
sung throughout Europe, and sung also by Jewish chil-
!

dren. 2
M. de la Villemarque published this song in his Barzas-Breiz in 1839.
He himself composed and introduced a line into it, to signify that
thiswas a lesson given by a Druid to his pupils. M. Luzel has col-
lected thesame song in Brittany, in many places, and has shown that
no such a line exists in anv version he has found. 3

S. HOIERNIN, Confessor
IN the Celtic Litany in the Dean and Chapter Library at Salisbury
this saint is invoked. 4
"
M. J. Loth says: S. Isarninos, Iserninos, as eisarno-, isarno-, has
riven hoiarn, houarn, iron Iserninos has given Hoiernin (more regu-
;

lar than Hoeiarnin), Houernin, in the Cartulary of Redon 860-

866, Huernin in 833, to-day Pluherlin, Morbihan also Saint Hernin ;

in and Les-Hernin, 1411, Treff-leshernin, 1436, a tref

Cornouailles,
of Seglien, Morbihan (Rosenzweig Diet, top.} transformed by the ;

Romanomania of our clergy into Saint Germain, but it was pronounced

5
Lesernin."
1
La Legende
Celtique, 1864, P- 2 77-
2
On
the distribution of this song see Baring-Gould's Songs of the West, London,
Methuen, 1892, pp. xxxv-vi.
3 Luzel
(F. M.), Sonniou Breiz-Izel, Paris, Bouillon, 1890.
* 6
Revue Celtique, ix, p. 88. Ibid., xi. p. 144.
 282 Lives of the British Saints

Albert le Grand gives a meagre account of this Saint, based on a

MS. preserved at Loc-harn. 1
According to him, this Saint whose name has gone through so much
.

change, was a native of Britain, who crossed over and settled in the
parish of Desault near Carhaix. The chief at Quelen promised that
he should have as much land as he could enclose in a single day. He
took his staff, trailed it behind him and paced along. And the staff
not only drew a furrow but made a deep trench and threw up a bank,
and Hoiernin enclosed a considerable area by this means. Much
the same story is told of other saints, as Goueznou and Brioc. Here
Hoiernin lived till his death, and he was buried in his oratory.
The place was ravaged in the war between Conmore and Judicael, and
remained desolate till another Count of Poher, named also Conmore,
was hunting in the region, when a stag he was pursuing fled to the
tomb of the Saint for refuge, and there the hounds would not touch
it He
accordingly ordered a church to be built on the spot. Mate-
rials were collected, when lo the birds were found to have gathered
!

twigs and leaves and to have built up a little dome with them over
the tomb.
Locarn is near Mael-Carhaix in Cotes du Nord. A bust and relics
are preserved in the church. There is a Holy Well surmounted by a
thirteenth century statue of the saint in monastic habit, holding a
book.
At Saint Hernin near Carhaix, in Finistere, but in the same district,
is another statue of him.
Although Albert le Grand speaks of two Counts of Poher named
Conmore, there was but one the erection of the church over the
;

tomb must have occurred before 550, probably some years previously,
as during the period just preceding, Conmore was quarrelling with the
saints, and not at all disposed to build chapels. This throws back the
date of S. Hoiernin. We
cannot, however, identify him with S.
Isserninus the companion of S. Patrick, for Albert le Grand speaks
of him as a Briton, and had his Hernin been the helper of the Apostle
of Ireland, he would not have failed to have found this recorded in
his Acts.
Hoiernin died on the
first Monday in May ; but his day is given

by Albert le Grand and Lobineau on November 2. Iserninus is

called by the Irish Fith.
" "
Llanyhernyn is mentioned as a chapel under Llanegwad, Car-

marthenshire, in the inventories of Church goods taken by the Com-

missioners in 1552-3.
1
Vies des SS. de Bretagne, new ed., 1901, pp. 553-4.

(ft C vo >
M^ / L*~ *~ X*_ L y~
 S. Huail 283
i

S. HUAIL, Prince, Martyr

HUAIL is called Cuillus in the Life of Gildas, by the Monk of Rhuis.
1

He was son of Caw ab Geraint ab Erbin, known as Caw of Prydyn.

rest of his family from the North, owing
He was obliged to fly with the
to the incursions and devastations of the Picts and Scots, and was
well received by Maelgwn Gwynedd.
It is possible that in a fit of disgust at being
compelled to leave
his territories, and in a he may have accom-
sudden caprice for religion,

panied Gildas, his brother, to Brittany,

and lived for a while as a
recluse on the Blavet. At Melrand, a couple of miles below the grotto
into which Gildas retreated, is another grotto to which one Rivallo
or Rivalain (Rig-huail) is said to have withdrawn.
The cave is at the confluence of the Sarre with the Blavet, and is

about ten feet deep. Here is an image of the saint, and hither in times

of dry weather the villagers come in procession to obtain rain, by the

intercession of the Saint. Near by also is a settlement of the nephew of
Huail, S. Cenydd, locally called Kihouet or Quidi. jfthis be the same,
he soon wearied of the life of an anchorite and returned to Britain.
In the lolo MSS. 2 he is said to have been a saint of Llancarfan, and
t" have founded a church in Ewyas, Herefordshire.
The story of the manner in which he lost his life is given by
3
I-M ward Jones, in his Bardic Museum, on the authority of Edward
I.liuyd, who derived it from a Welsh MS. in the handwriting of John

Jones, of Gelli Lyfdy, dated June 27, 1611. It is accordingly merely

-nil and of no historic worth. 9 r y-t*~->
Huail/was so imprudent as to court a lady of whom Arthur was
oared. The King's suspicions having been aroused, and his
i

usy excited, he armed himself secretly, and resolved on observing

the movements of his rival. Having watched him going to the lady's
house, some angry words passed between them, and they fought.
a sharp combat, Huail got the better of Arthur, and wounded
him in the thigh, whereupon the combat ceased, and they were recon-

1
Ed. "
Hugh Williams, p. 324, Caunus ejus genitor et alios quatuor fertur
habuisse filios, Cuillum videlicet valde strenuum in armis virum." His name
a .1- Hvwel
by John of Tynemouth and others. It is a somewhat rare
but was borne by a few others, e.g. (as Hueil), in the Book of Llan Ddv,
;. and the Record of Caernarvon, p. 102.
a P. 117.
3
London, 1802,
p. 22 Peter Roberts, Chronicle of the Kings of Britain,
;

1811, pp. 360-1. Lhuyd (Parochialia, supplement to Arch. Camb. for 1909, p.
146) mentions the stone thus under Ruthin: "Maen Heol is a flat Stone in
r "
y middle of the street ; but the stone is neither flat nor in the middle of the
Street.
284 Lives of the British Saints

ciled, but with the proviso that Huail should never mention the matter,
under penalty of losing his head.
Arthur retired to his palace, which was then at Caerwys, in Flint-
shire, to be cured of his wound. He recovered, but ever after limped
a little.

A short time after his recovery, Arthur fell in love with a lady at
Ruthin, in Denbighshire, and, in order the more frequently to enjoy
her society, he disguised himself in female attire. One day he was
dancing with this lady, thus disguised, when Huail happened to see
"
him. He recognized him by the lameness, and said, This dancing
might do very well but for the thigh." Arthur overheard the remark.
He withdrew from the dance, and in a fury ordered Huail to be be-
headed on a stone called Maen Huail, still standing in S. Peter's Square..
Ruthin.
There was some other cause for disagreement, according to the
1
story of Culhwch and Olwen in the Mabinogion. Huail had stabbed
his nephew Gwydre, son of Gwenabwy his sister and of Llwydeu,
"
and hatred was between Huail and Arthur because of the wound."
"
In the same story it is said that he never yet made a request at the
hand of any lord." 2
"
The Rhuis author of the Life of Gildas says that Cuillus, a very
active man of war, after his father's death, succeeded him on the
throne." The author of the other Life, supposed to be Caradog of
"
Llancarfan, says :
Huail, the elder brother, an active warrior and
most distinguished soldier, submitted to no king, not even to Arthur.
He used to harass the latter, and to provoke the greatest anger between
them both. He would often swoop down from Scotland, set up con-
and carry
flagrations, off spoils with victory and renown. In conse-
quence, the King of all on hearing that the high-spirited
Britain,
youth had done such things and was doing similar things, pursued
the victorious and excellent youth, who, as the inhabitants used to
assert and hope, was destined to become king. In the hostile pursuit
and council of war held in the island of Minau (Man), he killed the
young plunderer. After that murder the victorious Arthur returned,
rejoicing greatly that he had overcome his bravest enemy. Gildas,
the historian of the Britons, who was staying in Ireland directing
studies and preaching in the city of Armagh, heard that his brother
had been slain by Arthur. He was grieved at hearing the news, wept
with lamentation, as a dear brother for a dear brother." Gildas at
once hastened to Wales, full of resentment and desirous of revenge.
"
When King Arthur and the chief bishops and abbots of all Britain
1 2
Ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 109. Ibid., p. 107.
 S. Hunydcl 285
heard of the arrival of Gildas the Wise, large numbers from among
the clergy and people gathered together to reconcile Arthur for the
above-mentioned murder."
x
Arthur was obliged to pay blood-
money, after which Gildas gave him the Kiss of Peace.
a vulgar marauder, who richly de-
Apparently the Prince Huail was
served his fate. Arthur was perfectly justified in executing him for
his depredations.
Hedistinguished in the thirteenth century Triads of Arthur and
is
"
his Warriors 2
as one of the Three Diademed Battle-chiefs (Taleithiog
" " "
Cad] of the Isle of Britain and among the Sayings of the Wise
;

3
and the "Stanzas of the Hearing" occurs the following:
Hast thou heard the saying of Huail,
Son of Caw, the cautious reasoner ?
"Often will a curse drop out of the bosom."
(Mynych y syrth mefl o gesail.)

S. HUNYDD, Matron
"I ins was one of the married daughters of Brychan. Her name is
"
thus entered in the Vespasian Cognatio Hunyd, que iacet sub
Mrltheu, que fuit uxor Tudual flaui, mater Cunin cof (i. me-
moik )." In the Domitian Cognatio she is called Ninctis (for Nunidis),
1

whilst in Jesus College MS. 20 she occurs as Goleudyd. In the later

genealogies her name, through a misreading, is given as Nefydd, and
said to have been a saint at the place called Llech Gelyddon in
she- is
4
1'rydyn. i.e. Pictland. There seems to be no ground for identifying
her husband, Tudwal Befr, with Tudwal, Saint and Bishop, who is
nmvhere given the epithet Pefr, "the Fair."
Her son, Cynin, is regarded as the patron of Llangynin, in Carmar-
thenshire.
There is Cilcain, Flintshire, whose
a township of the parish of
correct spelling would appear to be Llystin Hunydd. The locality
"
of The Stone of Meltheu " (Mellte) is not known probably ;

it was in South
Wales, where Mellte is a Breconshire river-name, and
the parish-name, "
Bedwellty, in Monmouthshire, means Mellte's-
House."
ed. Hugh
Williams, pp. 400-5.
2**,
Peniarth MS.
Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, p. 458.
45 ;
3
lolo MSS., p. 253, cf.
p. 157; Myv. Arch., p. 128.
Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 428. Hunydd was not a particularly rare name.
See the Record of Caernarvon,
p. 320 (index).
286 Lives of the British Saints

S. HUUI, Confessor
"
IN the grant byCaradog,the son of Rhiwallon, of Villa Gunhucc, in
Guartha Cum," to the Church of Llandaff, in the time of Bishop Her-
"
wald (consecrated 1056), mention is made of the four saints of Llan-
l
gwm, Mirgint, Cinficc, Huui and Eruen." There are two Llangwms
in Monmouthshire Llangwm Ucha and Isa, which form one benefice,
the churches of which are to-day dedicated to S. Jerome and S. John
respectively.
This seems to be the only mention we have of Huui. It has been
suggested that his name may possibly survive in that of the parish
2

of Pen-how (S. John Baptist), Monmouthshire.

S. HYCHAN, Martyr
HYCHAN was one of the reputed sons of Brychan. His name does
not occur in the Cognatio, only in the late lists of Brychan's chil-
dren. 3 He is patron of the little church of Llanychan, in the Vale of

Clwyd.
There a tradition at Llandebie, Carmarthenshire, that Hychan
is

was by the pagan Irish on a field there near the station, called
slain
Rhandir Hychan (his share-land or inheritance), but now, colloquially,
Cae Henry Fychan. Llandebie Church is dedicated to Brychan's
daughter, Tybie, who met with a similar death here, and the tradition
states that the Hychan of the field-name was her brother.

Llan-hychan (or -ychan), somewhere in Carmarthenshire, is given

in old Welsh almanacks as the name of a place where a fair was held,
Old Style, on the second day after Michaelmas, i.e. October I. It has
long since been discontinued ; but it occurs in an almanack for 1775,
and possibly in later ones, on October 12.
Browne Willis 4 gives Hychan 's Festival on August 8.

S. HYDROC, Hermit, Confessor

"
OF Lanhydrock, in Cornwall, William of Worcester says that Sanctus
"
Ydrocus was a hermit, and that his day, according to the Bodmin
1
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 274. 2 Omen's
Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 276.
3
Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 426; lolo MSS., pp. in, 119, 140. With the name .

Hychan compare that of S. Ehan or Ahan, in Iffendic and Parthenay, Brittany.

4
Bangor, 1721, p. 327.
 S. Hydroc 287
ndar, was May 5. The name
leads to the supposition that he

was of Irish origin occurs in Irish Martyrologies as Huydhran,

;
it

and this is the same name as Odran. An is a diminutive employed

arbitrarily with oc. We suspect that Hydroc is theOdrhanwho was
brother of S. Medran or Madron, disciple of S. Ciaran of Saighir. (See
under MADRON.) In the Irish Calendars his day is October 2, but
S.

also May 8 on the latter day as a Bishop. We may equate the

;

Huydhran or Odran of May 8 with Hydroc, May 5. It is possible

that William of Worcester wrote viii, which has been incorrectly

printed by Xasmith as v.

\Yhen Colgan wrote his Ada Sanctorum Hibernice, an ancient Irish

Life of S. Odran was in existence, and he purposed giving this later ;

but unhappily Colgan did not continue his collection beyond the last
1
day of March, and since his time, the ancient Life has been lost.
All we know of him is that he and his brother Medran were sons of

raith, son of Frochall, and that they were natives of Littir,

n<>w Latteragh, in Tipperary. 2 The two brothers, as boys, set off
on their travels and visited S. Ciaran of Saighir. There S. Medran
desired to remain, and place himself under the teaching of this illus-
trious saint. Odran was much annoyed, and remonstrated with his
brother, that this was a breach of their engagement. They referred
the matter to Ciaran, who took a candle that had just been extin-
LMiUhed, put it in Medran's hand, and bade him blow on the smoulder-
ing wick. If it flamed, he was to remain. If it refused to do so, he
10 go on with Odran. The wick, on being blown on, burst into
flame, and Odran had to depart alone. As he left Ciaran said to him :

"
Hear me, brother Odran, I assure you that although you may wander
far and wide, you will die in 3
your native place of Littir."
Odran was one of the disciples of Senan, who assisted to bury him
at 4
Iniscathy.
After Odran did
many travels, finally come back to Ireland and
built a great monastery at Littir, and there he died, according to the
Anmih of the Four Masters, in 548.
His day in the Martyrology of Tallaght is October 2, but also as
Bishop on May 8 on the same day in the Martyrology of Donegal.
;

As the name is not uncommon, 5 it is not possible to say whether

Colgan, Acta SS. Hib., Vita S. Kierani, p. 461, and note i, p. 463.
Ibid., p. 465.
In-h Life of S. Ciaran, ed.
Mulcahy, Dublin, 1895, PP- 44~5-
Book of Lismorf, p. 221.
TluTt- was an Odran, S. Patrick's charioteer; another a pupil of S. Colum-
cille; another a disciple of S. Columba of Tir-da-glas; another the father of
S. Mochua.
288 Lives of the British Saints

these were the same or different saints. He seems to have been re-
garded as a tutelar saint of Waterford, and has a Holy Well, Tobar-
Odran,near the churchyard of Kilkeiran (Cill-Ciaran) in the parish of
1
Castlejordan.
As Ciaran is the Cornish S. Piran, it is not impossible that Odran
migrated with him to Cornwall, and that he may be the Cornish Saint
Hydrocof Lanhydrock. The fact that the feast there should be on
May 5, and his day in Ireland May 8, seems to favour the supposition.

S. HYLDREN, Bishop, Confessor

LANSALLOS church, in Cornwall, is dedicated, according to Bishop
Bytton's Register, to Sta. Ildierna and in Bishop Stapeldon's Regis-
;

ter the patron is also given (1320) as Sta. Ildierna.

"
However, William of Worcester says, Sanctus Hyldren, episcopus,
jacet in parochia Lansalux juxta parochiam Lanteglys ; ejus festum
agitur primo die Februarii, id est Vigilia Purificationis Beatae Mariae ;'*
and Nicolas Roscarrock enters him on February i in his Calendar
as S. Ildierne.
Ecton, in his Thesaurus, gives S. Alwys as the patron. There
was a Welsh S. Elldeyrn, brother of the infamous Vortigern, to whom
is dedicated the church of Llanillterne, under S. Fagans; in Glamor-
ganshire. His nephew, Edeyrn, crossed into Brittany, where he
has a mark. It is possible that Elldeyrn may also have quitted
left

Wales, where after the disgrace and ruin of his brother he could not
well remain, and settled in Cornwall.

S. HYWEL, Knight, Confessor

HYWEL was son of Emyr Llydaw, and with the rest of his brothers-
he was forced to fly from Armorica, on account of a family struggle
for the supremacy. It has been supposed that they were expelled,
or expatriated themselves, to save their throats from being cut by
Grallo. But nothing can be said on this subject which is not pure
conjecture.
The sole authority for Hywel as a Welsh saint is an entry in the
seventeenth century Llansannor Achau'r Saint printed in the lolo
1
O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish 55., x, p. 17.

A.*AA
 S. Iddew 289
AfSS. 1 In this MS. he is called Hywel Faig or Farchog, and is said to
have been the father of Derfel Gadarn, Dwyfael or Dwyvvai, Arthfael,
and Hywel Fychan, all saints. It states that he lies buried at Cor
Illtyd.I.lantwit Major. In the Triads and the Mabinogion tales he

appears as a knight of King Arthur's court, which accounts

for his

In the Triads he is mentioned as one of the three

epithet Marchog.
"Royal knights" of tin- Court, who, invincible in battle, were yet
so remarkable for their amiable manners and gentle speech that no
one could refuse or deny them anything they asked. 2 In Geraint
and Enid he is one of the knights of the court that went with Geraint
to Cornwall. 3
He esteemed the patron of Llanhowell, under Llandeloy, Pem-
is

brokeshire, and also, it would appear, of the Monmouthshire church

4
spelt Llanhowel in sixteenth century parish lists, but to-day Llan-
llowi-11, and said to be dedicated to S. Llywel. Browne Willis 5
.uivvs it as dedicated to S. Hoel, with Festival on October 31.
Breton tradition makes Hywel the husband of Alma Pompaea,
mother of S. Tuclwal. There is no documentary evidence that this
so.

In
tin- \\Vlsli
pedigrees he is made the father of Hywel Fychan, so
that he would be Hywel Fawr, or the Elder, and the Bretons designate
him as Hoel le Grand, or Hoel Meur. They make Hywel Fychan
have to wife a daughter of Maelgwn Gwynedd.
He has been laid hold of by the romancers, Geoffrey of Monmouth
and \Vace, and converted into a gallant prince of Armorica who as-
sisted Arthur in his wars against the Romans. It is doubtful if he
ever set foot again in Armorica, after having fled from it in his youth-

S. HYWGI, see S. BUGI

S. HYWYN, see S. HENWYN

S. IDAN, see S. NIDAN
S. IDDEW, Confessor
IN the
Myryrian Archaiology* is entered, as a Iddew Corn
saint,
Hi ydam the son of Cawrdaf ab In the lolo MSS. 7
,

Caradog Freichfras.
2
Myv. Arch., pp. 393, 411, 413.
ibtnogwn, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 265. In the Dream of Rhonabwy
he is one of Arthur's "Counsellors,"
ibid., p. 159.
08, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 920 ; Myv. Arch., p. 750.
>(///<!/
Anglicanum. 1733.
'

P. 426. *
p. 176. P. 123.
'

VOL. III.
290 Lives of the British Saints

the same entry occurs as Iddawg Corn Prydain, the son of Caradog
Freichfras. The latter incorrect form renders him liable to be con-
founded with Iddawg Cordd Prydain, the son of Mynio, one of Arthur's
men, who, by his treachery, brought about the fatal battle of Camlan.
He figures in the Dream of Rhonabwy. Iddew was the brother of Cathan
and Medrod.

S. IDDON, King, Confessor

1
REES gives as a Welsh saint Iddon, the son of Ynyr Gwent, and
brother of SS. Ceidio, Cynheiddon, and Tegiwg. His mother was
S. Madrun, the daughter of Vortimer. The genealogies of the Welsh
saints do not recognize him as a saint.
Ynyr was succeeded by Iddon as King of Gwent, and several grants
of land were made by him to the Church of Llandaff. Llanarth, Llan-
tilio Pertholey, and Llantilio Crossenny, in Monmouthshire, were

.given during the episcopate of Teilo, the last-named being a grant in

gratitude for a victory over the Saxons in answer to Teilo 's prayer.
Llangoed, the situation of which is not known, was another grant
made in the time of Bishop Arwystl. 2
Iddon was a good king, but Rees, it would seem, was the first to
include him among the Welsh saints. He is mentioned in the Life
3
of S. Beuno as having gone to Gwynedd to that Saint in quest of his
sister, eloped with a labourer. He killed the man
Tegiwg, who had
at Aberffraw, in Anglesey, but Beuno raised him to life again. There
is a Tre Iddon, above Llyn Coron, not far from Aberffraw. 4

No churches are mentioned as being dedicated to Iddon. Bettws

"
Wyrion Iddon, the Bede-house of the Grandsons of Iddon," the old
name of Bettws y Coed, is late comparatively, and cannot be regarded
as referring to him.
The 5
early form of Iddon was ludon, which was also the Breton
form, later luzon, and is the name of a saint or saints in Brittany,
where there are several dedications under the name, viz., Lannion,
in Gourin, Morbihan, which occurs in the Cart, de Quimperle as Lan-
iuzon ; Lannion, in C6tes-du-Nord ; Lannuzon, in Scrignac, Finistere ;

and Loquion, in Gestel.

1
Welsh Saints, pp. 233-4. 2 Book
of Llan Ddv, pp. 121-4, 166-7.
3
Lyfr Ancr, p. 125 Cambro-British Saints, p. 19.
;

4
It should be stated that Iddon was by no means an uncommon name see,;

e.g., the Record of Caernarvon, p. 323 (index). Crogen Iddon is the name of
one of the townships of Llangollen.
5
See Book of Llan Ddv, p. 407 (index).
 S. Idunet 291
S. IDLOES, Confessor
IDLOES, the patron of Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, was the son
1
of Gvvyddnabi ab Llawfrodedd Farfog. Verylittle is known of him.
2
One Achau'r Saint gives him a daughter named Meddvyth, of
whom see under S. MEDDWID.
His festival, September 6, occurs in the lolo MSS. calendar and in
the Prymers of 1618 and 1633. A fair was formerly held (O.S.) at
Lhmidloes on the first Saturday in September. His Holy Well,
Ffynnon Idloes, was situated on the Lower Green, now Hafren Street.
lolo Goch, 3 Owen Glyndwr's laureate, invokes his protection in
a poem, and Lewis Glyn Cothi, 4 in the next century, says of one of
his subjects

H- was an aged knight, of good morals,

Like Sadwrn or Idloes.
" " 5
Amniii; the Sayings of the Wise triplets occurs the following :

Hast thou heard the saying of old Idloes,

A peaceful man, amiable in his life ?
"
The best quality is that of maintaining morals:"
(Goreu cynneddf yw cadw moes):
"
In the Stanzas of the Hearing " the
"
saying
"
differs slightly :

"
The best prosperity is the maintaining of morals."
(Goreu cynnydd cadw moes).

S. IDUNET, Confessor
Ix the Celtic
Litany of the tenth century from the Library of the
7
Chapter of Salisbury, published
i
by Canon Warren, S.
Kdumete is invoked ; in that published by Mabillon, he is called
Idimete. 8

Hafod MS.
1
1 6 37, 120
; Hanesyn Htn, pp.
Myv. Arch., p. 426 Cambro- ; ;

ritish Saints, p. His grandfather, Llawfrodedd Farfog (Farchog in a

268.
m r.itlur l.ur MSS.), is celebrated in Welsh He was one of "the
legend.
Tribe-Herdsmen of the Isle of Britain"; he tended the kine of Nudd
:u whose hiTd were
21,000 milch cows (Myv. Arch., p. 408)?) His own
"
Cornillo, was one of the Three Chief Cows " of the Island (P/niarth MS.
whilst his knife was one of " the Thirteen Treasures " of the
:

Island it ;
uKl "serve four and
twenty men at meat all at once" (Y Brython, 1860,

Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 118; Llanstephan MS. 81, p. 2.

: ! n\in I.C,.. <<!. Ashton, p. 533.
:th L.G.C.. p. 332. *
lolo MSS., p. 251.
7
Revue Celtique, ix (1888), p. 88.
In (ed. 1723), ii, p. 669.
292 Lives of the British Saints

A Life of the Saint is in the Cartulary of Landevenec, at what

date composed there is nothing to show. 1 The Vita is curious, for
up to a certain point it calls the Saint Idiunet, and thenceforth Ethbin.
Capgrave, in his Nova Legenda, gives John of Tynemouth's con-
densation of the Life. He calls the Saint throughout Egbinus, and
does not once use the name Idunet.
M. J. Loth considers that two distinct saints were confounded to-

gether.
-
But we are rather disposed, to think that the Life as a whole
belongs to an Ethbin, but was clumsily adapted by the compiler
of the Cartulary of Landevenec to make it apply to Idunet.
Idunet was a genuine personage. He occurs in the Cartulary of
"
Landevenec as a brother of S. Winwaloe, non post multum tempus
sanctus Uuingualoeus iter edidit ad fratrem suum Edunetum,'*
who lived near what is now Chateaulin, but was then known as Castel-
"
Nin. 3 ^Edunetus occurrit sancto Uuingualoseo ridens cum ve-
nientem ad se, et seipsum sancto Dei commendavit, id est, corpus et
animam et spiritum et omnia quae habebat, et terras quas Graalonus
rex sibi dedit."
In the Life of S. Winwaloe no mention whatever is made of this

brother, and it isimpossible to accept this record as sufficient auth-

ority for
making Idunet a son of Gwen Teirbron.
Idunet had no Life, and the monks of Landevenec, lacking one,
took that of a different saint, Ethbin, who was associated with a totally
different Winwaloe, a monk of Taurac, and adapted it to their purpose,
but so clumsily, that in part of the narrative they substituted the
name Idunet for Ethbin, but not throughout. John of Tynemouth
possessed, not the Landevenec manipulated Life, but the original
Vita of S. Ethbin, and he does not speak of the saint as having borne
the other name of Idunet. How clumsy the work was may be judged,
moreover, by this. In the Vita the parents of Idunet are named,
Eutius and Eula and nevertheless in the Cartulary he is given as
;

" "
brother of Winwaloe, son of Fracan and Gwen Teirbron.
.We are disposed to think that Idunet was a kinsman, possibly a
half-brother of Winwaloe, who lived where is now Chateaulin, and
that the Vita in the Cartulary has nothing whatever to do with him.
See S. ETHBIN. 4
He is patron of Chateaulin, where his pardon is on the fifth Sunday
after Easter; of Pluzunet (Plou-Iduneti),' near Plouaret, C6tes-du-
Nord ; of Tregourez, near Chateauneuf, Finistere ; and he has chapels
1
Cart, de Landevenec, ed. De la Borderie, Rennes, 1888, pp. 137-41 ;
Actct
SS. Boll., October, viii, pp 487-8.
2 Revue Celtique, xi (1890), p. 141.
3 Cart, de Landevenec, ed. De la Borderie, p. 145.
4
ii, pp. 466-7.
 S. lestyn 293
of Plounevezet near Carhaix, and Laurenan by Merdrignac, Cotes-
du-Nord.
At Tre"gourez the Patronal Feast is held on the third Sunday in

October.
At Pluzunetan eighteenth century statue of him in Benedictine
is

habit. Idunet, under the form Ediunet, is invoked in the tenth

and as Idunet in that in the
century Litany published by Warren,
1
Missal of S. Vougai.

S. IESTYN, Hermit, Confessor

2
IESTYN, son of Geraint ab Erbin, King or Prince of Domnonia,
was the founder of Llaniestyn in Carnarvonshire, where is also
the church of his nephew, S.
Cybi. He probably followed Cybi
to Anglesey, for he is
patron there of another Llaniestyn, where is
iie with an effigy, bearing an inscription purporting that he was
buried there.
lestyn is represented, in low relief, in the garb of a hermit of the
fourteenth century, with a bourdon or staff, terminating at the top
in a dog's head, in his right hand. The slab has on it, in Lombardic
"
capitals, the following inscription Hie lacet Sanctus Yestinus Cui
:

Madoc Et Gryffyt Ap Gwilym Optulit In Oblac(i)o(n)em

;!lian Filia

Istam Imaginem P(ro) Salute Animarum S(uarum)." It formerly

stood in front of the altar, on a raised mass of masonry, but is now
vertically in the wall.
i I The shrine which enclosed the relics
>ftin- saint is gone. The sculptor who designed and executed this
interesting effigy appears to have sculptured also that of S. Pabo in
Llanbabo Church. Both are of the fourteenth century. 3
lestyn was brother to Cador, Duke of Cornwall, Caw, Cyngar, and
In the lolo MSS. he is said to have been a saint of Cor Garmon
at Llancarfan.

1
l\fi'nc 136 141.
Ccltiquc, xi, pp.
3 /' 16; Hanesyn H&n, pp. 109, 121
x'j. 12, Cambro-British Saints,
;

Myv. Arch., pp. 421, 427

; lolo MSS., pp. 101, 116, 136.
;
The name
is the Latin In Breton it is lostin and lestin. There is a
Justinus.
tin in M.irzan, Morbihan. In the Taxatio of 1254 Llaniestyn, Anglesey,
"
as Ecc'a de Lanyustin." Eastington, a manor in the parish of
rowther, Pembrokeshire, was formerly called lestynton.
1
Arch. Camb., 1847, PP- 324-5. At p. 289 there is an engraving of the effigy,

'
description see ibid., 1874, pp. 217-24; also Westwood, Lapidarium
1876-9, p. 196.
294 Lives of the British Saints

He may have been the founder of S. Just-in-Roseland, in Cornwall,

a part peculiarly affected by the royal Domnonian family, and not
far from S. Gerran's, his father's church, and Dingerein, the royal

palace. But if so he has been supplanted by a Justin or Just in the

Roman Calendar it is impossible to say by which. There are in that
;

Calendar twenty-three Justs and seven Justins.

He was probably forced to quit Cornwall at the same time as Cybi,
in consequence of the dynastic conflict hinted at in the Life of S. Cybi,
when Constantine made himself king.
It is possible that he may be the Justin whom we meet with in
Brittany at Plestin (Plou-Iestin) He had occupied a cell there, but
.

left on pilgrimage. Whilst he was absent, an Irish colonist, am, Em 1

arrived and took possession of his cell. When he returned he found his
celloccupied and the land around it appropriated by the Irishman.
According to a local legend, the controversy as to the right to the
habitation was settled amicably between them by this means. Each
seated himself within the cabin, and they waited to see on whose face
the setting sun would shine through the tiny window. Presently the
declining orb broke from its envelope of cloud, and sent a golden
ray in through the opening and irradiated the countenance of Efflam.
1
Thereupon Justin arose, saluted him, and seizing his staff, departed.
They would seem, however, to have compromised matters. It was
arranged that Efflam. should rule the ecclesiastical, and Justin the
secular community. This is obscurely related by the biographer of
Efflam, a late writer, who did not comprehend the tribal arrangements
in vogue at an earlier period. What he says is that Justin gave his
name to the plou or plebs, and that Efflam took the headship of the
lann ;
and that they agreed to live at some distance apart.
The place where Justin settled is now by contraction called Plestin
(Plou-Iestin), and in the church S. Justin is represented as a priest.
The festival of S. lestyn does not occur in any of the Welsh
Calendars. Festivals were held at Llaniestyn, Anglesey, on April 12
and October 10, and at Llaniestyn, Carnarvonshire, on October io. 2
The day on which he is said to be commemorated in Brittany is
3
April 19 but churches bearing his name have been transferred to S.
;

Just, Bishop of Lyons, who died in 390, and whose day is September 2.
The feast at S. Just-in-Roseland is August 14. If we deduct eleven

1
Le Brazin Annales de Bretagne, T. xi, p. 184.
2
Survey of Bangor, 1721, pp. 275, 282
Willis, Cambrian Register, iii
; (1818),,
p. 224. Nicolas Owen, Hist, of Anglesey, 1775, p. 58, gives April 15.
3 Kerviler and De la both
Borderie, but neither gives his authorities ;

apparently follow Garaby. The Pardon is on the Fifth Sunday after Easter.
 S. leuan Gwas Padrig 295
is no Just or Justin commemorated irt
days we have August 3. There
the Roman Calendar on either of these days.

A ab Caden
lestyn (Cadan, or Cadfan) ab Cynan ab Eudaf ab Cara-
l
as having
dog ab Bran Fendigaid is in late genealogies represented
been a saint, some generations earlier than the son of Geraint, but
his existence is very doubtful. They are given the same ancestry.

S. IEUAN GWAS PADRIG, Monk, Confessor

THIS minor Welsh saint has been more fortunate than many of
the more important ones, for we have had preserved for us his Life,
in \\Vl-h. There is a copy of Buchedd leuan Gwas Padrig in Llan-
stcphan MS. 34, written in the sixteenth century, and another in
MS. 104, written in the following century, in the same collection. The
, as we have it, cannot be much, if any, earlier than the

nth century. It has never been published.

leuan ab Tudur ab Elidan ab Owain Fychan ab Owain ab Edwin
2

Frenin was born in Llwyn, a township of the commote of Ceinmeirch,

3
or innuTch, now lying within the parish of Llanrhaiadr, near Den-
<

i
>idi. He was a disciple of S. Patrick hence his epithet Gwas Padrig,
:

"
the servant of Patrick," which, as a personal name, Anglicised to Gos-
k or Cospatrick, was borne by the well-known eleventh century
K.u! nl Northumberland. With it compare the Strathclyde names
Quos-Cuthbert, Cos-Mungo, and Cos-Oswald. A number of Welsh-
men in early and mediaeval times bore names thus formed, among
thorn (iwas Dwyw (Duw), Gwas Crist, Gwas Mair, Gwas Mihangel,
Gwas Dewi, Gwas Teilo,and Gwas Sant Ffraid. They are transla-
>r imitations of a well-known Goidelic formula, probably of pre-

h, p. 427; lolo MSS., p. 118, cf. pp. loi, 116.

*Somrtinu-s he is called Ifan or Evan. leuan, lefan, If an, 'I wan, and loan
are all \\Vlsh forms for John. Evan Evans is none other than John Jones,
only U-ss Anglicised. leuan's pedigree cannot be genuine. His father's name
uas Llywelyn thus the entry in Llanstephan MS. 187 (c. 1634),
;
"
Kuan ap llywelyn, gwas Patrig, fanach, sant Cerig yDridion, ar llwyn
iiu-cli." He is associated with S. Mary Magdalene in a cywydd written
in hi-r honour by Gutyn Ceiriog, of which copies occur in Llanover MS. B. I,
;
(c. 1670), and Cardiff MS. 26, p. 99.
For
boundaries and extent see Williams, Records of Denbigh, Wrexham,
its

1860, pp. 46-7. At p. 58 is mentioned " Gavel Waspatrik " as being in Denbigh.
Quimcrch. which occurs in Breton charters as Ecclesia de Keynmerch, Keinmerh,
and Ki-ymerch, is near Chateaulin, in FinistSre.
 296 Lives of the British Saints

Celtic origin. Gwas Padrig

represented in Ireland by Mael-Phatraic
is
"
(now Mulpatrick), meaning, the tonsured man (or devotee)
literally,
"
of Patrick," and in Scotland by Gille-Patraic, the servant of Pa-
"
trick." Compare also Mael-Brighde and Gille-Brighde, the servant
of Brigid." The formula implies that the person so named was under the
charge, or was born on the day (or some other connexion) of that

particular saint.
According to his Life, leuan was a worker of miracles ; but those
recorded are stock instances, and have been often attributed to others.
He wrought his first miracle, when a boy of twelve, by killing an
infuriate adder that was aiming at a drainer, and he had his prayer
"
granted that there should never till Doomsday be seen an adder
"
in that land," and, moreover, no venomous vermin " should ever
hurt those who offered to leuan. One season the crows and other
birds devastated his father's and other persons' crops to such an extent
"
"that he was moved to drive them all before him into his father's
barn." Tudur was so impressed with the youth's performances that
he sent him with his blessing to Menevia to become a disciple of S.
Patrick.
He was there for some time, and when the great Apostle, in
obedience to the warning voice, left Wales for Ireland, leuan also
with others accompanied him. But leuan was not destined to remain
in Ireland long. One day S. Patrick, whilst preparing to say Mass,
sent his Welsh disciple to fetch fire. leuan went to the cook, and
returned with the glowing embers in his lap, without his garment
having been even singed. S. Patrick, in compassion for the Welsh, that
they should not be deprived of having so great a wonder-worker in
their midst, requested him to return to his native country. leuan bade
his master farewell and went down to the shore, but could find no
means of embarking. In his perplexity he prayed, and saw a blue slab
floating on the surface of the water towards him and on this he safely
;

landed on the coast of Anglesey. He now felt very thirsty he thrust;

the point of his staff into the ground, and forthwith bubbled up a
crystal spring.
"
From thence he came to Llwyn in Ceinmeirch to his own
patrimony and contemplated making a cell there for prayer
to
God. He has in Llwyn thirteen wells." 1 An angel, however, told
him not to erect his cell there but to proceed southwards until he
spied a roebuck, and on the spot he saw it rise there to establish
"
his cell. And he came to the place that is called Cerrig y Drudion,
1
An Artesian well, sunk in 1906 at Llwyn Isa, about two miles from Denbigh,
provides the town with an abundant supply of the purest water.
 S. leuan Gwas Padrig 297
and there built he his cell, where is a church dedicated to leuan Gwas
Padrig and Mary Magdalene."
1
The church is now regarded as dedicated to S. Mary Magdalene
alone, and the Gwyl Mabsant or wake followed her festival, July 22.

near the church, but her earlier well was

Ffynnon Fair Fadlen is

in Caeau Tudur.
Edward Lhuyd (1699) givesan interesting early MS. note from the
:i
Register, which shows that Gwas Padrig was, previously to the
ination, represented in stained glass in the chancel window of
"
but the glass has long since disappeared. levan ap
ig Church,

clyn of Kinmeirch surnamed Gwas Patrick as written by his

east end of Kaer y Drydion written A. 1504. Evanus
e
pirture at y
e e
unimarum confessor was y ist founder of y Ch of K. y
I'atrifius :

Druidion in y year of our Lord 440 and dedicated it to M Magdalen.

e
:

It was afterwards repair'd and augmented A. 1503." Lhuyd men-

Holy Well, Ffynnon Gwas Padrig, as possessing very cold
tions his
which cured swelling in the knees, etc.
;
,
and another well, ;

Ffvnnon y Brawd, the Friar's Well, which removed warts, etc. In

the terrier of 1631 are named as part of the glebe, Bryn y Saint, and
Erw'r Saint.
a deed dated 1506, in consideration of the small income of the
By "
I certain messuages and tenements were added,
>o notice, ad laudem
Dei et Sanctit- .Mari;i- Magdalene ac Sancti leuan nuncupati Gwas-
2
i,i:h patroni ibidem."
Fn>m tin tact that his Life brings him to Anglesey leuan may be
<mo of the patrons of Llantrisant in that island. Browne Willis 3
that church as dedicated to the three saints, Sannan, June 13,
:netimes spelt Afran), December 17, and leuan or John,
i->t
29. The last date is the festival of the Decollation of S. John
Baptist, but it is
hardly possible that by this leuan is meant the Bap-
list. The parish is situated on the side of the island that leuan
would be likely to land, and not far from the coast.
Nothing further seems to be known of leuan Gwas Padrig.
rial clergy named louan (O. Welsh for leuan) occur in the Book

Linn A/. "

Louan, more correctly perhaps louan, was one of the
1

<>/ .

learned men and doctors that flocked to Dubricius for study," 4 and this
xi me disciple was probably the clerical witness to several grants by
King Pepiau of Erging to the church of Llandaff.

1
B. Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 364.
-
MS. D, fo. xxxiv b, in the Episcopal Library, S. Asaph.
*
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 80.
 298 Lives of the British Saints
" "
One of the Sayings of the Wise triplets runs l
:

Hast thou heard the saying of Ifan,

Brother in the Faith to Catwg of Llancarfan ?
"
A grain of sand shines its destined best "
(Tywynid graienyn ei ran).

S. IFOR, Bishop, Confessor

IFOR is said to have been the son of Tudwal (Saint and Bishop), the
son of Corinwr, of the mythical line of Bran Fendigaid. He was a
bishop, but we are not told of what see, and the founder of a church
in England. 2 He was not a son of Hunydd (Nefydd), daughter of

Brychan, as has been assumed.

3
He is not known to the earlier
"
authorities ; and in all probability by him is intended the Eborius
4
Episcopus de civitate Eboracensi provincia Britannia," who was
present at the Council of Aries, 314.
Ifor is one of the many saints, mainly Welsh, to whose guardianship
a poet in an Ode to Henry VII commits that king. 5
Giraldus Cambrensis 6 mentions the entire expulsion of rats from
"
Ferns by the curse of S. Yvorus, bishop, whose books they had
probably gnawed." This was Ibhar, bishop of Beg-Eire, Begery
Wexford Haven, who died in 500 or 505, and is com-
Island, in
memorated on April 23.

ILAN, Bishop, Martyr

S.

BUT little is known of this saint. He is the patron of Eglwys Ilan,

in Glamorganshire, which is called Merthir Ilan, that is, the martyrium
of Ilan, in the Book of Llan Ddv. 1 Sometimes the church is given as
dedicated to S. Helen, 8 and even to S. Elian. In the Taxatio of 1254
the church occurs as Eglisulan, in that of 1291 as Eglishilan, and
in the Valor of 1535, 9 as Egloysyland. Trefilan, in Cardiganshire,
usually regarded as dedicated to S. Hilary, bears Han's name. A
10 of
late,untrustworthy list the early bishops of Llandaff includes
Ilan.
1
loloMSS., p. 254 ;
cf. Myv. Arch., p. 859.
3
2 loloMSS., pp. 116, 136. Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 148.
4
Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., i, p. 7.
5 lolo MSS., p. 314.
6
Topog. Hibern., Dist. 22 (Opera, v, p. 120, ed. Dimock, 1867).
ii, c.
7 8
Pp. 32, 44. Willis, Llandaff, 1719, append., p. i.
9
iv, p. 350. Elan and Ylan are also met with. For the substitution of
Llan and Eglwys for Merthyr see Cymmrodorion Transactions, 1906-7, pp. 85-6.
10 Liber Landavensis, p. 623.
 S. liar 299
There is a Bod Ilan in Llanfihangel y Pennant, Merionethshire ;

and S. Ilan is the name of a castle near S. Brieuc, C6tes-du-Nord.

ILAR, Martyr
S.

THE late documents printed in the lolo MSS. give two Welsh saints
of this name. One,
1
an liar who came to this island with Cadfan,

and has a church dedicated to him in Glamorganshire, by which is

It is, however, dedicated
evidently meant S. Hilary, near Cowbridge.
to S. Hilary. The other,
2
liar, son of Nudd Hael, by whom, of course,
is intended Eleri, the son of Dingad ab Nudd Hael, the Elerius of the
Life of S. Winefred by Prior Robert of Shrewsbury, and the patron
of Gwytherin, Denbighshire.
liar is the Welsh form of the Latin Hilarus, just as Eleri is of
Hilarius. These two Welsh saints are constantly confounded with
the great S. Hilary of Poictiers, as is also Elian Geimiad.
The only church that can, with any degree of certainty, be said to
be dedicated to liar is Llanilar, in Cardiganshire, with which he is
3 But
associated under the name liar Bysgotwr, or the Fisherman.
4
thU rliiiivh is also claimed for S. Hilary.
The Welsh Calendars give the festival of S. liar in January, but
are rather undecided as regards the day, the 13th, I4th, and I5th
5
: assigned him. Similarly, though the festival of S. Hilary
should be on January 13, the day on which he died, as in the
Anglican Calendar, the I4th is that marked in the Roman Calendar,
the alteration being made that the day might not interfere with the
Octave of the Epiphany.
In the sixteenth century Demetian Calendar (S), which gives
liar on the I5th, he is called liar Ferthyr, or the Martyr, with the
" "
addition, or rather Droedwyn," that is, the White-footed."
<ivn Cothi,* in the fifteenth century, invokes his protection
2 P. 3
139. Myv. Arch. p. 426.
4
B. Willis, Parochiale Anglic.. 1733, p. 195. The Glamorganshire church is
" "
as Ecclesia S. Hilarii in the Book of Llan Ddv, see index. The following
me of the sixteenth century Welsh spellings for it, " Sain tilari," " Saint
" "
:." Sain Hilari (or Eleri) Dr J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i,
;

pp. 827, 919

5
See i, p. 70. By " "
Gwyl Seint liar in Brut y Tywysogion (ed. Rhys and
Evans, p. 349) is clearly meant the Festival of S Hilary.
6
Gwaith L.G.C., 1837, PP- 88, 337. So also in the Ode to Henry VII,
lolo MSS., p. 314. "
In Cywydd y Pryns Arthur" by Dafydd Llwyd, in
Hanover MS. B. i, fo. 336, occurs the couplet
Haw vaeno drosto rag drwg
ag jlar rag drwg olwg.
300 Lives of the British Saints
"
for the subject of one of his poems, and alludes to his festival as Gwyl
"
liar hael a'i loer hir," the Festival of the generous liar with his long
moon."

SS. Hid and Ilud

ILUD entered as one of the unmarried daughters l of Brychan in the
is

Vespasian Cognatio, but she is not in the Domitian copy. The name
would now be Hudd. In the list of his children in Jesus College MS. 20
the name was miscopied by the fifteenth century scribe as Llud, and he
"
adds that she is commemorated yn Ruthun ygwlat Vorgant," that
is, in Rhuthyn, the manor and commote of the name in the Vale of
Glamorgan, embracing the parish of Llanilid, which the scribe evi-
dently implied derived its name from her. He seems to be the sole
authority for the association, and though the Church of Llanilid may
have been originally dedicated to her, it certainly at an early date
came to be regarded as under the invocation of S. Julitta and her son,
the child-martyr S. Cyriacus.
Its full Welsh designation has always been " Llanilid a Churig,"
as for instance in the parish list, circa 1566, in Peniarth MS. 147. In
"
the Taxatio of 1254 it is called Ecclesia Sancte Julite," and this,
or something similar, has been the prevalent form in Latin documents. 2
For Hid =
Julitta see further under that name.
"
In The Genealogy of lestyn ab Gwrgant," the eleventh century
prince of Glamorgan, we are told that Eurgain, wife, as supposed,
"
of the historical Caratacus or Caradog, sent for S. Hid, of the land
of Israel," from Rome to Britain, to assist her in the conversion of
"
the Welsh. This Hid is called, in the lections of his Life, S. Joseph
of Arimathaea. He became the principal teacher of the Christian
Faith to the Welsh, and introduced good order into Cor Eurgain,
which she had established for twelve saints, near the church now
"
called Llantwit." He
afterwards went to Glastonbury, where he
died and was buried, and Ina, king of that country, raised a large
church over his grave." 3
1
It occurs as the name of alayman in the Book of Llan Ddv, p. 149.
"
2 In a will of 1690 it is called" Saint Juliet's ;
G. T. Clark, Limbus Patrttm
Morganice, 1886, p. 393.
3 lolo MSS., p. 7 cf. p. 219.
; Joseph of Arimathaea is called Hid also in
the Cywydd to S. Mary Magdalene by Gutyn Ceiriog, referred to under S. IEUAN
GWAS PADRIG.
 S. IHog 301
"
We are further told that S. Hid, a man of Israel," came hither
with Bran Fendigaid from Rome, that he converted many of the

to Christianity, Caradog and Eurgain among them, and that

:i

tin- patron of Llanilid in Gwent.

1
house in that parish, called A
"
Tre Bran, is supposed to confirm the connexion of this man of Israel,"
that is, Joseph of Arimathaea, with the place.
" " 2
The- following occurs among the Sayings of the Wise :

Hast thou heard the saying of S. Hid,

One come from the race of Israel ?
" "
no madness like extreme anger
There is

(Nid ynfydnvydd ond trallid).

"
This saint can only be regarded as a man of straw," being the
creation of some of the late mediaeval Glamorgan antiquaries, who
lamiliar with the legend of the Holy Grail, most probably through

S. ILLID, Bishop, Confessor

ACCORDING t> William of Worcester, Illid, Hid, or Elidius, a Bishop,
reposed in one of theishs <>t
Sdlly. Elsewhere he calls the island
"
""THIula Seynt Lyde (fuit films re^is)." Leland says Saynt Lide's
:

Isle, her Sepulchre was grete superstition." 3

\vher in tynics past at

misprint for his, or else Leland confounded Lyde of

Scilly with Lidgy of Egloscruc or S. Issey.
William of Worcester says that his day in the Tavistock Calendar
tst 8. As the Abbey of Tavistock had a cell in Scilly, its
calendar is
likely to be correct in describing him as a Bishop.

S. ILLOG, Confessor
THE genealogies know nothing of this Welsh Saint, but his festival,
" "
August 8, entered as Gwyl I Hog yn Hirnant occurs in a good
number of the earlier Welsh Calendars. In the Calendar in Additional
M>. "
I4.NS2, written in 1591, the entry is g. Illoe abban sant,"
1
lolo MSS.. pp. "a man
loo. 115, 135, 149-50. Cyndaf was likewise of
toad."
8 3
Ibid., p. 155, Itin iiif g
3 o2 Lives of the British Saints

which includes apparently one of the two Irish Saints of the name
Abban. He is patron of the little church of Hirnant, in Montgomery-
shire. His holy well, Ffynnon Illog, once much resorted to for its
mineral properties, is near the church, and a tumulus on an eminence,
called Carnedd Illog, is supposed to cover his remains. Here also
are Gwely Illog, his Bed, and a brook, Aber Illog.
1
Browne gives the dedication of Coychurch, in Glamorgan,
Willis
as to Illog, but this church, called in Welsh Llangrallo, is dedicated
to S. Crallo. _J^

S. ILLOGAN, Priest, Confessor

THE Church of Illogan, near Redruth, in Cornwall, is dedicated to
a saint of this name.
"
In Bishop Bytton's Register, the designation is Ecclesia Sti.

Elugani," also Yllugani, 13,09-10. So also in the Register of Bishop

Stapeldon, 13.07-8. In that of Bishop Stafford, the church is that of
" "
Sancti Illogani de Logan," and Sancti Illogani alias Illugani,"
"
1397-1403 but;
in the latter year, also Seynt Luganus." In that
"
of Bishop Grandisson, 1352, Sancti Illogani," also 1360 and 1366.
So also in those of Bishop Brantyngham, 1374, 1382, 1383.
S. Illogan may be the same as the Illog of the Welsh Calendars,
and Illogan Parish is probably the Landhillok of the Blanchminster

Manumissions. 2 The -an of Illogan is a diminutive. There is no

record of the parentage of Illog in the Welsh pedigrees, and it is there-
fore possible that he may not have been a native.
It will not do to insist on and Illogan being identical. The
Illog
Feast at Illogan seems against on October 18, whereas
this, as it is
S. Illog's day is August 8. But what does seem possible is -that Illogan
isthe same as the Irish Illadhan or lolladhan, a native of that part of
Southern Ireland which poured so many saints into Cornwall. His
father was Cormac, King of Leinster. His aunts, Feidhlem and Mer-
gain, had been baptized by S. Patrick, as had also his grandfather,
Ailill, King of Leinster, at Naas, in 460.
After the death of Cormac, his son, Cairbre the Black, succeeded,
reigned eleven years and died in 546.
Illadhan's sisters were Eithni and Derchartain, whom we are dis-
posed to identify with Stithiana of Stythians and Derve of Camborne.
1
Survey of Llandaff, 1719, append., p. 3 Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 200.
;

2
Goulding, Blanchminster Charity Records, 1898.
 S. Illtyd 303
ladhan was a priest at Desert Illadhan, now Castle Dillon ; he
was married, and was the father of Criotan or Credan, disciple of
S.

S. Petrock. He belongs to a later date than that of the great migra-

tion, and his settlement in Cornwall
must have been due to some other
cause, if we equate Illogan with
may Illadhan.

In 543 occurred the plague called the Blefed, and this was followed
in 5_| 7 by tlu- terrible Yellow Death, or Cron Chonaill, that raged till

Many Saints fled across the

550. It swept Wales as well as Ireland.
sea with their disciples and families, under the impression that they
would escape infection if they put a tract of sea between them and
tlu- afflicted region. This may have been the occasion of the migra-
tion of S. Illadhan. That he went further is possible. A certain
Ellocan had a cell in the forest that occupied the centre of Armorica.
When king, one Laurus, a British monk, asked for a
Judicacl was
M.-mna. wife of Judicael, obtained that Ellocan should be
turned nut, and his foundation given to the new and more favoured
saint. 1
Judicael came to the throne in 610. It is possible that this
Kllocun may be the same as Illogan, but if so he must have been advanced
in age. He can hardly have remained in Brittany, as he received no
cult there.

Unhappily, no Life of thisSaint has comedown to us. In Ireland

lie known only as having been in priest's orders, and having led
i-i

an eremitical life where is now Castle Dillon. That he died there we

now. William of Worcester says that he was informed by
the Dominicans of Truro that S.
Illogan's body rested in the church
that bears his name. In Illogan was a chapel at Selligan (S. Illogan)
that may have, been his ancient cell.
He had a chapel,
according to Lysons, at South Pool in Hartland.
It may, hu, \ei, be doubted if the Illocan or Helligan there be the
same.
lolladhan is commemorated in Ireland on
S.
February 2; but is
not included in the Calendar of Gorman designates him
"
Oengus.
as venerable, great-faced."

S. ILLTYD, Abbot, Confessor

Life, the sole Life that
we have of this remarkable man, is
it in three MSS.
In Cotton. Vespasian A. xiv, ff. 43^-52,
:
(i)
< t the early thirteenth
century, printed in Cambro-British Saints,
l.m. A eta 55. O.S.B..viii, c. 64; Vita 5. Latin in Bibl. Nat. Paris MS
Blancs Manteaux xxxviii.
304 Lives of the British Saints

pp. 158-182 ;(2) in Cotton. Tiberius E. i, part ii, ff. 101-1026 ; and
(3) in Bodl. Tanner 15, f. 34. The two latter are John of Tynemouth's
abridgment of the first. This has been printed in Capgrave's Nova
Legenda Anglice, ed. Horstman, 1901, pp. 52-6. Lobineau, however,
in his Vies des Saints de Bretagne, has composed a Life, derived mainly
from Capgrave, but also from the ancient Breviaries of Leon and Dol.
The Life is a late composition. It mentions Robert Fitzhamon
(died 1107) as ruling over Glamorgan but it was written before the
;

appearance of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fabulous History, for it makes

Dubricius Bishop of Llandaff, and not Archbishop of Caerleon.
"
Arthur is indeed spoken of as a great conqueror," but there is nothing
in the storyabout his extraordinary achievements.
Into the narrative have been taken portions from the Life of S.
Samson, but he is not made an Archbishop of Dol. The writer mistakes
Samson, Abbot of Llantwit, who was buried there and had an inscribed
cross, with Samson of Dol, who lived three hundred years earlier, and
fabricates a legend to explain the existence of his body and stone at
Llantwit. The Life of S. Cadoc was also laid under contribution.
Nevertheless, the Vita S. Iltnti is doubtless based on an earlier Life,
which has been expanded with the additions aforementioned, and with
traditional incidents.
Much perplexity has arisen relative to the date at which Illtyd lived,
on account of the statement made that he was appointed head of

Caerworgorn by S. Germanus of Auxerre. It is impossible to reconcile

thiswith his date as Master of Saints, Gildas, Samson, and Paul. But
this difficulty partly vanishes if we accept the Germanus in question
as having been the Armorican, who became Bishop of Man, and not
the Auxerre Saint of the same name. But Germanus cannot have
appointed Illtyd to Caerworgorn, as he died before Illtyd was converted.
The mistake springs out of the fact of Illtyd having been in early life
a pupil of Germanus.
Illtyd was a native of Letavia, i.e. Armorica, or Lesser Britain.
Among those who fled from Britain and settled in Lesser Britain was
one Bicanus, of noble birth and military prowess. He was married to
Rieingulid, daughter of Anblaud, King of Britain.
1
Amlawdd Wledig,
as we know from Welsh sources, was married to Gwen, daughter of
1 "
Bicanus, miles famosissimus, illustris genere, et in armis militaribus. . . .

Tantus vir eximie nobilitatis voluit uxorare et hereditari ex filis, velle com-
plevit, uxorem ducens filiam Anblaud, Brittannie regis Rieingulid haec vocata
;

voce Brittannica, quando latinetur, sonat hoc regina pudica." Cambro-British

Saints, p. 158. In the Nova Legenda her name is spelt Rieinguilida. In modern
Welsh the name would be represented by the component words rhiain or rhian
and gwyl or gwylaidd, with the meaning of " a modest lady."
 S. Illtycl 305
Cunedda Wledig, and was the father of Eigyr or Igerna, and grandfather
of Arthur. Rieingulid had as sisters Gwyar, the wife of Geraint ab
Krbin. and Tywanwedd, the wife of Hawystl Gloff. One pedigree
makes Bicanus the son of Aldor, and brother of Emyr Llydaw, but
1
according to another account Aldor was the father of Rieingulid.
In either case, Germanus the Armorican would be their uncle, and Illtyd
liis
great-nephew.
Illtyd
2
was the fruit of the union, and he had as brother S. Sadwrn.
" "
He was educated in the seven sciences by Germanus, and was
with him for awhile in Paris, and had Brioc as his fellow pupil. 3 But
he had no desire to embrace the monastic life, and, leaving the Contin-
ent he crossed the sea and served under King Arthur, who, according
,

to one account, was his first cousin, 4 and this is borne out by the Welsh
pedigrees. He married a wife, Trynihid, a virtuous woman.
Alter awhile he quitted Arthur, and attached himself to Poulentus,
of Glamorgan. This was Paul of Penychen a cantref in Mid-
('laniorgan uncle of S. Cadoc, and brother of Gwynllyw, King of
(.\\vnllywg, between the Usk and Rumney rivers.
One day he was out with a party of the retainers of Paul, when they
rudely demanded food of S. Cadoc, which, after some demur, he
ed to them. The story is told much more fully in the Life of
1

loc. The men were out

hawking, and were fifty in number. Cadoc
gave them twenty wheaten loaves, a barrel of ale, and a pig, which they
toasted for their dinner. Illtyd had strayed from the party, and was
not privy to their violence. Misfortune befell the fowlers, for
they were
engulfed, doubtless got into a morass, and some, if not all, lost their

In the lolo MSS., pp.

113, 131, 148, the confusion is carried still* further.
s mum- occurs
under a variety of forms Iltutus, Ildutus, Hildutus,
lltvd. Illtyd, Illtud, Elltyd, etc. In the grant of Pembrey church to
\l>bey of Sherbourne he is called Elthut (Dugdale, Monast., ed. 1846, iv, p. 63).
According to his biographer he was named Iltutus because " he
(ille) was safe
(tutus) from every sin." lolo Morganwg, in Llanover MS. 2,
p. 93, observes
s a name still
pretty common in the Parish of Lantwit, particularly
in th- antunt .iniilv there of the
Nicholls, who generally give that name to
1

tin- ddrst son (and whom I "

suppose to be descendants of this Saint) The form !

i- an Anglicized Iltutus occurs among the

" "
spelling. Archbishops of
In Llantwit tin- first
syllable of the name has been elided. Illtyd Farchog
is made to bear arms" "
Arg., 3 masts, 3 tops of castles or and 6 darts or
Llyfr Bdg&m, i-d. Bradney, London, 1910, 309.
p.
R lirioci. ed. Plaine, c. 9. He is mentioned in the Vita S. Samsonis
k of Llan Ddv. "
p. 10) as Abbas Ildutus Sancti Germani humanadiscipulus
t-t divina peritus."
"
Audu-ns interea miles
" magnificus Arthurii regis sui consobrini magnifi-
itiam etc.. Cambro- British Saints,
p. 159. Illtyd is frequently called in
\\clsh Illtyd
Farchog, i.e. the Knight.
VOL. III. __
306 Lives of the British Saints

lives. 1 This has been magnified into the earth opening her mouth, and
swallowing them all up.
Illtyd was so thankful for his preservation from being smothered in
the festering slime that he went to Cadoc and asked his direction.
Cadoc advised him to assume the clerical tonsure and abandon the
military profession, and he resolved on following this recommendation.
His early training under Germanus had left a deep trace on his mind,
that had for a while been covered over, but which now revealed itself
as ineradicable.
The narrative of the Conversion of S. Illtyd as given in the
two Lives introduces a chronological difficulty that must be solved.
As it stands it is out of perspective with the whole chronology of
the Life of S. Cadoc, for how is it possible that Illtyd, who, as a child
indeed was with Germanus the Armorican, who died in 474, can have
been converted by Cadoc, who died in or about 577 ?
The story of the conversion is in its earliest form in the Life of
S. Illtyd, and was thence taken into the Life of S. Cadoc.
It will be seen at once that this story is a reduplication of that of
Cadoc and the warriors of Sawyl Benuchel but with the introduction
;

into it of the episode of Illtyd's conversion.

We would suggest that there is a basis of fact in the story. Illtyd,
who at the time was in the service of Paul of Penychen, was hunting,
when some of his party got engulfed in a morass and perished. This
so affected the mind he resolved on renouncing the world.
of Illtyd that
Now the author of the Life of had heard the tradition of
S. Illtyd

Cadoc and Sawyl Benuchel and the swallowing up of his soldiers, and he
assumed that the two incidents were the same. He corrected, as he
thought, the name of the chief from Sawyl to Paul, and being ignor-
ant of chronology took for granted that Cadoc was then at Nant-
carfan. The author of the Life of S. Cadoc read this story in the Life
of S. Illtyd and transferred it to his Life, unconscious that it was but
a cooking up of his hero's experiences with Sawyl.
As a matter of fact, when Illtyd was converted, Cadoc can hardly
have been born, or at all events, have been more than an infant.
The only other way of escape from the difficulty is by assuming that
therewas an earlier Cadoc, but, as we have shown, 2 of that there is no
evidence.
Illtyd, accordingly, withdrew from the service of Paul of Penychen,
and went, " accompanied by his wife and attendants," to the banks of
"
the Nadauan, i.e., the Dawon or Thaw, in South Glamorgan, and it
being summer-time, he constructed a covering of reeds, that it might
1
Cambro-British Saints, pp. 45-6.
 S. Illtyd 307
not rain upon their beds and while their horses were depastured in
;

the meadows, they slept the night away, their eyes being heavy."
During the night, Illtyd brooded over what had been advised by
f ;nloc, and a dream served to confirm his resolution. He had shrunk
from speaking to his wife of his change of purpose, but now he
determined to speak out.
At dawn he roused her from sleep, and told her to leave the hut and
"
look after the horses. She departed naked, with dishevelled hair,
she might see after them." The wind was high in the raw early
tli at

morning, and the unhappy woman's hair was blown about. Presently
she returned with the information that the horses had not strayed, and,
shivering with cold, she attempted to get into bed again. But, to her
disgust, Illtyd roughly told her to remain where she was ; he threw
her garments to her, and bade her dress and be gone. The poor
woman clothed herself and sat down, sobbing, at his side. But steeled
kindly and pitiful feelings, he announced to her his intention
! 1

of quitting her for ever and, resolute in his purpose, he dressed himself
;

and departed for the Hodnant, a pleasant dip, shallow among low hills,
and watered by a tiny stream. It was well-wooded, and seemed to
him a suitable spot for a retreat. Having made up his mind to settle
there, he went to S. Dubricius, and before him he was shaved and
assumed the monastic habit. Then he returned to Hodnant, and
irius marked out for him the bounds of a burial place, and in the
nml>t of this Illtyd erected a church of stone and surrounded the whole
with a quadrangular ditch. 1 Here he lived an ascetic life, bathing
every morning in cold water, and rising to prayers in the midst of the
night.
"
H.'dnant. which the biographer interprets as signifying The Fruit-
"
ful 2
Valley (Vallis Prospera), lies in a sheltered hollow, but commands
the low level country that stretches to the Severn Sea. Above it
stands a height crowned by an ancient
"
camp now called the Castle
Ditches. very spring-time glowing masses of golden gorse, while
!:

in autumn the red and

yellow of the bracken, and the olive-green of
"
countless blades of grass make of it " a miracle of colour. We hear
the dull boom, boom, boom, of the
angry waves as they break on those
Construcns in habitaculum, presule Dubricio designante
primis illico
cemiterii modum, ct in mcdio
oratorii f undamentum.
. . His designatis f undavit
.

ccclesiam munimine lapideo facto, et

quadrangular* super ambientem fossam."
Cambro-British Saints, pp. 163-4.
-
Th.-ro is a Hodnant also at S. David's, and another in the parish of Bryngwyn,
idnorshirc. The name would now be more regularly Hoddnant. The
hagiographcr treated the name as being compounded, apparently, of hawdd
hodd-io, and nant.
308 Lives of the British Saints

foam-fringed cliffs which guard the coast to east and west of Castle

Ditches, just as they were heard by those men who lived, laboured,
and taught here centuries ago. We see the white gulls circle round the
cliffs as if they were never weary of being on the wing ; we see the
blue dome above us With
the great clouds sailing majestically across ;

we see the ever-restless, ever-changing ocean, now blue, now purple,

now a mass of molten gold at sunset. All these things we see to-day,
and they gladden our hearts just as they gladdened the heart of Illtyd
'

when he rested from his journey, and the delightsome place pleased
him well/" 1 -

But Hodnant, or rather some part hard by, had, according to some
late documents printed in the lolo MSS., been previously occupied
by a School for Saints, called by the various names, Caer Worgorn,
Cor Tewdws, 2 and Cor Eurgain. 3 Some writers have located the
Romano-British city of Bomium or Bovium at Llantwit 4 while
others suppose it to have been at the village of Boverton, a mile
to the S.E., or at Cowbridge. But the college had been destroyed by
the Gwyddyl pirates, and when Illtyd settled there all was desolate.
That he was appointed over the college of Caer Worgorn by Germanus
of Auxerre is an error. His old master, the Armorican, may very
possibly have had something to do with its regulation, but we cannot
admit that he founded Llantwit, and placed Illtyd over it. 5
If we may trust thelolo MSS., 6 Illtyd' s congregation grew rapidly,
" "
and numbered three thousand saints or monks. Laus
at one time

perennis was kept up without cessation night and day.

7

It is stated in the Book of Llan Dav 8 that Illtyd was made abbot of
"
Llantwit by Dubricius, who, \ve are further informed,
S. visited the
residence of the blessed Illtyd, in the season of Lent, that he might
correct what wanted amendment, and confirm what should be ob-
9
served." It does not, however, appear that Celtic bishops had any

jurisdiction over the monasteries within their dioceses.

1
Fryer (A. C.), Llantwit Major, London, 1893, PP- 9-io. Leland, Collectanea,
"
1774, iv, p. 93, gives the following tradition Est etiam in ilia regione quidam
:

locus, vocatus vulgariter locus Scti. Iltuti, cujus precibus, ut fertur, obtinuit
a domino, ut nullum animal venenosum infra praecinctum illius parochiae esset,
nee ut animal hue usque visum est aliquod vivum, mortuum tamen dicitur illic."
2
The Cor Tewdws is marked on the Ordnance Map in a field to the
site of
north of the church, where the foundations of early buildings have been discovered.
See Rodger (J. W.), The Ecclesiastical Buildings of Llantwit Major (illustrated),
Cardiff, 1906.
3
pp. 416-7.
ii,
*
For the discovery of Roman remains in the neighbourhood of Llantwit,
see Arch. Camb., 1888, pp. 413-7 1894, pp. 253-5.
;
5
i". PP- 62-3.
6 7
Pp. 144, 149-51 Myv. Arch., p. 408.
8 *
P. 71 Vita S. Dubricii in ibid., p. 81.
 S. Illtyd 309
One day Meirchion, King Glamorgan, was hunting, when a fawn
of

h'\vas pursuing the cell of Illtyd, and the King, on

fled for refuge to

entering, saw the panting beast crouched at the feet of the abbot. He
did not venture to kill it, and Illtyd pacified Meirchion by the offer of a
meal, as he was hungry after his sport. The King, however, grumbled
at what was given to him, broiled fish, without bread and salt, and

r from the spring. However, he satisfied his cravings thereon,

and then lay down to sleep. On waking he was in a better temper,
and confirmed Illtyd in his holding of the Hodnant valley as his own,
1
and granted that he should make of it a tribal school. Illtyd kept
the fawn with him and tamed it to draw wood and do other light domes-

incident took place at an early period, before he had many

The
<1'.M When he had security of tenure, disciples flowed to him
iples.
"
from every quarter, among them men of good family. He cultivated
the land, he sowed and reaped, and lived by his labour. He had
labouring men to till the soil (operarios cultores) in the fields. Seed
multiplied, and toil met with abundant reward. ... He had a
hundred in his family, as many workmen and clerics, and poor, a
hundred <>f whom he fed daily at his board." 2 He had as scholars
on, Paul (of Le*on), Gildas and David.
3
He was accordingly
the first great Teacher of Saints in Wales.
He is thought to have had, at one time, under him Maelgwn, after-
\\ aids King of Gwynedd. Gildas, in his Increpatio, says to this prince,
Warnings are certainly not wanting to thee, since thou hast had as
instructor the refined teacher of almost the whole of Britain." 4 He
does not name Illtyd, but he very possibly may speak of him. Then
.iiul he would have been
fellow-pupils, and Gildas spoke from
wn knowledge when he described the excitement and pleasure
among the godly caused by Maelgwn's conversion, or the hopes it

inspired.
"
1
Vest rum gimnasium crit venerabile, tributarii tibi servient et omnes
indiijen;i'." Cambro-British Saints, p. 167. According to the local tradition,
" Golden "
Ilit
yd 's Stag is buried here somewhere, with his feet to the west,
and" when discovered great prosperity will come to Llantwit.
Ibiil.
In the Life of Paul the same are mentioned, but in that of Gildas David is
1

omitted. Stran^rlv, the former Life identifies Illtyd's monastery with a small
on the borders of Demetia, which was once called after Pyrus, but at the
:

time of writing after Illtyd. This would be Caldey Island, known in Welsh as
iVr (or Byr). On the difficulty raised, see Gildas, ed. H. Williams,
pp.
:and for the inscribed stone on Caldey, on which it has been suggested
;

Illtyd's name occurs, see Y Cymmrodor, xviii (1905), pp. 56-7, and Arch. Camb.,
1908, pp. 247-9; 1910, pp. 332-4.
4
Gildas. ed. H. Williams, p. 82.
 3 I o Lives of the British Saints

The property of Illtyd increased largely, and he was ordained priest.

Hard by, as already stated, had been the Romano-British city of
Bovium, and the Roman settlers had banked out the Severn tides from
the rich alluvial lands along the coast. But the sea-wall had given
way it had been neglected and left unrepaired, so that the high tides
:

overflowed. Illtyd employed his pupils and workmen in restoring the

banks with stone and clay. 1 But his first attempts were doomed to
failure three times did he repair the walls, and as often did the strong
;

tides, driven before a west wind, crumble his banks away. For awhile
his heart failed, and he meditated abandoning the flats. But he
recovered from his temporary discouragement, and a fourth attempt
proved successful.
In the meantime, his poor deserted wife, Trynihid, had been living
in involuntary widowhood, in a little retreat, where she spent her time
"
in good works. She prayed constantly, she was found blameless
and irreprehensible in her conversation, and lived devoutly, comfort-
ing innumerable widows and poor nuns in their vocation."
At length an irresistible longing came over her to see her husband
again and, leaving her retreat, she sought him out. On reaching
;

Llantwit, she saw a man working in the fields, lean, and with a dirty
face, and, going up to him, recognized Illtyd. In her delight at meet-
ing him once more she spoke and endeavoured to engage him in con-
versation but he turned his back on her, and refused to speak and to
;

answer her questions. He denied her the common kindness of a hos-

"
pitable lodging, and she went away sorrowful, looking as pale as if
she had suffered from a fever." 2 And they never met again.
King Meirchion had a steward named Cyflym, who grievously annoyed
Illtyd. He grudged his tenure of the rich pasture land by the Severn
without paying tax to the King, and took every occasion that offered
to vex the Saint. At length the annoyance became so intolerable that
Illtyd left, and spent rather over a twelvemonth in a cave at Lingarthic,.
on the river Ewenny, famous for its gwyniad, a salmon-like fish of
delicious flavour, deriving its name from the silvery brightness of
its scales.

1 "
Operatus est immensam fossam limo et lapidibus mixtam, quam retruderet
irruentem undam, quae solebat fluctuate ultra mensuram." Cambro-British
Saints, p. 168.
3 "
Interea visitare voluit Sanctum Iltutum, et iter capiens visitavit, ubr
operosum vidit fossorem per assidua fossura, lutulentum per faciem, macies
quoque tenuaverat faciei superficiem ;inquisivit ab eo suave colloquium,
displicuit inquisitio audienti, inquisitus nullum reddidit responsum. Reversa
. . .

est postea sic ante, nevis et pallore contexta, ac veluti febricitans pallida.'"
Ibid., p. 172.
 S. Illtyd 3 1 1

had not gone to a great distance, but he remained concealed

Illtyd
there, near the old Roman road
and probably Ewenny Priory after-
;

1
wards, early in the twelfth century, sprang up
on the site hallowed

by his
temporary stay.
was one day sunning himself outside his cave, and
\Yhilst there he

liinij tlu- travellers \vh<> went by to the bridge over the Ewenny

and Ogmore, when he heard the tinkle of a little bell, and presently a
man came in sight who carried in his hand one of those bronze angular
hells o mimon and it shone in the sun like gold. A bell
in Celtic lands,

exercised a peculiar fascination on a Celtic Saint, and he hasted to the

to look at what he carried, and sound it himself. His eyes sparkled
with delight, and his ears drank in the rich tones of the bell with
"
pleasure. He inquired whether it were for sale. Oh, no," replied
" been fashioned
the man, I am taking it to David in Menevia. It has

by his fellow pupil, and your old disciple, Gildas, and he sends it to
David as a present."
uetantlv the Saint surrendered the bell, and the man went on his
But when David heard the story, and knew that Illtyd had
" "
Hcd the hell and delighted in it, Go," said he, take it to my old
2
r from me. He shall possess it."

\ returned to his monastery. The

ear's retirement Illtyd

Cyilym was
.id now dead, but his successor, Cefygid, was even
worse disposed, and this man exercised great influence over Meirchion,
and embittered him against the abbot, so that, sorrowfully, Illtyd
had retire once more from his charge, and returned to his cave by
t

vennv, where he now spent three years.

On the death of the second steward, who perished miserably in cross-
ing a swamp, he returned to Llantwit, and thenceforth remained
unmolested.
that a famine was afflicting his native Armorica, as there
ll'-arini;

\\as abundance of corn in his granaries Illtyd ordered vessels to be

laden with as much as could be gathered together, and, along with these
>ni->hips. he >ailed for Brittany.
i-< The biographer says that he desired
to visit Monte Tumba, in Normandy, and the Church of S. Michael

thereon, hut this is an anachronism, as the supposed apparition of the

Archangel there did not take place till about 710, when Autbert, Bishop
ranches, pretended to have seen the vision, and erected the Church.
1
Turbervill, Ewenny Priory, London, 1901, p. 35.
*
Cambro-British Saints, p. 175. An ancient building at Llantwit, now used
town -hall, has in its belfry a bell inscribed, " Sancte Iltute, ora pro nobis."
The local tradition declares, but mistakenly, this bell to be the original bell
Saint. Edijar, when he invaded Glamorgan, carried his bell off, but after-
wards restored it.
312 Lives of the British Saints

Actually, Illtyd, we may be confident, landed in Leon, in the Aber-

Ildut, that bears his name to the present day, and he founded a church
near the mouth, Lanildut. But he probably did not stay there, as
no other traces of him are found in this neighbourhood.
He put off with his corn-ships again, and, coasting round the north
of Leon, entered the Jaudy, and floated up with the tide as far as La
Roche Derrien. From this point inland he has left several indications
of his presence. What the natives specially needed at the time was
seed-corn, and with this he provided them.
Their gratitude was great, and they urged him to remain in his native
land. This, however, he was unwilling to do, and after having dis-
charged the contents of his vessels, remaining perhaps over a couple
of winters, possibly even longer, he returned to Glamorgan.
This expedition to Armorica was purposed for some further object
than relieving the temporary needs of the people. The whole of the
peninsula was being rapidly colonised by settlers from Britain, and
Illtyd visited it to see whether there was a prospect there of founding

daughter-houses to Llantwit.
That he went into Cornugallia, or Cornouaille, appears certain, as
near Guemene, now in Morbihan, is a plou that bears his name, and a
plou implies the foundation of an eccesiastical or secular tribe. This
is Ploildut, now Ploerdut, and he is still culted there as patron. More-
over, in the Monts d* Aree is his peniti, or place of retreat from monastic
cares, Loc-Ildut in Sizun. Half-way between the plou and the peniti
isPleyben, a foundation of his great-uncle Germanus.
At last he resolved on returning to Glamorgan, greatly to the regret
"
of the people of Letavia. The citizens wished him not to go back,
but to remain in that country yet he would not stay there although
;

so greatly desired, and he chose to dwell in Britain, although an exile

from his paternal ancestors."
When well advanced in age, he became, however, impatient to be
back in the land of his birth, and to lay his bones there. Accordingly,
he again embarked, and landed in the Bay of Mont S. Michel. He
died, if we may trust the biography, at Dol. But Dol had not at that
time been founded by Samson, who was in Cornwall when the news
reached him of the decease of his old master. 1
The story as told in the Second Life of S. Samson is this : Whilst
Samson was in his monastery, apparently at Southill, in Cornwall, a

disciple of S. Illtyd came to him, who had himself formerly been a pupil
of Samson. The latter asked him how it fared with S. Illtyd, and
whether he was still alive.
1
Vita 2da S. Samsonis, ed. Plaine, c. 18.
 S. Illtyd 3 1
3

The monk replied that Illtyd had been ill and failing, when there
came to him two abbots to visit him, one named Isanus, and the other
"
Athoclus. When he saw them, the old man said to them, I rejoice

exceedingly to behold you, my brothers, for the time of my departure

draweth nigh, and my soul will soon rest with Christ. But, brethren,
be comforted, for the time of your own departure is not far distant.
At the third watch of the night, I, in your presence, shall be borne to
heaven by the hands of angels, and brother Isanus shall see the angels
in the form of golden angels carrying my soul away. And on the
fifteenth day following brother Athoclus shall pass to his rest, and

\i>u, Isanus, shall in like manner behold his soul borne away by angels
as eagles having feathers of lead. And after forty days shall Isanus
finish his course and go to Christ. But you, brother Atoclius (else-
where Athoclus), loved much the things of this world. On account of
yi ur avarice the angels will have leaden instead of golden wings. But
are clean, because you have lived a saintly life from your infancy,

only you are weighed down by your money-greed. God, however,

will purge this out of you."

a^ Illtyd had foretold, continued the monk, so was it.

i
At
the third watch of the night the old man passed away, and Isanus had
a vision of his spirit being borne to heaven amid
hymns, and attend-
ant crowds of angels.But as to the two abbots, Athoclus and Isanu?,
itwas with them as Illtyd had prophesied. Athoclus accordingly
must have died on November 21 Isanus, however, on December 16.
;

When Samson heard of the death of his old master, he "

said, The
Illtyd is now in possession of
soul of my venerable teacher eternal life,
where death never comes and has no power to hurt. Blessed is that
life in \\hich death fears the dead."
Whence the two abbots came we are not told, nor, what is more to
the point, where Illtyd was when he died. The monk who reported his
decease may have come from Brittany or from Wales.
:i is known
as having been a saint of the
college of Illtyd, and as
the founder of Llanishen, in
Glamorganshire, and of Llanishen, in
:!iontlishire. Athoclus, or Atoclius, cannot be traced. He is as
unknown to the Bretons as to the Welsh.
Perhaps his avarice stood
in the way of
popular canonization.
The death must have taken place before 546, which is the
of Illtyd
latest date to which can be attributed the
passage of Samson
into Armorica. It took place some time between and on 527 537,
1
inber 6.

1
In the I oh A/SS.,
p. 103, it is stated that he was succeeded in the abbacy by
.eino. the son of Caw ;
but he is
clearly confounded withPirus, head of Caldey.
314 Lives of the British Saints

Germ anus was probably in Wales in 462, but if he visited Illtyd

it must have been several years later. Arthur, Illtyd's cousin, is
supposed to have fallen in 537. Germanus, his master, died in 474.
His pupil Gildas deceased in 570 Paul in or about 567 Samson about
; ;

565. There is no mention in the Life of S. Illtyd of the Yellow Plague

which broke out in 547, but the deaths so quickly following each other
of Isan and Athoclus may possibly have been due to that.
There is a Welsh tradition that Illtyd died in Breconshire, where is
the Bedd Gwyl Illtyd.
At Llantwit is the very interesting inscribed stone of Illtyd, erected
by one Samson, the King, and covered with beautiful Celtic interlaced
work. The inscription on it runs -f- ILTUTI SAMSON REGIS SAMUEL
: : :

+ EBISAR +
and on the reverse
; :
+
SAMSON POSUIT HANC
CRUCEM +
P RO ANMIA EIUS +- 1 It belongs to a period a century
or two later than Illtyd.
The memory of Illtyd is honoured by the Welsh on account of his
having introduced among them an improved method of ploughing.
Before his time they were accustomed to cultivate the ground with the
mattock and the over-treading plough (aradr arsang), implements
which the compiler of a Triad 2 upon husbandry observes were still
in use among the Irish. In another Triad 3 he is said to have been one
" "
of the three Knights of the Court of Arthur who kept the Greal
(the Holy Grail), the other two being S. Cadoc and Peredur
"
Mr. Ernest Rhys, in an article entitled, A Knight of the Sangreal," 4
"
observes S. David's not excepted, I know of no village or town
:

that has quite as individual an air of antiquity under antiquity as

Llantwit Major still wears. You cannot turn anywhere but some
decorative angle of a wall, or half-obliterated foundation, or garden
returned to nature and wildness, offers you the clue that you would
give your whole bookshelf of antiquity to be able to take. However,
it is still your romance-books that must help you to disinter this

Pompeii of the Saints and the original knights-errant. Their dis-

tinctive scenery, their interest of place, their succession of hermit-
cwm, forest waste, and miraculous seaside bringing strange vessels to
land, recur at every step through the confines of the ancient demesne
of Illtyd. If you leave the point in the graveyard, near the old cross,
where his wheel-cross stood, and climb the bank above the Hodnant
1
For the inscribed and sculptured stones at Llantwit, see Mr. Romilly Allen's
paper in Arch. Camb., 1889, pp. 118-26, and Sir J. Rhys's, ibid., 1899, pp.
1
47-5 5 (both illustrated).
z
Myv. Arch., p. 406.
8
Ibid., p. 411.
4
Nineteenth Century and After, Jan., 1904, pp. 90-7.
 S. Illtyd 315
cross a grass meadow
to the old gatehouse, and the columbarium, you
then, which is full of buried traces of the grange and outer walls and
buildings of his mediaeval successors. Then you can cross it to the
traditional road to the sea, where the brook flows out
through Colhugh
through the smooth pastures
haunted by the sea-mews and so often
old poets and romancers, to a sea-coast, wild
fondly described by the
and rock-built, and pierced with innumerable caverns.
There
rarely
is the very seaside of the Grail histories. ... If you look behind the
histories of the Sangreal
you very like that of the Han-
find a scenery

twit region, and a disappearing figure of a knight very like that of

'
"
Illtyd Farchog.'
A great number of churches are dedicated to Illtyd in Wales
Llaiuv.it Major (Llanilltyd Fawr), Newcastle, Llanharry, Llantrithyd,
Llantrisant (with SS. Gwyno and Tyfodwg), Llantwit Vardre (Llan-
illtyd Faerdie, formerly one of the five capellce under Llantrisant),.
I. hint wit-jnxta-Neath (Llanilltyd Fach, or Glyn Nedd), under Neath,.
Oxuich. Ilston (contracted from Iltwitston, formerly called Llan-
illtyd Ciwyr). all in Glamorganshire Llanhilleth, in Monmouthshire ;
;

in Carmarthenshire Llantood (the Llantwyd of the Valor

;

>f 15.0), under S. Dogmael's, in Pembrokeshire ; Llanilltyd (otherwise

Illtyd). and Llanhamlach (with S. Peter), in Breconshire ; and Llan-
1
elltvd. in Merionethshire.
was discovered in the nave of Oxwich Church in
puldiral slab
"
I
hearing an inscription which has been read thus Hie jacet :

" 2
Ovomlain Rector Ecce J[ltvti] S[ancti] Pivs which con- ,

firms the dedication of the Church to S. Illtyd.

the Breconshire Llanilltyd Church (situated on Mynydd

.1

Illtyd, and originally in the parish of Devynock) is the Bedd Gwyl

Ilit yd mentioned above. Tradition has it that he lived, died, and was
buried in this hamlet. The Bedd is a small tumulus within a much-
oyed rectangular enclosure, near a pool on the mountain. It is
;
i

"
-aid to have received the name, the Grave of S. Illtyd's Festival,"
Irom its having been a custom to watch there formerly on the Vigil
3
of the Saint's day.

Ty Illtyd (his House) is the name of a well-known cromlech, or cham-

d cairn, on a hillock on Manest Farm, in the parish of Llanham-

There can be no doubt as to the dedication of this church to the great

1

:UT of Saints. Kdward Lluyd, in his notes (1699) on the parish, says, " Of
Klltyd they have no more to say than that he was Elldyd Farchog." The parish-
name is spelt " Llanvlltvd " and " Llaunvlldit " in the Record of Caernarvon,
" "
pp. 200, 277, and Llanilltid on the chalice (1591-2).
1
Davies (J. D.), West Gower, pt. iv (1894), pp. 130-1
(sketched).
3
Jones (Theo.), Breconshire, ed. 1898, p. 501 ;
Arch. Camb., 1853, p. 326.
 3 1 6 Lives of the British Saints

lach, about four miles from Brecon. The chamber has been denuded
of the cairn which once covered it, exposing the large flat slabs of stone
forming the sides and roof.
It received its appellation from a popular idea that the saint had
made it his hermitage. There are several small incised crosses carved
on the slabs. l There formerly stood within a few paces of it a stone
called Maen
Illtyd, and a little distance off is Ffynnon Illtyd, the stream
of which divides the parish from Llansantffraid. At Llanwonno, in
Glamorganshire, is another Ffynnon Illtyd. S. Illtyd's Well at
Llandridian, in Gower (apparently Llanrhidian), is said to have given
forth a copious stream of milk in 1185. 2
There is a poem extant written in his honour by Lewys Morganwg
3

(ftor. c. 14601520). It is for the most part a versification of the Latin

Life. Of his life on the bank of the Hodnant it says :

The fasting and penance of his faith

Would he, bare-headed, daily undergo ;

And each night, in a cold spring,

Would he remain naked a whole hour.

He cultivated his own land, and the sea once overflowed it ;

but

The sea did he so manfully,

With his staff, compel to retreat,
That the tide would not ascend the Dawon
Where his staff had been placed.

The Meirchiaunus, or Meirchion (i.e., Marcianus) of the Vita is here

called Marsianws, according to the later pronunciation.
" "
One of the Sayings of the Wise triplets runs 4 :

Hast thou heard the saying of Illtyd,

The studious, golden torqued knight,
"
Whoso doeth evil, evil betide him."
(A wnel ddrwg drwg a'i dylud).

In Cornwall there are but faint traces of Illtyd. A chapel dedicated

to him formerly existed at S. Dominick. 5

1
Westwood, Lapidarium Watties, p. 67 Arch. Camb., 1867, PP- 347~55 ;

{illustrated in both) 1903, p. 173

; ibid.,Jones (Theo.), ut supra, p. 452. Giral-
;
"
dus Cambrensis, Itin. Camb., i, c. 2, records the tradition that Illtyd led the
"
life of a hermit here. With the name Ty Illtyd compare the Breton dolmen-
"
name, Ty Sant Heleau, S. Teilo's House," at Landeleau, in Finistere.
2
Annales de Margan in Annales Monastici, Rolls, 1864, i, p. 18. There is a
" "
somewhere near Neath Birch, Neath Abbey, p. 250.
S. Illtyd's Brook ;

3
Printed in lolo MSS., pp. 292-5. The MS. from which it was taken is
Llanover MS. B. i
(c. 1670), where it occurs at ff. 6oa-6ib. There is a copy
.also in Llanstephan MS. 47 (c. 1630).
4
lolo MSS., p. 252.
6
Oliver, Monasticon Dioc. Ex., p. 438.
 S. ILLTYD.
Statue at Locildut, Sizun.
 S. Illtyd 317
In Brittany he is patron of Landebaeron, in C6tes-du-Nord, where a
portion of his skull
is preserved of Coadout, and Trogueris, and
;

S. Ideuc and in Finistere of Lanildut.

;
He has also chapels at Loc-
I Mut, in Sizun, and he is honoured in the Lande of Plouguiel. There
fifteenth century statue of At Coadout is a him at Loc-Ildut.

dolmen, destroyed in 1863, except for three stones, one of which is

much polished. On this, according to local tradition, S. Illtyd and
S. Brioc were wont to meet and pray together, and it contains hollows

Mipposed to have been worn by his knees. To him is also dedicated

1
S. Ideuc, Ille-et-Vilaine.
11 ic day on which was November 6. His festival, strange
Illtyd died
to say, occurs in but few Welsh calendars. It is in those in Cotton.
A. xiv, andAllwydd Paradwys (1670) and in Nicolas Roscarrock,
.

"
en X- vmlKT f>. Whytford, on the same day, has,
>\ In Englond y e feest
of Saynt Yltute, cosyn vnto Kyng Arthur & a seculer knyght, that
w< >rldly pompe & was a religyous man, of hygh per-
'

\ i 1

feccyon & many myracles." In the fifteenth century MS. Missal

^uicr and the Breviary of Leon, 1516, on November 7 but in ;

tin-
Quimper Breviary of 1835 on November 6. In the Leon Breviary
I 73^ on November 14 and in an unofficial Heures Bretonnes, of the
;

nth century, on November 6. Browne Willis 2 gives the same

day for his festival at
Llanelltyd, Merionethshire. Edward Lhuyd,
however, says that they kept their Gwyl Mabsant there on
vphen's Day.
The dates in the Life of S. Illtyd can only be fixed conjecturally.

U
born about the year 450
uiu
disciple of G<?rmanus of Armorica about . .
460
I. rit him wlu-n Grnnanus returned to
Britain circa . .
462
a kin-lit ami married , 472
averted by S. Cadoc and founded Llantwit .
476
R.-tirrd t.. th. banks of the
Ewenny, and Samson made abbot
provisionally
Kt tunn-d to LLintwit
l-t \\vi-n
.

and Samson
77 and 87
. .

left
.

...
. . .

527-537
521
525

v Illtyd is invoked in the Celtic Calendar of the tenth

century in
the Library of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury. 3

1
De Corson, Pouillt de Rennes. vi, p. 80. In eleventh and twelfth centuries
Eccl. Sti. Idoci.
'cy of Bangor, 1721, p. 277.
*
Revue Celtique, 1888. p. 88.
3 I 8 Lives of the British Saints

S. INA

IT is usual to regard the church of Llanina, in Cardiganshire, as

dedicated to the famous warrior, legislator, and ecclesiastical benefac-
tor, Ina, Ine, or Ini, King of the West Saxons, who died at Rome
about 727, but apart from his fame we can find no ground for its dedi-
cation to him. Indeed, there is an antecedent improbability in a
Saxon King's having a dedication in so purely Welsh a district.
According to the Progenies Keredic in Cotton. MS. Vesp. A xiv,
Ceredig ab Cunedda Wledig had a daughter named Ina. Her name, it
is true, does not occur in the
genealogies of the Welsh Saints, but she
belonged to a great saintly tribe, and her father was allotted Ceredigion,
in which Llanina is situated, on the conquest of Wales by the sons of
Cunedda. It is more than probable that the church is dedicated to
her.
In the Demetian Calendar (S) February i is entered as the festival of
Ina Farchog, or the Knight, and Browne Willis x gives the same day for
the parish feast at Llanina. The West Saxon King, however, is com-
memorated on February 6 but his reputation, no doubt, accounts for
;

the appellation.
" "
Offeringes in the name of devoc'on were made to S. Ina at
Llanina Church in the latter part of the sixteenth century. 2 In the
sea, not far from the church, is a rock called Carreg or Craig Ina.
The name Ina is rather rare, but we have it in Llwyn Ina, Ina's

Forest, which mentioned in a Glamorgan grant in the Book of Llan

is
3
Ddv, and in Gwaun Ina, Ina's Meadow, in the parish of Llangwyfan,
Denbighshire.

S. INDRACT, Martyr
THE story as given by William of Malmesbury is to this effect :

Indract was the son of an Irish King, and he, with his sister Dominica,
and nine companions, started on a pilgrimage across the sea. They
got as far as the mouth of the Tamar, where they settled, and lived

together for some time in prayer and strictness of life. Indract planted
his staff in the ground, and it took root, and became a mighty oak.

1
Parochiale Anglic., 1733, p. 194. So also Meyrick in his Cardiganshire,
1808, p. 46.
*
Harleian MS. 6998, fo. 19.
*
P. 258. On p. 127 Ina occurs as the name of a layman.
 S. Indract 319
He also made a pond, from which he daily drew fish, probably salmon,
l..r his little community.
One day he discovered that a member of his society had privily
carried off a fish for his private consumption, in addition to the regular
meals. After this the supply failed, and Indract deemed it advisable
to leave. What apparently took place was a quarrel among the
members over the weir in the Tamar, which grew so hot that the con-

gregation separated into factions,

and one under Indract left. He
on to Rome, visited the tombs of the apostles, and then retraced
and in course of time reached the neighbourhood of Glaston-
1'111-V.

The little party lodged at Sliapwick, when one of the officials of King
i named Horsa, supposing that the pilgrims had money, fell on them
na,

by ni.Ljht, murdered the entire party, and carried off whatever he could
lay hands on. , jf
"
Ina at the time had his court at Pedrot." Being unable to
<luiing the night, he went forth, and saw a column of light stand-
ing over Sliapwick. Probably Horsa had set fire to the cottage of
wattle> in which wore his victims.
t
day Ina heard of the tragedy and ordered the removal of the
bodies to Glastonbury, which he was refounding. Whether the mur-
derer was punished we are not told. According to this legend the
i Mk place about 710.
difficulties in the story. How could the early part of the
history of the slaughtered men become known,
as all had been mas-
No >nch a person as Indract, son of a King in Ireland, is known
1 ?

in Iri>h
history. The name is, however, found as that of the twenty-
first abbot of lona, who was in office in
849, in which year he trans-
ported the relics of S. Columba to Ireland. 1 The Annals of Ulster
hat he was killed
by the Saxons on March 12, 854.2 We are not
'

ned where he was slain, and it is probable that this is the Indract <

William of Malmesbury's legend.

Nothing more likely than that
:

after having been abbot for a while, the desire came on him to visit the

holy sites, and that for this purpose he traversed Wessex, and halted in
Cornwall where the British ,
tongue was spoken. The massacre cannot
been complete some of the
pilgrims must have escaped, and the
;

matter was brought to the ears, not of Ina, but of Ethelwulf, the father
of Alfred the Great.

1
Reeves, 5. Columba, Edinburgh, 1874.
1
Annals
of the Four Masters in 852 Annals of I nis fallen, 840. The Irish form
;

of the name is Indreachtach

Hy Finachtain. It is thought that he was at one
time Abbot of iomkmderry.

:
320 Lives of the British Saints

That Indract did visit Cornwallis shown by the church of Landrake

bearing his name (Lan Indract), and by the existence of his chapel and
holy well at Halton, in his sister's foundation, S.Dominick on the Tamar,
Some fragments of the chapel remain with fine ilex trees by it, conceiv-
ably scions of that tree which William of Malmesbury tells us existed
in his day, and was held to have originated out of the staff of the saint.
The Holy Well is in good order, and, though possessing no architectural
beauty, is
picturesquely situated under a large cherry tree. The water
is of excellent quality and is unfailing. Water for baptisms in
S. Dominick is drawn from this well, although situated at a consider-
able distance from the parish church.
Dr. Oliver gives the chapel as dedicated to S. Ilduict. 1 This is one
of his many blunders. The MS.
Bishop Stafford's Register, from
of
"
which he drew his information, gives the chapel as that Sancti
Ildracti." Ildract is, of course, Indract (March 6, 1418-9), but in this>

entry the mistake is made by the Registrar of making the Saint a

Confessor instead of a Martyr.
Landrake in Bishop Stapeldon's Register, 1327, is Lanracke. In
Domesday it is RicAn. It is now popularly called Larrick. The church
is supposed to be dedicated to S. Peter, and the village feast is held on

June 29, S. Peter's day. The name, however, and the situation, near
S. Dominick, favour the idea that it was a foundation of S. Indract.

The day of SS. Indract and Dominica, according to Whytford and

2 "
Wilson, is May 8. William of Worcester says, Sanctus Indractus
martir et confessor die 8 Maii, jacet apud Shepton per 5 milaria de
Glastynbery cum sociis suis centum martiribus."
The Bollandists give February 5, on the worthless authority of
Challoner. But May 8 is the day in the Altemps thirteenth century
Martyrology, and in the fifteenth century Norwich Martyrology
(Cotton. Julius B vii), and in Capgrave.
MS.
In Art, Indract should be figured as a pilgrim with a salmon in his
hand, and a staff that is putting forth oak leaves.

S. IOUGUIL, or IOUIL, see S. LLYWEL

S. ISAN, Abbot, Confessor

THE parentage of this Saint is not known. In the- lolo MSS. 3 he
is said to have been a Saint or monk of Bangor IJItyd, i.e., Llantwit.
1
Monasticon Exon., 2 a P. 107.
p. 438. Itin., p. .150.
 S. Isho 321
with another abbot,
very probably the abbot Isanus, who,
is
1
visit to S. before his death. See under S. ILLTYD,
paid a yd just
lit I

Isan is believed to be the patron of Llanisen or Llanishen, in Glamor-

ganshire. A church of the same name in Monmouthshire is also prob-
2
a!>lv dedicated to him. It is given in the Book of Llan Ddv as Lann
:\, and also as Lann Nissien. The Norman ecclesiastics read into

the name
that of Dionysius or Denis. In a Tintern charter the Mon-
" "
mouthshire church occurs as the Church of Dionysius of Lanissan ;

" "
whilst the Glamorgan one is probably the Capella de Sancti Dionysii
(sic) of the Tewkesbury charter
of 1180. It is said that there are re-

mains of a Capel Denis which may mark an earlier

in the latter parish,
site of the church. 3 both churches as dedicated
Browne Willis gives
to S. Denis, 4 but he does not assign a festival day. Most probably
tlir
Apostle and Patron of France, on October 9, is intended.
A Lann Issan or Yssan, in the Hundred of Rocse, Pembrokeshire,
was claimed by the Bishops of Llandaff as belonging to that see. 6 This
church, h>\\wer, is identified with S. Ishmael's.
Isan's festival is not entered in the Welsh calendars. Abbot Isan
died on December 16.

S. ISHO, or ISSUI, Martyr

THIS saint is the patron of Patrishow or Patricio, subject to Llanbedr

Ystradyw, in Breconshire. The earliest form under which the church

name occur- ifi M rthir Issiu, in the twelfth centuryBook of Llan Ddv*
which records its consecration by Bishop Herewald (1056-1103) but ;

in more recent times Pertrissw (Peniarth MS. 147),

it was called
l\irtrisw(3/yi'. Jrc/?.),and Llanysho (1555), among other forms. The
remote, curious little church, with its three stone altars, is of very great
7
ecclesiological interest.
1
Vita 2da S. Samsonis, ed. Plaine, c. 18 Mabillon, Acta SS. (O.S.B.), i, p. 168.
;

Pp. 241-2, 3 jr. The name, with the honorific prefix to or ty, seems to be
the Tinysan or Tanasan of the same work The Mabinogi
(see index, p. 420).
of BraNuvn nu-nti.ms Ni^im and Efnissicn. the two half-brothers of Bran

'hurches of
Llandaff, Aberdare, 1907, pp. 52, 150-1 ; Cardiff Records,
v. pp.
>':.
Anglic., p. 206 ;
Llandaff. append., p. 2.
*
Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 56, 62, 124, 255, 287. P. 279.
It has bi-i-n ck scribed and illustrated in Arch. Camb. for 1902, pp. 98-102.
and iK) 4 "
.
pp. 4 ,, /,
4 ;
a'so in A
Short Account of the Church of ishow the
Martyr," 1907, by Mr. K. Baktr-Gabb.
VOL. III. v
322 Lives of the British Saints

There can be very little doubt, we think, that the first part of the
parish-name stands for Merthyr, but the change of initial m to p in
Welsh is very unusual. 1 As for the Saint's name, the Book of Llan
Ddv spelling, Issiu, must be for Issui, which would naturally become
Isswy, Isso, and Isho. Common spellings of the name are Ishow and

Ishaw, but more correctly it should be Isho.

There is no record whatever as to Isho's parentage ; and the only
name that suggests to us for a possible equation is that of Yse,
itself

whom William of Worcester and Leland 2 give as one of the children of

Brychan, and by whom is evidently intended the patron of S. Issey,
Mevagissey (i.e. SS. Meva and Issey), in Cornwall. But the early
Episcopal Registers give Ida or Itha, an Irish saint, as patroness of
S. Issey, which name seems to be a corruption of S. Itha. See under
that Saint's name.
The little that is known
of Isho is derived from the local tradition,
which we give words of Theophilus Jones, the historian of the
in the
3 "
county It: is stated that he was a holy man, who led a religious life

in this retired spot and his little oratory upon the bank of a small rivulet
called Nant Mair, or Mary's Brook, which runs at the bottom of the hill
on which the church is built that having long lived in high estimation
;

among the natives, whom he instructed in the principles of Christianity,

he was at length murdered by an ungrateful traveller who had been
hospitably received and entertained by him in his humble cell. A
small cavity scooped out in the side of a bank, and walled with stone,
but open in front, is still pointed out as the chapel, or as others say, the
well of Saint Ishaw if either, it was the latter, as the space is by no
;

means calculated for the offices of a chapel, and besides in the back,
close to the ground, is an aperture evidently intended for the admission
of water. In the walls are several small niches, formed, apparently,
for the reception of oblations from pious votaries."
4
Richard Fenton, who visited Patrishow in 1804, wrote in his diary :

"
Below the church saw the sainted well of Ishaw, being a very scanty

1
A converse instance occurs to us in Postyn, the old form of the name of a
township of Llansannan, which has been altered, by faJse analogy, to Mostyn.
The interchange of m and b in We'sh is, however, quite common maban baban, ;

menyw benyw, etc. Possibly Merth'risho first became Bartrisho, and the B
was afterwards provected, as in Potfari for Bodfari, etc.
2
See i, M. J. Loth, in Revue Celtique, xxix. (1908), p. 307, suggests
pp. 318-9.
that Issiu may have been the same as the Breton Saint Igeau of Pligeau, which
is very improbable. Browne Wi.lis's dedicaton of the church to S. Patricius
(Paroch. Anglic., p. 181) is, of course, a mere guess.
3
Breconshire, ed. 1898, p. 377. The first edition of this work appeared in
three parts in 1805-9.
4
Theophilus Jones : his Life, etc., ed. Edwin Da vies, Brecon, 1905, p. 145-
 S. Ismael 323
oozing of water, to which, however, was formerly
attributed great

virtue, as within the building that encloses it there are little niches to
hold the vessels drank out of and the offerings they left behind/' It
is a little rectangular well, walled in on three sides, and arched over.

Willis, as quoted by Theophilus Jones, says that the festival day

1
of Isho was October 30, and this is the day Rees gives.

S. ISMAEL, Bishop, Confessor

2
ACCORDING to the Life of S. Oudoceus Ismael was the son of Budic
or Buddig, the son of Cybrdan, of Cornugallia or Cornouaille. Budic
was forced by some dynastic revolution to quit his native country,
"
and he came with his fleet to the region of Dyfed in the time of Aircol
Lawhir. who was King thereof." He was hospitably received, and
making his abode in Dyfed, he married Anauved, daughter of Ensic or
r>yllt ab 1
Iyd\\ n I )wn (the father also of S. Teilo) by Guenhaf, daughter
of Livonui. The children by the marriage were SS. Ismael, Tyfei,
and Oudoceus (Euddogwy).
!er some years had elapsed ambassadors came to Budic from

Cornouaille announcing the death of the king, and that the people,
"
wi>hin.Li to elect a successor of the royal progeny," had in council
made choice of him, and were desirous that he should immediately
eminent. The proposal was accepted, and Budic,
g with him his wife and family, returned to his native land, and
established his dominion over the whole of Armorica, " which in his
tune extended as far as the
Alps."
I-mael lias nothing to do with the
Jewish name Ishmael. It is a
fosxiii/rd Old-Welsh form, and would now have been Ysfael, which
a e tu ally occurs as the name of a stream in
Llanddarog, near Carmar-
then. It is found in a still older form as
Osmail, the name of one of
the sons of Cunedda Wledig, which appears in the Life of S. 3
Carannog
as Nmael.
iael and his brothers returned to Wales. He is mentioned in the
)avid 4
t
as a disciple of that Saint, and was with him in Hod-
S. I

nant. founding his

monastery, when he was encountered by Boia.
Welsh Saints, p. 308.
1

of Han Ddv, p. 130.

'
1
Book For other Ismael names, see its index, p. 406.
The \\VKl, know nothing of Ismael.
1
Comoro-British Saints, p. 101 Owen's Pembrokeshire, i. p. 296.
;
4
Cambro-British Saints, p. 124; Giraldus,
Opera, iii,.p. 387.
324 Lives of the British Saints

From the Life of S. Teilo 1

we also learn that the three brothers were
and subsequently of Teilo. On the decease of
disciples of Dubricius,
"
David, Teilo consecrated his nephew bishop, and sent him to take

charge of the church of Menevia."

All the churches dedicated to S. Ismael are situated in Pembroke-
shire, with the exception of Llanishmael or S. Ishmael's, near Kidwelly,
in Carmarthenshire. In Pembrokeshire there are Camrose, Rose-
market, S. Ishmael's in Roose (under Hasguard), and Uzmaston. To
him is also very probably dedicated Haroldston S. Issel's (or East)
in the same country. The S. Issel's here stands apparently for
S. Israel's. The Issel, patron of S. Issell's near Tenby (called in Welsh
Llan or Eglwys Usyllt), is, however, Usyllt, the father of S. Teilo. 2

S. Ishmael's in Roose was formerly known in Welsh as Llan (or

"
Eglwys) Ysmael. As Eglwys Ysmael it is given as one of the Seven
" "
Bishop's Houses in Dyfed and it is laid down that the abbot of
;

Ysmael should be graduated in literary degrees." 3 In the Book of

4
Llan Ddv Lann Yssan or Issan occurs among the possessions of the
Bishops of Llandaff in Roose. There can be no doubt that by it is
meant S. Ishmael's. With Isan and Ismael may be compared the
fuller forms of the names of SS. Cadoc and Brioc.
The festival of S. Ismael, June 16, seems to occur only in the Calendar
in Cotton. MS. Vesp. A. xiv. Browne Willis 5
gives June 25 as his
festival day at Uzmaston.

S. ISSEL, see S. USYLLT

S. ITHA, or ITA, Virgin, Abbess

THIS very remarkable woman was the Brigid of Munster, and the
spread of her cult in Devon and Cornwall shows that there must have
been communities of women in ancient Dumnonia under her rule,
and affiliated to the mother-house at Killeedy. This leads to the sur-
mise that a migration of the Hy Connaill may have led to a settlement

1
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 115.
2
Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, pp. 307-8.
3
Aneurin Owen, Welsh Laws, Rolls, 1841 (folio), p. 273. On p. 794 it is
" "
Lan Yssan in Ros." Cf. the Record of Caernarvon, p. 189, Sci Ismahelis ".
"
Giraldus, Itin. Camb., i, c. u, speaks of S. Caradog's religious life apud Sanctum
Hysmaelem, in Rosensi provincia."
3
Pp. 56, 62, 124, 255. Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 177*
 S. Itha 325
in these parts, a surmise strengthened by the fact of inscribed stones
bearing Kerry names being found in Devon.
According to William of Worcester, the body of S. Ida lay at S. Issey,
and he adds that she was a martyr. It is probable that this fifteenth
century writer made hasty notes only during his flying visit to Cornwall,
.tin! that he fell into an error through carelessness in calling her a

martyr. That presumed relics of S. Issey may have been shown at

ey is probable enough, but it is not probable that they were
line.

In the Moniisticon Dr. Oliver was guilty of a mistake. He misread,

<>r misunderstood, Bishop Stafford's entry relative to Egloscruc, or
ml supposed that it referred to Egloskerry, and accordingly
SS. Ida and Lidy patronesses of the latter church, and, further,
blundered in making S. Filius patron of S. Issey, in place of Philleigh,
which was anciently Eglosros. He has been followed by Mr. Cope-
1, ind Borlase, who had not the means of discovering the errors. These
U-rn pointed out by Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph in his
lit ion of
Bishop Stafford's Register, p. 316. In Bishop Bronescombe's
NT i.r 1
259 (p. 250), S. Issey is indicated as dedicated to S. Ida.
In Bishop (irandisson's Register the church is "Sanctelde," 1330, 1334,
'
'
Ida," 1362. The church when visited by the Bishop in 1331
" " "
possessed an Antiphonarium, cum Legenda ; also Legenda Sanc-
torum competens praeterquam in principio, quod est corruptum."
Ecton in his Thcsunrns gives S. Esye als. Issye als. Ithy als.
k.

Ida is the Latin form of Itha.Itha became corrupted into Ithey,

and then into The Manor, however, retained the title unchanged
Issey.
iid extruded
through a part of the parish and also into those
-t Little Petherick, S. Ervan, S. Breock, Padstow, and Mawgan. Near
the church of Little Petherick, in
Lysons' time, were the ruins of a
'

S. Ida.

h, pronounced Teth, is another corruption of S. Itha.

S.

9 of S. Ita exist in the Bodleian Library, Rawlins, B. 505,

pp. 164-70 and in the so-called Codex Kilkenniensis in
;
Bishop
Mush's Library, Dublin, foil. 110-3. Colgan has published a Life in
vs\ Hibcrn.. Vita S. Ita sive
Mida, Jan. 16, and this has been
reproduced in the Ada SS. Boll., \.
pp. 1062-8. She is mentioned in
the Life of S. Brendan of Clonfert, and in that of S. Aidan or Moedoc

Itha was a daughter of the who had been

royal house of the Deisi,
expelled from Meath in the third century by Cormac Mac Airt, and
obliged to find new homes. One portion of the tribe, under Eochaid.
326 Lives of the British Saints

crossed into South Wales and settled there, but another migrated to
the South of Ireland and occupied the present county of Waterford.
Itha was the child of Cenfoelad Mac Cormac, and of Necht, and was
lineally descended from Conn of the Hundred Battles, King of Ireland
123-57.
Her birth took place about 480, and as her parents were Christians,
she was baptised, and given the name of Dairdre, which was Latinized
into Dorothea. She acquired the nick-name of Ith later, on account of
" "
her thirst for the living water of heavenly truth.
She had two sisters whose names have been preserved Necht, who :

married Beoan, and became the mother of S. Mochoemog or Pulcherius ;

and Fina, who is numbered among the Saints. In the Life of S. Fintan
of Dunbleisc (Doone in Limerick) we are told that his mother's sister
was S. Fina, but his mother and Fina are said to have been daughters of

Artgail.
From an early age Itha had made up her mind to embrace the monas-
tic life. This was not at all in accordance with her father's purpose,
who had made arrangements for her marriage. When Itha learned his
" "
intentions, she refused food, and fasted against her own father, who
was by this means compelled to give way. 1
She then received the veil at some church not specified, in the pre-
sent county of Waterford, and departed into the territory of the Hy
Luachra or Hy Connaill, that is to say, into the present county of
Limerick, where she settled under the slopes of the Mullaghareick
chain, at a place called Cluain-Credhail, that is now known as Killeedy,
or the Cell of Ida. She had several devout women as companions, and
there she formed a college.
The Life passes abruptly from the early days of Itha, and her taking
the veil, to when she is an Abbess at Killeedy, but from an incident that
occurs in the narrative we conclude that for a while she had been under
the Abbess Cainreach at Clonburren, in Roscommon. The incident is

as follows :

One day Aengus, Abbot of Clonmacnois, sent a priest to celebrate

the Eucharist and communicate the congregation of S. Itha. After-
wards the holy woman bade her disciples fold up and pack the vest-
ments in which the priest had celebrated, and send them with his bag-
gage as a present to Clonmacnois. The demurred he had been
priest ;

instructed by his Abbot to receive nothing in return for the service

"
rendered. Then Itha quieted his scruples by saying, Long ago, your
Abbot Aengus visited the convent of the holy virgin Chinreach. I
was there at the time. Chinreach washed the feet of Aengus, and wiped.
Colgan, Ada SS. Hibern., Vita S, I tee, c. iv, p. 66.
1
 S. Itha 327
till-in with a towel. I at the time was by, kneeling and holding part of

tlu' towel, and I helped to dry his feet. Tell him that. He will be
.1, and not reject the little present
now offered with all my heart."
Tlii- is the sole intimation that we have of Itha having passed any time

with S. Cainreach of Clonburren. who is meant by Chinreach. 1

The district occupied by the Hy Connaill Gabhra, among whom Itha
made her abode, comprised the baronies of Conello and Glenquin. She
mii-thave been invited thither, as the chief of the clan at once gave her
land-, and would have granted her more, but she refused to receive
them. She needed sufficient to maintain her establishment in neces-
l.ut not in wealth. The Hy Connaill chose her to be their tribal
Saint, to bless their undertakings, and to curse their enemies, as well as
to mulei take the education of their daughters.
To impress the imaginations of the rude natives, she had recourse to
great austerities, and acquired the repute of being able to perform
and to have the gift of prophecy.
Ainon- tho-M- who lived with her was her sister Necht. Itha had
engaged a skilful carpenter, Beoan, to construct a church for her, and
'on pert eived that a flirtation was in progress between the artificer

and Net ht. Like a sensible woman, she at once favoured the mutual
had no vocation for
iiment. having satisfied herself that her sister
and she saw that they were married respectably. 2
life,

It;: olved not to yield to the temptation of making the com-

inunitv wealthy, and she constantly refused presents made to it. One
\hen a rich man
pressed gold into her hands, she rejected it, and
"
wherewith to wash off the soil of filthy lucre. What
" "
;t I to do with the money ? asked the man. Use it aright," was
"
Gold may help you to make a display, or, on the other
io relieve distress." 3

She maintained an affectionate regard forS. Ere, who placed the little
Ian with her to be mused, till he was five or six
years old. Bren-
dan remained warmly attached to his foster-mother, and consulted her
i One day, when she was an old woman and he in
his difficulties,

com manhood, he asked her what three things, in her opinion,

must pleasing to God. "
She promptly replied, Resignation to
Divine "
the will, simplicity, and largeheartedness." And what,"
ndan further, " is most hateful to God ? " " Churlishness, a
!

.!. and ureed after 4

gain." was her reply.
There was another community of religious women at no
great

, Ada SS. Hibern., Vita S. /to, c. xvii.

1
Ibid., c. xv. Their child was S. Mochoemog or Pulcherius.
Ibid., c. xviii. Ibid., c. xix.
328 Lives of the British Saints

distance. This society was thrown into confusion by the fact of a

theft having taken place among the maidens, and suspicion rested
on one of them, who steadfastly protested her innocence. The superior,
unable to get at the bottom of the mystery, proposed that all should
go to Killeedy and visit S. Itha. This they accordingly did, and
on arriving kissed the saint, with the exception of the girl who was
accused of the theft, and who shyly held back. Itha fixed her eyes
"
intently on her and said Kiss me, my child, your face proclaims
your innocence." She then privately informed the superior that
her suspicions rested on a bold, pert girl, who had already got into
trouble about some other matter. On investigation, the stolen
article was found in the possession of her whom Itha had indicated. 1
A widow named Rethna lived somewhere in the plain of the Liffey,
near Kildare. She had a daughter in a condition of chronic ill-health.
She consulted her foster-son, S. Colman of Oughval, and both agreed
to ask Itha to cure the girl. On their arrival at Killeedy, Itha was
not a embarrassed by the petition. She, however, extricated
little

herself from the difficulty with dexterity. She replied that, cer-
tainly, she could heal the patient, if desired, but informed the mother
that the damnation of her daughter was assured, were she restored
to robust health, whereas the girl was certain to inherit heaven if
she continued infirm. The choice was left to Rethna, who could
hardly do other than accept eternal blessedness with its concomitant

disadvantage in this life. By this means Itha was released from

the risk of attempting, and failing in the attempt, to work a miracle.
One of her community deserted and wandered about the country,
and finally became servant to a Druid in Connaught. Itha did not
forget the girl ;
she continued to be anxious about her, and induced
S. Brendan to find out where she was, and then to induce the King
of Connaught to effect her liberation. This he did, and she received
back with compassion the runaway, together with a child she had
borne. 2 It was by her advice that Brendan took ship and sailed
in quest of the Isles of the Blessed, and probably discovered Madeira
and the Canaries ;
and it was she who recommended him, when
about to undertake a second voyage, to abandon the use of wicker-
work boats covered with hides, and to make vessels of oak planks.
Her uncle died in the Nandesii country. She sent for his eight
sons, and told them that their father was in Hell, but she would get
him out, if they would each for a year give bread and butter or a
sandwich and a candle daily to as many poor folk. At the end of
"
a twelvemonth they returned. He is out to his middle." said

Colgan, Ada SS. Hibern., Vita

1 2
S. 7te, c. xxiv. Ibid., c. xxxi.
 S. Itha 329
" did so and came
Itha, go on in the same way another year." " They
"He is out now wholly," she said, but stark naked. To
again.
clothe him must go on with your alms for a third year."
decently you
::vmn to the infant Jesus is attributed to her by the Scholiast
on the Felire of Oengus. It may be rendered thus :

l--uskin, whom I adore,

Nursed by me in little cell,
Clerk may come with richest store,
I have Christ, and all is well.

Nursling rocked by me at home,

Nursling of no vulgar clown,
Jesus with the host of heaven
To my bosom cometh down.

Jesuskin of heavenly birth,

Endless good, of Hebrew maid,
Nobler than a Clerk of Earth,
Lowly on my lap is laid.

Sons of Princes, sons of Kings

Tlmimh they to my country come,
N'nt Horn them make I demands 1

is is my rest, my home.

in chorus, damsels pure,

Sin:,'

Greatest tribute is his due,

Hi-h in heaven his Throne endure,
Though he comes to me and you.
1

On* M-ket was found suspended to a cross near the con-

vent, and in was a newly-born babe. It was taken in, baptised
it

.UK! nursed by St. Itha. Afterwards it was discovered that the

child was one born to Fiachna, King of West Munster. The origin
of the infant was so scandalous that at first it was proposed to kill
it, but instead it was committed in the manner aforesaid to the charge

d Itha. As it was found in a basket (cummain), the name given

the child was Cummin he grew up and was educated to the ecclesiastical
;

profession, and is known as S. Cummin the Tall. He was the author of a

hymn in honour of the Apostles, included in the Irish Liber Hymnorum*
The chronology of S. Cummin, however, shows that, although he may
have been left at Killeedy as described, it cannot have been during the
ne of S. Itha.

1
Oilman, 55. Hibern., Vita 5. It<c, c. xxx.
.-l,-/ii

. literal translation in \Vhitley Stokes' Ftlire of Oengus, p. xxxv. One verse

is obscure, and is omitt<-<! above.
1
Liber Hymnorum, ii, p. 9.
33 Lives of the British Saints

The hymn attributed to her served as a basis for the invention

had prayed, and was given the infant Jesus to
of a story that she
nurse on her lap. Similar stories have been told of other Saints,
as S. Catherine of Alexandria, S. Frances of Rome, S. Catherine
of Bologna, S. Rose of Lima ;
also of S. Anthony of Padua and
S.Nicholas Tolentino. All grew out of a saying of Christ (S. Matt. xxv.

40).
As already said, the clan of Hy Connaill held her in the highest
"
reverence, along with S. Senan. The Vita says tota gens Huaconaill
"
Sanctam tarn n matronem suam hie et in future accepit," and, Sancta
Virgo, eandem gentem et terram suam multis benedictionibus bene-
dixit."
When it went to war with another tribe, the Cinraidh Luachra,
or the Corca Duibhne, her aid was invoked to curse the enemy. As
the campaigns proved successful, her hold on the respect and affections
of the clan became doubly secure.
In her old age she was afflicted with cancer. 1 This has been repre-
sented by legend as her suffering from a beetle that devoured her
sides and grew to the size of a pig. Her last illness was most pain-
ful, but was borne with extraordinary patience. Before her death
she blessed not her own community only, but also the clergy of the
tribe to which she was attached.
She died on January 15, 569 or 570. This is her day in the Mar-
"
tyrologies. In the Salisbury Calendar, on January 15, as S. Doro-
"
thea, also called Sith." Whytford gives heron January 15, as Saynt
Dory thy, that by an other name is called Saynt Syth." Wilson says
"
on January 25, a mistake for January 15, Eodem die in Cornwallia

depositio S. Ithae, genere Hibernicae, sanctitatis et miraculis clarae,

in qua regione aliquot fana, aliaque monumenta in ejus honorem
erecta, extant." In the Christ Church, Dublin, Martyrology, she
"
is entered on May 13, Eodem die Sanctae Sithe, Virginis," but these
words are added in the margin in a hand of the sixteenth century.
In the Calendar prefixed to the Chained Book of the Corporation
"
of Dublin, on this same day, Sancta Sitha, Virgo." In a MS. Bre-
viary of the fifteenth century in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin,
"
on the same day, Site Virginis ix lect." She is, however, every-
where else set down on January 15.
She is also called Mita, Mida and Mide, a contraction of Mo-Ita,
My Ita.
In an Indulgence granted by Bishop Stafford, October 18, 1399,
1
The Irish word is Daol. Colgan renders it vermis Dr. Todd, a cockchafer.
;

There can be little doubt that what is meant is cancer.

 S.Itha 331
to such as should pray for the soul of the Lady Matilda Chyverston,
"
he speaks of the church of Egloscruc, Sanctorum Idi et Lidi, Mar-
tirorum," a clerical error. In another document, however, in 1400,
"
the vicarage is described as that of Sancte Ide, alias Egloscruk."

Bishop Brantyngham, April 26, 1382,

makes the same blunder,
"
the church that Sanctorum Ide et Lydi de Egloscruk,"
ailing
" "
Imt in 1383 correctly, Sanctarum Ide et Lide and Bishop Grandis-
;

in variably so,
1330, 1334, 1335, 1362.
S. Itha can be regarded as a martyr only in consideration of her

painful final illness.

The question may be raised, it that we have dedica-
how comes
tions to her, or foundations bearing her name, in Devon and Corn-
wall ? Probably S. Petroc had something to do with this. S. Dagan,
who was a disciple of S. Petroc and of S. Pulcherius, was nephew
Itha. Petroc, who had been trained in Ireland, when settling
m wall, would wish to establish communities for women there,
.UK! lu- would almost certainly send to Ireland for some trained in
temale schools there to undertake a similar work in Dum-

Dedications to S. Itha areThe parish church of S. Issey. Ecton

:

thy. The parish church of Mevagissey, according

dedicated conjointly to S. Mewan and S. Issey. The
!t church of S. Teath. The parish church of Ide, near Exeter.
A ruined chapel in Little Petherick. A ruined chapeTln Helsborough
Camp. Mirhaelstow. where she is known as S. Sith.
1 he (arm adjoining Gulval
Landithey, so that it would seem
is

probaMe that this was originally a foundation of S. Itha, but settled

in afterwards by S. YVulvella, and the church is now dedicated to
her in place of Itha.
Issey Feast is on theSunday nearest to November 20. S. Teath
are on the last
Tuesday in February and the first Tuesday in
-

July. Anciently her feast was May I, says Nicolas Roscarrock.

AsS. Tethi or Etich,
Virgin, Roscarrock enters her feast as the
irday after the Epiphany, which comes near to the day of S. Itha
MI the Irish
Martyrologies.
In Art she should be
represented in white as an Irish Abbess, with
<>r crab at her
side, or with an angel bearing loaves, as it
was fabled that she was fed with bread from heaven.
332 Lives of the British Saints

S. IVE of S. Ive's Bay. See S. HIA

S. JAMES, Abbot, Confessor

JAMES, Jacob, or Jacut,' Gwethenoc, and Winwaloe were all three
sons of Fracan, a cousin of Cado, Duke of Cornwall.
Their mother was Gwen of the Three Breasts, who had been pre-
viously married to Eneas Lydewig, and by him had become the
mother of S. Cadfan.
The story goes that Gwen actually had three breasts, and that
the three brothers were born and suckled together. There was a
daughter as well, but, as the author of the Life of S. Winwaloe says,
"'
she did not count," and no special breast was provided by nature
for her. This nonsense springs out of a misunderstanding. A woman
was called three or four breasted, if she had been married more
than once, and had reared a family by each husband. This fabulous
matter disappears from the Life of SS. James and Gwethenoc, recovered
by the Pere de Smedt from a MS. in the National Library at Paris
(Catalogus Codicum Hagiographicorum Latin., 1889, T. i, pp. 578-
"
2). This begins thus : Fuit in occiduis Britannici territorii

partibus vir quidam opulentus et inter convicaneos suos nomina-

tissimus, Fraganus nomine, habens conjugem coaequibilem, lingua
patria Guen appellatam, quod Latine sonat Candida. Quibus divina
pietas trium sobolem filiorum largita est, quorum duos gemellos
uterus profudit in lucem, tertium vero deinde parturivit, his duobus,
juniorem. Gemelli quidam alter Gwethenocus, alter Jacobus, tertius
autem appellatus est Wingualoeus."
According to this, the family belonged to the West of Britain
and Gwethenoc and James were twins, Winwaloe being born somewhat
later. The Life of S. Winwaloe is more explicit. After describing
the ravages of the Saxons, and the great plague which devastated
Britain (446-7), it goes on to mention the flight of many of the natives
"
to Armorica. Inter quos autem fuit vir quidam illustris nomine
Fracanus, Catovii (Cadoi) regis Britannici, viri secundum saeculum
famosissimi, consobrinus. . . .
Cujus etiam prsedicti regis erat terra
Nominae (Dumnoniae)." x
Gwen Teirbron was the sister of Amwn Ddu, the father of S. Sam-
son ; also of Pedrwn, father of S. Padarn. She was first cousin to
S. Illtyd. This being so, it is quite impossible that the plague des-
cribed in the Life of S. W inwaloe should be the
r
Yellow Death, which
raged from 547 to 550 ; but must be that earlier plague spoken of
1
Vita Sti. Winwaloei in Cart. Landevenec, Rennes, 1888, c. ii.
 S. Jaoua 333

by Gildas, and which swept the island in the fifth century. The
writer refers by name to Gildas, and the whole passage is probably
taken from him.
For the history of S. James we must refer to what has been already
under S. GWETHKNOC.
That the two brothers left Brittany and visited their native Corn-
wall is probable for we have a foundation of S. Gwethenoc at Lewan-
;

nick, and this is near the Winwaloe foundations of Tresmere and -<

Tmnaine, and the Jacobstow foundation is not far distant from

these latter. Hard by was the great Petherwin district of their
cousin S. Padarn, and S. Samson's was at Southill. i

At S. Breward were an ancient chapel and a cemetery of S. James. <

Bones are still found there, and this seems to indicate tnat it was
<
once an ecclesiastical centre of some importance. A mere chapelry
would not have a graveyard around it.
There were chapels dedicated to S. James at Camborne, at Bolla-
size in Braddock, at Goldsithney in Perran-uthnoe, but it is not

possible, without knowing the date when they were founded, to

>av whether they are to be attributed to one of the Apostles of the
<>r to the brother of S. Winwaloe.
The Calendars of S. Meen and S. Malo give as his day February
8, but the Calendar of the diocese of
Brieuc gives June 3. The two S.
brothers are, however, sometimes coupled with S. Winwaloe, and
commemorated on March 3. Albert le Grand gives February 8, which
is no doubt the correct
day.
In Brittany he is of S. S.
patron Jacut-du-Mene, Jacut-sur-
I
icut-sur-Aro.
In Art, James should be represented as an Abbot with a ship in
ln> hand, and a star above his head, to show that he and his brother
inherited the attributes of the Dioscuri.
U To I

S. JAOUA or JOEVIN, Bishop, Confessor

THE authority for the Life of this saint, the nephew of Paulus
AmviiamiN. is the lections of the Breviary of Leon,
printed in the
AcLi 55. Boll., Mart, i, p. 139 also a Life by Albert le Grand based
;

on the same Breviary lessons, and on the MS. collections made

by
Yves Grand, in the fifteenth century, and which contained all
le

he could gather relative to the

early history of the Church of Leon.
334 Lives of the British Saints

Jaoua was born in Glamorgan, in the cantref of Penychen, and

was son of the married sister of S. Paul.
At an early age the boy was sent by his uncle to be educated. After
this was complete, he returned to his parents. When, however, he
heard that Paul had crossed into Armorica he resolved on following
him, and took boat. A furious gale broke on the vessel as it drew
towards the west coast of Finistere, and it was driven south, and
happily entered the harbour of Brest and ran up the river of Faou.
He and his shipmates went on shore at Landevenec, where they
were well received by Judoval, the Abbot and there Jaoua remained
;

as a simple monk till he was ordained priest. Then Judoval sent

him to Brasparts, near Pleyben, on the slopes of the Monts d'Arree,
where a good deal of paganism still lingered among the primitive
population. At Faou, at the head of the long creek that runs east
from the Rade de Brest, lived a chief who did not at all relish the
advent of the monks, and although doubtless a British colonist, he
was averse to their settling in the land and securing large tracts of
land. Hearing, one day, that Jaoua and his abbot Judoval, as well
as another abbot, Tadec by name, were to meet at a place now
called Daoulas, he went there with some of his armed men, burst
in the door of the church, cut down Tadec at the altar, and pursued

Judoval and Jaoua as they fled. He caught up the elder, and slew
him but Jaoua had younger legs, and he made good his escape
;

and took refuge at Brasparts.

The Legend relates that a dragon came out of the water and devas-
tated Le Faou what is probably true is that the indignant monks
;

of Landevenec appealed to Budic, King of Cornouaille, and he threa-

tened the chief with condign punishment, unless he made amends
and paid blood-money. He accordingly submitted, and gave up
a bit of land where the murders had been committed, and where was
then founded the abbey of Daou-Gloas (the Two Murders) and ;

S. Jaoua became first abbot.

However, Jaoua found this no bed of roses he was so harassed,
;

whether by recalcitrant monks, or by secret opposition from the

chief, that he threw up his charge, placing over the community a

nephew of the chief, named Tusvean, and went to Leon to his uncle,
who at once resigned the bishopric and abbey, and appointed his
nephew in his room, that he might retire to the Isle of Batz. Jaoua
summoned to him a disciple named Kenan and ordained him priest,
and sent him to Ploucerneau.
As the harvest failed at Daoulas, it was at once concluded that
this was due to the bad treatment shown to Jaoua, and he was entreated
 S. Julitta 335

to return and bless the place and remove the

ban he was supposed
t.. have cast on it. He consented. On his way back he revisited
where he was attacked by fever. However, he was im-
-..arts,

:it to be back, and pushed on, crossed the range of the Monts

d'Arree and the river Elorn, and died at Plouvien, near Plabennec.
March 2, after having been bishop of L6on for a year

only.
His body \\as laid in a tomb, over which a sepulchral monument
with his figure on it was raised in 1646, but it is in a pretty, late Flam-
l.ovant chapel of 1567. Jaoua died about the year 568.
Commemorated on March 2, MS. Breviary of Treguier, fifteenth
Efe is
rv ;
the Breviary of L6on, 1516, 1736 in Les Heures Bretonnes
;

du AT' Cent.; and Breviaries of Quimper and S. Malo.

S. JARMEN, see S. FEBRIC

S. JUDNOU, Abbot, Confessor

2
Jr ; a disciple of S. Dubricius, 1 and was abbot of Bolgros.
is supposed to occupy a site on Belli-moor, in Madley, Hereford-
the native place of Dubricius in Ynys Efrddyl. It must have
been devastated by the Saxons and never restored.

S. JULITTA, Widow
THK Saint Julitta of Tarsus, and her son Cyriacus, have assumed
undue prominence- in Cornwall. Julitta of Tarsus has displaced
local saint-. Tho-e whom she has supplanted are :
(l) Ilud, daugh-
Brvchan (2)
:

; Julitta, mother of S. Paternus ;

and (3) Jutwara
or Aude.
S. Juli. -t of North Cornwall is
i
probably Ilud, given in the Cognatio
as one of the unmarried daughters of Brychan, and whom Leland
renders Juliana. Hid is the Welsh form of Julitta. The feast at
S. on the nearest Sunday to June 29.
Juliot's is
S. Paternus of Avranches was named Julitta.
The mother of
The mother of S. Paternus or Padarn, of Llanbadarn Fawr, was
named Gwen. But the legends of the two saints got intermixed,
1
Book of Llan D~v. p. 80.
f
Ibid., pp. 164, 166.
336 Lives of the British Saints

and Padarn was identified not only with Paternus of Avranches, but
also with Paternus of Vannes. Then the name of Julitta was taken
over in place of Gwen as that of the mother of Padarn. 1
The mother of Padarn was married to Pedrwn, son of Emyr Llydaw.
In consequence of a family revolution, Pedrwn and several of his
brothers were obliged to fly to Britain from Armorica, and Pedrwn
went on to Ireland, where he embraced the monastic life.
Gwen- Julitta was Armorica with her infant son. One day
left in

she had laid in the window the

cloth, out of which she purposed

fashioning a garment for her boy, when an eagle swooped down,,

carried it off, and employed it as a lining for his nest. At the end
of a twelve-month, the cloth was recovered, practically uninjured,
and was put to the use for which originally intended.
Forty years passed. One day Padarn asked his mother why he
so often saw tears in her eyes, and when she told him that her heart
ached to see her husband again, he resolved on going in quest of
his father. He departed to Britain, and then crossed into Ireland,
where he discovered Pedrwn, but was unable to induce him to go
back to his wife.
It is possible we can hardly venture to say more that some of
the Julitta foundations in Cornwall may have been originally sta-
tions of the mother of S. Padarn. He is likely to have provided
for his mother's comforts and it was in accordance with Celtic usage
;

for a Saint to plant his mother near him to form a monastic school
for girls.
The chapel at Tintagel, now in ruins, but still with its altar, is
saidby Leland to have been dedicated to S. Ulitte, or Uliane. In
Wales, the churches of S. Curig have been transferred to S. Cyriacus,
and this boy-saint has carried with him the name of his mother Julitta,
as they are rarely culted apart.
For the Julitta dedications in Wales see under S. CURIG.

S. JULIUS, Martyr, see S. AARON

S. JUNABUI or JUNAPEIUS, Abbot, Confessor

HE was one of the disciples of S. Dubricius, and was his cousin

2
(consobrinus) .

1
Albert Le Grand makes the mother of S. Paternus of Vannes to be Gwen-
Julitta.
2
Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 72, 80. His name is written also Junapius, Lunapeius,
and Hunapui. For the element -pui, see under S. GWENABWY.
 S. Juncus 337
He founded a church at Lann Loudeu, now Llanloudy, in Here-
loid-hiiv. grant was made byGurcant, son of Cinuin, King of
The
Another foundation was Lann Budgualan, now Balling-
ham, DII the bank of the Wye. The grant was also by Gurcant,
lens super sepulchrum patris sui et pro anima illius." 2 Pre-
sumably it was originally dedicated to S. Budgualan, but now to S.
Dnbin ins. His main foundation, however, would seem to have been
Lann Junabui, which has been identified with' Bredwardine, 3 but
it nii^lit well be Llandinabo, assumingthat the present church, which
is neailv two miles from the Wye, does not occupy the site of
tlu- old monastic foundation.
Hoarwithyat Llandinabo might stand
t'T the ," honey suckles," in the Lann Junabui
xiiduit (guyddfid)
4
boundary. Llandinabo. which is dedication-less, may be regarded as
the only church dedicated to him now.
Junabui inn-t have been one of those who were driven from their
foundation,, either by the Yellow Plague, or by the Saxon devas-
tations ;i iti-r
577, forhe appears in association with S. Teilo. 5 He
is described at under Dubricius, as a priest, but later as bishop
first,

of Llandaff. 6 its
supposed seventh bishop.

S. JUNANAU, Confessor

JUNANAI: is invoked in the tenth

century Celtic Calendar in the
Library oi Dean and Chapter
the of 7
Salisbury.
M. Loth supposes him to be the
I
Junan who had formerly a
S.

chapel in Kiantec, near Port S.Louis, in Morbihan, named in

1473.
Another chapel of the same Saint, named in "
1184, au detriment
dn nom du nialheiirenx saint," has become S.
Aignan, near Pontivy,
where he has a chapel beside the
parish church, named S. Ignaw,
ferred to S. Ignatius. 8 In the Life of S. Samson the name that
- as Winian
in one version has
Junavius in another. But this
cannot be Junan.

S. JUNCUS, Confessor
stated in Xasmith's edition of the
is
Itinerary of William
rcester to lie at
Pelyntin Cornwall. In the original MS. the
name is not Juncus but Itlaw.

too* of Llan Ddv. p. ,63.

Ibid., p. 164. Ibid., pp. 73, 364.
Il.nl.. p. 73 Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii,
;
p. 273
Ibid., pp. 163-5.
Revue Celtique, 1888,
p. 82. Ibid ., 1890, p. 145.
VOL. III.

t/V/l/VX

i
I
r
A-* ^ *i~^rJ
338 Lives of the British Saints

S. JUST, Priest, Confessor

S. JUST in Penwith is a different person from S. Just in Roseland,

as the Land's End was exclusively settled ecclesiastically
district

by Irish, the only exceptions being the intrusive foundations of

S. Paul, Gulval, and Towednack.

Just is said to have been a son of Fergus, descended from Breasal

Brealach, grandson of Cathair M6r, King of Leinster. He lived
at the same time as Dunlang, King of Leinster, who died before 460,
and who was baptised at Naas by S. Patrick.
as lollain, his successor,
Patrick took him into his missionary band, and ordained him
S.

deacon. 1
"
The glossator on the Calendar of Oengus says of him The Deacon :

Justinus, i.e. Deacon Just, of Fidarta. It was he who baptised Ciaran

of Cluain (Clonmacnois) and of France was he, ut quidem putant."
,

But against this hesitating opinion we may set his recorded pedigree.
It is, however, very probable that he went to Gaul for his ecclesiastical
education. It is possible enough that there may have been two of
the same name, and at the same period, one at Fidarta, and the other
at Ardbraccan but it is more likely that, as Just had a roving com-
;

mission, he founded both these churches.

Fidarta, where S. Patrick placed him, at all events for a time,
isFuerty, in Roscommon, which was in the old territory of the Hy
Many. S. Patrick left his book of ritual and of baptism with him.
He was the preceptor of Ciaran of Saighir, and in his old age he bap-
tised the other Ciaran, the wheelwright's son. Unfortunately no
Life of this Saint has been preserved. Although known as Patrick's
Deacon, there is no reason to suppose that he was not advanced
later to priest's orders.
William of Worcester calls S. Just a martyr, but this is because
the true S. Just of Penwith had been supplanted by a namesake who
did suffer for the Faith, and who was in the Roman Calendar. At
S. Just, the feast varies from October 30 to November 8. The rule
seems to be that its observance is guided by the Sunday preceding
the nearest Wednesday in November which will give seven clear
Sundays to Christmas.

Just, or Justin, Patrick's Deacon, is commemorated in the Irish

Calendars on May 5.
We find a S. Just, under the form Ust, in Wales, as the original

patron (with Dyfnig) of Llanwrin, in Montgomeryshire, and of the

1
Tripartite Life, pp. 104, 305, 318.
 S. Justinian 339
extinct chapel of Llanust, near Fishguard. He is said to have come
from Armorica with Cadfan.

S. JUSTINIAN, Hermit, Martyr

THE authority for this Life is a Vita by John of Tynemouth in Cotton.

. Tiberius K. i.
pt. ii, ff. 1256-1266, printed in Capgrave's Nova
Legenda Anglia, ed. 1901 ii, pp. 93-5 He probably copied or con-
it from one found at S. David's, when he was on his tour through
; 1

.in<l and Wales collecting material for his works, the Marti-
'/;/ and Siinctilogium, which were taken into Capgrave's book.
It has been reprinted in Ada SS. Boll. August 23, iv. pp. 635-6.
1
Ju-tiniun was a native of Brittany, who came over to Wales in
tin- sixth
century, and landed on Ramsey Island, then called Limeneia,
sojourn in a territory called Chormeum.
i

Hi- found on the island a certain Honorius, son of King Thefriauc,

ith his sister and her maid, who were there leading an
i
life. Honorius respected the superior age and virtues
<>f the newly arrived Justinian, and offered him the hospitality of
his evil.
"
I will if you will turn out your
accept it," said the stranger,
and her maid, and make them keep their distance." A requi-
Mtion this, which we are informed, provoked much irreverent derision. 2
That may enjoy your agreeable conversation," replied Honorius,
I

I will puck them off." And this ungallant, but not injudicious,
condition made by Justinian was carried into effect. The sister
and her maid were dismissed " in longinquas regiones."
>,<! manv
disciples came over to Ramsey and placed them-
under the direction of Justinian. S. David now sent for him,
5

and BO admired his sanctity that he made him his "soul-friend,"

JOT, and adviser in spiritual matters, so that he must have
been a priest. David not
only sanctioned his residence on the island,
kit also accorded him a site on the mainland for his The
disciples.
bure rocky isle of
Ramsey lies off the coast of Treginnis, the southern
horn of the headland on which stands S. David's. It is a mile and

Justinianus ex nobilissima Britannic Minoris prosapia originem

ttu
iv, in his Geography, ii, c. 2, calls
Ramsey At/wow fy^os. Its
Wrl>h namr is Ynys yr Hynklod, which is the
" equivalent in meaning to Ramsey.
IVtuioni tur asst-ntirrm, si soror tua cum sua
pedissequa cubiculum
t a nobis remotum.
Quod quibusdam incredulis vertebatur in derisum."
34 Lives of the British Saints

three-quarters longby one, mile broad, and rises to two hills, Cam
Ysgubor, 300 feet above the sea, and Cajn Llundain, rising 446 feet,
each surmounted by ancient cairns. It has two little -ports on the
land side, and is separated from Treginnis by a dangerous channel,
rather over a mile across, but narrowing to the south. In the mid
channel is a rock, the Horse, about which the sea swirls and breaks
into foam. The tide sweeps through the channel like a mill-race,
and except in calm weather the crossing to the island cannot be attemp-
ted. The red Cambrian rocks rise precipitously out of the ocean
on all sides, gorgeous in the evening sun as they stand up out of the
emerald water, fringed with foam. Only at the two little harbours
do they stoop to a lap of sand, and allow a boat to run ashore. On
the ocean side, however, to the west, is a beach, but it is frowned down
on by the cliffs. Probably on the grassy sweep where now stands
a farm above the Road Isaf, stood the tiny monastery of
little

Justinian, with the docile Honorius under him.

The same incident is told of him as of Gildas. One day a boat
entered the bay, manned by five men, who came to announce to
him that his friend David was dangerously ill and desired his atten-
dance. Justinian at once, without hesitation, entered the boat,
and the rowers thrust off. But when they were half-way across,
Justinian saw by the expression of their faces that they purposed
"
mischief, and he began to chant the psalm, Deus in adjutorium."
"
So soon as he reached the second verse, Confundantur et revereantur
qui quaerunt animam meam," they were transformed to devils, and
flew away in the shape of crows. Then a stone rose up out of the
water, and Justinian mounting it was carried over to the mainland,
and on reaching the monastery of David, found that saint hearty
and well.
Onthe island itself, Justinian had three serfs, whom he kept dili-
gently employed on farming operations and fishing. Weary of his
strict disciplinethey conspired to kill him, and falling on him one
1
day, cut off his head.
Then Justinian, rising up, took his head in his hands, and walking
over the water, crossed the sound to the little harbour on the main-
land, and there laid his head down. There he was buried, and
a chapel was erected on the spot, and the little harbour still bears his

1
Dray ton, in his Polyolbion (1622, pt. ii, 24th song), is not quite correct :

"
lustinian, as that man a Sainted place deseru'd,
Who still to feed his soule, his sinfull
body steru'd :

And for that height in zeale, whereto he did attaine,

There by his fellow Monkes most cruelly was slaine."
 S. Justinian 341

name, Forth Stinan. David translated his body to a new tomb

S.

in his own which he was subsequently buried himself.

church, in
One is inclined to ask, Where was the faithful Honorius all this
while? There is something kept back by the narrator. We may
su-pect that jealousy had sprung up,
and that the attempt to drown
were due to this; and that, con-
Justinian, and, finally his murder,
.bly, Honorius
was at the bottom of it. Certainly Honorius
drops in a remarkable manner out of the story and has not received

honours, usually so liberally accorded, as a saint.

The murderers were smitten with leprosy, and withdrew to an
i -..hi ted still bears the name of Gwahan-garreg, "the
rock which
"
where they passed the rest of their days in penitence.
This is the legendary interpretation of the name, which, with greater
"
probability, means the Dividing Rock." It lies near the middle
he Sound, and "divides" the current.
Capel Stinan is placed immediately over the cliffs which
shelter
the little harbour of Forth Stinan. It is over a mile from S. David's,
" Here those who
to the west. frequented the Island of Ramsey
were wont to put up their prayers for a safe passage over the dan-
gerous /return that separated it from the main, or to return thanks
x The present
for their preservation after a prosperous voyage."
structure, a beautiful ruin, is attributed to Bishop Vaughan. There
is a well by it.

There were formerly two chapels on Ramsey Island, Capel Stinan

'apel Dyfanog, the one to the south and the other to the north
<

of the little island. Each had a fine spring of pure water running
by it. 2 island was sometimes called Ynys Dyfanog, from the
The
Fenton 3 quotes a Welsh distich alluding to the neigh-
saint.
"
1>
airship of these two saints in Ramsey, Stinan a Devanog, Dau anwyl
'ivtlog" (Justinian and Dyfanog, Two dear neighbours). Where
Justinian's head fell in Ramsey a spring miraculously sprang up,
which became celebrated for its cures. To Justinian is dedicated the
church of Llanstinan, near Fishguard.
The festival of Justinian, December 5, is given in the Calendars in
Cotton. MS. Vesp. A. xiv. and Additional MS. 14, 886, and by William
rster and Nicolas Roscarrock.
On "
the same day by Whytford : In Wales at the mynster of saynt

1
Fenton, Pembrokeshire, 1811. p. 113 Basil Jones and Freeman, S. David's.
;

6, pp. 224-6. The form Stinan comes from Justinanus, which is Capgrave's
of the Saint's name.
*jBrowne Willis, S. David's. 1717, p. 59.
3
Pembrokeshire, p. 123 cf. Camden's Britannia, ed. 1722,
; ii. 763.
 342 Lives of the British Saints

David the feast of saynt lustiniane a bysshop & martyr, borne of

the noble blode of the lesse brytayne, and for Chryst he forsoke his
countree and kynne, & was ledde by an augell in to many coutrees,
where he euer dyd many myracles, & at the last he came vnto saynt
David & was his dayly ghostly fader, where his own servant es by-
cause he rebuked theyr synnes stroke of his heed, & bare it ouer the
see, & the people folowed as though it had ben the drye lande vnto-

they came where now he lyeth full of myracles." Also Wilson in his
Martyrologe of 1608, and 1640, on the same day. The Bollandists,.
Cressy, and Rees, 1 however, give his day as August 23.

S. JUTWARA, see S. AUDE

S. KEA, see S. CYNAN (Kenan)
S. KENTIGERN, see S. CYNDEYRN
S. KERIAN or KIERAN, see S. CIARAN
S. KEWE, see S. CIWA
S. KEYNE, see S. CAIN
S. LAURUS, see S. LEUBRI

S. LEONORE, Bishop, Confessor

THE authorities for the Life of this Saint are a Vita beginning
"
Fuit vir quidam," in the Bibl. Nat. at Paris, MS. Lat. 5317, of which
De Smedt has given extracts in Catalogue Codicum hagiographicorum
biU. in BiUiotheca nationali Parisiensi, ii, pp. 153 et seq. A
lat. S. M
Life, formerly in the Bibliotheque S. Germain, from which the Bollan-
dists printed the Life in Ada SS., July i, i, pp. 118-25, is no longer to
be found. There was also a Life of S. Leonore in the Library at Arras,
that had been seen by the Bollandists.
Leonore, or Lunaire, was a native of South Wales. His father was
S.

called Beteloc, which is probably a misscript for Hoeloc. His mother's

name was Alma Pompeia, who is almost certainly the same as the Alma
who was mother of S. Tudwal.
At the age of five he was sent to S. Illtyd to be trained for the ecclesi-

1
Welsh Saints, p. 319.
 S. Leonore 343
profession. His brilliant abilities, according to the author of
tin- I.iif, who indulges in extravagance, induced S. Dubricius to conse-
cratehim bishop when he was aged but fifteen years. This absurdity
isprobably due to a copyist who omitted xx from xxxv. Then he
revived on going to Brittany, and he left Wales in a boat that was
navigated by three men in white raiment. He had with him seventy-
two disciples.
1
and many servants. The three mysterious white-vested
mariners managed the vessel, one stood midships, one at the prow, and
the third held the rudder.
A 1'urious storm swept the sea, and the voyagers were compelled to
cast everything overboard, down to the stone altar-slab of S. Leonore.
length Armorica was reached. As they landed, Leonore saw two
white doves raise his altar out of the sea, and bring it to him. On
Miburk.it ion. the three white-raimented mariners vanished.
Tin' immigrants had come ashore in a sandy bay, backed by sand-
hills, sheltered on the west
by the rocky point of Decolle, a little west
<>t the now fashionable watering-place of Dinard. Here a feeble
MI. the Crevelon, empties itself into the sea. At the period, forest
the country, and the trees, though bent away from the sea,
nearlv approached the coast. The little bandset to work to cut down
the timber and to construct habitations. When, however, they looked
eed-corn among their stores, they found to their dismay that it
had been cast overboard in the storm.
The story goes that Leonore knelt in prayer. Then one of his monks
spied a robin redbreast perched on a stump, with an ear of corn in its
In-uk. \\hich the bird, when scared, let fall. The grain was sown and
il!\ harvested, re-sown next year, and so on, till from the ear of
robin redbreast sprang the cornfields of the In the mean- monastery.
uhil. uy subsisted on fish and milk, and the wild birds and
beasts that thev snared.
thistime Childebert was king of the Franks, and he extended
lk over Armorica but a British settler,
;
Riguald, or Righuel, or
lloel the kiiu;. had established himself in Domnonia, and exercised
rule >\vr the settlers. 2
(
He was a kinsman of Leonore, and came as well
trom Glamorgan. He would seem to have been Leonore's uncle,
brother >f his mother, if we admit the
identity of Alma Pompeia
with Alma, mother of Tudwal. Much about this time Tudwal also

1
This number is not to be accepted
Tudwal is said to have brought
literally.
ly tin- same number, which
taken from that of Christ's disciples.
is
Fuit vir umis in Britannia ultra
marc, nomine Rigaldus, qui in nostra
provincia von it citra mare habitare provincia, qui dux fuit Britonum ultra et
citra marc usque ad mortem."
Vita, in De Smedt, Catalog, cod. Parisiis.
344 Lives of the British Saints

arrived from South Wales, bringing with him his mother and, accor-
ing' to tradition, his sister Sceva but he and they settled further to
;

the west ;
and Brioc, also a kinsman by marriage, landed in the
estuary of the Gouet.
Leonore' s little colony worked hard, clearing the ground for agri-
cultural occupations, but was perplexed how to deal with the logs they
had felled. With much labour they rolled them into the bed of the
little stream, which they choked with them, but, happily, heavy rains

swelled the petulant Crevelon into a torrent, and it swept the encum-
brance into the sea, 1 where the tide carried the logs about, like ducks
2
swimming in the water. The stumps they destroyed with fire.
The work of settlement exhausted the colonists, they became sulky
and murmured, and formed a plot to desert Leonore and seek a more
favourable site elsewhere. But he got wind of it, and by expostula-
tions and persuasion appeased the malcontents.
The biographer says that he managed to secure a dozen big stags
(cervos grandissimos) and trained them to bear the yoke, to plough and
draw burdens. The story need not be dismissed as pure fiction. It is
possible enough that such beasts, if caught young, might be rendered
docile, and the ploughing required of them would be merely the
drawing over the soil of a forked stick to lightly scratch the surface.
When the seed had multiplied sufficiently for a real sowing of a
harvest field, the occasion was celebrated as one of great rejoicing.
Leonore led the way to the field, followed by all the brethren from the
oldest down
to the youngest. 3
One day, after labour in the fields, Leonore was leaning on his staff,
when he observed something glittering in the soil thrown up by the
moles. He dug at the spot and unearthed a gold statue of a ram, a
"
relic ofthe Gallo-Roman occupation. Gold is for kings and not for
priests," said' he, and laid the curious object aside for use should need
for it arise later. 4

1 "
Repererunt totam silvam in mari funditus jactam, et nichil in eodem
campo remansit nee spinarum neque tribulorum aliquid quod impedimentum
fecisset sarculo nee aratro." Bibl. Nat. MS. Lot., 5317.
2 "
Viderunt natantem silvam et coagitatam super mare, sicut anseres flante
vento in flumine." Ibid.
3 "
Leonorus sparsit in campum semen primus, et post eum omnes fratres
illius, senes similiter cum junioribus, ceperunt campum seminare." Ibid.
"
4
Quadam die, cum vellet scire qualiter messis proficeret, sumptis tribus
discipulis, ad agrum vadit. Dum autem campi super baculum requies-
in capite
ceret, apparuit forma aurei arietis in quern talpae, ex more fodiendo
terra,
terram in circuitu, discooperuerant. Quo extracto a loco, ait Aurum convenit :

regibus, non sacerdotibus." Vita S. Leonor. ex MS. Atreb., Acta SS. Boll.,
Jul. i, p. 121.
 Jg S. Leonore 345
I, indeed, bad times came on. Righuel died, and the power over
Domnonia fell into the hands of Conmore, Count of Poher, who ob-

tained from Childebert the office of vicegerent in Brittany. Jonas, the

Domnonian kin,i, died, and Conmore at once married the widow. Here
r
,

the author of the Life makes a curious blunder. He confounds Jonas

with Righuel. 1 he widow of Jonas had a son, Judual, by her first
1

husband, and he accompanied her to her new home. One night she
dreamed that the men of Brittany came to her son, seated on a moun-
tain top. and put their staves into his hand. She had the indiscretion
mmimicate her dream to Conmore, who interpreted it as signifying
his owndeath, and the accession of Judual in his place and bursting ;

into a fury, he declared that it was his wife's design to accomplish his
for the sake of her son's advancement.

The woman, in alarm, sent Judual to take sanctuary with S. Leonore ;

but the Abbot, not feeling confident that the Regent would respect the
rights of sanctuary, and learning that he was approaching, thrust the
boy on board ship, and sent him off to sea.
Conmore, at the time when this took place, was probably at Monte-
filant, to the west of the old Roman city of Corseul. It is a fortress
planted on a point of land with a valley on each side, and accessible
only by an isthmus to the south. In later times a mediaeval castle was
erected there, but the prehistoric camp, which was that in all likelihood
ntili/.ed by Conmore, remains intact.

When Conmore heard that Judual had fled to Leonore, he was further
incensed, pursued him to the monastery, and peremptorily demanded
the surrender of the refugee.
"
He is yonder," replied Leonore, pointing to a white sail in the

Conmore. furious, struck Leonore full in the face with his fist, and
retired wrathful and discouraged.
What he feared had, in fact, taken place, Judual had
sought refuge
with ("hildehei t. Conmore at once sent a deputation to the Frank
king
to urge his own and to prepossess him against the British
claims,
prinre. His representations induced Childebert to
keep Judual at
Paris under restraint.

redoubting the violence of the Regent, himself now took

iiore,
the road to Paris. He was well received, the more so as he produced
the golden ram that he had found, and
presented it to the king, whose
jewellers estimated the value as, in
present money, Childe- 3,600.
"
autem Rigaldo remansit uxor ejus cum suo
M<>rtuo nomine Jugualus."
filio,
Nat MS. I Judual was son of Jonas, not of Righuel Jonas was
-

grandson of Righuel or Rivold. but probably succeeded him immediately.

 346 Lives of the British Saints
"
bert was lavish
in his promises. I desire nothing," said the Abbot,
"
save the value of the ram in land, and security of tenure. The dis-
trict was a wilderness. We have cleared and tilled it, and it is but just
that we should be allowed to occupy it without hindrance."
"
Go to the top of the hill nearest to your monastery," said the
"
king, and ring your bell. The land is yours so far as the sound of
the bell reaches."
Thus secured against molestation, Leonore returned to his settlement,
where Conmore did not venture to interfere with him.
Judual was equally successful. As we have seen, he had been per-
secuted by Conmore, and had betaken himself to Paris to solicit pro-
tection, which had been guaranteed to him by Childebert. But the
brothers, if brothers they were, were thorns in the side of the
saintly
Regent. They fomented discontent and prepared the ground foi
;

the rising under the skilful leadership of Samson, who brought Judual
back from Paris, a rising that ended in the defeat and death of
Conmore in 555.
Leonore did not long survive the accession of Judual to the throne ;

he died at the age of fifty-one about the year 606, and was buried in
his monastery, the site of which bears his name, altered into S. Lunaire.
His tomb is in the old parish church, which has happily escaped
destruction, when a pretentious and ugly modern church was erected
at a little distance from it.
Probably the sarcophagus, which is rude,
is the original tomb, but over this has been
placed a monumental effigy,
in the fifteenth century, representing the Saint as a bishop. On his
breast is figured a dove bearing his portable altar.

In the ancient Breviary of Leon his day is given as July i. So also

the Vannes Missal of 1530, and the MS. fifteenth century Breviary
of S. Meen. So likewise the Paris Breviary till 1607, when the observ-
ance of his day was suppressed. In the Dol Breviary of 1769, the
commemoration was transferred to February 16. At Coutance it
was transferred to July 3.
The translation of the Saint's relics to Beaumont-sur-Oise, which
took place in the tenth century, is commemorated in the S. Malo
Missal of 1609 on October 13.

.S LEUBRI or LAURUS, Abbot, Confessor

LEUBRI is invoked in the Celtic Litany of the tenth century published
by D'Arbois de Jubainville. 1 He is not included in the other Celtic
1
Revue Celtique, iii, p. 449.
 S. Leubri 347
by Warren, Mabillon, and that
in the Missal of S.
Litanies, published
Lery, who receives
1
V. ugai. M. J. Loth supposes that this Leubri is S.

a rult in Domnonia, and whose name has been Latinized into Laurus.
of the Abbey of Montfort
Tin- .riginal Life existed in a MS. Breviary
in Ille-et-Vilaine, that had belonged to the church
of S. Lery. A
of this is in the Blancs-Manteaux Collection, Bibl. Nat., Paris,
xviii. See also Acta'SS. Boll., Sept. viii, pp. 692-7,
and I.obmeau. Vies des Saints de Bretagne, ed. Tresvaux, Paris, 1836,

"
I ...hi r.e au made a curious mistake. He says : On a quelque sujet
de cnvre qu'il dtait de Broiierech, c'est-a-dire du pays de Vannes," and
followed by De la Borderie.
-
-ii
2
But for this there is no
authority. He is said to have been a man of noble origin, and to have

crosv Tom Britain, and to have landed at Aleth in the reign of

|

Judicarl, 610-40.
\VI, vhen he arrived he went up country into the
dense and extensive forest of Brecilien, where Judicael had a hunting
lodg .md after acquiring the favour of the Queen, Morona, he
1 the prince to give him lands on which to settle. The most
economical way was by turning another saint out of
of satisfying him,
his nest and offering it to the new-comer. There was such a saint,
he Doneff, that feeds the pretty lake du Due above
!

He received notice to quit, and then his cell and lands were
made
Disciples gathered round him, and he ministered to the spiritual
needs of the settlers in the stray clearings of the forest, but devoted his
<>n to the people of the region round Aleth. He is said
to have succeded in converting from idolatry some of the original
native-. II' maintained the favour of Judicael till that prince abdi-
cated, in or about 640, and retired into a monastery. Lery died at an
age in his monastery on September 30, and
!
was placed in a
stone cottin he had brought with him from Britain.
'he tune of the incursion of the Northmen, his body was trans-

ntered in the ancient calendar of S. Meen on September

30. The t .
>mb is at S. Lery, but is a structure of the fifteenth
century.
( )n it the -aint is
represented in monastic habit, a crosier under the left
arm. holding a book in both hands, his feet resting on a dog. Above
the tomb is u wooden bas-relief of the sixteenth
century representing
ath of the saint, his funeral and exaltation.

1
Revue Celtique, xi, p. 146 *
Hist, de Bretagne, i, p. 484.
 348 Lives of the British Saints

S. LEUTIERN or LUGHTIERN, Bishop, Confessor

INVOKED in the Celtic tenth century Litany in the Library of the Dean
1 in that published
and Chapter at Salisbury, and as Loutiern by
Mabillon. 2 He is probably the Lughtiern who was abbot of Ennisty-
mon in County Clare. Little is known of him. He is commemorated
on April 28, in several Irish Martyrologies, as those of Tallaght,

Donegal and O'Gorman. In the gloss on that of Oengus is

Christopher, with Cronan,

Lughtiern with starkness,
On his feast, without vainglory
Went many soldiers to martyrdom. 3

Brigh, daughter of Forannan, son of Conall, was his mother, and

his father seems to have been Cutrita. Lughtiern was disciple of
S. Ruadhanof Lothra. He was abbot of Ennistymon, and, along with
S.Lasrean of Druim Liag, paid a visit to S. Ita, and remained three
days with her, after which, having received her blessing, they returned
home. 4
No Life of this Saint exists. As S. Ita died in 570, and he was her
contemporary, we must set him down as flourishing at the end of the
sixth century.
He would seem to have gone to Brittany, if the Leuthern be the same
whose relics were carried to Paris by Salvator, Bishop of Aleth, in 965,
on account of the ravages caused by the Northmen. Hugh Capet, in
the time of Lothair, transported them to the church of S. Bartholomew
in Paris. 5
As there was a monastic establishment, founded by S. Brendan, in
Cesambre, off Aleth, and as several Irish saints did settle on the Ranee

and at its source, it is possible enough that this saint did visit Brittany
and die there.
"
Garaby very confidently identifies the two. He says The Lord:

desiring to open a vaster field for the labours of His servant, Louthiern
was consecrated Bishop in Britain. He passed into Armorica.
. . .

There he spent the rest of his life ... in the neighbourhood of S.

Malo." 6 But he gives no authority for the statement.

Revue Celtique, ix, p. 88.

Vetera Analecta, 1723, ii, p. 669.
Felire of (Engus, ed. Stokes, 1871, p. Ixxvii.
Colgan, Acta SS. Hibern., i, p. 70.
Duchesne, Script. Hist. Franc., iii, p. 344.
Vies des SS. et Bienheweux de Bretagne, 1839, pp. 444-5-
 S. Levan 349

S. LEVAN, Priest, Confessor

S. LEVAN'S Church, in Cornwall, is in the district colonized by Irish

:tler>. and lie is not unknown to the Irish.
We inn-t reject as untenable the assertion made by Dr. Oliver, and
ter him, that Levan is Livinus, apostle of the Frisians, who

\t
( nncernin- whom a Life was forged in the eleventh century.

Em is the Irish Loebhan. He was a saint at Killevan in Clonfert

and Kilmoiv. where are three chapels dedicated to him. Killevan was
tic foundation.
L^ertnn MS. list of the four and twenty persons in holy orders
In tlu-
"
win. urn- with S. Patrick, he is classed as one of his smiths. Mac
of Domnach Laeban it is he that made the [bell called]
1 1

"
Find which means the sweet-toned." Colgan also held
that Loebhan and Mar Cecht (son of a plough) are one and the same.
But in the list of S. Patrick's household in the Leabhar Breac he is dis-
tm-ui-lu'd from Mac Cecht, erroneously we think.
known of him in Ireland so completely does he
; v little is

disappear from among the disciples of the Apostle, we may suspect

that he, like Carannog. left him, and that, moreover, at an early period
in Lot-Mian's career.
We hr.u a Loevan or Loenan as associated with Paul of Leon when
( .1

he left Wales and came to Brittany. But whether this be the same we
e sure. He accompanied S. Tudwal to Paris, with eleven
othei On that occasion, as none of these Celtic monks could
speak the Frank tongue, they asked S. Albinus of Angers to serve as
thru interpreter. The object of Paul and Tudwal going to the Frank
<'luldel>ert. was to obtain a confirmation of their several grants
d. S. Albinus, or Aubin, was a native of Vannes, and therefore

able to speak the British tongue. In 538-40 Conmore usurped the

regen mnonia, and it was
i

then that Tudwal and Paul visited

'

Childcbert,
This same Loevan or Levan wrote the Life of S. Tudwal, a Life that
1

extant, that was originally written in Irish.

1
Tudwal died in or
" l) "t 55:, or55.
Tlu- pn.buMe date for the death of S. Patrick is 493.2 We cannot
say at what time in his apostolic work Levan was with him perhaps ;

and then only for a short while. There however, a difficulty in

is,

;dling the dates, and if the Patrician Loebhan be the same as the

1
Do la Bon! Tudual, Textes destrois Vies, Vita ima, Mtmoires de la
\rchtol. des C6tes-du-Nord, 2nd ser., T. ii, p. 84.
*
Shearman, Loca Patriciana, Dublin, 1882, p. 451.
35 Lives of the British Saints

Loevan who wrote in Irish the Life of Tudwal, he must have lived to an
advanced age.
In Ireland, S. Loebhan, of Ath-eguis, occurs in the Martyrologies on
1
June i, but the place cannot be identified and the name without
;

indication of place, on August 9. As

Brittany his Pardon is
in
observed on the second Sunday in August, this seems to identify
Loevan with the Loebhan on August 9. At S. Levan in Penwith, the
feast is observed on October 15.
Loevan or Loenan, the associate of S. Paul, founded Treflaouenan in
the diocese of Leon, and as a companion of S. Tudwal he has a chapel
at Ploulech in Treguier. He has also a chapel at Plounevez-Moedec.
Probably Porthleven in Cornwall had originally a chapel bearing his
name. Dr. Borlase visited the church of S. Levan in 1740, and says 2 :

"
Whilst we were at dinner at the inn, it was very pleasant to hear the
good old woman, our landlady, talk of S. Levin, his cursing the name
Johannah, his taking the same two fishes twice following, his entertain-
ing his sister, Manaccan and as a confirmation of everything we were
;

desir'd at our departure to observe his walk, the stone he fish'd upon,
with some other particulars of like importance."
The original oratory and the holy well of the Saint were on the
edge of the cliff, a little below the church. Some remains of the
well may yet be seen. In the church, on one of the bench-ends, he
is represented with a
cap, in which is a pilgrim's scallop, in a mantle ;

and in one hand a knotted rope, in the other a book.

In Art, he should be represented with a bell and a smith's tool.
At Ploulech, in Brittany, he is figured as an abbot, bare headed,
a staff in one hand and an open book in the other. At Tredarzec
as a bishop. He is invoked on behalf of rickety children. His feast
is kept on the 2nd
Sunday in September. He is perhaps invoked
as Loviau or Lovian in the eleventh century Celtic Litany published
"
by M. D'Arbois de Jubainville. M. J. Loth says Le nom de ce
:

saint varie entre Leviavus et Levianus."

When the relics of so many Breton Saints were being carried away
from the coast because of the devastations of the Northmen, in the
tenth century, those transported to a place of greater security
among
were the Leviavi Episcopi. 3 Loviau is perhaps a misreading
relics of
for Lovian or Levian.

1
Martyrologies of Tallaght, of O'Gorman, of Donegal, and of Cathal McGuire.
2
MS. Par. Mem., p. 4, No. 3.
3
Duchesne, Script. Hist. Franc., iii, p. 344.
 S. Lily 351

S. LIBIAU, Hermit
WHAT is known of this saint, whose name would now be Llibio,
is to In- found Clydog, and a grant in the Book of
in the Life of S.

Lliin Diiv.
1
He, his brother Gurvan, and their sister's son, Cinvur,
It it. thiou-h some dispute, their native cantref of Penychen, in Mid-
(ilamori^m, and settled down to an eremitical life at Merthyr Clydog
'.-dock, in Herefordshire, on the banks of the Monnow, where,
"
with the advice and assistance of the bishop of Llandaff, they built
an improved church." They were granted lands, on both sides of
the Monnow. church by Pennbargaut, King of Morganwg.
to their
"
6 hermits were the first inhabitants and cultivators of
the place after the martyrdom of Clydog."
Itliel, the son of Morgan, King of Glywysing, subsequently made

nit of their territory to the church of Llandaff in the time of

uin.

Lech I.ibiau's Stone, is mentioned in the description of

I.vbiau.
the boundary of Mat hern, in Monmouthshire. 2
Libiau was the name of the 24th reputed Bishop of Llandaff. 3
He died in 929.
For tin- Anglesey saint of the name see under S. LLIBIO.

S. LILY, Confessor
B Willis, in his
Survey of the Cathedral Church of S. David's*
1717. appears to be the sole authority for this saint, whom he calls
'

wi, S. David's Servant. 5 After alluding to the obser-

5, 1
fcvid's of the Festivals of S. David on March i, S. Non
n the 2nd. and
" Lily (his servant) on the 3rd, he says
S. :

Th '

Mitinn still preserved among the old people of the place,

that within these hundred years, or not much earlier, at least
many
alter the Reformation, these two
saints, S. and S. Lily, Nun
had as much honour
paid them by the country people, as S. David
himself ; and if
any of them had been known to work upon any of
would have been esteemed as a
very heinous offence.
Now only S. David's Day is observed."
'
Pp. i! Ibid., pp. 142, 369. 3
Ibid> pp 303> 3I2
I- or this use of Gwas sec under S. IEUAN GWAS PADRIG.
352 Lives of the British Saints

Later writers speak of him as a beloved disciple and constant atten-

dant on S. David, and say that there was a chapel dedicated to him
at S. David's. But we possess no authentic information about him.
His festival day is not entered in as much as one Welsh calendar.

S. LUCIA, see S. LLEUCI

S. LUCIUS, King, Confessor

BEDE, in his Chronicle, written about 725, says :

"
A. 161-180. M. Antoninus Verus cum fratre Aurelio Commodo
annos decem, mensis unum, Defuncto Commodo fratre,
etc. . . .

Antoninum Commodum filium suum consortem regni facit, etc. . . .

Lucius Britanniae rex missa ad Eleutherum Romae episcopum epistola

ut Christianus efficiatur, impetrat."
Antoninus Verus Bede means M. Aelius Aurelius Antoninus
By M.
Verus, commonly known as Marcus Aurelius. He was emperor
from 161 to 180.
By Aurelius Commodus he means Lucius Ceionius Aelius Aurelius
Commodus Verus, commonly known as Lucius Verus. He was co-
regent with Marcus Aurelius from 161 to 169.
According to Bede in his Chronicle, the message of Lucius arrived
when Lucius Verus was dead, i.e., after 169 and before 180. Eleu-
therius was bishop of Rome from iyj to 192, consequently the alleged
letter and deputation from Britain arrived between the years 175
and 180.
But Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History, written in 731 says, (i. 4) :

"A. ab Incarn. Domini 156 M. Antonius Verus decimus quartus

ab Augusto regnum cum Aurelio fratre suscepit. Quorum tem-
poribus quum Eleutherius vir sanctus pontificatus Romas ecclesiae

praecesset, misit ad eum Lucius Britanniarum rex epistolam ob-

secrans ut per ejus mandatum Christianus efficeretur, et mox effectum
piae postulationis effectus est. Susceptamque fidem Britanni usque
in tempora Diocletiani principis inviolatam integramque quieta
in pace servabant." Here Bede makes the mission of Lucius take
place before 169 when Lucius Verus died. He further gives a date
for the accession of Marcus Aurelius which is wrong, 156 instead
of 161. Now as Lucius Verus died before Eleutherius became pope,
he has obviously fallen into chronological error.
 S. Lucius 353
But at tlu- end <>t' his History, Bede gives a chronological summary
24), and in that summary "A. Dom. Incarn. 167
he writes :

KleutheriusUonue pr;esulfactusxvannisecclesiamgloriosissimerexit :

litcras rex I'.ntanniae Lucius mittens, ut Christianus efficeretur

impetravit."
II- !
be gives a wrong date for Eleutherius, he puts him some
ITS too early. In 167 Soter was bishop of Rome. The reason
(it tin- diMTcpancv i> that in his Chronicle Bede followed the com-

putation of the Eusebian-Hieronyman Chronicle, De temporum

;.v. \\herea- in History he followed the dates given by Orosius,
liis

;. in his Epitome at the end, reverted to the authority of

me.
But neither of his authorities mentioned the deputation of Lucius.
lit- had got hold >f the statement that Lucius, King of Britain, sent
.i Irttn to Kleutherius, and he tried to fit it into his history as best
he mi-lit, and that was clumsily and unchronologically.
Bede drew information concerning Lucius and his embassy
his

in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Rome, which he quotes

alnv :ni.

Now of the early Catalogues there are two. Of these the first

i li^t of eighteen bishops from S. Peter to Urban (222-230),

and thi< was continued to about 354, during the pontificate of Liberius.
In it the message of Lucius is not mentioned at all. The entry
: Kleiitherius is: "Eleutherius annis (desunt) fuit temporibus
Antonini rt Commodi. a consulatu Veri et Erenniani usque Paterno
: '." '
That is all.

The second Catalogue is the so-called Felician Catalogue, because

it elo>es with Felix III (IV). This, however, is held not to be an
original Lilcr Pontificulis, but an extract from it. It was drawn
u j> bet \\ern .}S; a nd This contains the passage under the head
( .\()2.

>utherius: "Hie accepit epistolam a Lucio Britannic rege

ut Christianas effkeretur per ejus mandatum." 2
Now it is
worthy of remark that, on the face of it, the paragraph
the appearance of an interpolation.
ill
The form of all the
entries of the early pontiffs is this N., natione
formulary: . . .

Mtulius Hercnnianus was consul in 171 and then

>n)unctinn with I.IKIU> \Vrus. hut with T. Statilius Severus. M. Hi-ivn-
nsul in iS; alon- with the
Emperor Commodus. The
H-. drawn
up In iinus Dionysius Filocalus, scribe to I
Pope
Damasus. is
prmu-d l.\ Mcminst
den Chronographen von 354, in Abhand-
n. I'cbet
lungen d. Koni^licher Acatlam. von Sachsen, Leipzig, 1850, i,
pp. 547 et seq.
DnchMne, tibw rontificalis, Paris, 1886, i, pp. 2-12
'
I)uch i'ontificalis. i, pp. 58, 136.
HI- A A
354 Lives of the British Saints

ex patre sedit
. . annos. menses dies Fuit autem
. . . . . . . . .

temporibus Augusti, a consulatu

. . .
usque ad consulatum . . .

. . Hie constituit
. Hie fecit ordinationes ... in urbe Roma
. . .

per mens. decembr., presbiteros diaconos episcopos per . . . . . .

diversa loca numero qui etiam sepultus est

. . .et cessavit . . .

episcopatus dies. ..." No details about transactions abroad.

Moreover, we have no earlier MSS. of this Felician Catalogue than
one of the ninth century.
The Liber Pontificalis was drawn up at various periods, and was
amplified as it proceeded through its several editions. It has been

erroneously attributed to Anastasius Bibliothecarius. All the earlier

portion was given its present shape in the sixth century. This has
the entry under Eleutherius exactly as in the Felician Catalogue.
In the first place, it may be noted how almost absurd it was to
make a King of Britain at the time when M. Aurelius was Emperor,
and Britain was a portion of the Empire. No writer of a notice
.at the time could have so described a Lucius, if he ever existed, and
was a petty chieftain in Britain. It was not till after the Roman
hold on Britain ceased in 410 that kingship began to reappear in
the island. Moreover, had the Britons desired Christian missionaries
.and bishops, they would have sent into Gaul for them in all prob-

ability.
The next point to consider is, how and when this passage was
inserted in the Liber Pontificalis.
Bede knew no more about Lucius and his embassy,
It is clear that
and than what he got from the text of the Catalogue he
its results,

had before him.

Gildas, who wrote his book about 540, knew nothing of Lucius, or
he would assuredly have mentioned him and his delegation to Eleu-
therius and the results, the conversion and baptism of the British
people.
Pope Gregory knew nothing about it when in 597 he wrote his
long answer to a series of questions propounded to him by Augustine.
"
Augustine had asked How are we to deal with the bishops of
:

"
Gaul and Britain ? Gregory replied very fully relative to the
Gallic prelates, Augustine was to exercise no jurisdiction over them,
and he gives his reasons. " But as for all the bishops of Britain,
we commit them to your care, that the unlearned may be taught,
the weak strengthened by persuasion, and the perverse corrected
by authority." 1
Now, had Gregory known of the conversion of Britain by legates
1
Bede, Hist. EccL, i, c. 27.
 S. Lucius 355
Rome with the authority of Eleutherius, he would have men-
tioned this as showing that the British Church was a daughter of
the Church of Rome, that its Bishops derived orders and jurisdiction
from the Chair of Peter, and that therefore he, Gregory, had a right
t the oversight of that Church, and to the ordering of its affairs.
But he did nothing of the sort.

was, again, quite possible for Gregory to allude effectively to

It

the same topic in the letter to King Ethelbert in 601, but not by a
word does he intimate that he knew anything of the story. 1
Bede does not record the discussion between Augustine and the
"
Icitrant British Bishops at the Oak." Nor does he give us
tlu- letter of Laurentius his successor to the British Bishops, though
he does furnish us with that to the Irish Bishops and abbots. We
are consequently unable to draw any conclusions therefrom.
In nn.j \ V as held the
assembly at Whitby, when the Celtic Church
in Xorthumbria stubbornly resisted Wilfrid, who desired to force
on it the ol>sri -vunce of the Roman computation for Easter. Bishop
m. who spoke for the Celtic usage, appealed to tradition.
1
keep, I received from my elders who sent me bishop
Int her ; all our forefathers, men
beloved of God, are known to have
the same manner and that the same not seem
;
may
mptible to any or deserving of rejection, it is the same which
>, John the Evangelist, with all the Churches over which he presided,
is recorded to have observed." 2
\Vhut a strong and
crushing weapon would Colman have employed
he known of the Lucius He would have been able to say
story !
:

British Church, and that of the Scots

through the Church in
n, received
rule for the celebration of Easter
its
through those
by Eleutherius at the demand of Lucius. We have kept
pa sent
the tradition it is you who have altered
;

your computation."
The contention would have been
unanswerable, at all events by
Wilfrid ; for up to the Council of Nicaea the practice of the British
harmonised with that of the entire Western
Church, and the most
ancient Roman table for Easter tallies
precisely with the British
ami it was not till 525 that Rome
accepted the calculation
.

<>f
Dionysius Exiguus. 3
I n (>8o a Council was held at
Heathfield, under Archbishop Theodore,
Aldhehn was instructed to write an
epistle to the Britons of
nonia to urge them to submit to Rome. "
Quid prosunt bonorum
urn
emolument^" he asked, "si extra Catholicam gerantur

*Bede,f//5/.Ecc/.,i,c. 3 2. 7Mf. f iii.c.2 S . 3

Haddan & Stubbs, Councils, i, p. 152.
356 Lives of the British Saints
"
ecclesiam ? He could not have written this had he supposed that
the British Church had been founded by Papal legates. Aldhelm
let slip no argument by means of which he hoped to induce the

stubborn British Church to submit to the Latin Church. He would

1
certainly have appealed to the story of Lucius, had he known it.
Some forty years later, Bede mentions the mission sent by Pope
Eleutherius and the conversion of Britain. Surely had Gildas,
S. Gregory, S. Augustine, S. Laurence, S. Colman, and S. Aldhelm
known anything of with its splendid results, they
this alleged mission,
would one and have harped upon it.
all

When the earlier portion of the Saxon Chronicle was drawn up,,
probably at the instigation of Archbishop Plegmund in 891, the
passage from Bede's Ecclesiastical History was taken into it verbatim,.
but with the date 167 from his Epitome at the end.
The earliest British testimony to the story is that of Nennius.
who compiled his History in or about 796, using for basis an earlier
Volumen Brittania, composed in the seventh century. The story
of Lucius and his embassy was, however, in the text used by Gilla
Coemgin when he made his translation into Irish in or about 1071.
However, it does not occur in the earliest extant MS. of the Histor'.a
Britonum, the Chartres Codex. It is therefore probably an addition,,
"
and it is an ignorant addition. It runs thus Post clxvii annos
post adventum Christi Lucius Brittannicus rex cum omnibus regulis.
totius Brittannicae baptismum suscepit missa legatione ab
gentis
imperatore Romanorum a papa Romano Eucharisto." 2
et
The idea of a persecuting Emperor Marcus Aurelius combining
with the Pope to get Britain converted, is absurd. Nennius has
taken the date 167 from Bede, he has amplified the text and misread
the name of the Pope. There never was an Eucharistus, and Evaristus
was bishop of Rome about 100-9. ^ ina Coemgin, the translator
into Irish, altered the name to Eleutherius.
We need not concern ourselves further with Nennius.
From the silence of all those engaged in controversy in Britain
down to Aldhelm we may fairly conclude that the story of Lucius
was unknown in Britain, and in Rome till after 680, and that it was
invented and forced fraudulently into the Liber Pontificalis after
that date. There are no earlier MSS. of the Liber Pontificalis than the
seventh century. The earliest is after 685.
It was done with a deliberate purpose, to furnish the Papal See
with a claim to authority over the British Church. It did not origi-
1
S. Aldhelmi Opera, London, 1842, in vol. i of Patres Ecclesice Anglicancs.
8
Nennius, ed. Mommsen, p. 164.
 S. Lucius 357
nate in Britain, but at Rome, where such manufacture was by no
means uncommon.
The Roman story is copied into the Book of LlanDdv, a compilation
"
ct the twelfth century. In the year of Our Lord 156, Lucius, King
of tin- Brit (.ns, sent his legates, El fan and Medwyn, to Eleutherius,
twelfth pope on the Apostolic Throne, imploring that, according
1
to his admonition, he might be made a Christian," etc.
William of Malmesbury adds that the Roman Missionaries, Phaganus
and Drruvumis. went to Glastonbury.
Geoffrey of Monmouth gives the final touches to the fable. Accor-
ding to him. Lucius. King of Britain, appealed by letter to Eleutherius
the Pope, and by solemn decree converted all the heathen temples
throughout his realm into Christian churches, and transformed the
sees ot t
\\rntv-eight flamens and three arch-flamens into as many
1 .i>!u .prir-i and archbishoprics. Faganus and Duvanus were the bishops
l>\ Klrutherius to convert the British. After having seen all
.in made Christian, the great King Lucius died childless at
<iloure-4er in 156.
11 1

<-p in forgery was the composition of the rescript of

Pope Eleutherius to Lucius: "anno centissimo sexagessimo nono a
:one Christi (i.e. 202), scripsit Dominus Eleutherius Papa Lucio
Regi Hiitannue ad correctionem (al. petitionem) Regis et Procerum
regni Britannia?." The letter is as follows:
us a nobis leges Romanas et Caesaris vobis transmitti,
quihiH in re^no Britannia uti voluistis. Leges Romanas et Caesaris
M mpei eprobare possumus, legem Dei nequaquam. Suscepistis enim
i

miseratione divina in regno Britannia legem et fidem Christi.

i

llaheti- pene> \<>s in regno utramque paginam. Ex illis Dei gratia

.hum re.qni votri sume legem, et per illam Dei patientia
urn re.^e Britanniae regnum. Vicarius vero Dei estis in regno . . .

ero regni Britanniae et populi vestri sunt quos divisos

;

debetis in unum ad concordiam et pacem et ad fidem et ad legem

Christi etad Sanctam Ecclesiam congregare, revocare, fovere, manu
tenere protegere, regere, et ab injuriosis et malitiosis et ab inimicis
M -mper defendere. . . . Rex dicitur a regendo, non a regno. Rex
eris dum bene regis :
quod nisi feceris nomen Regis non in te constabit,
et nomen Regis perdes, quod absit. Det vobis omnipotens Deus
iv.unum Britanniae sic regere ut possitis cum eo regnare in aeternum,
cujus vicarius estis in regno praedicto."
This forged rescript was taken into the laws of Edward the Con-
fessor, and on the strength of it, Edward claimed the title of Vicar
1
P. 68 ;
cf. p, 26.
 Lives of the British Saints
"
of God in England. Rex
autem quia Vicarius summi Regis
est, ad hoc est constitute, ut
regnum terrenum, et populum Domini,
et super omnia sanctam ejus veneretur ecclesiam, et regat, et ab
1
injuriosis defendat, et maleficos ab ea evellat."
There can be little doubt that this formed the basis of the pre-
tensions of Henry VIII to be Supreme Head in Church as well as
State in England.
Another forgery was an epistle from S. Patrick, pretending to-
have been written about 434, in Glastonbury, in which is given a
list of the names of the clerics sent by Eleutherius to Lucius. The
names, beside Phaganus and Deruvanus, are Brumbam, Hyregaam,
Brenwal, Wencreth, Brantcommeweng, Adelwared, Loyor, Wellias,
Brenden, Swelwes, Hinloernius and Hin. It will be noticed that
Saxon names are given among some affected to resemble British
" "
names. Patrick also has with him Irish brothers Arnulf and
"
Ogmar, qui mecum venerant de Ybernia." It is a composition
of the twelfth century. 2
"
As Schoell well says of the legend of Lucius :
Jam nihil, ut opinor
obstat, quo minus hanc fabulam qua ad recipiendam Pontificis
Romani auctoritatem inducerentur Britones, inventam esse post
3
Augustini adventum censeamus."
Duchesne has made an effort to remove the discredit that attaches
4 a fable he
to the fable, but it is wholly vain ;
that it is is compelled
to admit.
There have circulated other fables relative to Lucius, as that he
was baptised by S. Timothy. A homily of the ninth century in
the Library of S. Gall gives the following story. S. Paul sent his

disciple Timothy into Gaul. Encouraged thereto by a Gaulish king,.

Timothy pushed on into Britain, where King Lucius ruled over a

pagan people. Lucius summoned Timothy before him, believed,

and was converted and baptised along with his family and a great
number of his subjects. Later, he resolved on leaving his kingdom,
and preaching the Gospel elsewhere. He passed through Gaul, and
visited Augsburg, where he was well received by the patrician Cam-

pesterius, and founded the first Christian community in that city.

1
Ussher, Britannicarum Eccl. Antiquitates, Dublin, 1639, i, pp. 102-3. Ussher
quotes with approval the judgment on this epistle by Bishop Godwin of Hereford :

"
De hac Epistola si me oporteat Sententiam ferre non nimis profecto sapere
;

seculum Eleutherianum confitendum reor."

San-Marte, Gottfried von Monmouth Historia Regum
2
Brit., Halle, 1854,.

pp. 272-3.
3
De Ecclesiastics Britonum . . . histories fontibus, Berlin, 1851, p. 24.
4
Revue Celtique, vi, pp. 491-3.
 S. Lucius 359
Then he went on into the Rhetian Alps. After fasting and praying
for seven days, on the eighth he began to preach. When he learned
that in the Masswald, or forest, were uroxen that were adored by the
natives as gods, the Saint went thither and converted many heathen.
Those who did not believe threw him into a pit and would have stoned
him. but he was miraculously delivered. Then the savage uroxen
came up and licked his feet. When this was rumoured in the town
of Chin or Coire, the people came forth to meet him with torches
and hymns. Here the homily breaks off, and we learn nothing
relative to his This story was taken into the Breviartunt
death.

printed in 1490, and was read on the feast of the Saint till
To the story was added that Lucius after his conversion had
a deputation to Pope Eleutherius to furnish missioners for the
ersion of the British. In 1646, the Church of Chur accepted
the Roman
Breviary, and lections from Geoffrey of Monmouth( !), !

but from the Chur story ; and Lucius, who had hitherto-
witli additions

been rulted as a confessor, was thenceforth exalted into a martyr.

Notker Balbulus, d. a British king who-
912, inserted Lucius as
came to Cluir. in his Martyrology, but not without giving hint that
he mistrusted the legend.
In the sixteenth century the story got expanded and altered,
It W.IN said that this Lucius was the Lucius of Cyrene mentioned in
the Acts xiii. i ; also that the saint was stoned in the castle of Martiola,.
uids the cathedral.
i de Natalibus (d. before 1406) says: Lucius the blessed
( '"in. i

King of Britain ; he was baptised by Timothy, the

S. Paul who having set ; his realm in order and tranquility ;
having abandoned the vanities of this world and many having ;

been converted to God through his travelled

agency, through Augs-
and arrived at Chur, following the
example of many seekers
rfectkm, and died on December 3, in peace." *
aeon-ding to the Gesta Treverorum he was baptised by one
There was a Marcellus,
dtas.
Bishop of Tongres, about 250,
1m- to the list drawn up
by Hubert of Liege in the eighth cen-
turv -lie was
probably the same as the supposed Bishop at Liege
about the same time.
Chur
is shown the
Luciuslochlein, into which Lucius and his
sisterEmerita retreated. She was seized
by the pagans and burned
to death at Trimmis.
The cave of S. Lucius lies about half an hour's walk from the town

1
Catalogus Sanctorum, i, c. 24.
 360 Lives of the British Saints

of Chur, high up, and Mass is said in it once a month. A small trickle
of water in it is used by pilgrims as a cure for sore eyes. 1
Thackeray, in the first of his Roundabout Papers, speaks of the statue
"
of S. Lucius at Coire. In the Cathedral his statue appears sur-
rounded by other sainted persons of his
family. With tight red
breeches, a Roman habit, a curly brown beard, and a neat little gilt
crown and sceptre, he stands, a very comely and cheerful image."
Stow in his Chronicle says that the Church of S. Peter, Cornhill,
London, was founded by S. Lucius, and he gives an inscription in
"
that church testifying to this. Stow says he was after some chronicle
buried in London and after some chronicle buried at Glowcester." 2
Gloucester to-day claims his tomb.
Lucius of Britain, who sent a delegation to Eleutherius, is a purely
mythical personage. Professor Harnack by his recent brilliant
discovery, has shown that the mission must have been from Eleutherius
to Britium of the Edessenes, between 174 and 179, when Lucius Aelius

Septimius Megas Abgarus IX was King of Britium.

3

We
will now come to the form the legend assumed in Welsh. This
is not a long-drawn story of many details. Moreover, it is confined
to one corner only of Wales to a small district with Llandaff as its
centre and it is here that the few threads of the legend were woven.
;

Glamorganshire has proved fertile soil for the growth of these Christian-
izing legends. Those associated with Bran and members of his family
we have already noticed.
Setting aside Geoffrey of Monmouth's Welsh Brut a powerful factor
in its formation the legend is principally contained in the lolo MSS.
and the later Triads, and is, consequently, of very late date. Lucius
istherein said to have been the son of Coel ab Cyllin Sant ab Caradog
ab Bran Fendigaid, a mythical enough ancestry. This differs from
the pedigree in Geoffrey's Brut, which makes him the son of Coel ab
Meurig ab Gweirydd Adarwenidawg ab Cynfelyn ab Teneuan ab
Lludd ab Beli Mawr, and so on up to Prydain ab Aedd Mawr, the first
monarch of the Isle of Britain. His name is given under various forms,
which are merely Welsh renderings of the Latin name Lleufer Mawr,
Lleurwg or Lleirwg, and Lies.
4
The first form is explained by Nen-
1
Burgener, Die Wallfartsorte d. Schweiz, Zurich, 1867, i, p. 314.
2
For his association with London, see especially the note in Bp. Browne (of
Bristol), The Christian Church in these Islands before the coming of Augustine,
1899, pp. 59-61.
3
Sitzungsberichte d. k. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 19 Mai, 1904 re- ;

ferred to in Y
Cymmrodor, xxi (1908), p. 95. The origin and growth of the myth
have been lately dealt with in the Analecta Bollandiana, 1905, p. 393, and in the
English Historical Review, xxii (1907), pp. 767-70.
"
4 Lleufer means
literally light-bearer," like Lucifer and Phosphorus. We
 S. Lucius 361
"
Dins,
1
Lucius agnomine Lleuer Maur, id est, Magni-Splendoris."
" who lived at Llan-
mentioned as King of the Island of Britain,
to embrace the Christian faith, he
;

Living conceived a desire

applied to koine for teachers, and Eleutherius sent him Elfan, Medwy,
According to other accounts, the messengers
3
Dvlan. and Fta.uan.
by Liu -in- \\vre Elfan and Medwy, and the Roman emissaries
I Man and Ffagan.
"
A chronicle 4
states : Lies, also called Lleirwg Sant and Lleufer
M.iwr, senl i'i- -odlv men from Rome to teach the Faith in Christ to

tin- \\Vlsh nation. He it was that first erected a church at Llandaff,

ami piurol bi>h>p- therein, to administer Baptism to the Welsh
nation. Tin- \va> thr t'n>t of our churches, and the most exalted in
He also instituted schools there to teach the Faith in
privileges.
Chri-t. and a knowledge of Welsh books."
"
:n. Lleuter Ma\\r gave property to Cor Eurgain (called after

him !
Sant) for ioo saints. He was the first king that
:

'i-hed national order and law for the Faith in Christ, and he
founded three and Caerfelyn." 5
sees, vi/... Llandaff, Caerwyryl,
:n. 1.1 - ab Coel founded Llandaff, and the Rhath Fawr (appar-
1

entlv Roath. n<m a Miburb of Cardiff), and many others of which the
n;nm-> are now not known." 6
Tin- two earlier series of the Triads know nothing of him, but he is
mentioned in two Triads in the Third Series, of about the sixteenth
"
eentm v. wherein it is added that it was he who first gave lands,"
"
and bestowed the privilege of country and nation, judicial power and
"
validity of oath, upon sucH as were of the Faith in Christ and on this ;

"
<li-tm-ni-hed as one of the three Blessed Kings (Men-
7
;
ncitii] of the Isle of Britain."

;in in the louber of the alphabet attributed to Nemnivus in

a I'.odU ian MS. of thr ninth century. Lleurwg is derived from lleuer. We
should hu\ Lucius to have assumed in Welsh, at an early period, the
form /./<i\ later borrowed early, yielded llugorn, but, as a
/,

late borrowing. lln<ern. The equation Lucius = Lies ab Coel occurs for the first
tune in (.. in the fourteenth century Red Book of Hergest,
where the !
Tiberius also appears as Lies.., ms
But, as Sir J. Rhys has
I from Lucius cannot be a direct Welsh borrowing. The
out to us. Lit s -

" "
Irish liss, Us, meaning li-lit (the exact equivalent of the Welsh llewych), is
applied to Lucius in the Martyrology of Oengus (ed. Stokes), where, on March 4,
" "
laindrcch," Lucius, a lucid light Lies Lucius has, ! =
thiT- lerivol through an Irish source, and that not a very early one.
ire occurrence in Welsh the only other instance that we know of ;

is in the Bleddvn ab
Cynfyn pedigree in Mostyn-MS. 1 17 (of the thirteenth century)
US. j;. p. 71. i &
1
Hist. * 3
lint., c. 18. lolo MSS., p. 149. Ibid, p. 115.
*
Ihid. p. 38;-cf. pp. 40, ioo.
* 7
Ibid, p. 149. Ibid, p. 220. Myv. Arch., pp. 404, 407.
 362 Lives of the British Saints
"
One of The Stanzas of the Achievements " 1 informs us that-

The achievement of Lleirwg, the meek chieftain,

The son of Coel ab Cyllin the eloquent,
Was the forming of books, and the medium of learning.

To S. Lleirwg was formerly dedicated the church of Llanleirwg,

Llaneirwg, in Monmouthshire. It is now 'known as S. Mellon's,
2
later,
and the church in Latin documents has been called the church of
S. Melanus since at least the thirteenth century. The parish church of
the recently formed (1886) parish of Hirwain, in Glamorganshire, is
dedicated to S. Lleurwg.
Attesting the apparent truth of the Lucius legend, there are, besides
Llanleirwg, not far from Llandaff ancient parish churches dedicated to
,

three out of the four Christian teachers mentioned, viz., Dyfan, Ffagan,
and Medwy. Elf an, who always pairs with Medwy, appears never
to have had any dedication. We have Dyfan at Merthyr Dovan,
Ffagan at S. Pagan's, and Medwy at Michaelston-y-Vedw, formerly
Llanfedwy, the church of which was burnt down in the eleventh
century, and was never rebuilt, but Llanfedw has survived as township-
name. In this group Lleirwg and Medwy had, after the Norman Con-
quest, to make way for Mellon and the Archangel, which shows that
their churches belonged to a fairly early period.
The Llandaff tradition would meet with little or no consideration but
which none
for this little cluster of dedications in the neighbourhood, of
occur elsewhere. For all that, there can hardly be a doubt that these
dedications represent perfectly historical persons, who, however, lived
some four centuries, more or less, later than the second. The legend-
mongers found in the locality certain dedication-names, which they
guessed, from their similarity only, to be those in the story, and took
them over, and amplified the legend to what we find it in those sixteenth
and seventeenth century documents, more especially in the lolo MSS.
The common centaury is called, among other names, in Welsh,
3
Llysiau Lleurwg, which also occurs as Llysiau y Bleurwg; but they
" "
are book names for the plant.

S. LUDGVAN, Abbot, Confessor

THE
parish of Ludgvan, near Penzance, in Cornwall, appears in
Domesday as Luduham. In the Exeter Transcript as Luduam. In
1
lolo MSS., p. 263.
Llan Leirwc, Peniarth MS. 133, of 1550
2
Llan Lirwg, Peniarth MS. 147,
;

c.
1566; Llan Leirwg, Jesus College MS. 13, of seventeenth century, and Myv.
Arch., p. 750. For the loss of // in Llaneirwg, cf. the Radnorshire Llanyre for
3
Llanllyr. Meddygon Myddfai, Llandovery/ 1861, p. 204.
 S. Ludgvan 363
the Episcopal Registers as Ludewan (Stapeldon 1324, Grandisson 1330),
dedicated to Sanctus Ludvvanus (Bytton 1312, Stapeldon 1312,
1318.) Ecclesia Sti. Ludowanni, Brantyngham, 1382 Ludvoni, also ;

1382 ; Sancti Ludvone, 1383. This settles the sex of the Saint.
Mr. Copeland Borlase suggested that Ludgvan stands for Llan
Ddwymven. and was named after one of the daughters of Brychan.
i-
quite inadmissible.
Lnd^van is apparently Lithgean of Clonmore. His feast in the
ular of Tallaght is on January 16, and the Ludgvan feast is ob-

1 in tlu- week of the festival of the Conversion of S. Paul, January

J5. Add eleven days to January 16, required to obtain Ludgvan feast
O.S ., and we have S. Lithgean's day, January 27.
Of S Lithgean not much is known. He was the son of Laignech,
descended from Cucorb. King of Leinster, and belonged to the clan of
the Hv ('<>rmaic. who occupied the country west of the Wicklow moun-
<>n the borders of \Yicklow and Kildare. The family cemetery is
.it Killeen t'ormae. between Dunlavin and Ballitore, and is known to
arch. i
as having yielded several Ogham inscriptions. His
mot! or Br<m tin. was sister to S. Ibar, and he was related to

mother.whom we have identified with S. Kewe,

and S. Ladoca. 1
She was buried in the family cemetery at Killeen.
related to S.Fiacc of Sletty, the Cornish Feock.
I.ith-ean had six brothers, all saints, but the most important of
ttie.ii . Abban. of Killabban.
in which the whole The manner
family entered religion seems to point to its having been involved in
the lunNimeiit of the Uiu Clan for
having embraced Christianity,
and to its bem- allowed to return on condition that the members em-
braced the ecclesiastical profession. We find a
Lithgean also spoken
ofasbrot Vhebran or Kevern and a son of Bochra. We must
not take the title of son or brother too Whether these be the
strictly.
i different
persons, we have no means of judging. S. Lithgean
lud a inundation at Clonmore in the territory of the Hy Failghe or
'v. but it cannot now be identified.
He probably moved to Cornwall
about the same time as the rest
y and \Yexford, for he belongs to that period. If the Clon-
(
)ssoi

was, be the Clonmore near Seir Ciaran in the

i

Ball vbritt, then he must have been a

neighbour and intimate
with S. Ciaran. and have been in close touch with his cousin
S. Cuach.
most probable that the same reasons which induced so
political
many to leave the south-east of Ireland
operated on Lithgean.
1

ith-ean is not to be confounded with

Laidhgean, of Clonfert Molua,
Igan, Acta SS. Hibern, xvi, Martii, Appendix ad Acta S. Abbani, c. iii,
p. 6*6.
 364 Lives of the British Saints

who much later period. This latter is, however, an inter-

belongs to a
esting personage as preserver of a crude Latin hymn by Gildas, which
he took to Ireland, and which is preserved, and is the only early speci-
men we have of Welsh hymnody. It has been published by Stokes in
his Old-Irish Glosses.
The local tradition at Ludgvan is that the holy abbot brought a
stream of water, from source at a distance, to flow under the church-
its

yard wall ;
and it was held that a child baptized in S. Ludgvan' s water
miraculously enabled to respond at its own baptism. The stream
is still

flows, and supplies the village with drinking water.

S. LUGHTIERN, see S. LEUTIERN

S. LUNAPEIUS, see S. JUNABUI

S. LUPUS, Bishop, Confessor

THE authorities for the Life of S. Lupus are : A Letter of Sidonius
Apollinaris (Lib. vi, ep. i) to S. Lupus, and mention in other of his
letters. A
Life of the Saint written by some one who was acquainted
with his disciples, in Ada 55. Boll., Julii v, pp. 72-82. A second, and
larger Life, written at theend of the eighth or beginning of the ninth
century. This cannot be trusted Acta 55. Boll. Julii v., pp. 69-72.
;

A letter, purporting to have been written by S. Lupus to Sidonius

Apollinaris, was forged by J. Vignier see Havet, Questions Merovin-
;

giennes, ii, in Bibliotheque de 1'EcoledesChartes, xlvi (1885), pp. 252-3.

S. Lupus was born at Tulle in Gaul, about the year 383, and was the

son of Epirichius, a nobleman. He married Pimeniola, sister of S.

Hilary of Aries, and spent seven years with her in great love and happi-
ness. Then he retired to the island of Lerins, and placed himself under
the direction of S. Honoratus. What became of his wife is not stated.
When Honoratus was made Bishop of Aries, he went to Macon,
S.

in Burgundy, to dispose of an estate he possessed there, and was prepar-

ing to return, when he was met by the deputies of the church of Troyes,
which had just lost its bishop, 426, to announce to him that he had
been elected to the episcopal throne of that Church.
j"
In an assembly held at Aries in 429, it was decided to send S. Ger-
manus of Auxerre and S. Lupus of Troyes to Britain to oppose the
Pelagian heresy, which had greatly spread in the island. The history
of that mission has been related in the Life of S. Germanus.
 S. Lythan 365
about a year in Britain and
Lupus and Germanus remained only
then returned.
of the Huns,
Lupus saved Troyes from being sacked by Attila, king
(iaul \vas overrun by the barbarian horde, and he died in 479.
with a fine and Sidonius
3,
Lnpoa was a student library, Apollinaris
held his literary judgment in high esteem. His eloquence seemed to
rhetoric. 1 It was
ntemporaries to recall the golden age of Gallic
-ly stilted and
-. \ full of pedantry, for so only could it have met with

the approval of such a man.

Lupus's name was at some late period rendered Bleiddian, or Bleid-

:i \\VNh, and two churches in Glamorganshire are usually regarded
been founded by him under that name, viz., Llanfleiddian
or Llanblethian. and Llanfleiddian Fach, or S. Lythan's.
Hut there are difficulties in the way of these churches having been
attn him and, moreover, there is no evidence that either
1 ;

Lupus 01 his companion Germanus ever set foot in Wales. See what
-aid under S. BLEIDDIAN and S. LYTHAN.
<
< p.

Whether, on his way home, Lupus halted in Goelo, in Armorica,

able to say, but it is remarkable that he should have a cult
there he i- patron of Lanloup, and has several chapels.
;
fine four- A
teenth century statue of him is in the church of Pontrieux. His day
in the Roman Mart
yrology, and in those of Bede, Hrabanus, Ado,
Nutker. Waiiilell>rrt. etc., is
July 29.

S. LYTHAN, Confessor

liui i. tlu- si MI of Athrwys. King of Morganwg, made a grant of

l.lidon to the Church of Llandaff during the episcopate of
S. Oudoceus. 1 This is to-day S. Lythan's, a few miles from Cardiff. In
o the Book of Llan Ddv* the church is called Ecclesia
;

(or Lithano); so also in the Taxatio of 1254, and

Lythano
that oi 1291, but in the latter the name is
printed Lychano, an error
vthauo. The inscription on the Elizabethan paten belonging to
iuiivh reads. SAINCTE HTHVANS
>J i
1577. In the parish boundary,
.1- described in the -rant, is mentioned Hen Lotre Elidon and Luin ;

n also occurs.* The latter, as Llwyn Elyddon (or Elyddan),

survived late as the parish-name.

*
Epist. viii. ii. 2. Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 157-8 cf. pp. 31, 90.
'

^ 4
Ibid. pp. 32, 44.
;
366 Lives of the British Saints

The parish is also known as Llanfleiddian Fach, to distinguish it

from Llanfleiddian Fawr (Llanblethian), near Cowbridge. The latter,

now dedicated to S. John Baptist, is called in various parish-lists of
1
circa 1566-1606, Llan-Liddan, -Leiddan, and -Elidan. The same
name is clearly involved, which would to-day be Elyddon, liable to
become Elyddan. Neither church can, therefore, be dedicated to S.
Bleiddian or Bleiddan, which it has been the custom to regard as the

Welsh form of the name of S. Lupus of Troyes. Of Elyddon or

Lythan we know nothing, but he probably lived a century or more later
than did Lupus. See also under S. BLEIDDIAN and S. LUPUS.
Browne Willis 2 gives September i as the feast day at S. Lythan's,
but this is the festival of S. Lupus, Archbishop of Sens, who died in 623.

S. LLAMINED ANGEL
THE sole authority for this saint is an entry in a MS. of, apparently,
the seventeenth century, printed in the lolo MSS. 3 The name is
sometimes written Lleminod (or Llyminod) Angel. Possibly the com-
piler was led away by his epithet to include him. He was the son of
Pasgen ab Urien Rheged, and brother of S. Gwrfyw. The Venedotian
Tribes of Collwyn ab Tangno and Marchweithian traced their descent
through him.

S. LLAWDDEN, see S. LLEUDDUN

S. LLAWDDOG, see S. LLEUDDAD

S. LLECHEU, Confessor
4
LLECHEU occurs in the late lists of Brychan's children as a son of his.

He is said to have a church dedicated to him at Llanllecheu, in

Ewyas
now mainly included in Herefordshire which has not been identified.
He connected with Llangan, or Tregaian, in Anglesey. 5 In
is also

Peniarth MS. 178 (sixteenth century) it is stated that he was a saint at

1
Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 919. S. Lythan's is not entered
in these lists, but lolo Morganwg inserted it as Llanfleiddan Fach in that in
Myv. Arch., p. 748.
2
Llandaff, 1719, append., p. 2 Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 199.
;
3 4
P. 128. lolo MSS., pp. in, 119, 140; Myv. Arch., p. 419-
6
Myv. Arch., p. 427.
 & Lleuci 367
Talyllechau, meaning Talley, in Carmarthenshire ; but this can only
be an ignorant guess.
Llacheu, or Llecheu, was the name of a son of King Arthur, who was
Mam at the battle of Llongborth, and is celebrated in the Triads.

S. LLECHID, Virgin
LLECHID was the daughter the only daughter, apparently of Ithel
Hael of I.lydaw. and the sister of SS. Tegai and Trillo, who came hither
from Armorica with Cadfan. 1 She is the patroness of Llanllechid, in
< .imai \-<.!ixhirc-, adjoining which is Llandegai. Capel Llechid, called
also Vi !
ys, on Plas Ucha, in the parish, no longer exists.
i

Legend says that the stones brought to it in the day-time were mysteri-
ously carried away in the night to the spot whereon Llanllechid Church
distance of about a mile. In 1780 the chapel was fairly
<
"inpK-tc. and some remains of it were to be seen until within recent
tssite air two fields called Cae'r Capel and Cae'r Bettws.
oon I.iivliid. tlu- saint's Well, still flows hard by, and is believed
SS699 rurative properties. Many persons troubled with scrofula
kindivd di "
1I1(l >ed to repair to it. So great was their faith
in it that persons would call for a drink of its water when at the
point
eath." la C.lyn ("othi,in the fifteenth century, swears by the
" "
>aint'^ -Inmr, 3
myn bedd Llechid !

iva! ix entered on December I in the Calendars in the

i.wmmir John Edwards of Chirkland, 1481, the lolo MSS., and
</
the Prymers of 1618 and but as the 2nd in Browne Willis, 4
1633 ;

1'"' <'iil>n\ni and a number of Welsh Almanacks from 1692

<
m wards. Xi .las Roscarrock gives November i.

S. LLEIAN, see S. LLUAN

S. LLEUCI, Virgin, Martyr

THESE are two churches in Cardiganshire, and one in Carmarthen-
>hii-f. which are regarded as whom
being dedicated to S. Lucia, but of
Pcniarth .UNN. :,, and
,,

// MSS., pp.
^ .

Hafod
rch.. p. 4j7 ;
104, 112, 133.
:
Mvn!,lin I-ardd, Utn Gwerin Sir
Gaernarfon, 1909, p. 169.
Works, Oxford, 1837, p. 183. 4
* Bangor I72I>p 273
.

Vol. iii
(1818), p. 222.
368 Lives of the British Saints

nothing is known. These are Bettws Leiki and Llanwnen, in the former
county, and Abernant in the latter. It is quite evident that they are
not early dedications, but of the Middle Ages. The first-named was
formerly known as Capel Bettws Leuci, and served a district in the
extensive parish of Llanddewi Brefi, which has since been made into a
separate parish. Llanwnen, which is now sometimes given as dedicated
"
to S. Lucia or S. Gwynen," is ascribed by Browne Willis and Meyrick

to S. Lucia alone, with festival on December 13. But the festival of

S. Gwynen also fell on the same day, and it is clear that she has been
merely supplanted by S. Lucia in the dedication, most probably on a re-

building of the church.

Lleuci, or Lleucu, is generally taken to be the Welsh assimilation of
the name Lucia, but if so, it is not quite rule-right. The name would
have to be a fairly early borrowing, before the c had become the sibi-
lant it is in Lucy. But who may this Lucia or Lleuci have been ? We
are disposed to identify her with the Lucia who was one of the numer-
ous companions of the famous British virgin and martyr, S. Ursula,
who, with her Eleven Thousand Virgins, was culted at Llanygwyryfon
and, the now extinct, Capel Santesau, in the parish of Llanwenog, both
in Cardiganshire. Llanwnen adjoins Llanwenog and, moreover, in ;

the contiguous parish of Llanybyther a large fair was held on their

festival, October 21, O.S., and is still held on All Saints' Day and its
Eve, which is popularly known as Ffair Santesau. Of this Lucia we
have no information * beyond that she is stated to have suffered
martyrdom, with S. Ursula and her fabulous maiden host, at Cologne
in the fifth century, at the hands of the Huns. Her festival at Cologne
is November 23.2 In the Welsh Life of S. Ursula in Peniarth MS. 182
" "
(c. Lucia Vorwyn
1514) is given among the eleven virgin saints

whose names are mentioned. 3

December 13 is the festival of S. Lucia, the young Sicilian saint, S.
Lucy of Syracuse, who was martyred during the Diocletian persecu-
tion, 303. Two churches in England are believed to be dedicated to
her, Upton Magna, in Shropshire, and Dembleby, in Lincolnshire. She
would have been more likely to receive a cult in England than in Wales.
" "
1
has been suggested that she was, perhaps,
It Lucia the Happy of the
Fttire ofOengus (Smith and Wace, Diet, of Christian Biography, iii, p. 744)- But
" Lucia with
this was none other than the Lucia of Syracuse splendour, whom
:

thousands moved not." See the Ftlire, edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes (H.
Bradshaw Society), 1905, pp. 59, 68, 260, and the index.
2 3
Stanton, Menology, 1887, p. 510. Pp. 281, 290.
 S. Lleuddad ab Dingad 369
S. LLEUDDAD AB ALAN, Confessor
the one of
Tin HI. WC two Saints bearing the name Lleuddad,
\im..rica. and tho other of Wales,
and the two have been confounded
know nothing of the Armorican,
thcr. The earlier pedigrees
Mad Llvdaw, as he is sometimes called. He was the son of
rgan al. Kimr Llvdaw. and, with many others, accom-
,1 his cousin, S. radian, to Wales.
1
He was brother toSS. Llonio
,1). Tin- /.'/c monk, of Bangor
MSS. make him a saint, or
2
Illtyd. at Llantwit, and afterwards bishop in Bardsey. Rees says
the death of Oadfan, the first abbot of Bardsey, Lleuddad was
i hi s successor. But this entirely confuses him with the Welsh
Mad, whoso Life leaves no room for doubt upon the matter.
He
have gone with Cadfan to Bardsey.

S. LLEUDDAD AB DINGAD, Abbot, Confessor

THIS, tho Wolsh l.K'uddad. was the son of Dingad ab Nudd Hael, of
tin- i
\Ylodig, by Tenoi, daughter
of Lleuddun Luyddog,
3
. n in tho North. Ho was thus a cousin to SS. Kentigern
. n7 ;
lolo MSS., p. 1 33 (on p. 145 he is g iven as son
fvv. Arch., pp. 427. 430- For his father, Alan,
Welsh Saints, p. 221.
-

3 ]>, 4; Hafod MS. 16 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 423. 427;

;

Camf> '.
;
lolo MSS., pp. 103, 113, 139. On p. 145 of thelast
w..rk : ! Lleud'lad (iwent ; and at the other references it is stated that
..mts of Llancarfan, who Vent in a body with Dy frig to
Bardsc\ . His Q .nit ty of forms, but it is usually Llawddog

South Wales, and

in in North Wales,
popular sprrch ^euddad
or rath, r in Lkyn. Li-wis C.lyn Cothi combines both ma couplet in his cywydd
to him :

"
Llowddog, fy llw a oddef,
Lleuddad ap Dingad y\v ef,"
In tii (,/.((/!/ liis name is given as Llowddoc and Llewddoc, but in the
.iddad. C.iraldus wrote it Leudocus but the name is;
;

century bards, Hywel ab

'

iiMia 1

Thv two tifti.-'.'nth Dafydd

"
-../I/UK i'r Ugain Mil Saint, call him Llewdad
" " "
Iwvilwvn and IJ.i-wdad Ian ;
and lolo Goch (Gweithiau,
Ashton, p. 389), ed.
"
LU-udail llwyd." The ])arish-naiiH'. U.anllawddog, was formerly sometimes
'1
Llanllyyryddog. h- names of two lay witnesses in the
1

Book of Lhm ]>.r<<. I. oil' loc and Loudoce (p. 150), would now regularly
i

p. ^^7j,
AV. Sir J. Rhys thinks Lou-doc, later Lleu-ddog,
to ha^ :iaiiH- made
up oiLou-, later Lieu- = Irish Lug, gen. Logo
.inn- th< nod
Lug. and perhaps ultimately a hero or champion in
a wi't' in Doc-nnul. later Dog-mael, Dog-wel.
^
He regards Lieu-
. alter genuine compound, to which there should correspond in Irish
VOL. III. B B
37 Lives of the British Saints

and Beuno. He had as brothers SS.

Baglan, Eleri, Tegwy, and Tyfriog
or Tyfrydog. Buchedd
His
Life, Llewddog Sant, occurs in Llanstephan
MS. 34 (late sixteenth century), and there is a copy of it in MS. 104
(early seventeenth century), in the same collection. We give here the
substance of his legend.
Dingad ab Nudd Hael, King of Bryn Buga, or Usk, was the father of
twelve children, 1 all of whom served God. Llewddog declined his
father's kingdom, and joined his eldest brother, Baglan, in leading a

religious apparently in Carnarvonshire.

life, He would continually
disappear to some secret place for closer communion with God, for
which he was wrongly aspersed by his brothers. Baglan bade Henwyn
to take a bell with him and find out where he went. We next find him
"
landed in the Island of the Saints." 2 He was an entire stranger
there, and Cadfan peremptorily told him that if he did not mean to
stay he must clear out. Llewddog accordingly became a monk or
canon of the Augustinian Order. 3 This, of course, is a gross
anachronism and Bardsey was Benedictine.
;
"
When Cadfan felt the approach of death he bade the community to
take Llewddog for their abbot after him. Llewddog and his monks
buried Cadfan, and he thereupon became abbot. The bishops of
Wales were filled with envy towards him and he joined their pastoral
;

staffs into one staff at the place now

Bryn y Baglau (the Hill
called
of the Pastoral Staffs).Then came Llewddog, with his bell in his
hand and his canons, and made the sign of the Cross over them, and
they became disunited. From thence he went to a spot where was a
well, and took a bowl of milk and threw it into the well. Then he
separated the milk from the water, which the others were not able
to do. Whereupon the bishops were convinced that he was greater
than they, and each of them gave him a portion of his land." 4
"
Llewddog, now secure in the abbacy, worked miracles like one of
"
the Apostles to the end of his days, when an angel appeared to him

" of the colour or

Lug-dath, meaning he complexion of Lug." Mr. Egerton Philli-
more, for eu = later aw, compares Breudi, the old form of Brawdy, and Leureni,
the old form of Lawrenny, which latter he thinks comes from Laurent-ius or Laud-
ent-ius, the two names being doubtless convertible.
1
Even the later genealogies do not give him as many.
According to the cywydd by Hywel ab Dafydd, the saints in Bardsey sent him
2

a request to come and preside over them.

Glyn Cothi. We are to infer from a grant of indulgence, dated 1286,
8 So Lewis
"
that Bardsey was the earliest " domus religiosa de tota Wallia (Haddan and
Stubbs, Councils, etc., i, p. 584).
4
Hywel ab Dafydd says that the staffs grew on the hill into one leafy tree,
which, on Llewddog's prayer, were once more separated but he does not say
;

that they were the staffs of bishops.

 S. Lileuddad ab Dingad 371
"
and summoned him Take whoever of thy monks thou
to Heaven.
"
choosest with thee," said the angel. Then called he his canons before
He to come with me shall
'

him, and sii.l unto them, that desireth

'

\ml they said, We will all come with thee.' Not so/ said
'

the eldest only shall come with me the rest must here
'

Idotf. ;

remain M-rving God.'

requests did Llewddog make of
nvc the angel. First, that his
canons should die from eldest to eldest, whilst they kept the com-
mandments of God. Secondly, that the soul of any person buried
within that island should not go to hell. Thirdly, that so might it also
happen unto him that should maintain the privileges of the island."
The three requests were granted him.
"
On his death-bed he had a glimpse of the Beatific Vision. And
they heard the voice of the Most High God bidding him come, and
tune that thou come to the feast with thy brethren,
'

Llewddog, to the place where thou art bidden.' And with that
he passed hence.
titteenth ceiiturv bard, Lewis Glyn Cothi, also wrote a short
1
cywydd, or poem, in his honour. It closely follows the prose Life,
and ends by invoking Llowddog's blessing upon his territory (that
;ul upon his
people upon every yoke, and plough, ;

and harrow upon every ridge and furrow; and upon every seed-
;

ildu-. in the twelfth century, knew something of the tradition

about Llewddog's first request, for he says
2
that Bardsey, probably
"
in. :
le obtained by the merits of the saints, has this

;li. ti it
y. that the oldest people die first." This privilege
.-I
dviivu according to seniority is recorded by Higden, whose Latin
thus Knyli-hed 3
by Trevisa :

At Xt-myn in XorJ1 \Valcs A litel ilond )>ere is,

]at hatte Bardcseie; Monkcs wone)? )?ere alweie :

-o longe in
]?at hurste, )?at )?e eldest dety]> furst.

A MS. memorandum tells us

late
something more how each oldest ;

would watch diligently for "the hour the thief of this life
i

" "
would come h<>w God. \Yho is ever faithful, kept His covenant
;

inviolate, until the monks ceased to lead a religious life, and wickedly
"
II -
sanctuary ; and how thereafter each one had, irres-

are copies of it in MS. and Addi-

Llanstephan 7 (sixteenth century),
tional -

writ ten in
i

IM;).
1
I tin. Catnh., ii, c. 6.
ion, Polychronicon, ed. Babington, 1865, *. PP- 416, 418.
3 72 Lives of the British Saints

pective of age, to obey the uncertain call of death like other mortals.
Religion has now ceased there, and ceased has the wonder too.
1

In Peniarth MS. 225, in the autograph of Sir Thomas Williams,

of Trefriw, isgiven, written in 1602, in Latin, Welsh, and English,
"
the syme of the Jndulgences
ch
w
Laudatus & his successors ob-
teined of the supreme Bishopes of the Church of Rome, [which] ar
graunted to all peregrines or pilgrimes & benefactors visiting godly
& devoutlie " the Island of Bardsey " by reason of ye hardnes of
saylinge &
passage to the Jsle." They are assured that if any
"
of them
should die by the waye they should not be damned." One
of the indulgences is the following: "For euery tyme y^ pilgrimes
shall goe about the churchyard of the xx
tle
thousand Sainctes, &
r
ther in eu'y wyndowe shall say o Lordes prayer they shall obteine
of or Lord mercifully a thousand & fyve hundreth yeeres." We
"
are told that when the feste of James thap'le & the feste of Sancte
Laudatus the Abbate are celebrated vpon one & the selfsame Sondaye
then . . cofirmed a Jubilee by the Apostolical aucthori-
. that yeere is

tie in the same Jlande." .The feast of Lleuddad, however, is some

six months earlier in the year than that of the Apostle.

Three pilgrimages to Bardsey were believed to be of equal merit
with one to Rome. The late Lord Newborough in 1890 erected a cross
in the centre of the graveyard to the memory of the 20,000 Saints
buried there. 2

1
This note, we believe, has never been published. We therefore append here
an exact copy of it as it occurs in Additional MS. 19,713, fo. 216 (1592) :

" BARDESEYA. Notet hie lector

quoddam et mirabile et Sanctum & inter
Mirabilia Wallie in Cronicis annotatum ad primam autem Monasterii huius
:

Insule fundacionem. dominus ipse deus qui peticiones cordis Justorum implet.
ad deprecatum Sancti Laudati primi abbatis eiusdem Monasterii iniuit pactum
cum ipso sancto. Statuitque ei et miraculose confirmauit sibi et successcribus
suis claustratibus ibidem sancte et religiose victuris in perpetuum Certum et :

priscitum ordinem et successum (mirabile dictu) seriatim moriend videlicet quod :

eorum maior natu vel etate grandeuior priusquam eorum etate minor hac luce
:

discederet Sic autem poma prius nascentia, priusque ex tempore solis ardoribus
maturata, Prius ab arboribus vindemiatur. Hoc mortis instinctu premonitus
ipse maturior etate huius loci quisque canonicus vigillaret utique. qua hora
fur
huius vite venturus esset. vt omni hora preparatus a corporis ergastulo, fratri-
bus valedicens eis in celum prevolaret. Istudque pactum ipse fidelis deus (vt
quondam israelitis) irruptum seruauit donect claustrales predicti, religiose viuere
desierunt, et sanctuarium dei ibidem stupro et sceleribus nefande prophanarunt.
Ob id quidem hodie rupto dei federe. nunc minor nunc maior, nunc eorum :

medius etate, incerta morte, incerto mortis tempore communi mortis Jure, hac
vita defungitur, Cessauit qui religio et vita monachalis : cessauit et miracnlum.
Tu autem domine miserere nostri."
2
Its west, north, and south sides bear respectively the following inscrip-
tions :
 S. Lleuddad ab Dmgad 373
SS. Cadfan and Lleuddad have been esteemed the patrons of
B, v Island. 1
There are four churches dedicated to
S. Llawddog, viz., Cilgerran,

in Pembrokeshire, Penboyr, and Llanllawddog, in

and Cenarth,
< armarthenshire-. They stretch eastwards of Cilgerran almost in a
>trai,qht line, and cover an extensive
district. The present dedication
-i Cili^-iran is to S. Lawrence, which was changed, as in other instances,

by the Normans, who probably chose S. Lawrence because his name

m bled that of S. Llawddog. 2 On the border of the
h lies ("win Llawddog (his Dingle) through which the brook

inns, and his Holy Well, with a farm called from it, Ffynnon
.

Llawddog, are in the adjoining parish of Bridell. A spot below

Castk Mal^wvn is called Pant Llawddog (his Hollow). Giraldus
Cam refers to the rock at Cenarth Mawr (i.e. Cenarth),
that had been hollowed out by Llawddog's own hands as a cave-
4
<lwelliiuj, and adds that the church there dedicated to him, the mill,
ti-hrry, and
,
an orchard with a delightful garden, all stand
together mi a >mall plot of ground. At Penboyr, in a field to the
t of the church, stands Tomen Llawddog, known also as
I'- unen Maollan, a moated mound of about 120 yards in circumference,
which is one of the highest altitudes in this part of the county, and
Commands a fine view. Ffynnon Lawddog is in a wood called
P.HIM Llawdi! the church.
In Lleyn. Lleinldad's memory is perpetuated by Gerddi Lleuddad
in Bardsey, Ogof Lleuddad (his Cave) at Aberdaron.

uiins of 20,000 Saints buried

" "
near this spot ;
In hoc loco
^.ife in this Island,
Where each saint would be.
How wilt thou smile
"
Upon Life's stormy sea ?

ire so associated in a poem by the thirteenth century bard Llywelyn

., pp. 248-50).
h'-rc, held on August 21 (now two days earlier), was at one
tinu- th. ni,,st
Dyk-d. Llaw.ldog is now forgotten except
important cattle fair in

v.iphv (J. R. Phillips, History of Cilgerran, 1867).

Hal' piscariam copiosam juxta Ki'garran, in summitate rupis
'

I.tiuloci manihus olim

txscu'ptam, in loco qui dicitur Kenarth-
niaur './/. Kanartniaur) Slant autem simu in angusto scilicet terra ar-
. . .
1
,

mcti illius, molendinum, cum ponte et piscaria, et

pomerium cum
Irlrctabili." Inn. Catnb., ii, c. 3 (Opera, vi, p. 114).
4
It apprar- that the Statute Book of the Diocese of S. Davids,
in
temp. Bishop
lorunth .*//<!,- (k-rvase (i 2 5-31), Cenarth Church is mentioned as " Ecclesia Sti.
1

"
MI Sanctorum cle Canarlmawr (Theo. Jones, Breconshire, ed.
hi- d< si-nation
I

opens up an interesting question, for which see

what has lx-i-n said by wue .of the authors in the Cymmrodorion Transactions for
1906-7, pp. 102-5.
 374 Lives of the British Saints

and Ffynnon Leuddad (his Holy Well), on Carrog in the parish of

Bryncroes. a walled well, of about four feet square, and

This is

was formerly in high repute for its cure of every manner of ailment
in the case of both man and beast.
The festival of S. Lleuddad is given as January 15 in the Calendar
in the Prymer of 1633, and by Browne Willis, 1 but as the 2ist in the
calendar in Additional MS. 14,886 (16434). The day observed at
Cilgerran was August 10, the festival of S. Lawrence, on which a
fair was held, O.S., and is still held on the igth and 2oth.
"
There occurs among the " Sayings of the Wise the following 2
:

Hast thou heard the saying of Lleuddad,

For the instruction of a morose man ?
"
Friendlessis every loveless person."

(Digared pob digariad.)

S. LLEUDDUN, King, Confessor

AMONG the many Welsh and other saints whose protection is in-

voked in a poem
3
for Henry VII is named Llowdden, who must be
"
the S. Llawdden, of
Ynys Eiddin, in the North," who is entered
twice in the lolo MSS. 4
as a Welsh Saint. This seems to be all the
evidence for so regarding him but though ; his own saintship is doubt-
ful,he was the grandfather of several eminent Saints. Llawdden
occurs also in the Life of S. Beuno 5 as that Saint's grandfather.
The person meant is, more correctly, Lleuddun Luyddog (" of the
Hosts Dinas Eiddyn, in the North, that is, Edinburgh. He
"), of
is the Leudonus of the old fragmentary Life of S. Kentigern, and the

eponymus of Lleudduniawn, or Leudonia, the Lothians of to-day. He

6

appears as Llew in Geoffrey's Brut, where it is stated that King Arthur

gave the districts in the North that he had wrested from the Saxons
to three brothers, Urien (of Rheged), Llew and Arawn. Llew had
Lodoneis, that is, the Lothians. In the earlier Life of S. Kentigern
"
he is also called Lothus, and is said to have been a vir semipaganus,"
and King of the Picts.
Lleuddun was the son of Cynfarch Gul ab Meirchion, by Nyfain,
daughter of Brychan, and the father of Denyw, or Denw, the mother
1
Parochiale Anglic., 1733, pp. 189, 192.
2
lolo MSS., p. 358.
3 4
lolo MSS., p. 314. Pp. 128, 145.
5
Cambro-British Saints, p. 13. 6
Y Cymmrodor, xi, p5K
 S. LI /noi
375
5, Kentigern of Tenoi, the mother of SS. Lleuddad, Baglan,
;

1
and others; and of Perferen or Beren, the mother of S. Beuno.
was by Anna, Arthur's the
rding to Geoffrey's Brut he
also sister,

i at her of the celebrated Medrod and Gwalchmai, the Modred and

dn of the Romances.
U.'iiddiin is said to have been buried near Dunpender Law, in
Lothian.

S. LLEUFER or LLEURWG, see S. LUCIUS

S. LLIBIO, Monk, Confessor

2
I.I.IBIO was, according to the lolo MSS., one of the many sons of
Srithenm. Km- <il the Plain of Gwyddno, whose land was overflowed
by the sea and now lies in Cardigan Bay and they became saints ;

or monks in Bangor-on-Dee.
11 the same person is meant, he was a disciple of S. Cybi, for
h< mentioned as having accompanied him with nine others when
i-

Along with Cybi he went to Aran, to S. Enda,

:l
"Mi\vall.

and remained there four years. Llibio is mentioned in the Life of

S. Ei. Qg In- disciple on Aran, but the Irish account makes him
brother ot Kudu. The Sanctilogium Genealogicum makes Conall
the Red and Aibtinn the parents of both Enda and Llibio. 4
From Ireland Llibio returned with Cybi to Britain and settled
with him in Anglesey, where he founded the church of Llanllibio.
The chmvh is n<>w extinct, and the small parish which it served has
been annexed to Llantrisant.
1 he festival of S. Llibio is on February 28, which is entered as
his day in a good many of the Welsh calendars from the fifteenth
a-ntury onwards, as well as by Browne Willis, Nicolas Owen, Angharad
I
Jwyd. and others. In a short poem, Teulu Cybi Sanl, 5 he is mentioned
among the dozen "seamen" who formed that Saint's "family/*
and who \\vre nearly all Saints connected with Anglesey.
the I.landaff hermit-saint of the name see under S. LIBIAU.

iarth MSS. 12, 16, 45 ; Hafod MS: 16, etc.

1
I .
141 ;
cf. p. 144. Cambro-British Saints, p. 183.
Igan, Ada SS. Hibern., i. p. 712.
5
E.g., Peniarth MS. 225, p. 130.
376 Lives of the British Saints

S. LLIDNERTH, Confessor

IN two of the seventeenth century MSS. of saintly pedigrees printed

in the loloMSS. 1 Llidnerth is entered as a Saint, the son of Nudd
Hael, of the race of Maxen Wledig, and brother of Dingad but the ;

earlier pedigrees know nothing of him. No churches are named as

being dedicated to him.
We find, however, a S. Llidnerth, or rather Lidnerth, mentioned
elsewhere. The sixteenth century Glamorgan bard, Thomas ab
leuan ab Rhys, refers to a saint of the name in several of his poems
"
that are preserved in Llanover MS. B. 23 thus, Saint Lidnerth,";

" " "

Lidnerth Abad," Tir Lidnerth," and Plwyf Lidnerth." From
these expressions we gather that he was a non- Welsh saint, because
" "
he is styled that he was an abbot
;
and that he was the patron
;

of a certain parish.
Several of the Welsh calendars also enter a Saint of similar name
"
against June 19, and he is always styled." The calendar in the
Prymer of 1546 gives him as Lednerth those in Mostyn MS. 88 and
;

Peniarth MS. 172 as Lednart that in Llanstephan MS. 117 as Ledy-

;

nart ; those in Peniarth MSS. 27 and 186 as Leonart and Welsh ;

almanacks of 1729 and 1763 as Leonard. This leaves no room for

doubt as to the Saint disguised under the Welsh-looking form, Lid-
nerth. 2 There were only two abbots bearing the name Leonard that
we know of, and both were of the sixth century S. Leonard, abbot ;

of Vendoeuvre, commemorated on October 15 and S. Leonard the ;

Hermit, who became abbot of Noblac, near Limoges, and is com-

memorated on November 6. No S. Leonard seems to be commemo-
rated in June. The latter named is the Leonard who, under Norman
influence, obtained such popularity in England, where there are
dedicated to him over 150 churches, all of pre- Reformation date, and
distributed over 33 counties. The Glamorgan parish of which he
was patron is Newcastle, near Bridgend, now dedicated to S. Illtyd,

but there can be no doubt as to S. Leonard having been its former

patron.
3
He was not a particularly favourite Saint with the Welsh
as far as dedications go.

1
Pp. 113, 139.
2
Leonard is sometimes found spelt Leothenard, and Lithenard (Husenbeth,
Emblems of Saints, 1882, p. xii).
3
G. T. Clark, Cavtce, i, p. 21 ii, p. 332
; ; Birch, Margam Abbey, p. 193 ;
Penrice
and Margam MSS., i, p. 60.
 S. Llonio 377
S. LLONIO, Confessor
LLONIO LAWHIR, or Long-i'-the-Arm, was the son of Alan Fyrgan
abEimr I.ly<la\v, and brother of SS. Lleuddad and Llyfab. He
1

f Armorica and came over

to \\'ales with Cadfan and

Il>- lather also left Armorica, for, according to the

ompany.
i
one of the "Three Disloyal
luir and Ins Warriors,"
2

" "
Hosts (Aniwdr Dcitlu) of the Isle of Britain was the Host of Alan
in. \\hieh tinned back from its lord
on the road at night, leaving
and his -ervants at Camlan, where he was slain" (in 537).
An Ode, Owdl Llonio Sant, written in his honour by Huw Arwystli,
who flourished in the sixteenth century, occurs in Llanstephan MS.
n circa 1647. It was whilst sleeping one May Eve in Llonio's

h at Llandmam. in Montgomeryshire, when on his travels,

" "
that the poor despi-ed nipple became endowed with the divine
"
afflatus of poesy. He begins the ode by exhorting Llonio's parish-
:o invoke their Saint's good offices in the hour of death
in the dayof Judgment, and then proceeds with the legend. A
lironii le.hesays, recorded that Llonio had in early life assisted
Ins i ..m in lighting the "Pagans" with great slaughter.
that lie became "a righteous confessor." The "crowned
"
one I.lydaw for Wales, seeking the Kingdom of Heaven, and
left
"
titled on a delightsome hill on the verdant bank of the Severn,"
Crwrai (no doubt the son of Gildas, and patron of
uidmum .
:!

the neighbouring parish of Penstrowed) granted him land as far

as the o travelled in circumference; and he proceeded to
to denote possession, but was met with opposition from
" "
inhabitants. It nothing availed ;
and
Maelgwyn Hir (prob-
ably Murlvjwn (iwyiu'dd) further conceded to him a tract of land

idm^ ulontj the Severn down to Abermule. Of this he granted

ill bounds of the remainder
portion (tyddyn) to Gwrai, and set the
for 1
nary. Here he long remained. The bard concludes
lining the glories of pleasant Llonio -land. Might he there abide
while joy and love endured.
ordin^ to the lolo MSS. Llonio was a saint or monk of Banger
llltyd and afterwards of Bardsey, and was at one time periglui^r
or confessor to Bishop Padarn at Llanbadarn Fawr. The only church
1
1"
16; Cardiff
J. MS.
25, pp. 37, 120; Myv. Arch.,
-liritishSaints, p. j68 ; lolo MSS., pp. IO2, 106, 1 12, 132-3.
ii-anshirc place-name Llanio bears no relation to Llonio.
a
Peniarth MS. 45.
s
The dinam of the name seems to l>< tin- same as the Breton place-name Dinan.
"a littk- fort ("f. Dinam in Llangaffo, Anglesey, and Llysdinam, near
Xc \v
bridge-on -Wye.
 Lives of the British Saints

known him is Llandinam. The church

for certain to be dedicated to
of Aberhafesp, in the neighbourhood, is sometimes ascribed to him,
but generally to Gwynog, son of Gildas. In support of its dedication
to Llonio may be mentioned Maelgwn's grant, and the fact that the
"
parish was originally a part of the wide ecclesiastical district which
owned Llandinam as the mother church," x as evidenced by the
Taxationes of 1254 and 1291. Another church sometimes said to be
dedicated to him is Llanllwni in Carmarthenshire, but this is merely a
supposition.
The festival of S. Llonio does not occur in any of the Welsh Calendars,
"
but Browne Willis says 2 that the Llandinam feast follows March i."
According to the lolo MSS. Llonio lies buried in Bardsey
3
and ;

Lewis Glyn Cothi, in the fifteenth century, swears by his shrine,

" " 4
myn bedd Lloniaw !

5
Llonnyo occurs as a place-name in the Welsh Laws, and has been
supposed to be Lanion near Pembroke. By the same place is in-
tended the Llonyon of the Gwrddfeichiaid Triad.
In the catalogue of Brychan's children in Peniarth MS. 75 (sixteenth
century) a Llonio is given as a son of his.

S. LLORCAN WYDDEL, Martyr

THE church of Llanllugan, Montgomeryshire, situated in that exten-
which Meifod was the head, is generally supposed to
sive district of
have been founded by S. Tyssilio, and is included among the Tyssilio
churches by Cynddelw (ftor. c.
1150-1200) in his poem, Canu Tyssil-
6
yaw
Llann a wnaeth ae lauvaeth lovlen
Llann llugyrn llogaut offerenn.

(A church he raised with his fostering hand,

Llanllugyrn, with a chancel for Mass.)

This is the earliest spelling of the name that we know of. By the
thirteenth century the r had dropped out. To treat Llugyrn as a
common noun, and render the name, " The Church of the War-horns,"
as has been done, would be absurd. In our opinion, Llugyrn is simply

1
Archdeacon Thomas, Hist, of Diocese of S. Asaph, i (1908), p. 507.
* 3
Survey of S. Asaph, 1720, p. 290. P. 133.
* 5
Works, 1837, p. 490. Ed. 1841, folio, p. 544.
6
Myv. Arch., p. 178 Red Book of Hergest, col. 1165.
;
 S. L lorcan Wyddel 379
tlu-Welsh assimilation of the Irish name Lorcan. 1 Metathesis is com-
mon enough in Welsh langnefedd tangneddyf, sallwyr llaswyr, etc.
;

Hit- person meant is, we believe, none other than the Llorcan Wyddel,
<ir he Goidel, who occurs in two MSS. of the sixteenth century (Peniarth
t

.US. 75 ami Additional MS. 31,055) as the first named of six persons
i >utr< to have been raised from the dead by S. Beuno, and is referred
.-
1
1

" 2
to as a Scot," or Irishman, in that Saint's Welsh Life.
When Beuno heard the voice of the hare-hunting Saxon on the
other side of the Severn he left Berriew with his disciples, and came to

where they remained with S. Tyssilio for forty days, and then
<1.

moved on to King Cynan ab Brochwel, who gave Beuno Gwyddel-

wern, in Merionethshire, "a place which received its name from the
whom Benno raised there from the dead, whose wife had been the
cause of his death. There Beuno erected a church," and afterwards
A ell. The legend takes Gwyddelwern to mean the
3
Goid i. or, po--ibly. his Alder-grove. The church is, and
always has been, dedicated to S. Beuno.
When afterward- Llanllugan passed into the possession of the Church
it became,
according to the well-known Welsh custom, a
i

indication, though still retaining Llorcan's name. As illus-

rein Cymldelw's poem might be mentioned the similar one by
!!. in which are enumerated the various churches in the thir-
"
ivntury that;iDewi was the owner" or, that is, were dedicated
to him, unions which are suc'i churches as Llangadock and
Llangy-
When I.Ianllugan, some time between 1170 and 1188, became
i

nmimity for women of the Cistercian Order, in connexion with

re-dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, after the
DC of that Order. 1

It means improbable that to Llorcan Wyddel is also dedi-

he church of the adjoining
parish of Llanwyddelan, for we know
t

lirly common Irish name, and is sometimes found Latinized ?as

For instance, the name, in Irish, of S. Laurence D'Toole (d. 1180),
ntius.

hbi-hop of Dublin, was Lorcan UaTuathail. Pen Llarcan occurs as

i's name in tin-
MabinogioH, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 112. Ysgorlygan, or
Scorlegan, is a tenement-name in the parish of Llangynhafal, Denbighshire.
*
Uyvyr Agkyr LI., ed. Morris Jones and Rhys, p. 121 Cambro-British Saints, ;

3
Dr. Owen Pughe, Welsh Dictionary, renders "
in his
it, a moor or meadow
nnvn with hushes."
.con Thomas, Hist, of Dio.
of S. Asaph, i (1908), p. 484. Dafydd ab
:n in one of his
"
poems (No. xi of his published works), after a passing allu-
"
sion to mcrched Mair (nuns), says :

;s lun, dos y Lan falch.

Llugan lie ma-- rhai llnv^alch."
 380 Lives of the British Saints

nothing of the parentage or history of Gwyddelan, and his name, like

"
the Gwyddelyn of the Triads of Arthur and his Warriors," simply
"
means the little Irishman." We may mention, as affording some
corroboration, that an especial characteristic of churches dedicated to
disciples of S. Beuno is that they are constantly found in the vicinity
of churchesfounded by their master, as shown by the situation of the
churches of Aelhaiarn(his "acolyte"), Cynhaiarn, Llwchaiarn, and

Twrog (his "amanuensis"). In the same district as Llanwyddelan

and Llanllugan we have the two Beuno churches of Berriew and
Bettws Cedewain.
Aelhaiarn was another person raised to life by Beuno, and had for-
merly a church dedicated to him at Llanaelhaiarn, the small parish of
which has, for nearly four centuries, been annexed to Gwyddelwern.
Guilsfield Church, in Montgomeryshire, was originally dedicated to

Aelhaiarn, but, from its association with Meifod, has come to be re-
garded as under the invocation of Tyssilio.
*
Browne says of Llanllugan that its dedication is not known,
Willis
""
no Feast being kept here." The festival of Gwyddelan is August 22.

S. LLUAN, Matron
LLUAN, whose name occurs in the later documents as Lleian, was a
daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog. 2 She became the wife of Gafran ab
Dyfnwal Hen, who died in 558, by whom she was the mother of the
celebrated Aidan mac Gabran of the Irish annals, known to Welsh
tradition as Aeddan Fradog, or the Treacherous. Aidan was made
King of the Dalriad Scots of Argyle by S. Columba in 574, being the
first independent King of the Scots. He was an enterprising and
aggressive king, for we find him making an expedition to the Orkneys
in 579 an d to Man in 582. He died in 606. In the Welsh Triads 3 he
"
is branded as one of the Three Arrant Traitors of the Isle of Britain,"
^because he deserted his own countrymen and went over to the Saxons.
The others were Gwrgi Garwlwyd and Medrod and the three were ;

the cause, it is said, of the Welsh losing the sovereignty of the Isle.
1
Bangor, 1721, p. 360.
Cognatio de Brychan in Vesp. A. xiv and Domitian i Jesus College MS. 20
2
;
;

Peniarth MS. 75 Myv. Arch., p. 427 lolo MSS., pp. in, 120, 138, 140. Her
; ;

name as spelt Lleian means a nun, or titmouse. In Peniarth MS. 178, p. 24, she
is called Gwenllian. Frequently, in Welsh, Gafran is made to be son of Aeddan.
The names are found first inverted, we believe, in the thirteenth century Bonedd
3
<Gwyr y Gogledd. Myv. Arch., p. 405 ;
cf. pp. 391, 406.
 S. Llwchaiarn 381
J
Lluan was the patroness of Capel Llanlluan (or-lleian), the chapel
of Llanarthney, Carmarthenshire,
formerly of a hamlet in the parish
but since detached and formed into a separate parish under the
name Goralas, with its church dedicated to her. Her sister Tybieu is

of Llandebie.
patroness of the adjoining parish

S. LLUDD, see S. ILUD

S. LLWCHAIARN, Confessor.

I.I.WVHAIAKN was the son of Caranfael ab Cyndrwyn, of Llystin-

wYiman. in the commote of Caereinion, in Powys, 2 and the brother of
\eihaiarn and Cynhaiarn. His name stands always second in
"
; in the earlii-r Konedds. He is therein stated to be a Saint in
Cedewain," repn >etitrd in part by the present rural deanery of the
name, in Montgomeryshire, where two of the churches dedicated to
him are located. He belonged to a royal and illustrious family. His
Cyndrwyn. was prince of that part of ancient Powys which
Mather.
included valley of the Severn above Shrewsbury.
tin* Cyndrwyn had
inldren, one of whom was the valorous Cynddylan, who
him in his principality. All his sons, it seems, and among
1

them ("arantael. were slain whilst defending the town of Tren against
('aranfael's three sons, deprived of their patrimony,

thereupon embraced the religious life, like so many others of the

Welsh Saints under >imilar circumstances.
!'he lolo MSS. state that Llwchaiarn was a Saint or monk of Bangor
1 >;mod. that is, Bangor Iscoed, on the banks of the Dee. He lived in
the early part of the seventh
century.
His legend is told in a somewhat obscure
poem, entitled Cywydd
7ur a Siinl. o Lamyrcwig (a poem to Llwchaiarn,

li s., sp.lt in tlu- HLick Book of S. David's (1326), i-d. Willis Bund, 1902, pp.

.
//,//.'./ MS. 16;
4; :
Cardiff MS. 25, p. 34; Myv.
Cambro-British Saints, p. 267
; ; lolo MSS., p. 104. ;

The name I.luihai.irn UK ans "Iron Dust," and it is curious that "iron"
.1
component part into the names of the three brothers. The
urs undrr a \ an. tv of forms.
Bonedds give Hygar- The earlier
^h.)\vn to be a
corruption of Caranfael (Owen's Pembrokeshire.
ii. pp. 474-5)- It stands for an early Carantomaglos.
Llystinwynnan (or
-\vi-nnan) is nou- probaMv n-pn-s-nted
by the township of Llvsin. in tlr- paiish of
LJaneriyl.
382 Lives of the British Saints

warrior and saint, of Llamyrewig) which occurs, among other MSS., in

,

Peniarth MS. 100 (sixteenth century) and Llanstephan MS. 167 (early
seventeenth century). It was composed by a local poet, Sion Ceri,
in the early part of the sixteenth century.
He says the Saint was a son of Cynfael, 1 and first cousin to S. Beuno.
At Llamyrewig, one of the Montgomeryshire churches dedicated to him,
and celebrated for the miracles wrought there, was his statue in a niche,
vested in episcopal habits, with hand up- raised in blessing and here too,
;

"
it would appear, lies buried the blessed Llwchaiarn, the impetuous
lion." When first he set foot here he heard the ringing of bells on a hill

on the banks and on its ridge, overlooking the valley, he

of the Severn,
erected a church. Here he prayed in a hair-shirt nine months and
nine days, kneeling on a cold stone, till his knees were bruised. He
was granted nine petitions, three of which, the bard says, were for the
special benefit of his people. He next speaks of him as " a great de-
a saintly warrior like unto gallant S. George," who also, like
liverer,

him, slew a dragon single-handed. With his pastoral staff he caused

a hind to leap into a pool, without destroying which his people
could not live.
2
He had two altars, that is, two churches, in the
Severn Valley, at which great offerings continued to be made, and
his territory, as a sanctuary, was not inferior to Bardsey. 3
There are two churches dedicated to Llwchaiarn in Montgomery-
shire, Llanllwchaiarn, and Llanmerewig, which represent adjoining
parishes. The area of Llanmerewig is small, under a thousand acres,
and its one township was formerly known as Llanllwchaiarn Isa.
Llwchaiarn is the patron also of two churches in Cardiganshire, Llan-
llwchaiarn and Llanychaiarn, which latter was formerly also called
Llanllwchaiarn. Both are on Cardigan Bay. The Saint's missionary
labours were, it would seem, confined to these two counties.
We may gather that Llwchaiarn, like Aelhaiarn, was a disciple of
Abbot Beuno, to whom are dedicated the neighbouring churches of
Bettws and Berriew. Aelhaiarn is also associated with Montgomery-
shire, as founder of Guilsfield church, which is not far distant from his
brother's churches.

1
This is one of the forms of his father's name. Llwchaiarn having been a
"
bishop was probably a flourish" of the mediaeval sculptor, unless he is to be
regarded as bishop over his own Hans, as was not infrequently the case.
2
Whence the parish-name, Llam yr Ewig, the Hind's Leap, which appears
earliest in the Taxatio of 1254, under the form Lamerewic. It is now generally
written Llanmerewig, out of which an apocryphal Welsh saint has been squeezed
ere this. There is a Llam yr Ewig also in Carnarvonshire, and another in Merioneth-
shire, as well as a Llam y Carw in Anglesey.
3
Lewis Morris gives a brief summary of the cywydd in his Celtic Remains, p. 278.
 S. Llwyddog 383
I.Avchaiarn's festival entered as January
is n
in the lolo MSS.

lar and in the Demetian calendar (S), but as the I2th in the calen-

Mostyn in MS. 88, Peniarth MSS. 187 and 219, the lolo MSS.
1
and the Wel>h Prymersof 1546, 1618, and 1633. Bro\vne Willis
:n),
tin- i->th as his feast in the two Montgomeryshire parishes,

and the same date is entered as his day in Welsh almanacks of the eigh-
h century. The earlier and most numerous calendars thus favour
i

tli.- i2th as his festival. Bishop Maddox (1736-43) in his MS. Book Z,
"
in the Episcopal Library at S. Asaph, has under Llanmerewig, to S.
viti/. \Yake Sunday after twelvth day."

S. LLWNI, Confessor.

THEgenealogies of the Welsh Saints know nothing of this Saint. He

is the patron of Llanllwni, Carmarthenshire, in the Teifi Valley. In
tin- \\ilur of 1535
-
the parish-name is spelt Llanllony, and in a parish-
list of 1590-1, 3 Llanllowni.
The church has been conjectured to be
to S. Llonio, and
1 S. Luke. sometimes to
Byarth Llwni, his
Cattle-fold, is mentioned in Mostyn MS. 134, a name with which may
be compared Buarth Caron, and Buches Tydecho.
Tin- Saint'> u--ti\al. (iwyl Lwni, occurs only in the Demetian
Calendar (S), where it is entered against August n. The only
'

whose name approaches Llwni commemorated then that we

Leonis. martyr at Augsburgh, or more probably at Rome,
on AuguM ;
[here a (iwyl Lwni Bab (Pope) entered against
i<> in the Calendar in Additional MS. 14,886 (1643-4).

S. LLWYDDOG, Confessor
1 ins Saint's name does not occur in the Welsh saintly genealogies,
but he invoked as one of the Saints of Anglesey in a poem written
is

1600 * and in an Ode to

;
King Henry VII the bard commits the
to the more
guardianship of Llwyddog, among a hundred or
Saints, mostly Welsh. 5
Some have supposed him to be the patron of Llanychllwydog or
1
Survey of Bangor, 1721, p. 361.
'
1V P- 4u. Dr. J. G. Evans. Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 917.
Yr Haul, 1882, p. 561. With the name cf.
*
and
Gwen-llwyddog or -llwyfo,
Hafod Lwyddog or Lwyfog. * lolo
MSS., p. 314.
 384 Lives of the British Saints

Llanerchllwyddog, under Llanllawer, in Pembrokeshire, but the church

l
appears in old parish-lists as Llanachlwydo or Llanychlwydo and ; it

isgenerally regarded as being dedicated to S. David. Llwyddog is

locally reputed to have been martyred here, or, according to another

account, treacherously murdered whilst pursuing the chase, and to-
have been buried in the churchyard, where are two upright stones-
2
commonly said to denote his grave. Fenton, however, states that
they mark the grave of S. Clydog, also conjectured, from the church-
name, to be the patron. 3
Beyond his connexion with Anglesey nothing seems to be really
known about this Saint. One of the " Verses of the Graves " in the
4
twelfth century Black Book of Carmarthen runs :

The graves on the Long Mountain (?the Longmynd),

Well do multitudes know them
The grave of Gwrien famed in war,
And Llwyddog, son of Llywelydd.

Llwydawc Gouynnyat was the name of a young boar which figures-

in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen, in the Twrch Trwyth Hunt, and was
killed at Ystrad Yw, in Breconshire.

S. LLWYDIAN
THE Welsh saintly genealogies know nothing of a saint of this name,
and there is the greatest probability possible that he never existed.
The name is spelt Llwydian and Llwydion, and he is usually regarded as
the patron of Heneglwys, in Anglesey, which is also sometimes called
Llan y Saint Llwydion, 5 meaning the Church of the Blessed Saints,
out of which has clearly been evolved the Saint's name. In a poem
written circa 1600, in which a number of Anglesey Saints are invoked,
6
occurs the couplet :

Y Saint Llwydion tra del cof,

Trewalchmai rhof yn nesaf.
The church was also known as Eglwys Gorbre Sant, Corbre or Cairbre
being most probably
7
its original
patron.
Browne Willis 8
gives Heneglwys as dedicated to S. Llwydion, with
festival on November 19.
1
Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 916 Myv. Arch., p. 745. ;

2
Arch. Camb., 1865, pp. 182-3 Westwood, Lapidarium Wallice, p. 122.
;

8 4
Pembrokeshire, 1811, p. 570. Ed. Dr. J. G. Evans, 1906, p. 66.
6
Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 912. Llanllwydan (or -en) is the-
name of a township of Llanfihangel y Pennant, Merioneth.
6
Yr Haul, 1882, p. 561.
7
ii, pp. 180-1.
8
Bangor, 1721, p. 281.
 S. Llyfab 385

S. LLWYFO
IN the lolo MSS. 1 is entered a S. Llwyfo, by whom is evidently
2
ink-mini the Gwenllvvyfo of the Myvyrian Archaiology. See under
that saint's name (p. IQ7-)

S. LLYDDGEN
IN tin- list of Welsh parishes in Peniarth MS. 147 (circa 1566) is
"
under Swydd Gydweli," Carmarthenshire, a parish (really a
rhapelrv) called Llanllyddgen. In the parish-list in the Myvyrian
Archuiitlogy Llan Hyddgen. The chapelry was in the parish of
it is

1
.lan^vndeyrn, and in the inventory of church goods taken by the Com-
"
- in
15523 it is given under that parish as Saynt Lethgen
i- chaple." Of the Saint nothing appears to be known.
;{

S. LLYFAB, Confessor
THIS Saint'* name written Llyvab andLlyuab in the pedigrees in
is

Peniarth MSS.
45 and 182, Lleuab in Hafod MS. 16, Llyfab and
16,
Leial) in Ciiriliff MS.2$ (pp. 26, 1 14), and Llynab and Llyfab in the lolo
-WS.s. The name, under the incorrect spelling Llynab, has been
equated with the Lunapeius of the Book of Llan Ddv, a misscript for
1
imapeius=Iunape = lunabui.
Llyfab was a son of Alan Fyrgan ab Emyr Llydaw, a brother of SS.
Lleuddad and Llonio, and cousin of S. Cadfan, with whom, in company
YMth others, he came over from Brittany.
many According to the/o/o
J
these" learned persons became Saints in the Bangors of Illtyd
>.

and Catw-. but went with Cadfan as Saints toBardsey. Their churches
are in (iwyiu-dd. where
they lived in great piety and holiness." Llyfab
B bishop in Cor Illtyd, and
archbishop of Llandaff" (confusing
him with lunabui). Of this probably the only correct statement is
that Llyfab went to
Bardsey.
1
P. 144- *
P. 426.
tding of the inventory is Lethgen (Evans, Church Plate of
Cunnarthenshire, 1907, p. 122) and not Dethgen, as given by us, ii, p. 303.
4
Pp. 103, 112, 132, 134, 145 C f. Myv. Arch., p. 427.
;

VOL. III.
c c
386 Lives of the British Saints

S. LLYR, Virgin
LLYR FORWYN, or the Virgin, nowhere entered in the Welsh saintly
is

genealogies. Rees 1 gives a Llyr who was a son of Brochwel Ysgythrog,

and there were several men who bore the name. Llyr the Virgin is
known to us only through the Demetian Calendar (S) which gives the
festival of Llvr Forwyn (as in the CwrtmawrMS. 44 copy), and of Vrw

(Urw) Forwyn, on October 21. It has also, on the same day, the Eleven
Thousand Virgins.
To Llyr the Virgin(rather than to Llyr Merini) is dedicated the li ttle
Radnorshire church of Llanllyr yn Rhos, as it is given in the parish-list
in Peniarih MS. 147, circa 1566. The name was reduced to Llanur,
and is now generally written Llanyre, and sometimes even in such
corrupted form as Llanhir. With the treatment of the name may be
compared Llanleirwg, which later became Llaneirwg, and has now been
2
supplanted by the name S. Mellon's. Browne Willis, however, gives
All Saints as the dedication of Llanyre.
There was another Llanllyr formerly, near Talsarn, in the Vale of,

Aeron, Cardiganshire. The name, now generally spelt Llanllear,

is retained by a gentleman's residence. Leland 3 thus refers to the
"
mediaeval nunnery there, Llan Clere [with Clere corrected overline to
Lleyr] a Nunnery of White Nunnes in Cairdiganshire apon the Brook of
Ayron. It was a Celle of Stratflur."

S. LLYR MERINI
One document printed in the lolo MSS. 4 includes Llyr
late pedigree
Merini amongthe Welsh Saints, and attributes to him the church of
Llanllyr in Gwrtheyrnion (in Radnorshire), another in Dyfed, and
another in Cardiganshire. This is the only evidence there is for him as
a Saint. He has been confounded with Llyr the Virgin.
The lolo MSS., on the same page, make him the son of Einion Yrth
ab Cunedda Wledig and the son of Meirchion Gul ab Gorwst Ledlwm.
Skene 5 identifies him with Masguic Clop, brother of Meirchion Gul,
and gives him for son Lleenog as well as Caradog Freichfras. The
1
Welsh Saints, p. 161 ; Myv. Arch., p. 57.
2
Par ochiale Anglic., 1733, p. 185.
3
Itin., v, fo. 13 ; Dugdale, Monasticon, v, p. 632 Taxatio of 1291, p. 276.
;
4
P. 123. With his epithet cf. the Marini-latio of the inscribed stone at Llancl-
yssilio, Pemb. It is of the same origin and meaning, apparently, as the Latin
mar inns. *
Four Ancient Books, i, p. 168.
 S. Llywel 387
sons of Einion Yrth usually named are Cadwallon Lawhir and Owain
Danwyn but some late pedigrees name also Llyr. In Buchedd
;

"
Collen, Llyr is stated to have been married to Margaret, daughter of
" "
the Earl of Oxford," and Lhuyd * adds that he was Earl of Henffordd
(Hereford). Other late accounts make him the husband of Gwen,
daughter of Brychan, and of Tywanwedd, daughter of Amlawdd Wledig.
Besides Llyr Merini, we have Llyr Llediaith, Llyr Luyddog, Llyr
ab Bleiddut, and others. The name Llyr is better known in Welsh
as that of the god of the sea, or, in the bards, of the sea itself. It
occurs in Irish as Ler and Lir. 2

S. LLYWEL, Confessor
LLYWEL' s name does not occur in any of the pedigrees of the Welsh
3
Saints, but in the Book of Llan Ddv is given a louguil, louhil, or luhil
as the name of a disciple, first of Dubricius, and afterwards of Teilo.
There can hardly be a doubt that the intial letter of the name is a
scribal error for L, with which may be compared the Louan of the same
scribe written in error for louan. Louguil was the original patron of
the Church of Llywel, in Breconshire, which adjoins Lann Guruaet, now
Llandeilo'r-Fan, a foundation of a fellow disciple, Gurmaet. The
church now regarded as being dedicated to SS. David, Teilo, and
is
"
Llvwel. In the thirteenth century it was called Ecclesia Trium
4 5
mctorum de Luel." Gwynfardd in his poem includes it among the
churches. Llanllowell, in Monmouthshire, is also given as
ledicated to Llywel. It occurs as Lanlouel in the Taxatio of 1254,
6
it as Llanhowel in
parish-lists of later date.
louguil, and another disciple, Fidelis, were sent by S. Teilo to the
mrt of Aircol Lawhir, King of Dyfed, to avert death by poisoning,
id the two witness the grant the King made to the Saint as a thank-
7
offering.
1
Parochialia, 1909, p. 12. A
Triad makes Llyr the possessor of one of the Tri
Charw (or Tharw) Ellyll of Britain Mabinogion, p. 305
; Myv. Arch., p. 409.
;

He is mentioned in one of the

Englynion y Gorugiau in the lolo MSS., p. 264.
2
For the Llyr names see Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, pp. 458-9.
3
Pp. 115, 126-7.
4
Theo. Jones, Breconshire, ed. 1898, p. 492. Giraldus, Opera, iii, p. 199, spells
the parish-name Luel. Llywel is also the name of the commote Bruts, ed. Rhvs ;

and Evans, p. 410.

6
Myv. Arch., p. 194.
8
Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., \, 920 Myv. Arch, ; p. 75O. See
under S. HYWEL. Lanlouel in the fourteenth century additions to the Book of
Llan Ddv, p. 321. There is a Lanlouel at Pleyben, in Finistere.
7
Ibid., pp. 126-7.
 388 Lives of the British Saints

S. LLYWELYN, Confessor

THIS Welsh Llywelyn o'r Trallwng, was the

saint, generally called in
son of Tegonwyab
S. Teon ab Gwineu Deuf reuddwyd. 1 SomeMSS.,
of less authority, make him the son of Bleiddud ab Tegonwy
2
He was
.

the father of S. Gwrnerth, who is usually coupled with him, and also-

(according to the lolo MSS.) of a S. Gwyddfarch, and brother of S.

Mabon. He is said to have been a Saint of Bardsey. He is best known

as the founder of a small religious community at Trallwng or Trallwm

(meaning a quagmire), short for Trallwng Llywelyn or Trallwng Co ch

ym Mhowys, now known as Welshpool.
Llanstephan MS. 187 (circa 1634), p. 230, gives him as the son of
Einion ab Bleuddud ab Tegonwy ab Theon o Gegidfa (i.e., Guilsfield,
"
near Welshpool), and adds, Rhodri Mawr's daughter was his mother.
Llywelyn Sant was the captain (penteulu) of Rhodri's bodyguard." This,
puts Llywelyn, who is believed to have lived in the sixth century, on
into the ninth century, for Rhodri was slain by the Mercian army
in Anglesey in 877.
In the fourteenth century Red Book
of Hergest is preserved a religious
dialogue in verse, supposed to have been composed by S. Tyssilio, and
"
entitled, The Colloquy of Llywelyn and Gwrnerth." 3 In its present
form, however, it cannot be much older than the MS. in which it is
found. For particulars as to this see under S. GWRNERTH.
Cynfelyn ab Bleiddud ab Meirion, of the family of Cunedda Wledig,
is said to have founded a church at
Welshpool, probably a little before
4
Llywelyn's time but Llywelyn and Gwrnerth may be regarded as
;

having been for centuries the patron saints of Welshpool. The present
parish church is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The site of their church or chapel has been definitely fixed at the
corner of Clerk's Lane and Salop Road, and about two hundred yards
east of S. Mary's Church. The field below it is mentioned as " Maes,
dan Gapell Sainte Lleu'n " in the will of Hywel ab leuan, of Pool,.
"
August 27, 1545 and again, as maes dan y Cappell," in that of Gil-
;

bert Jones of Pool, January n,

1616-7. The church was destroyed by
fire on Christmas
Day, 1659, and a drawing of the now demolished
"
Old Church " is in the Museum of the Powysland Club at Welshpool,.
and has been reproduced by Mr. Robert Owen in his Welsh-Pool and
Powys-Land, 1894, from which we derive the foregoing information.
1 r
Peniarth MSS. 12, 16,
and^s Hafod^MS. 16 Llanstephan MS. 2S, p. 72
; ; ;.

Cambro-British Saints, p. 267; lolo MSS., The name probably

pp. 104, 129.
represents an early Lugubelinos.
z
Peniarth MS. 74, p. 35 Cambro-British Saints, p. 271 Myv. Arch., p. 427.
;
;
3
Col. 1,026 Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, pp. 237-41. 4
;
ii, p, 243.
 S. Llywes 389
Llywelyn and Gwrnerth are commemorated together on April 7 in
most of the Welsh calendars from the fifteenth century.
From them the speedwell is called in Welsh both Llysiau Llywelyn
(whence its English name fluelleri) and Gwrnerth,
The protection of Llywelyn, among many other Welsh Saints, is
invoked in a poem for Henry VII. 1 There is a small, but powerful,
spring on Cae'r Gors, in the parish of Llangybi, Carnarvonshire, called
Ffynnon Llywelyn, which was considered beneficial for the King's
evil ; but probably it was not named after this Saint.

S. LLYWEN, Confessor
LLYWEN, or Llewen, was one of the many kinsmen of S. Cadfan,
descended from Emyr Llydaw, came with him from Brittany to
that
Wales. 2 The late pedigrees printed in the lolo MSS. state that he was
one of the" Saints and learned men that were, with Cadfan, brought
to this Island by Garmon, who were Saints in the Bangors of Illtydand
" 3
Catwg, but went as Saints with Cadfan to Bardsey who, again, had ;

41
their churches in Gwynedd, where they lived in great piety and holi-
ness of life." 4 These statements are unsupported from other sources.
There is no church known as dedicated to Llywen in Gwynedd or
-elsewhere. Llewin is a place mentioned in the Englynion y Beddau. 5
The Lliwen is a brook which runs into the Ystrad at Nantglyn, near
Denbigh and with the name may be compared that of Llyn Llywenan,
;

In Anglesey.

S. LLYWES, Confessor
NOTHING is known of this Saint beyond the fact that the church of
lywes, or Llowes, in Radnorshire, takes its name from him, which
lurch, in the Book of Llan Ddv,
6
is called Podum Liuhess, and Lann
"
leilic ha Lyguess, the church of SS. Meilig and Llywes." The name
spelt Locheis by Giraldus.
7
He is mentioned under the form Lyuhes
the Life of Gildas by the Monk of Rhuis 8 as having been joined by
S.
"
Maelog or Meilig in the district of Elmail," i.e., at Llowes.
1
lolo MSS., p. 314.
Llywen in Pen iarth MS. 45 (in Peniarth MS. 16 the name is omitted), Llewen
a

Hafod MS. 16 and Lewyn in Cardiff MS. 2$, p. 1 14 cf. also Myv. Arch., pp.
;

17, 430. The name is apparently the first element of Llywenfel, in the Brecon-
lire church-name Llanlleonfel.
3
P. 103. *
Ibid., pp. 112, 134. In these documents the name is spelt Llewin
Llywyn.
5
Black Book of Carmarthen, ed. Evans, 1906, p. 68. (
6 8
Pp. 149, 255.
i
Opera, i, pp. 89, 175. Ed. Dr. Hugh Williams, p. 326.

V^O L/C..
 39 Lives of the British Saints

S. MABENNA, Virgin, Abbess

THIS Saint was one of the many daughters, or grand-daughters,

of Brychan, who sought their fortunes in north-east Cornwall when
expelled from Brecknockshire by the invaders from the north. She
is not named in the Welsh lists, but is given in Leland's Itinerary

and by William of Worcester. 1

The only church dedicated to her is S. Mabyn, on a wind swept
but with pleasant wooded vales in the folds of the upland country.
hill,

The church tower is fine and serves as a landmark.

Unquestionably, the Saint did not plant herself on this bleak emi-
nence, but made her cell in one of the combes that dip to the Alan
or the Camel, probably at Treveglos (Tref-Eglwys), where is a holy
well,a quarter of a mile north of the village. The place is better
known now as Paul's Ground, from a family of the name of Paul

having resided there in former times. There were formerly chapels

at Colquite, Helligan, and Trevesquite.
Nicolas Roscarrock, who gives as her day November 18, says :

"
There used to be a hymn sung of her, signifying she had twenty
brothers and sisters, whereof S. Endelient and S. Miniver were two."
The parish fair at S. Mabyn is on or about February 15.
Mabenna is represented crowned, and bearing a palm in one
S.

hand and a book in the other, in the Wives' Window at S. Neot.

Mr. Copeland Borlase 2 assumed somewhat recklessly that the church
was named after Mabon, the brother of S. Teilo. But the Episcopal
Registers Bronescombe, 1266, Bytton, 1317, Stapeldon, 1317,
Stafford, 1415, Grandisson, 1330, 1340, 1362, etc. with one accord,
make the Saint a female and the testimony of the S. Neot window is
;

conclusive.

S. MABLE, Virgin
MABLE ismentioned in the lolo MSS. 3 as a Saint in Gwent, but
without pedigree. Nothing is known about the Saint's history beyond
the fact that the church of Llanvapley, in Monmouthshire, is under
her invocation.
1 2 The
i, p. 319. Age of the Saints, 1893, p. 149.
Cefn Mabley is the name of a well-known mansion on the Rumney
JP. 144.
in Glamorgan. A Welsh proverb advises, " Na chais bod yn Fabli cyn bod yn
Lleucu." There is a variant of it, " Ceisio bod
yn Lleucu cyn bod Fabli.'* yn
 S. MABENNA.
Stained Glass, 5. Neot.
 S. Mabon 391
S. MABON, Confessor
THE lolo MSS. the sole authority mention three distinct saints
of the name Mabon, which it will be well to treat under one article.

Mabon, the brother of S. Teilo, and son of Usyllt (Ensic or

I.

Enllech) ab Hydwn Dwn ab Ceredig ab Cunedda Wledig. He had a

sister, Anauved, who was the mother of SS. Oudoceus, Ismael and
Tyfei.
1
Mabon, like Teilo, was, we may assume, born in Pembroke-
shire.

II. Mabon, the son of Tegonwy ab Teon, and brother of S. Llywelyn

of Welshpool. 2
III. Mabon Wyn, called also Mabon Hen, the son of Glas ab Glassog,
of the race of Bran Fendigaid. 3 His grandfather is connected with
Gwynedd. The pedigree of this Mabon is altogether mythical.
"
A late catalogue gives a Mabon as one of the Bishops of Glamorgan
4
alias Kenffig."
The lolo MSS.
ascribe the church of Llanfabon, in Glamorgan,
to each of the three Saints most probably it received its name from
;

"
the brother of S. Teilo. It is therein further stated 5 that Maenarch,
Earl of Hereford, built the Church of Gelligaer, and that of Llanfabon,
inhonourable memory of Mabon Sant." Browne Willis, 6 unaccountably,
gives the church as dedicated to S. Constantine.
The dedication of the Church of Rhiw Fabon (Mabon's Ascent),
or Ruabon, 7 in Denbighshire, is attributed to the brother of S. Teilo
as well as to the brother of S. Llywelyn ;
most probably to the latter.
It is now under the invocation of the B.V.M. ; festival, that of the
ssumption. Llanfaban was the name of a chapel, now extinct, on
e Alaw, in Anglesey.
In the parish of Llandeilo Fawr, Carmarthenshire, are two manors,
led respectively Maenor Deilo and Maenor Fabon, the latter of
hich, as the name of a gentleman's residence, is now generally spelt
oravon. The name points to the presence of Mabon in the district,
iated with his brother.
1
P. 107 ;
cf. Vita S. Oudocei in Book of Llan Ddv, p. 130. Mabon was a
fairly common name formerly. A cleric of the name signs a grant to Llandaff ,

emp. Bp. Catguaret (ibid., p. 209). A Mabon was bishop of Leon and there ;

is a Ker-mabon in Morbihan. Peniarth MS. 118 gives it as the name of one

" "
of the four Giants of Llansawyl, in Carmarthenshire.
2 3
lolo MSS.,
129. p. Ibid., pp. 1 1 6, 136.
1 5
Ibid., p. Liber Landavensis, 1840, p. 625.
361 ; P. 148.
"
Llandaff, 1719, append., p. i Paroch. Angl., 1733, p. 198. We have not
;

been able to identify Llanfabon y Fro, Glamorgan possibly it is Gileston ;

(S. Giles).

"
7
For the loss of the F cf. Bodorgan, Llanor, Llanol, etc. A proverb says,
"
Gwrach a vydd marw ettoyn Rhiw Vabon " (Myv. Arch., p. 848), A witch
will die yet in Ruabon."
392 Lives of the British Saints
" " *
The following is one of the Sayings of the Wise triplets :

Hast thou heard the saying of Mabon,

Whilst giving instruction to his sons ?
"
There is no searcher of the heart but God."
Ond Duw nid chwiliwr calon).

This Mabon was in all probability S. Teilo's brother.

The name Mabon means a boy, or youth ; in Old Welsh it would
be Maponos, which, as Apollo Maponos, occurs as the name of the Celtic
sun-god, in whose honour three inscriptions have been discovered in
the north of England. He is probably to be identified with the Mabon
ab Modron of the story of Culhwch and Olwen. Sir J. Rhys 2 remarks
"
of the Mabon Saints, It is quite possible that one or another of them
is simply Apollo Maponos in a Christian garb."

S. MACHES or MACHUTA, Virgin, Martyr

3 "
THE
following notice of this Saint appears in the lolo MSS.: S.

Maches, at Merthyr Maches, where she was slain, was a daughter of

Gwynllyw ab Glywys ab Tegid, and sister to Catwg of Llancarfan.
S. Maches gave alms to every poor person who asked it and a pagan ;

Saxon, in the guise of a beggar, went to the place where he knew she
gave alms, and stabbed her in the breast with a knife."
Her Gwynllyw Filwr, was regulus of Gwynllywg, the district
father,

lying between the Usk and Rumney rivers, and was married to Gwladys,
daughter of Brychan, by whom he had a large family.
The place at which she suffered martyrdom is now known as Llan-
vaches, near Caerwent, in Monmouthshire, but the church is usually

said to be dedicated to S. Dubricius. The grant

to Llandaff of Merthyr
Maches, made during the episcopate of Catguaret, the reputed seven-
teenth bishop, occurs in the Book of Llan Ddv. 4
The martyr Machuta, mentioned in the Life of S. Tathan,
virgin
5

is, no doubt, to be identified with S. Maches, though the story of her

death is differently related. It is not stated whose daughter she was.

She shepherded a flock of sheep, and a couple of thieves were desirous
1 2 3
lolo MSS., p. 255. Celtic Britain, 1904, p. 308. P. 131.
4
P. 211. Tomos Derllysg, in a poem to S. Margaret (Llanover MS., B. i, fo.
59 a), associates that Saint with Llanvaches :

"
Llyma verch lie mae i vedd

Llann vaches llaian vychedd."

5
Vita S. Tathei, ed. H. Idris Bell, Bangor, 1909, pp. 10-11; Cambro-British
Saints, pp. 261-2. With the name cf. Machutus Malo. =
 S. Macmoil 393
to steal a fine three-year-old ram belonging to it, but were unable to
purpose without her knowledge. One day they constrained
effect their

her to enter with her flock into a forest, and there they smote off her
head, so that it might not be made known who had committed the

theft. Tathan hearing of this was much grieved

S. but the two ;

thieves, struck with compunction, came to him and confessed all.

They described the place of murder, and on the spot Tathan raised
a church in her honour. He caused her body to be " borne unto Caer-
went, and it was buried there in the floor of the church."

S. MACHRAITH, Confessor
NOTHING is known of the parentage of Machraith, Machraeth
or Machreth, 1 and next to nothing
of his history. There are two
churches dedicated to him, Llanfachraith, in Anglesey, and another
of the same name in Merionethshire.
Cell Fachraith, his cell, is in Cwm yr Eglwys, above the church of
Llanfachraith, Merionethshire, and a neighbouring farm derives its

name from it. It is traditionally said that S. Gwynog once visited

Machraith here, when he caused a crystal spring of healing properties
to issue forth near the church, over which Capel Gwynog was after-
The well is still known as Ffynnon y Capel. 2
irds raised.
Browne Willis 3 gives his festival as January I, and renders the
"
mrch-name Fanum Sancti Macariti."

I.
MACHU, MACHUTUS, or MACLOVIUS, see S. MALO

S. MACMOIL, Abbot, Confessor

WE have identified this Saint 4
with the great Irish abbot, S. Cain-
h (in Welsh, Cennech), better known as S. Canice. He was named
The correct spelling is Machraith or Machreth. It occurs in Myv. Arch.
p. 284, under the mediaeval form Machreith. Leland, Collect., 1774, iv, p. 87,
identifies the name with Macharius. There is an English Lake-district surname,
Mackreth, but there is nothing to show that it is in any way related to
Mackraith.
2
Taliesin, Ruthin, 1859, p. 136.
3
Bangor, 1721, pp. 277, 279. So also Nicolas Owen, Hist, of Anglesey, 1775,
4
59' See ii, pp. 56-61.
 394 Lives of the British Saints

Mac Moil from his mother Mell, or Melda. He is mentioned in the

Life of S. Cadoc, whose disciple he was, and one of his favourite ones.
We add here the few Welsh particulars relating to him under the name
Macmoil.
At the rebuilding of the monastery at Llancarfan, 1 Cadoc sent
all the monks and others, excepting the two youths, Finian and Mac-

moil, to fetch timber for the work. These two he allowed to go on

with their studies. But the steward, the cook, and the sexton, observ-
ing that they had not gone with the others, roundly rated them for
"
eating the bread of idleness." The youths were at the time reading
"
a book called Cob Cadduc, Cadoc's Memory." This they left open,
"
and ran and tamed a couple of stags, which brought home a great
beam fastened to their yoke, which four powerful oxen could scarcely
draw." Cadoc, on being told, cursed the three men for their officious -
ness. 2
Cadoc made a present to Macmoil of one of the three stone altars
3
in his monastery which he had received from Jerusalem and, further, ;

" "
built for him a church, walled securely," so that therein he might
be entertained when he should go to Gwent and return thence and ;

he ordained Macmoil prior therein." 4 This church is known to

be the capella on Cefn Mamoel, in the parish of Bedwellty, Monmouth-
" 5
shire. It is called in a record of 1101-7, Ecclesia de Massmoil,"
and is probably commemorated by a house close by Pentre Mamoel,
called Ty"r Capel.

S. MADOG AB GILDAS, Bishop, Confessor

THIS Saint is identical with Aidan, son of Gildas ab Caw, with
whom we have already dealt. 6 A confusion has arisen in the genealo-
gies, owing to his name having the two forms of Aidan and Madog.
7

1
Cambro-British Saints, p. 38. His name is written Macmoil and Mac Moilus.
Brut y Tywysogion, s.a. 1070, records the slaughter of " Macmael Nimbo, the most
renowned, and most powerful king of the Goidels."
2 A similar
story occurs in Vita S. Maidoci in Colgan, A eta SS., p. 209.
3 4
Cambro-British Saints, p. 42. Ibid., p. 88.
6
In a carta, c. 1102, printed in G. T. Clark, Cartce, i, p. 2, it
Ibid., p. 385.
"
occurs as Ecclesia de Mapmoil." The name is sometimes spelt Mamhole.
6
i, pp. 116-26. Madog, i.e. Maedoc, stands for Mo-Aed-oc, in accordance
with a well-known method of forming Irish pet names. Cf. Mocholmoc for Col-
man ;Moronoc for Ronan, etc.
7
His pedigree occurs only in the lolo MSS., pp. 83, 108, 137, 146, 156. He
is stated to have been a saint of his brother Cenydd's C6r, at Llangenydd. He
is the Maidocus mentioned in the Life of S. Teilo (Book of Llan Ddv, p. 101).
 S. Madog Morfryn 395
Aidan is given as son of Caw, and Madog as son of Gildas, and therefore
grandson of Caw.
under the name Madog, the churches
There are dedicated to the Saint,
of Llanmadoc, in West Gower, and Haroldston West, and Nolton, in
Pembrokeshire. To these must be added the now extinct Llan-
fadog, in the parish of Llansantffraid Cwmdeuddwr (for short, Cwm-
toyddwr), Radnorshire. It is mentioned in the Harley MS. 1249,
"
as Capella Sancti Madoci," in an agreement, dated 1339, between
Bishop Gower, of S. David's, and the Abbot of Strata Florida.
1
It
stood on the banks of the Elan, on a farm called Llanfadog, where
are still some mounds which mark its site. Near it are Nant Madog
and Coed y Mynach. Browne Willis 2 ascribes to Madog also Llan-
badoc, in Monmouthshire, but the early spellings of the name point
to a S. Padoc. Possibly Kilmadock, in Scotland, is dedicated to a
Welsh S. Madog 3 maybe a pupil of S. Kentigern, at Llanelwy,
;

who accompanied him north. There is a Ffynnon Fadog in Llanfair

Caereinion, and another in Llanddoged, in North Wales.
The Gwyl Mabsant, or Patronal Festival, is observed at Llanmadoc
"
on November 12. One feature of it was, and is still, a particular
sort of pie, made of chopped mutton and currants. According to
an old Gower custom, every farmer endeavoured to sow his wheat
on or before Llanmadoc Mabsant, for the old people used to say that
whatever was sown after then would lie in the ground (orty days before
4
it
began to spring."

S. MADOG AB OWAIN, Confessor

OF this Saint nothing further is known, except that he was son
Owain Finddu ab Macsen Wledig 5 indeed the evidence for his
;

untship is of the feeblest possible. Owain, his father, was the prince
rtio repudiated the taxes hitherto paid to the Roman exchequer.

S. MADOG MORFRYN, Confessor

THIS Madog was son of Morydd ab Mor ab Ceneu ab Coel, and was
S. W. Williams, Strata Florida, London, 1889, p. 158
1
; Jonathan Williams,
Radnorshire, ed. 1905, Brecon, p. 137.
2
Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 206. In the Taxatio of 1254 it is spelt Lanmadok.
3
Skene, Celtic Scotland, ed. 1887, ii, p. 193.
4
J. D. Davies, West Gower, Swansea, Pt. ii (1879), p. 7. See p. 66 for a des-
cription and illustration of an ancient quadrangular bell ploughed up in a field
in Llanmadoc.
5
lolo MSS., pp. 113, 138.
 396 Lives of the British Saints

ofLlantwit Major. The sole authority for him as a Welsh Saint is

a latedocument printed in the lolo MSS. 1 He was the father of the
bard, Myrddin Wyllt. According to a Triad in the Third Series, 2
" "
MadogMorfryn, in C6r Illtyd," was one of the three Holy Bachelors
(Gwynfebydd) of the Isle of Britain," the other two being SS. Catwg
and Deiniol, and the three were bards. The son of Morydd we may
certainly include among the apocryphal Saints.

S. MADOG the Pilgrim, Confessor

MADOG, called by the Irish Matoc Ailither, or the Pilgrim, was of

British parentage. His father was a Welsh prince. His mother was
Deichter, daughter of Muircadhach Mainderg, King of Uladh, who
died in 479. 3 Madog's brother was Bishop Sanctan. Madog was
the come to Ireland, and he settled in an island called after
first to
him in the Lake of Templeport, County Leitrim. Thither came
Sanctan, from Clonard, and during his journey is supposed to have
composed a hymn that is found in the Liber Hymnorum, the recitation
of which was supposed by him to preserve him from all dangers, and
to ensure his being favourably received by his brother into his Com-
4
munity.
The father of Madog and Sanctan was Sawyl Benisel,
5
but which
of the princes of this name we are unable to say. One of that name
was the father of S. Asaph, and brother of Arddun, the wife of Bro-
chwel Ysgythrog, who died about 610 consequently this Sawyl
;

cannot have been the father of Sanctan and Madog.

Matoc Ailither is commemorated on April 25 in the Martyrologies
of Donegal, Tallaght, and O'Gorman.

S. MADRON, Abbot, Confessor

IN Bishop Bronescombe's Register, 1276, the patron of S. Madron,
in Cornwall,is called Maternus. In Stapeldon's Register, 1309, he
1 2
P. 127. Myv. Arch., p. 409.
3
F&lire of Oengus, ed. Stokes, p. Ixxxv.
4
Liber Hymnorum, ed. H. Bradshaw Society, ii, p. 47.
6 In Fflire of Oengus, p. Ixxxv, " Mac do Samuel chendisel." Samuel =
Sawyl.
 S. Madron 397
is Madernus ;
so also in Grandisson's, 1344, 1349, 1363 ; and in
Stafford's, 1407.
The object of the Bishops of Exeter was to transform a local saint
of the Celtic Church into one who had a place in the Roman Calendar.
So at S. Madron, they converted the original founder into Maternus,
Bishop of Treves, a reputed disciple of S. Peter, but actually belonging
to the third century. Madron, however, is the Irish Medran, a fa-
vourite pupil of S. Ciaran of Saighir.
Medran and his brother Odran were natives of Muskerry, and
came as boys, of from ten to fourteen, to Ciaran to consult him relative
to a pilgrimage they had desired to undertake. When, however,
Medran saw the venerable abbot, a waft of common sense came over
him, and he thought it would be a much better course for him and

his brother to remain with Ciaran, and enter into his school. When
"
Medran proposed this to Odran, the latter was indignant. This,"
"
said he, is not according to the agreement wherewith we started
"
from home." Then Odran, turning to Ciaran, said, I
pray you, do
not back up my brother against me."
" "
The Lord judge between you both," said the Abbot. Let
Medran hold a lantern in his hand, and blow at the wick if it kindles, ;

then he shall stay with me."

Then, according to the story, the candle flamed up, and Medran
attached himself to Ciaran. 1 This method of determining a course,
by breathing on the still-smouldering snuff of a recently extinguished
it, occurs in other stories.
Odran went on his way sorrowful, and travelled far, but eventually
returned, and is probably the Saint of Lanhydroc. The name Odr,
or Huydr, takes after it indiscriminately the diminutive an or oc,
and becomes either Odran or Hydroc, like Aedh, which becomes Aedan
>r Mo-Aedoc.
The
Irish have no record of the death of Medran. It is therefore

probable that he accompanied his master to Cornwall, and there

continued till he died. His name occurs in the Irish Martyrologies
on June 6. 2
He is not to be confounded with another saint -of the same name,

who was a disciple of S. Comgall, and is commemorated on September

[5 in the Scottish Calendars.
The Feast at S. Madron is on May 17, which is the day following
the commemoration of his brother Odran.

1
Beatha Ciarain Saighre, ed. Mulcahy, Dublin, 1895. c. xxx.
2 Mart. Donegal, and Duald MacFirbiss.
 398 Lives of the British Saints

The two boys came to Ciaran about 480. 1 We may suppose that
Madron died about 540. 2
S. Madron's Well was formerly famous for the miraculous cures
time the people
supposed to be effected by the water. At the present
go in crowds to the well on the first Sunday in May,
when the Wes-
after which
leyans hold a service there, and a sermon is preached,
divination goes on by dropping pins, pebbles, and little crosses of rush-
pith into the water.
S. Madron should be represented as an abbot holding a lighted lamp

or lantern.

S. MADRUN, Widow
MADRUN,or Madryn, was the daughter of Vortimer, or Gwrthefyr
3
Fendigaid, and wife of Ynyr Gwent, regulus of that portion of Mon-
mouthshire which lies on the east side of the Usk. Its capital was
Caerwent. Her sister Anne was married to Cynyr, of Caer Gawch,
and mother of S. Non. Madrun had as children, Ceidio, Iddon, Cyn-
heiddon, and Tegiwg. According to other accounts she was some-
time also married to Gwgon Gwron, by whom she was the mother of
4
S. Cedwyn.
Her daughter Tegiwg fell in love with a
young carpenter engaged
in building a palace for her father. The king was vastly incensed,
but the girl was headstrong, and the parents had to give way. The
carpenter, however, was not so amorous as Tegiwg, or felt overwhelmed
with the honour, and being ashamed, we are told, at having only a
humble home to which to conduct her, he cut off her head and left
her. But S. Beuno raised her 'to life again. The young wife then
retired from the world and embraced the religious life. 5

Ynyr received S. Tathan, an Irish Saint, and settled him at Caer-

went, where he formed a college, and became the ecclesiastical director
to the king and his family. 6
Tathan's holy life and teaching must have deeply impressed Madrun.
1
Rev. J. Hogan, S. Ciaran, Patron of Ossory, Kilkenny, 1876, p. 164, puts
the date as 462 or 463, but he labours to make Ciaran a pre-Patrician bishop.
2 The
Four Masters give 548 as the date of the death of his brother Odran.
3
Peniarth MSS. 16 and 45 Hafod MS. 16
; Cambro-British Saints,
;

pp. 268, 271 lolo MSS., pp. 129, 138

;
Myv. Arch., pp. 422-3. The name
;

represents the Latin Matronia.

4
See ii, p. 98. Llyfr Ancr, p. 125; Cambro-British Saints, p. 19.
6
Cambro-British Saints, p. 257.
 S. MADRUN.
Formerly at Madryn, Pwllheli.
 S. Mael 399
For what follows w.e have only popular tradition.
In the troubles that ensued on the bad government of Vortigern,
and the wrath of the Britons against him for having introduced the
Saxons into the country, that prince was compelled to fly from his
own insurgent subjects, and took refuge in a valley under The Rivals,
in Carnarvonshire, where he had a dun of wood. If any reliance what-
ever may be placed on the History of Nennius, then S. Germanus
a strong motive power in causing the rebellion, but at the head

of the revolted Britons was Aurelius Ambrosius.

According to the legend, Madrun was with her grandfather, and

had with her her eldest child, Ceidio, when the wooden castle was sur-
rounded and set on fire. Vortigern perished in the flames, according
to one account, but Madrun fled with Ceidio in her arms to Carn

Fadryn (1,217 feet), a solitary hill crowned by rocks, and there shel-
tered. Afterwards Ceidio founded a church below, at Ceidio, and the
Lord of Madryn has right of presentation to it. At Madryn Castle,
nestling under the hill, there was a fine piece of statuary, in white
1
marble, representing Madrun with Ceidio in her arms.
The troubles of her native land probably caused Madrun to take
refuge in Cornwall.
Madrun is regarded as foundress of the Church of Trawsfynydd,
Merionethshire. Browne Willis 2 gives her day there as June 9.
Madrun is known in Cornwall as S. Materiana, and her day, according
to William of Worcester, is April 9. He incorrectly calls her Virgo.
Her father, Vortimer, died about 457, and her grandfather Vortigern
ibout 464, and we may suppose that Madrun died in the first years
the succeeding century.
Dedications to her in Cornwall are The parish Church of
:

itagel, and Minster, near Boscastle, where her body lay. Tintagel
is on October 19, and Minster feast on April 9.

S. MAEL, Confessor
MAKL was a kinsman of S. Cadfan, descended from Emyr Llydaw,
id came hither from Armorica with that Saint, also Sulien, and
was bought at the Madryn Lloyd Evans, Broom
1
It Sale, in 1910, by Col.
all.
2
Bangor, 1721, p. 277. Sometimes her handmaid Anhun is coupled with her
" "
in its foundation. See the legend, i, p. 166. Tirmadrin occurs in a Gla-
jan charter of 1350 (G. T. Clark, Cartes, ii, p. 4).
4-OO Lives of the British Saints

many others. 1 documents printed in the lolo MSS. 2 state

The late
"
that they were Saints in the Bangors of Illtyd and Catwg, and went
with Cadfan as Saints to Bardsey. Their churches are in Gwynedd,
where they lived in great piety and holiness of life." Mael is usually
coupled with Sulien maybe they were brothers.
;

The festival of Mael and Sulien, which occurs in the majority^ of

the Welsh Calendars from the fifteenth century, is on May 13. iaTo
them are dedicated conjointly the churches of Corwen, in Merioneth-
shire, and Cwm, 3 in Flintshire. There are in the same Diocese similar
double Welsh dedications at S. Asaph and Llanynys. Edward Lhuyd
and Browne Willis give Corwen Church as dedicated to Sulien alone,
with festival on September i ;
but this is a mistake. 4 A great fair
used to be held there on May 13, O.S., and is still held on the 24th.
Lhuyd mentions their Holy Well, Ffynnon Fael a Sulien, at Cwm,
"
and adds, Some resort hither to bathe their eyes, etc."
The name Mael is in Old Welsh Maglos, and occurs in the genitive
Magli on an inscribed stone at Penmachno. It enters into the com-
position of a number of personal names, and is rendered in Latin
Servus or Calvus, the tonsured servant.
In one lolo MSS. document, 5 Mael, the son of Cunedda Wledig,
from whom Dinmael, in Denbighshire, is supposed to take its name,
is entered as a Welsh Saint.

S. MAELGWN, Monk
ACCORDING to the interesting appendix to Buchedd Ciric in Llan-
stephan MSS. 34 and 104, Maelgwn the Monk was an uncle to the
Welsh S. Curig. He had his cell at Llangurig, in Montgomeryshire ;

1
Peniarth MSS. 16, 45, 182; Hafod MS. 16 ; Cardiff MS. 25, pp. 26, 114;
Myv. Arch., pp. 423, 428-9.
2
Pp. 103, 112, 134.
3
Cwm Church to " S. Valacinian," i.e.
Browne Willis gives the dedication of
Mael a Sulien (Bangor, p. 358 Paroch. ;AngL, p. 219).
4
The fifteenth century bard Guto'r Glyn couples them in an eulogy to Sir
Benet, Parson of Corwen (e.g., in Additional MS. 14,971, fo. 268) :

Traws wyd tros aelwyd tir Svlien/a Mael

Milwr eglwys Gorwen.
So also in a parish list of 1590-1
(Dr. J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p.
913).
'
6
P. 122.There is a certain saint invoked as Maile in the Stowe Missal (Canon
Warren, Liturgy of the Celtic Church, p. 240).
 S. Maelog 401
and the appendix records a grant of lands by Maelgwn Gwynedd to
"
Maelgwn the Monk and to Ciric, free from rent or gwestva to King
or Bishop for ever." The circumstances under which the grant was
made have been told under S. CuRiG. 1 Another grant to him was
"
by Mael, Duke of Melienydd." There is a farm in Llangurig called
Malgwyn.
Maelgwn Gwynedd was at one time a disciple of we may infer
2 "
S. Illtyd. Gildas says to Maelgwn in his Increpatio, Warnings
are certainly not wanting to thee, since thou hast had as instructor
the refined teacher of almost the whole of Britain." The great teacher
meant is generally believed to have been Illtyd.

S. MAELOG or MEILIG, Abbot, Confessor

MAELOG was one of the sons of Caw, 3 and is identical with Meilig,
who is also given as a son of his. The various lists of his children
printed in the lolo MSS. do not include Meilig, but Maelog is con-
tinually entered. However, among his children mentioned in the
tale of Culhwch and Olwen occurs Meilig, but not Maelog. The two
names are absolutely the same, the slight difference lying with the
choice of diminutive suffix, ig or og, which have been affixed to the
name Mael, resulting in vowel-infection in the case of Meilig. In the
Life of Gildas, by the monk of Rhuis, where the Saint is connected
with Llowes, in Radnorshire, he is mentioned as Mailocus, but at
Llowes itself he is called Meilig. In an Ode to King Henry VII, 4
containing a long l,ist of Welsh and other Saints, the poet regards the
names as representing two distinct Saints and we may add that ;

they have distinct festival days assigned to them.

Maelog also called Tyfaelog, with the common honorific particle
is

ty (anciently to) prefixed to his name but in the only entry in the
;

MSS., 5 where we have Tyfaelog, he is given as son of Gildas, who

really his brother.

pp. 193-4.
ii, Maelgwn is in Old-Welsh Maglocunos. In Cunomaglos
=
the components are transposed.
ifael,
a
Gildas, ed. Prof. Hugh Williams, pp. 82-3.
8
Myv. Arch., pp. 428-9; lolo MSS., pp. 101, 109, 117, 142. In one list,
ibid., p. 137, Maelon is entered as a son of Caw, but of him nothing is known,
and as the list does not contain Maelog, the name is evidently a
miscopying^for
his. A cleric named Meilic Lector, son of Merchviu, attests two grants in^the
Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 1612.
4 5
lolo MSS., p. 314. P. 137.
VOL. III. D D
4-O2 Lives of the British Saints

In the Life of Gildas, already referred to, we are told that Maelog
"
had been consecrated by his father to sacred literature, and had
been well trained therein. He came, after abandoning his father,
and renouncing his paternal patrimony, to Lyuhes, in the district of
Elmail. He there built a monastery, in which, after serving God

earnestly with hymns and prayers, fastings and vigils, he rested in

peace, distinguished for his virtues and miracles." 1

This account leaves much to be desired, and misstates one point.
Maelog did not renounce his paternal inheritance he was turned ;

out of it by the incursions of the Picts and Scots, and compelled

to retreat to North Wales.
He seems to have adopted the
ecclesiastical profession only as a
last resort.In the Mdbinogion he is introduced in the story of Cul-
hwch and Olwen. The young Culhwch arrives at King Arthur's Court
to of the king permission to woo and wed Olwen, a damsel
demand
so fair and good that wherever she stepped four white trefoils sprang
up in her steps. The request having been granted, Culhwch claimed
the assistance on his quest of Arthur's knights present, and among
" 2
those mentioned is Meilic, son of Caw." But no prospect was
open to Maelog in any other direction except that of Religion, and
he became an ecclesiastic, under S. Cadoc at Llancarfan 3 but he ;

left it and joined himself to S. Cybi, and is numbered among those

who were with him in Cornwall, and who had to leave Cornwall with
him, after the failure of the insurrection which had as its object the
4
placing of Cybi on the throne, in the room, probably, of Constantine.
Along with Cybi, Maelog went to the Isle of Aran and here he ;

got across with a particularly cantankerous Irish priest named Fintan.

"
It happened that on a certain day, one of the disciples of S. Cybi,
named Maelog, went to the door of Crubthir (= Presbyter) Fintan to
dig the ground. And Crubthir Fintan, being angry, came to forbid
him, and said :
'
Do not dig the ground at the door of my residence/
Then S. Cybi and Fintan went together to the abbot of the Isle of
Aran, who was called Enda, and he made peace between them." 5
A fresh occasion of trouble arose, and finally Cybi left Aran and
Ireland, and migrated to Wales, where Maelgwn Gwynedd gave him
lands in Anglesey, and there Maelog founded the Church of Llan-
faelog.
Then he went to Llowes, in Elfael, or Elwel, in Radnorshire, near

1
Vital, ed. H. Williams, p. 326.
Gildas,
2
Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 107. 3
lolo MSS., p. 117-
4
Cambro-British Saints, p. 183. Maelog is mentioned in a short poem as one
" "
of the dozen seamen who formed S. Cybi's .teulu, or " family."
8
Ibid., p. 184 ; ii, pp. 205-6.
 S. Maelog 4.03

possibly it was one of the grants made to the family of

x
the Wye ;

Caw by Arthur as blood-fine for the slaying of Huail.

Tradition points to Llowes Common as the site of Maelog's mon-
astery, and traces of ancient buildings are still to be distinguished
there, though of what period is undetermined.
In the churchyard is S. Maelog's Cross, a rude block of limestone
like an early menhir, still regarded with some reverence, and supposed
to have been brought from the site of his monastery, at a point still
called Croes Feilig. It is described in the Arch&ologia Cambrensis a ;

it much resembles in its ornamentation one found in Durham Cathe-

dral. very unlike those found in Wales. On the side facing

It is
east a cross of very irregular geometrical pattern, consisting of
is

semi-lunar compartments, lozenges, and triangles. Almost every

lozenge and triangle differs in size and shape from its corresponding
one and they are simply arranged with the idea of getting in so
;

many of each, to make out the pattern, without any attempt at true
symmetrical order. The semi-lunar compartments are cut into the

depth of two
inches, a greater depth than the rest of the pattern.
Probably when the book of Gildas his Increpatio of the kings of
Wales and Cornwall arrived in Britain, the princes made it impossible
for the sons and grandsons of Caw to remain in their territories. In-
deed, it would have been a miracle of forbearance in them to tolerate
their presence.
On this account, probably, Maelog departed from Powys, and
we hear of him in Ireland as Moeloc Brit, or the Briton. He would
seem to have taken refuge among the Deisi of Munster, and to have
founded Kilmallock on the Sow that flows into the Slaney.
He seems to have been confused with another Moeloc or Malach
it, who was a contemporary of S. Patrick, unless the legend in the

ipartite Life be a late invention to explain the poverty of the founda-

"
n. Then Ailill, son of Cathbadh, son of Lugaidh, met S. Patrick ;

his wife came to tell S. Patrick that her son had been devoured by
pigs ;
and Ailill said, I will believe if you resuscitate my son for me.
Patrick . . . directed a cele de of his people, Malach the Briton, to
bring him to life. I will not tempt the Lord, saith Malach. Unfaith
had seized him. Said Patrick : Sad is that, O Malach !
Thy cloister
"
ill be the house of one man." The scholiast adds, His cloister is
the north-eastern angle of the southern Deisi. Its name is Kill
alaich. Five cows can hardly be fed there for ever." Then the
"
1
In the Boch of Llan Ddv, on p. 255, the church is called Lann Meilic ha
Lyguess," i.e., the Church of Meilig and Llywes. On p. 149 the Church of Llywes
iy-
2
Arch. Camb., 1873, pp. 321-6.
404 Lives of the British Saints
"
text continues, Patrick then ordered bishops Ibar and Ailbe to bring
the boy to life. and the boy was restored." l
. .

Moeloc or Malach is not mentioned anywhere else in the Life^of

S. Patrick, and the story is inserted solely to explain the poverty of
the foundation of Kilmalloch.
There may, however, well have been others of the same name in
Ireland, founders of other churches with the same or similar names.
The poverty of Kilmalloch can be easily accounted for without a

miracle, as the founder was not a native, but a Briton, and he remained
there for only a while. We are informed that he departed and died
in Letha,
2
i.e., Llydaw, Armorica. Now it is significant that near
the monastery of S. Gildas at Locmine is Ploumelec, the plou or plebs
of Maelog ;
and he had his locus penitentia at Locmelec in Lanvaudan,
near the Blavet, and the settlement of his nephew Cenydd at Languidec.
Le Mene, not knowing anything of S. Maelog, supposed that these
places derived their names from Mellitus, first Bishop of London (d.
3
624), as if he had any connexion whatever with Broweroc, or indeed
with Brittany.
The fifteenth century Welsh poet, Lewis Glyn Cothi, who calls
him Maelog, Meilig, and Tyfaelog, alludes to him in one of his poems :

Duw yno a wnaeth dynion

Val y gwnaeth Veilig a Non. 4
" " "
In one of the Sayings of the Wise triplets is recorded a saying "
of Maelwg the Knight, 5 by whom is probably meant Maelog :

Hast them heard the saying of Maelwg,

The knight of far-extending sight ?
"
The good will not make friends with the wicked."
(Nid ymgar y da a'r drwg.)

The churches dedicated to him in Wales are all in the South with
,

the exception of Llanfaelog, in Anglesey. Within this parish is Llyn

Maelog, and near it a Ffynnon Faelog, a spring of very pure water
formerly resorted to for the cure of rheumatism. Llowes, in Radnor-
shire, has been already mentioned. At Llandrindod, in the same
county, were dug up, at the beginning of last century, the foundations
1
Tripartite Life, ed. Stokes, pp. 198-9.
2 Fklire of Oengus, ed. Stokes, p. Ixv. But he calls him Mo-chelloc and ;

the scholiast, at a loss to explain Letha, makes it " the name of a great forest
in the Desies of Munster."
3
Paroises de Vannes, ii, p. 178. The name occurs frequently in Brittany
S. Meluc at S. Maur, No-melec at Surzur, Coet-melec at Ploerdut, Lan-vellec,
a parish in C6tes-du-Nord, etc.
4
His Poetical Works, Oxford, 1837, p. 108 ; cf. pp. 340, 343. He connects
him with Elfael as Tyfaelog.
5
lolo MSS., p. 258.
 S. Maelog 405
and walls of an ancient chapel, Llanfaelog or Capel Maelog, in the
middle of a field. 1 In the same county, at Llan bister, is a Gordd
Faelog. To him are also dedicated Llandyfaelog Fach and Llan-
dyfaelog Tre'r Graig, in Breconshire, and Llandyfaelog, in Carmar-
thenshire. Edward Lhuyd says that the Gwyl Mabsant, or Patronal
Festival, of Llyswen, on the Wye, in Breconshire, was held on November
13. The church is situated between Llowes and the two Llan-
dyfaelogs,and is regarded as dedication-less. Meilig's Festival at
Llowes we know was on November I4, 2 and it is highly probable that
Llyswen Church was also dedicated to him under one or other of his
three names, probably Meilig or Tyfaelog.
It would appear that Llanarth Church, Cardiganshire, was originally

dedicated to him, for in a document of the year 1592 in Harleian MS.

"
6, 998 .reference is made to offeringes in the name of devoc'on . . .

"3
for Meilicke sake in Llannarth (Church). It is now dedicated to
S. David. Gwynfardd Brycheiniog (early thirteenth century), in his
Canu y Dewi, names it among the Dewi churches and a great fair,
;

called Ffair Ddewi, was held here on March i (O.S), and is still held
on the I2th. Browne Willis 4 and Meyrick, 5 however, ascribe it to
"
a S. Vylltyg," with Festival on November 12 and the church is
;

said to stand on a mound called Rhiw Bylltig. The nearest approach

to the name we can think of is S. Mallteg (November i) but it is
that ;

very probable that it is only a blunder for Meilig.

In Glamorganshire the parish church of the modern parish (1863)

)f
Pontlottyn is dedicated to S. Tyfaelog and there is a Gellifaelog
;

the parish of Dowlais.

Maelog's festival day is variously given. In the Calendar in John

Iwards of Chirkland's Grammar, 1481, the Demetian Calendar, and
Browne Willis 6 (in Anglesey), it is December 31. Nicolas Owen,
gives January 30, and
1
>wever, in his
History of Anglesey,
8
jharad Llwyd, in her History, June 30, as the festival at
infaelog. His festival, under the name Meilig, is November 12
the Demetian Calendar, and that in the Prymer of 1546 (printed
teilir), but the I4th in the Calendars in the lolo MSS. and the
1618 and 1633. The latter was his day at Llowes, as
lers of

Jady mentioned.

Williams, Radnorshire, ed. 1905, p. 138, where it is called Llanfaelon, but

1

" " " "

304 Llanfaelog. The
p. Lanvayloir or Landemaylon of the Taxatio
1291 also points to Maelon.
2
Browne Willis, Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 184
3
Owen, Catalogue of MSS. relating to Wales in Brit. Mus., 1903, p. 504.
4 6
Parooh. Anglic., p. 194. 1808, pp. 44, 46, 233.
* 7 8
Bangor, 1721, p. 279. 1775, p. 56. 1833, p. 248.
4.06 Lives of the British Saints

There was a Mailoc, bishop of Bretona, in Gallicia, in Spain, whose

signature occurs among those present at the Second Council of Braga,

in 572. 1

S. MAELRYS, Confessor
2
MAELRYS was son Gwyddno ab Emyr Llydaw, and a
of cousin of
SS. Cadfan, Padarn, Tydecho, and of Henwyn, or Hywyn, of Aber-
daron. He came Wales during the great Breton immigration,
to
" "
due to some intestinal feud, and became a Saint in Bardsey, opposite
to which on the mainland is Llanfaelrys (subject to Aberdaron), the

only church there is dedicated to him. His Holy Well, Ffynnon

Faelrys, is some distance from the church.
His festival day is not entered in any of the Welsh Calendars, but
3
Browne gives it as January I.
Willis
On the confines of Llanfaelrys and Rhiw parishes are two meini
hirion, or mere-stones, called Lladron Maelrys, Maelrys' Thieves.
One is still standing the other lies on the ground. The tradition
;

is that two rascals broke into Llanfaelrys Church and stole all the
money that they could find, and whilst they were at this spot crossing
"
the parish boundary, the judgment of God fell upon them, and turned
them into two granite columns for their sacrilege." Exactly the
same story is told of the Anglesey Lleidr Tyfrydog.

S. MAETHLU, Confessor
MAETHLU was the son of Caradog Freichfras ab Llyr Merini, by
Tegau Eurfron, daughter of Nudd Hael. 4 He was brother to SS.
Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., ii, p. 98.
1

Peniarth MSS. 16, 45

2
Hafod MS. 16 ;Cambro- British Saints, p. 267
; ;

Myv. Arch., p. 428. The lolo MSS. give him as Maelryd (p. 112), Maeleric (p.
104), and Meilir (p. 133). Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 222, adds another corrupt
form, Maelerw. The name may be a compound of Mael and Rhys. The folk-
"
etymologist offers at least two explanations of the church-name, The (i)
Church of the bald or tonsured (moel) Rhys." (2) A certain man named Rhys,
from South Wales, during a famine, landed a cargo of flour near Aberdaron,
which he sold to the natives at a place still called Blawtty (Meal, or Flour, House).
Rhys made a good sum out of his "flour, and, seeing there an extensive district
without a place of worship at all, he voluntarily devoted the proceeds (mael}
to erect a small church there " (Myrddin Fardd, Lien Gwerin Sir Gaernarfon*
!

1909, pp. 205-6).

3
Bangor, 1721, p. 274. So Cambrian Register, iii
(1818), p. 224.
Peniarth MSS. 16, 45
4
Hafod MS. 16 (these give him as in Carnedaur] ;
;

Peniarth MS. 12 (Kaerdegawc] Cardiff MS. 25, pp. 33, 116 (Carnedawg)',
;

Myv. Arch., p. 428 (Cacrneddoc) Cardiff MS. 5 lolo MSS. pp. 104, 123.
; ;

" "
Leland, Collect., 1774, iv, p. 87, renders his name as Magna turba militum
 S. Mag/or ius 407
Cadfarch, Cawrdaf, and Tangwn. His name is often met with in
late MSS. as Amaethlu but the initial letter is simply the Welsh
;

conjunction. He is said to have been a Saint " in Carneddor, in

Anglesey," where he is supposed to be buried.
He is the patron of Llanfaethlu, in Anglesey, in which parish, near
Plas Ucha, was formerly a chapel also dedicated to him. 1 There
is in the parish a farm called Bryn Maethlu.
His festival does not occur in any of the calendars, but Browne
2 3
Willis gives it as December 26. Rees and others suggest that
Llandevalley, in Breconshire, is dedicated to him ;
but this is im-
4
possible.

S. MAGLORIUS, Bishop, Confessor

THE authorities for the Life of Maglorius are :
(i) a Vita attributed
to Balderic of Angers, Archbishop of Dol from 1107 to 1130, in Mabillon,
Ada SS. o.s. B., saec. i
(ed. 1733), pp. 209-17 (ed. 1668), pp. 223-31 ;
;

(2) reprinted in the Ada SS. Boll. Oct. x, pp. 782-91, collated with
another text (3) a condensation
; by John of Tynemouth, in Capgrave.

Although attributed to Balderic probably earlier, but not earlier

it is

than the ninth century. It contains no account of the theft of the body
by the monks
of Le"hon in the ninth century, nor of the later trans-
lation to Paris, 920-945. But it accepts the preposterous fable of the
reation of Dol as archiepiscopal see of Brittany by Childebert. It is
iteresting as giving the pre-Norman names of the Channel Islands,
ia, and Bissargia. In addition, see Les Miracles de S. Magloire,
A. de la Borderie, in Mem. de la Soc. Arch, des Cotes du Nord, 2 nd
jr., iv, pp. 224 et seq. For Bibliography of works on S. Magloire
the Abbe Duine, L'H ermine, T. xxvi, pp. 135-9, Rennes, 1902.
le Welsh name that has been Latinized as Maglorius is Meilyr, or

He was a native of Britain, son of Umbrafel and Afrella. His

)ther was sister of Anna, the wife of Amwn Ddu, so that he was
st cousin to S. Samson. He became a disciple, like Samson, of

Illtyd. He was ordained deacon by S. Samson, and we may pre-

ime that he was some years his junior.
When Samson crossed into Armorica, Maglorius accompanied
1
Angharad Llwyd, Hist, of Anglesey, 1733, p. 249.
2 3
Bangor, 1721, p. 280. Welsh Saints, p. 270.
4
Cf. the Lann Tipallai of the Book of Llan Ddv, p. 409 (index).
408 Lives of the British Saints

him. The biographer, imbued with the false notions prevalent at

Dol, of which he was Archbishop, pretends that Samson was instituted
whereas Dol was not
Metropolitan of all Brittany by Childebert ;

1
elevated to be an Archbishopric till 848.
to be his suc-
When Samson was dying, he nominated Maglorius
cessor. But he soon wearied of the office, and, pretending that he

acted on the recommendation of an angel, he resigned his staff into

the hands of Budoc, and retired to a lonely spot that had been given
to the see or abbey by Judual, whom Samson had restored to the
2

throne of Domnonia. But crowds came to him with their ailments

and sought to be healed, and Maglorius meditated flight. Budoc, his
3
successor in the see, strongly urged him to remain. This, however,
he would not do.
A certain Loescon, a British settler, occupied Sark, and invited

Maglorius to establish himself there, and gave up to him half the

island. However, trouble soon arose between Loescon and Maglorius
and his monks. He complained that they took more than their
share of the fishing and birds and their eggs. After vain attempts to
come to a settlement, Loescon, in spite of the angry protests of his
wife, gave up the entire islet to Maglorius, who immediately established
thereon an important monastery.
4
FromSark, Maglorius visited Jersey, where he destroyed a dragon,
and was rewarded with a grant of land in that island. But he was
not to remain peacefully on the rock of Sark a fleet of Saxons came ;

there and attempted to land and plunder the monastery. Maglorius

encouraged the natives and his monks to resist, and they drove off
the pirates, who lost many lives in the attempt. 5
In the year 585 there was famine, and the monks on Sark had
exhausted their store of grain, and were in some trouble what to do
for bread. Eggs they had and fish, but needed the staff of life. One
day some boys in the monastery asked Maglorius to allow them
little

to go down and play there, where their noise might not

to the beach
disturb the monks. Maglorius consented, and the children went to
the port called le Creux. There they found an old boat, got into it,
cast it loose, and thought to row about till tired and then return.

"
1
A strenuissimo rege Francorum Childeberto accepto Archipraesulatus
regimine non solum inibi, verum etiam in omnem Britannorum regionem seu in
circuitu ejus longe lateque nomen ejus enituit."
2 Mabillon
incorrectly prints Raduallus. Most MSS. have Juduallus.
3 "
Melius est oves Domini colligere quam dispergere melius est contritos
;

corde sanare, quam infirmos relinquere."

4
Sargiam. Jersey took its present name after the occupation by the Normans.
5
Miracula 5U Maglorii in Mtm. de la Soc. Arch, des Cdtes du Nord, 2 ser., IV.,
.

233-4-
 S. Mag/orius 409
But the current was too strong for them, and they were carried out
to sea. The boys were in a dire fright. Happily the tide was running
inland and they were carried to the coast of the mainland, where they
told their story, and also mentioned the dearth of corn in the island.
\Yhen the King of Domnonia heard of this, he sent for them, and
was amused at hearing their adventure. He at once ordered a ship
to be laden with corn and sent to Sark to relieve the necessities of the
monks.
Maglorius, in a rash moment, had made a vow to drink neither
\vinenor ale, and to fast from all food twice in the week, and to eat
fish only on festivals. But he soon tired of this regimen ;
and the
convenient angel again appeared to him and dispensed him from
observance of his vow. This he explained to his monks, and they
received the information with due decorum.
The date of the death of Maglorius is not given, but it must have
taken place about 586.
His body was afterwards stolen by some monks of Lehon, near
Dinan, and conveyed there. Later, owing to the incursions of the
Northmen, it was transported to Paris.

In Jersey his name is corrupted to S. Mannelier.

In Brittany, he is patron of Lehon, Chatelaudren, Mahalon, Plo-
modiern, Telgruc and Trelivan.
He is represented at Chatelaudren by a statue attributed to the
M ulptor Corlay, as an archbishop in rochet, cope and mitre.
His day is October 24, in the Modern Roman Martyrology in a ,

Martyrology written between 1220 and 1224 that belonged to Canter-

bury in Brit. Mus. MS. Reg. 2,A. xiii in a Norwich Martyrology of the
; ;

fifteenth century, Cotton MS. B. vii

Julius, in an English Mar-
;

tyrology of the sixteenth century, Lansdowne MS. 366, etc. Capgrave ,

the same day. In Brittany, MS. Kal. S. Meen, fifteenth century,

Breviary of Dol, 1519, the MS. Brev. S. Melanius, Rennes,
eenth century, MS. Missal of Treguier, same period, MS. Missal
of S. Malo, also fifteenth century, the S. Malo Missal of 1609, the

Breviary of Quimper, 1835. But the Breviary of S. Brieuc, 1783,

on July 24 and the Breviary of Leon, 1516, on October 22.
;

Among more modern English Martyrologies, Whytford, and Wilson

in both editions, 1608 and 1640, and Challoner, who is no authority

all.

It is possible that S. Melor in Cornwall may actually be dedica-

ted to
Maglori^us, though usually accounted to have S. Melor, the
Boy martyr, as patron.
Of S. Maglorius the Abbe Duine says "
Son culte n'a nullement
:

^ <>

te
If-
u/^,
1
^__.
Jf
~~
~Vs

/V
^
^ &-
^ ^ -XH*^.
4io Lives of the British Saints

un caractere populaire dans les rares eglises bretonnes qui lui sont
consacrees. Allez a Chatelaudren, par exemple. Le clerge y celebre
sa fete. Mais c'est un patron que les
paysans n'invoquent pas. II
n'a qu'un sanctuaire ravissant : celuide Lehon, cache dans la verdure
des rives de la Ranee. Dol A meme, aucun rite traditionnel ne mani-
feste sa vie memoire du peuple." *
dans la
The hymn sung on All Saints' Day, " Coelo quos eadem gloria
consecrat," has been attributed to him.

S. MAGNUS, Confessor

RHYGYFARCH, in his Life of S. David, 2 says that when that Saint

and his companions were on their way from S. David's to the synod
at Llanddewi Brefi, and had come near that place, they heard on the
banks of the Teify the funeral wail or keen raised by a mother
over the corpse of her son, a boy named Magnus. S. David had
compassion on the woman, and raised the boy to life again, who after-
wards led a religious life for the rest of his days, and was with S. David
for many years. The boy's name is not given either in Giraldus's
or in the Welsh Life of the Saint. In Gwynfardd's poem, Canu y
"
Dewi* he is called Magna uab," Magna the boy, and in the later
4
poem, of the fifteenth century, printed in the lolo MS5., he is also
"
called Magna." Magnus may be an intended translation of a Welsh
name, such as Mawr, Mar, or Mor. That there was a S. Mor is certain,
5
though not the son of Ceneu ab Coel or of Pasgen ab Urien.

S. MAITIUN, or MAITRUN, Confessor

" Bodu-
IN the Life of S. David, as written by Rhygyfarch, we read,
cat and Maitiun (or Maitrun), two Saints in the province of Cetgueli
(Kidwelly) gave him (S. David) their hands," 6 and became his disciples.
The reading of the name is uncertain. In the Welsh Life it is Na '!- 1

trum. 7 Nothing further seems to be known of these two Saints.

"
Among the men who went to Gododin, with laughter and sprightli-
"
ness," was the son of Botgat, who, by the energy of his hand, caused
1
L'Hermine, T. xxvi (1902), pp. 261-2.
2 Cambro-British Saints, p. 138. 3
Myv. Arch., p. 195.
4 *
P. 299. Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 470.
6 *
Cambro-British Saints, p. 123. Llyvyr Agkyr, p. 108.
 S. Ma/o 4 1 1

a throbbing." This Bodgad, assuming we may equate the two

*

names, be a different person, though of much the same period.

may
Skene, however, regards it as a place-name, the same as Badcat, Bath-
2
cat, or Bathgate, a parish of Linlithgowshire.

S. MALLTEG
OF this Saint we know nothing, but he is assumed to be the patron
of the Pembroke-Carmarthen parish of Llanfallteg. Browne Willis 3
there as November See what has been said under
gives the festival
i.

S. MAELOG of Llanarth Church.

S. MALO, Bishop, Confessor

BEFORE dealing with the Life of this Saint, it is necessary to say
something about our principal sources of information.
The original Life of S. Malo, to which later biographers refer as
their authority, and on which
they base their story, has disappeared,
and all that we possess are the several re-compositions, re-touchings,
re-groupings of incidents, and amplifications, by different hands, at
different dates, and of different values.
The most trustworthy of the Lives that we possess is one published
i.

John a Bosco in his Floriacensis vetus Bibliotheca, 1605, pp. 485-

515, by an anonymous author, and republished in a more correct
form from the original MS. by M. F. Lot in his Melanges d'Hist. bret.,
1907. This we will designate by the letter F. From this Life Vincent
of Beauvais drew those extracts which he used in his Speculum his-
toriale in the thirteenth century.

Closely allied to this, indeed a condensation from it, is that

ich we possess in MS.
Lat. 12404 in the Bibl. Nat. at Paris, and
this has been published
by De la Borderie in the Bulletin de la Societe
archeologique d'llle et Vilaine, 1884, pp. 265-312. But another
copy with different readings exists in MS. 3213 of the Bibl. royafde
Belgique ; on which see Van den Gheyn, Catalogue des MSS. de la
Bibl. roy. de Belgique, v (1905). De la Borderie wrongly supposed

1
Book of Aneirin, ed. Dr. J. G. Evans, 1908, p. 2.
2 Four Ancient Books, i, p. 92 ii, pp. 372-3.
;

3
Parochiale Anglic., 1733, p. 188.
 412 Lives of the British Saints

that this was an earlier form of A, and that F was an amplification of

A. M. F. Lot has dispelled this error.
This Vita we will designate by the letter A. It has been supposed

to have been composed at Saintes, as it isvery precise as to the indica-

tion of localities in the Saintonge, but is vague with regard to localities
in Brittany. Up to chapter vi inclusive the Saint
is called Machutes,

but after that, sometimes Machlovus and only occasionally Machutes ;

and this seems to imply that the compiler had recourse to two autho-
rities, one of whom employed one name and the second the other.
3. Mabillon in Ada SS. o.s. B, saec. 1668, pp. 217-21, published
i,

another Life from an anonymous MS. now in the Bibl. Nat. at Paris,
MS. Lat. 11759, of which there is another copy in the Royal Library
at Brussels. This we will indicate by the letter M.
4. Sigebert of Gembloux, in the eleventh century, wrote another
Life of S. Malo, at the request of his abbot Thietmar. This has been
published in the Vitce Sanctorum of Surius ; also by Migne, Patrol.

Lat., clx, colls. 729-46.

These four form a group to themselves, relating the same- incidents,
mainly in the same order.
5. Apart from these is the Life by Bili, deacon of the Church of

Aleth, and dedicated to Bishop Ratuil, who occupied the see from
866 to about 890. Bili had been already entrusted with an important
mission by Rethwalart, the predecessor of Ratuil (848-66), to the
Bishop of Leon. As Bili makes no allusion to the destruction of
Aleth by the Northmen in 876 or 878, his work must have been written
prior to that event. Of this Life by Bili, two MSS. exist, one of the
"

tenth century,1 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and one, not later
than the eleventh century, in the British Museum (Royal MS. 13
A. x). It was published by Dom Plaine in Bulletin de la Soc. Archeol.
d'llle et Vilaine, t.xvi (1884), pp. 167-256. A critical review of A
and that by Bili, which we will indicate by the letter B, by the Abbe
Duchesne, appeared in the Revue Celtique, t. xi (1890), pp. 1-22. More
recently, and with still greater severity, has the Life by Bili been
dealt with by M. F. Lot in Melanges d'Histoire bretonne, 1907.
In his prologue, Bili says that another sage (alius sapiens) had
"
written, the virtue, the origin, the perigrination, and the sojourn
in divers places of the holy bishop," but that several having attempted
to rewrite it, the Life had been vitiated in the process. But Bili did
not depend only on this ancient Life, for he speaks as well as deriving
"
information from the relation and narration of faithful men." The
main Vita on which he based his biography was anonymous, " Nomen
ejus in fronte tituli non invenimus," but the author had written it

/*
 S. Malo 413
"
long before Bill was born, longo tempore antequam nos orti fuis-
semus." Bill was born about 840 he was deacon in 870. The ori-
;

Bill had also

ginal biographer cannot have lived
later than 800.

recourse to a panegyric that was wont to be preached in the Cathedral

Church of Aleth on the Festival of S. Malo. From this he copied
a passage twice over in chapters xlii and Ixxvii and in chapter ;

Ixxxv he gives pretty clear token that he is transcribing from a

panegyric read in public.
Mgr. Duchesne points out reasons why it is not possible to suppose
that the primitive biographer can have written earlier than 800.

The liturgical details given in the description of the Mass celebrated

on the back of the whale, show the employment of the Roman Missal
and not the Gallican, on which the Celtic was based. The Agnus
Dei following the Pater Nosier is a characteristic feature. We know
when this was introduced into the Roman Mass, it was when Sergius
was Pope (687-701). But this is no evidence of the late date of
" "
the Sage biographer, for the story of the marvellous voyage in
which this incident occurs is an interpolation and there is no reason
;

whatever for supposing that it existed in the primitive biography of

the Saint, but only in the interpolated editions of Bili and of the

anonymous writers of F and A. Bili was, however, an unscrupulous

writer.This is shown by the way in which he has taken slices out
of the Life of S. Paternus of Avranches by Venantius Fortunatus,
and has adapted them to his hero. His prologue is, to a large
extent, borrowed without acknowledgment, and chapters xlii, xliii,
and xlvi, on the austerities of the Saint, on his giving bread to the
hungry, and on his healing a mute, are all taken from the work of
Venantius, with the simple alteration of the names of persons and
"
places. Duchesne says Fraud, for that is what it is, must be laid
:

to the charge of Bili. Not only has he drawn from another man's
work the studied phrases that adorned his prologue, but he has not
scrupled to transport to S. Malo the record made by Fortunatus of
the austerities of S. Paternus and of the miracles that Avranches
dition attributed to him. Here we have a fact at the outset
.e calculated to inspire respect for the work, or for the hagio-
pher."
th the anonymous Saintes biography and that by Bili contain
arrative of the voyage of Malo with S. Brendan in quest of the
of the Blessed. This is merely a version of the popular Navigatio
Brendani. And in order to justify the sending of Malo on this quest
with Brendan, the name of the abbot of Llancarfan,
under whom
Malo studied, was altered from probably Cadoc to Brendan.
414 Lives of the British Saints

\Yhen this interpolation took place is uncertain ;

whether it had
" "
already been made in the narrative of the quidam sapiens on
whose work both biographers grounded their Lives, or whether the
interpolation took place in both later, is not certain.
Both Aand B follow the original text up to chapter v of A, and
xi of B. But after that comes divergence.
Bili is most full on the history of the Saint's life whilst he was at

Aleth. In A and F there is vagueness relative to the life in Brittany,

but when the authors come to the exile of Malo in the Saintonge,
then, at once, we have details such as lack for this part of the story in
the biography of Bili.
" "
In Bili," says De la Borderie, the proper names of men and
places (in Brittany), particulars of customs, precise details, both
topical and topographical, abound. In A (and F) most of these
features and the proper names disappear, and what may be termed
local colour is entirely absent. What of this exists, is to be found

only in the episodes relative to the sojourn of S. Malo in Saintonge.

Thus in Life A (and F) one learns that the young daughter healed by
Malo from a serpent bite was the child of the Count of Saintes that ;

the village of Brea contained two churches, one of which Leontius,

Bishop of Saintes, reserved to himself, but surrendered the other to
S. Malo that the child who fell into a well and was recovered by
;

S. Malo, had been sent by the Bishop of Saintes at

day-break to fetch
water for him as he wanted to wash himself. There are none of
these details in Bili."
Based on Bill's Life is the Legend of S. Malo in the Marmoutier
Legendarium, published by Dom Morice in Preuves de I'histoire de
Bretagne, i, pp. 191-3 ; also a Life
by John of Tynemouth in Cap-
grave's Nova Legenda. A
copy which Leland saw, and from which
he made extracts, 'and which is now lost, contained details now not
found in Bili's work (Collect., i, p. 432). The Life in Capgrave con-
tains an account of a journey to Rome not found in the
original work
of Bili. This was a late interpolation made at a time when the Breton
monks desired to show that their saintly founders had been in close
connexion with the Apostolic See.
Bili relates the ordination of Malo to the in place of this
priesthood ;

the other biographer gives us the

hackneyed story of carrying live coals
in his mantle. Both redactions draw together to describe the know-
ledge and piety of the Saint, and the anonymous biographer says
that S. Brendan committed to him the office of
preacher, which implies
his previous ordination, that this writer has failed to mention.

Next, in both biographies we have the story !of the fabulous journey
 S. Ma/o 415
in quest of the Isle of Yma. This is an importation into both
\vorks of the Adventures of that Celtic Sinbad, S. Brendan the Voyager.
The Saintes biographer cuts the account short ;
he says that the
"
party which consisted of ninety-five one boat, inhac illacque va-
gantes," failed to reach the island of which they were in quest, but
did reach the Orcades and other islands in the North. This is taken
from the First Voyage of Brendan.
Then, according to the Saintes Biographer, the party returned,
and Malo was ordained bishop at Llancarfan. Next follows the
account of the Second Voyage in quest of the Isle of the Blessed, also
taken from the Legend of S. Brendan. Bili, on the other hand, does
not make Malo return to Wales, but runs on with the story of the
marvellous voyage. This looks much as if the interpolation took
place not in the original Life, but in those of Bili and the Saintes
biographer. In that of Bili itwas put in in a lump, in that of the
other it was cut up. The anonymous biographer is more prolix
than Bili, but both interpolations were clearly derived from the same
narrative of Brendan's Voyages.
On his return from the Voyage, Malo resolves on quitting Wales
for Armorica, and the circumstances of the departure are related

by both biographers in much the same manner. But on the arrival

of Malo at Aleth, they differ. Bili makes him disembark on the
isle of Ccsambre, where he spends three months with the monk Festivus.

Then he comes to Aleth. The anonymous biographer, on the other

hand, makes him disembark on the isle of Aaron, where he remains
with that solitary till the bishopric of Aleth is confided to him. The
o accounts do not necessarily conflict. But what is a serious

rgency now occurs. In the Life by Bili, as we have it, ensues

consecration as bishop at Tours by the Metropolitan, and this
given with considerable detail, but the name of the Archbishop of
is not given. Moreover, hitherto Bili has invariably called his
int Macliu, but here the name comes in as Maclovius. Now, this
tire passage relative to the consecration at Tours almost certainly
is

interpolation into Bill's narrative. Bili wrote at the very time

en Nominee was emancipating the Breton Church from the juris-
.ction of Tours (848). Nominee had placed the See of Aleth under
the Metropolitan throne of Dol. In 866 Pope Nicolas I wrote a violent
ter to the Archbishop of Dol, declaring that he ignored the new

angement, and that he considered Dol and the other Breton sees
as subject to Tours. In the same year a council at Soissons denounced
the audacity of the Bretons in detaching their church from its allegi-
ance to Tours.
 416 Lives of the British Saints

What Bili wrote probably was First, the ordination of Malo as

priest at Llancarfan. This has dropped out of the Saintes Life, but
is implied. Then, secondly, that Malo was consecrated bishop in
South Wales. This the Saintes biographer relates. Then, thirdly r
that he became bishop of Aleth.
But the text of Bili was deliberately altered at a later period. We
can the date with some precision. The bishops of Aleth, down
fix

to Daniel II, recognised Dol as their Metropolitan See, but his successor,
Donoald, in 1120, deliberately turned his back on Dol, and went to
Tours for consecration. Again, his successor, John of the Grate,,
went to Rome to be consecrated, being unwilling to acknowledge
allegiance to Dol ; and his successor, Albert, went for consecration
to Tours, in 1163. Thus, 1120 marks the date of the desertion of
the See of Aleth from allegiance to Dol, 1 and. is the approximate date
of the falsification of Bili's Life, so as to justify Donoald in going to>

Tours, by the example of the great founder of the See.

But if something has been interpolated in Bili's narrative, some-
thing also has been cut out of it. In the copy that Leland had under
his eye, 2 it was stated that Machu went to Paris to receive confirmation
of the grants made to him by Childebert the king. This was excised
because distasteful to later Bretons to have recorded that the Bishop
it

had recognized his vassalage to the Frank Crown. Bili did not scruple
"
to admit it from the text of the ancient Sage," for he wrote at a
time when it was well known that such had been the general practice.
The excision must have taken place before the final reorganization
of Brittany under Alan Barbetorte, who paid homage to the French
Crown in 942 but certain copies of Bili's work had remained un-
;

tampered with.
In the anonymous Life we have an account of the persecution of
Malo and his monastery by a Breton duke named Haeloc. Bili calls
him Rethwald, and says that he was the son of Judual, and entitles
him king. Shortly after, he relates that on the death of Judual an
impious man named Rethwal sought to kill all the sons of Judual
except Haeloc, whom he resolved on investing with the royal power.
Probably, as Duchesne points out, we have here two versions of the
same fact. Bili, he has laid tradition
in his prologue, asserts that
under contribution, 3 and here he has eked out what he found in his
text with what he heard related. The solution offered by De la
De Corson, Pouiltt de I'Archeveche de Rennes, 1880, T. i.
1

L 2
. Leland, Collect., 1774, ", PP- 43<>-i.
3
"Itaque, sicut relatione et narratione fidelium virorum . didicimus, . .

has paucas de plurimis narrationes paginis inserere procuravimus." Vita B,

ed. Plaine, p. 171.

-
t 'JL
 S. Ma/o 417
Borclerie is that Rethwal was the foster-father of Haeloc, and that on
the death of Judual he murdered several of the sons of Judual, so
as to exalt Haeloc to the throne and that Malo suffered annoyance
;

from both Rethwal and Haeloc. In Bill follows a series of chapters

(Ixi-xci) on the miracles and virtues of the Saint, mere common-

places of no value. There is, however, one exception, a triple miracle

wrought at Corseul, that is also related by the Saintes biographer.
With the rest of the Life of S. Malo we will deal in the sequel so ;

far \vehave sought only to point out the agreements and differences
in the two Lives. We will now treat of the interpolation common
"
to both, from the fabulous voyages of S. Brendan. Fabulous
voyages formed a class of Irish literature, some of which are of pre-
Christian origin. Of these Imrama five remain i, Imram Brain :

1\I< i<- Febuil ; 2, Imram Snedhghusa 3, Imram curaig Mailduin

; ;

4, Imram
curaig Ua Corra 5, Imram Brenain. The object in all
;

these is the quest of Tir Tairngeri, or Hy Breasail, the Island of the

Blessed, of Eternal Youth, or the Fortunate Isle in the far West.

The Brendan voyage is a Christian version of the myth made first

ninth century, and then rendered freely and with varia-

in Irish in the

tions into Latin, when it spread through Europe. It formed the

theme an Anglo-Norman poem, composed in 1121, which was
of
translated into Latin, of a Flemish prose narrative of the twelfth
century, of a French poem Ymage du Monde 1245, and of an Anglo-
Norman prose account in the thirteenth century which is lost, but
which were based a Middle German poem of the same period, and
Middle Netherland l
poem of the thirteenth century."
The incidents in the voyage of Malo are mainly three I. He calls
:

a dead giant named

life Milldu, who had been buried under a huge
lirn (busto). This is altered from the voyage of Brendan, who
suscitates a gigantic damsel, not a man. But the giant restored
life occurs in the Lives of S. Patrick and of S. Cadoc. 2 2. He finds

wonderful spring, and also a marvellous fruit, of which he brings

graft to Llancarfan. This is borrowed from the Navigation of S.
idan. 3. He celebrates Easter on the back of a whale. This is
from the Brendan Voyage.
transfer
That chapters xv-xxviii in Bili are an insertion at a later period
appears from the structure. Bili has been describing the virtues,
ie vigils and
fastings of Machu and gives a scrap of one of his sermons.
suddenly breaks off, "Inter haec incidit in mente Brendan!
?jus magistri in navigatio exire," etc.; and when this episode of the

Schirmer, Zur Brendan Sage, Leipzig, 1888, pp. 17-18, 68-9.

2
Tripartite Life, ed. Stokes, pp. 123, 324. Cambro-British Saints, pp. 56-7.
VOL. in. E E
41 8 Lives of the British Saints
"
voyage is ended, chapter xxix begins, Sed ut ad propositum
redeam."
The introduction of this fabulous matter had a disintegrating effect

on both the Lives. We shall see later on what gave rise to the insertion
of this extraneous matter.
We will now take the Life as far as it can be made out, with the
elimination of this added matter.
Malo, or as he is Machu, or
called in his earlier Lives, Machutus,

Maclovius,
1
was born Gwent, and was the son of Derwela or Dervel,
in
sister of Amwn Ddu. Bili does not give his father's name he con- ;

tents himself with saying that he was a noble of Gwent. From other
sources we was Caradog, also the father (not
learn that his father

son) of Ynyr Gwent.His mother was aged forty when he was born. 3
2

The parents lived near Llancarfan, where was the famous monastery
of S. Cadoc. Malo was delivered over at an early age to the abbot
to be baptized and educated. His mother visited the monastery on
the vigil of Easter, although then in an interesting condition, and was
taken with the pangs of labour, and brought forth the child there. 4
On the same night as that on which Malo was born (Easter Eve),
1
Other forms in Lives are Maclou, Machutes, Machutius, Macutus, and
Magutus. It is not easy in all cases to explain the polymorphic changes of the
name. The common present-day form Malo is obviously from Machlou (whence
Maclovius), which would now be in Welsh Machleu (with it cf. the Machreu
of the Afallenau). In the Book of Llan Ddv, p. 241, he is called Machumur, i.e.,
Malo the Great. (For nfur see ii, p. 382, of this work.) S. Maughan's, Mon-
mouthshire (the -n here is hypocoristic, as in Meuthin, etc.), otherwise Ecclesia
S. Machuti, occurs in the Book of Llan Ddv as Lann Mocha (and Bocha). The
nearest parallel to it that we know of is Docguinnus (Cyngar), which is found
as Dochu and Docha. Machutus is a derivative of Machu, and with it should
be compared the female name Machuta, or Maches. From this is derived the
Welsh form Machudd. Another Welsh form of the name is Mechyll or Mechell,
where we have the well-known diminutive suffixes as in brithyll, curyll Cadell, ;

Rhiell, etc. In Scotland he is Mahago, as in Les-mahago = Ecclesia S. Machuti,

in Lanarkshire. The Irish calendars give him as Machud.
2
Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 285. According to the Life of S. Tathan (Cambro-
British Saints, p. 257), Caradog was king of the two Gwents, and is made to be
"
the father of Ynyr. The Saintes Biographer calls Male's father Gwent. Pater
ejusdem Sancti vocatus Guento fuit nobilissimus comes, conditor urbis dicte
Guinnicastrum." He accordingly makes Ynyr Gwent the father, not brother,
of the Saint but with regard to the mother, he says that she was the sister of
;

Amwn, father of S. Samson. At Godmanchester, in Huntingdonshire, it was

claimed that Malo had been bishop there, and was son of a count of that place
<Leland, Collect., iv, p. 14).
3
The Anonymous Biographer says that she was aged sixty-six. Bili is content
with forty years of age.
4 "
Ad quod (monasterium) mater S. Machuti nocte vigiliae Paschae ad v;gil-
andum venerat quae ibi in nocte ilia filium suum edidit."
: Vita B, c. 2. There
were thirty-three mothers " riding " with her, all in the same interesting con-
dition, and all delivered simultaneously. A serious distraction for the monks.

Ce____ -
 S. Malo 419
thirty-three other boys saw the light for the first time, and Caradog
hud them brought together, and delivered over to the abbot to be
educated along with his son, and to act as his servants and attendants
through life. Allowing for some exaggeration, we may admit a sub-
stratum of truth in this story. Caradog sent to the monastery a
number of lads, of about his son's age, to be his foster-brothers and
domestics. It was customary also, when a child was committed to
an abbot, to furnish as well at least one cow.
Malo was given a waxed tablet on which the alphabet was inscribed
"
and lie thus learned the letters, and the elements." 1

Both biographers consider it deserving of commemoration that

Malo, as a boy, perspired freely. 2
When he was a child he is said to have gone to sleep on the sea-
shore, when the tide was out, and that the tide rising, he was lifted
up upon a mass of seaweed on which he lay, and that this upraised
mass became an island that was called, according to Bili, Rore, accord-
ing to F and A, Korea. This was none other than one of the Holmes
in the Severn Sea,
namely, the Steep Holme, which was known as
"
Ronech, a name which seems to mean the Isle of Seals." Florence
of Worcester, s.a. Reoric.
915, calls it

When Malo had reached adolescence, his parents sent for him to
quit the monastery and enter secular life. But Malo had resolved
on embracing the ecclesiastical profession, and instead of obeying
his father and mother, ran
away, took refuge on an islet at some
distance from the land, and absolutely refused to leave it unless he
allowed to embrace the monastic condition of life. His parents
priest, perhaps before he had reached
ive way, and he was ordained

canonical age and at the moment that the bishop laid his hands
;

m him, a white dove was seen perched on his right shoulder. This
a hagiographical commonplace.
this time Malo had acquired the entire Psalter by heart and ;

ich would seem to have been one of the main requirements of the
lastic schools. Up to this point the two Lives agree in almost
every particular, in fact, they agree verbatim. Chapters i-xii of
Bili correspond with Chapters i-v of the Saintes Life. From this
point the agreement ceases where the interpolation of the fabulous
voyage comes The author of Vita A makes Malo to be ordained
in.

bishop in
Wales, whereas Bili allows, in the version that has reached

only that he was there ordained priest.

"
elementa in tabula cerea." Vita B, c. 3. Vita A, c. i.
" Scripsit
Semper videbant guttas minutissimas de fronte atque de facie ejus fluere."
*'ita B, c. also Vita A.
4 ;
420 Lives of the British Saints

The story of the Miraculous Voyage must be totally eliminated,

and that done, we come to the plain facts of Malo resolving to quit
Llancarfan. When his father heard his resolve, he interposed his
paternal authority, and the abbot was also most reluctant to let him
go. Undeterred by opposition, Malo, who was headstrong, went to
the coast and embarked, and his father arid mother, standing on a
hill-top, waved to him a reluctant farewell.
There was much to induce Malo to leave. The Yellow Plague
had broken out and was devastating the land, sweeping away whole
populations. Teilo, at Llandaff, had been collecting all the bishops
and clerics of the neighbourhood for flight. His cousin, Samson,,
was already in Armorica. If our calculation be right, Malo quitted
Llancarfan in 547.
The two biographers disagree as to where Malo landed at first,
The Saintes writer says that he left his ship at the Isle of Aaron
and that he remained there till the city of Aleth was converted. 1
Bili, however, says that he disembarked on the island of September
(Cesambre), where an abbot, Festivus, had a school, and remained on
it for three months, and went thence direct to Aleth, and that he

was forty years old when he landed at Cesambre. Not long after
that he returned to Aaron. 2 The two accounts may be reconciled.
Malo landed first at Cesambre, and after a brief sojourn there, crossed
to the Isle of Aaron just off the mainland, over against Aleth, and
made that his headquarters for mission- work in Aleth. The Saintes
biographer, not knowing the localities, confounded the islands, or
perhaps thought that the brief sojourn on Cesambre was not worthy
of note.
Here we obtain the clue to the puzzle of the relations between
Malo and Brendan. Both biographers make Brendan abbot of Llan-
carfan, and the master under whom Malo was trained. No Welsh
authorities allow that Brendan ever was abbot of Llancarfan, and
none of the Lives of Brendan mention his having been there, but
the Life in the Cambro-British Saints, influenced by the current Lives
of S. Malo, makes this latter a disciple of Brendan. But the monastery
of Cesambre had been founded by Brendan some quarter of a century
before (see S. BRENDAN), and it was called Monasterium Brendan!
Thus, the three months' stay in Cesambre brought the name of Brendan
into the story. The fact that Malo was at one time in the Monastery
1
Vita A, c. 15. ,

2 "
Ille ad insulam quae vocatur September, ubi sacerdos
igitur perveniens
fidelis Deo
serviens Festivus nomine, cum scola plurima habitabat." Vita B,
"
c. 35. Tribus mensibus cum eo fuerunt et ille, ut dicitur, quando ad
. . .

illam insulam devenit quadraginta annorum vitam compleverat." Ibid.,c. 39-

 S. Ma/o 421
of Brendan was magnified into making him a disciple of Brendan,
and was recorded that Malo had been trained at Llancarfan,
as it

the interpolator inserted the name of Brendan as abbot of that

monastery, so as to give occasion for making Malo accompany Brendan
on his voyage.
Malo now
set to work to convert probably the native population
of Aleth. These were the original natives, not the British colonists,
who were not numerous in that part, at the time. Aleth is where
now stands S. Servan. The isle of Aaron was in Male's time much
larger It is now occupied by the city of S. Malo,
than at present.
but then the Le Grand and Le Petit Be* formed part of it.
islets of
"
The Saintes biographer says, Not far from the isle Aaron was the
city (Aleth). It lies on the sea-shore, having on one side the river

called Rinctus (Ranee) but the sea on the other. And in those parts

the Britons were not altogether Christian. Then, therefore, the

celebrated prelate Machlovus began to instruct the people, and lead
them into the way of truth. S. Samson also, his cousin, and cousin
l
also of Maglorius, was doing the same in his town."
Malo exerted himself energetically in founding monasteries, not
only at Aleth, but also in other suitable places, and, in addition to
2
these, cells for retreat in Lent.
Malo was at Aaron or Aleth at a time when all Domnonia was in
a ferment. The Saints of Domnonia, Leon and Cornubia had assem-
bled on the summit of the Menez Bre, and had excommunicated and
:ursed Conmore, the regent and viceroy of Childebert, if we may
ista late authority, and the British colonists were falling away
)m him. Samson was bringing Judual, the legitimate prince, back
>m Paris to reinstate him in his father's kingdom. Conmore came
Corseul, the ancient Fanum Martis, the old capital of the Curio-
and ordered Malo
ti, to celebrate before him on the following

ly, which was the Feast of Easter but Malo, knowing that the
;

jgent was excommunicate, had purposely left wine and chalice behind
and alleged this as his excuse for not complying with the corn-
i,

id. But Conmore was imperious and insisted. Malo was over-
into submission, and by some means the requisite wine was
:ured, and a stone cup was employed in place of a chalice.
Such would seem to be the true version of a story told by Bili, and
1
The Saintes biographer, not knowing that there were two distinct races
re, makes a mistake, and calls the whole population of Aleth British.
"
2 Divina misericordia procurante per fidelem famulum suum Machu-
. . .

m tarn in ipsa civitate et per insulas et loca viciniora monasteria et

quam
cellulae, ubi non modicae monachorum congregationes Deo servire videbantur,
mstructa esse noscitur." Vita B, c. 40.
 422 Lives of the British Saints

greatly transformed. He makes Malo accidentally meet Conmore

at Corseul, on Easter Eve, and finding himself to be without wine
and chalice, changed water ;nto the fruit of the grape, and converted
a stone into a chalice. Now, it is improbable that Malo should have
gone to Corseul away from his monastery to celebrate the Paschal
Feast, when Conmore was there, unless summoned to meet the regent.
And improbable that he should neglect to bring the necessary
it is also
utensil and wine
for the Sacrifice, except purposely. It is almost

impossible to reconcile the story with the chronology of Malo's Life,

unless we place this incident at the Easter of 555, probably the year
in which the political revolution took place that led to the defeat
and death of Conmore. The story is told out of its proper place in
Bili's narrative as it has reached us dislocated by the interpolator.
The other biographer also tells the story, but in a confused manner,
in its proper place, however, as occurring shortly after the arrival of
Malo in Brittany (c. xvi). He does not mention Conmore, but tells
how Malo resuscitated a dead man, who at once shouted for drink,
and when he refused water, Malo obligingly converted water into
wine to gratify him.
Conmore was defeated in three battles, and was killed on the slopes
of the Monts d'Aree later on in the same year. 1 Then Judual became
king over Leon and Domnonia, and richly rewarded the abbots and
bishops who had worked so strenuously for him.
A disciple of Malo was named Rivan. He was one of those who
had been given to him by his father, to be his servant. 2 Another
was Domnech, who settled at a place that still bears his name, formerly
Lanndomnech, but now Saint Domineuc, near Tinteniac. Bili, who-
has just told us that Aleth was a town " a longo jam tempore dere-
licta," now forgets this, and informs us that Meliau was the prince
who ruled in Aleth (c. 44). Meliau, happening to pass where Domnech
was, made a present to him of a couple of oxen. One day Malo found
a poor wretch hiding in a ditch, and asked him what he did there.
" " "
Alas !
replied the man, I am swine-herd to the hermit Domnech,
and I have lost one of his sows. Iam in fear of my life to return to
the holy man, and this is the third day that I have been lurking here,
in hiding from his wrath."
After a few encouraging words, Malo accompanied the pig-driver
and happily discovered her in a brake where
in quest of the lost sow,
she had littered eight Then Malo led the man to his master
piglings.

1
The date of the defeat and death of Conmore is that fixed by De la Borderie.
It is approximate only.
"
Servus ejus Rivan." Vita B, c. 43.
 S. Ma/o 423
and obtained from him pardon for his serf. Domnech received his
abbot with prostrations, and induced him to spend a night and a
day with him in his cell. Possibly this same Domnech became later
Bishop of Vannes, for there was one of the name who ruled that see
from 591 to 602. The anonymous biographer tells the story somewhat
differently.
After the fall of Conmore and the accession of Judual, Malo was
elected bishop of Aleth, according to Bili. Judual sent for him,
probably at the instigation of Samson, and he went to the king attended

by seven clerics. At this point ensues the interpolation relative to

Male's consecration at Tours, and the interpolator has reproduced
almost verbatim Bill's account of the dove appearing and sitting on
Malo's shoulder at his ordination as priest. 1
Judual, the favourer of Samson and Malo, died in or about 580,
and was succeeded by his son Judael. On the decease of that prince,
about the year 605, his eldest son, Judicael, should have mounted
the throne. Judael had left as many as sixteen sons. According
to custom, these were put out to fosterage. The foster-father of one
of these princes, a man named Rethwal, resolved on obtaining the
succession for the boy Haeloc, who had been in his charge. Accord-
ingly he attempted to murder the fifteen brothers of his foster-son.

Judicael had but just time to escape to the Monastery of Gael, and
throw himself on the protection of S. Meven, who hastily shore his
head and invested him in the monastic habit. Seven others escaped,
but seven were massacred. Among the latter was a child whom his
>ter-fatherbrought to Aleth and hid in the cell of Malo, absent at
le time on the isle of Aaron. Rethwal reached the monastery at
jht, broke in and carried the boy away. A message was at once
to Malo,who sped after Rethwal, caught him up, and implored
with tears to spare the child. In reply, the barbarous fellow
id the boy at once butchered, and then flung the body at the feet

the bishop, who took it up and saw to its being decently buried.
Inder such a protector Haeloc grew up turbulent and unscrupulous.
itated at the power and influence of Malo, and jealous of the amount
territory themonks had acquired and were continually acquiring,
threatened to sweep their monasteries away. Malo, at the head
"
Sed mirum in modum claritudinis, ex qua hora episcopus manum suam
super caput ejus levare cepit, alba columba super scapulam ejus dextram usque
ad horam qua officium compleretur, illis sacerdotibus, qui simul ibi advenissent
"
videntibus, apparuit." Vita B, c. 14. Sed mirum in modum ex qua hora
episcopus manus suas super caput ejus levaverunt, alba iterum columba super
collumejus, . .
apparuit. Et quando ille cum sua benedictione ordinationeque
.

completa se erigit, videntibus omnibus ... in coelo volavit." Ibid., c. 51.

 424 Lives of the British Saints

of his monks, sought and implored him not to commit such an outrage,
but met with a rebuff. Shortly after this, Haeloc was troubled with
inflammation of the eyes, and supposing that this was due to his threats
against the monks, was frightened, and desisted from doing what
he had proposed. 1
It is related that Malo was very fond of flowers, and that round
his cell in summer
the air was sweet with their perfume. He had
vines planted, and a pretty story is told of how in spring, when hot,
and gardening, he hung his hood on a vine. When he went to resume
it, a wren flew out ; and on looking into his hood, he found that the
bird had laid an egg therein. He refused to allow his cowl to be
removed, and the little creature deposited there the rest of her eggs
and hatched them out. Not till the brood had fl.own would Malo
take back his hood. Much of his time Malo spent in the isle of Aaron,
attended by his serf Rivan, and he had with him an ass which he kept
to bring to his cell the necessaries of life, fuel and such things as were
carried over from the mainland. He had also a horse for his own
riding.
The people living on Aaron played on him a practical joke. They
got hold of Rivan, and carried him down to the sands, where they
pegged down his arms and legs so that he lay there unable to stir,
as the tide rolled Then a message was despatched to Malo to invite
in.

him to descend to the shoreand see the plight in which Rivan was
placed. Malo scrambled on to his horse and rode down to the shore,
where he found his servant in a helpless condition before the tide,

already lapping round him. Malo wrenched the bonds aw ay, and
r

made the frightened fellow, whose limbs were numbed, mount his
horse and ride home, whilst the people looked on and jeered "If :

you put your servant on your horse, next take the horse to be your
bedfellow." 2
The ringleader of these jokers was one named Guorguc. Malo
could not appreciate the fun of the proceeding, he flew into a rage,
and cursed the man and all his descendants to the ninth generation. 3
During the many years that Malo laboured at Aleth, according to

Bili, who may be drawing on his imagination as to what ought to

"
have been, the people were gathered to church on the appointed
1
Bill Rethwald as well as his foster father, and, as an instance
calls the prince
" "
of the disorder into which his Life is thrown, tells the story of the threat
before he relates the murder of the little prince, and these incidents several
chapters before the meeting with Conmore.
2 " Tuum equum in tuo cubiculo accipe." Vita B, c. 55.
3 "
Ilium hominem, Guorgucum nomine, usque ad nonam generationem
qui contumeliam sibi fecerat, maledicens." Ibid., c. 56.
 S. Ma/o 425
days, the festivals of the Saviour were celebrated with great joy.
Charity was largely dispensed. The Word of God was daily preached
to the people in diverse places. The clergy sang hymns to the praise
of God, at the canonical hours in the churches he had built." l
There seems to be no doubt but that S. Malo was endowed with
superabounding energy. His vehemence, and violence when offended
and contradicted, took the direction of impassioned evangelistic work
where he met with response. As he rode on his rounds he shouted
the psalms of the cursus, or canonical hours. 2 To recite them quietly
did not comport with his character. He made the circuit of the
"
country over which he exercised jurisdiction, and converted innumer-
able men from error and the profane cult of idols," 3
and doubtless
swore at and cursed those who were not
pervious to his exhortations.
He was strict in examining into the moral qualifications of candidates
for the priesthood, and as the profession of an ecclesiastical life offered

considerable advantages, escape from taxation and service to the

prince in waV and peace, many eminently unsuitable men offered as
candidates. These Malo rejected, when he was made aware of their
past stories and as this is spoken of by Bili as remarkable, it implies
;

that such nicety in selection \vas not common. S. Malo founded a

monastic centre at Raus, the situation of which cannot now be deter-
mined.
As Malo became aged, he retreated more and more to the islet
S.

of Aaron, and his temper, always impatient of opposition, became

excessively irritable. On one occasion, when he was wandering
"
side the Ranee, a boor jeered at him. So ho going about seeking !

les and corners in which to pray I warrant you, looking after

!

"4
;tty wenches Then snatching at the bishop's cloak, he pulled
!

off, and taking it home used it as a coverlet to his bed, in which he

with his wife and daughter. But his conscience reproached him,
else he feared to incur the malediction of the prelate, and next

he took back the mantle. Malo would be appeased by an abject

logy only as to the cloak, he refused to wear it any more and
;

it to a
beggar. A wren might nest in his hood, but a cloak thrown
a peasant's poor bed was defiled and unfit for his shoulders.

1
Vita B, 2 3
c. 90. Vita A, c. 61. Ibid., c. 91.
"
4
Obviavit ei vir malignus qui irridebat eum et dicebat eum non causa
orationis sed causa mulieris ambulare. Et exuens eum pallio suo, et minans
cum fuste quam in manu gerebat, et exiens ad domum tulit pallium ejus secum
posuit super se dormiens et super uxorem et super filiam suam mane et . . .

cito pallium viri Dei ad ilium missum est. Et accepit ille et pauperi tribuit,
estimans non esse dignum illud vestimentum, quod fuerat super rusticos homines,
indui se." Ibid., c. 79.
426 Lives of the British Saints

One was a cause of trouble to S. Malo, as he had married

chieftain
a womanwithin the prohibited degrees. S. Malo gave him no rest,
denounced him, expostulated, threatened him. One day at table,
some of those present spoke of the persistence of the bishop against
" "
the marriage. If I had him here," said the chief, I would box

his ears." However, in time the man gave way, did penance and
turned his wife adrift ; very probably having tired of her, and cast
his eye on another comely woman. 1
The miracles wrought by S. Malo are of the stereotyped kind ;

only one or two beside that of Corseul are of any interest. A man
had an attack of what we should call English cholera, and was in a
very bad way (dejectis pene vitalibus) he sent to implore S. Malo
;

to send him the eulogies, i.e., bread presented for the Sacrifice and
blessed, but not consecrated. Malo sent him some, and the man
was healed. 2
A man was linked to a wife, who, for six years, had not talked
and let him hear the clack of her tongue. Instead of rejoicing in
such a privilege, he went to S. Malo and entreated him to cure his
wife. The Saint put his fingers into her mouth and healed her. We
are not told the sequel, whether the husband remained pleased with
the result, or whether he rued it.
S. Malo paid a visit to S. Columbanus at Luxeuil, and remained

with him some days, discussing Scripture and enjoying congenial

society.He soon after had the pleasure of greeting a settler from
Wales, though not from the same part as himself. This was Tyssilio
or Suliau, flying from the vexations caused by his widowed sister-in-
law, who
sought to marry him. Suliau came ashore at Aleth, and
was advised by Malo to take up his abode in the isle of Aaron, and
this he did for awhile, but desiring retirement greater than he could
obtain there, and perhaps not caring to be so near Malo, and subject
to his temper and interference, he retired up the Ranee to the spot
which now bears his name. 3
The prince Haeloc had begun his career by violence. 4 He had
menaced the monastery of Raus, founded by S. Malo, and had perhaps
actually destroyed it. He had violated the sanctuary of S. Meven
in Gael. But in course of time he came to see that it was to his interest
1 2
Vita A, cc. 88, 89. ibid., c 86.
.

3
Life in Albert le Grand, Vies des Saints, ed. 1901, p. 484, from, a Life now
lost that was preserved in the Church of S. Suliau-sur-Rance.
4 As already
noticed, in the copy of Bili extant, the name is Rethwal. But
a slip of the copyist. The name Rethwal is given in the ensuing chapters
this is
as that of the nutritor of the prince. The Saintes biographer calls the prince
Haeloc, and the Marmoutier abridgement of Bili has Haeloc in this place and
not Rethwal. De la Borderie, Hist, de Bretagne, i, p. 472.
 S. Ma/o 427
to be on good terms with the Saints. They wielded immense power,
and he had before his eyes the instance of Conmore, routed and slain
through their machinations. Bili pretends that Haeloc was converted
by the exhortations of Malo. That may or may not have been the
case. Anyhow, he no longer openly menaced him. He died about
the year 614, and at once ensued a period of anarchy. Judicael
had been shorn and made a monk malgre lui and now he cast aside
;

assumed the crown, and looked about for

his cowl, let his hair grow,
a wife.
"
According to the anonymous Life, After the death of Haeloc, the
duke who had protected the blessed bishop Machlovus with all honour,
there rose up a generation opposed to the holy man, burning with
envy and treachery, because the man of God had got into his grip a
large extent of land, granted to him and to God by the faithful. And
they declared that the bishop Machlovus, he and his, had laid their
hands on the whole country, and that nothing was left for themselves
1
and their children in the future."
That Malo had been intolerably grasping seems evident. He
S.

now encountered insult and abuse wherever he went his monks

;

and serfs were attacked and beaten and his estates pillaged. The
Alethans made no secret of their desire to be rid of him. 2 'Although
he affected to disregard the reproaches cast at him, he became vastly
irritated, the more so as he was conscious that he had provoked resent-
ment by his rapacity. Bili admits that he was as cordially detested
by some as he was loved by others and we are not bound to believe
;

Bili, that it was the wicked people only who hated him. His impetu-
osity of temper, and his rough tongue, had provoked much prejudice,
id his insatiable
rapacity had irritated most of the people.
At length he thoroughly embroiled himself with his diocesans,
discord grew so great that Malo resolved on leaving Aleth alto-
gether. But he did not withdraw graciously. He had a ship prepared,
and taking with him thirty-three companions, embarked, and, as a
parting farewell, hurled excommunication and his curse on diocese
id diocesans. 3

"
Post mortem Hailoc duels Britanniae, qui beatum antistitem Machlovum
cum omni honore custodivit dum diu vixit, surrexit impia generatio ipsius
provinciae adversus sanctum virum, invidia omnique dolo ardentes pro eo quod
homo Dei tantam possideret terrain a fidelibus Deo sibique largitam." Vita
\, C. 21.
"
Aiebant namque inter se praesulem Machlovum totam possidere patriam,
nihilque sibi neque filiis suis crastino tempore residere unde valeant vivere.
Homines suos graviter cedebant cunctaque sua vastabant, cupientes sanctum
.

fugere
" regnumque illud penitus deserere." Ibid.
Vir Dei, beatissimus Machu, sceleratorum hominum non sufferens angus-
 428 Lives of the British Saints

Among those who accompanied him were seven whom he had

brought with him from Wales, and were of his own age. Malo skirted
the north coast of Brittany, doubled the point of Finisterre, putting
into ports on his way, and founding monastic cells, in which he left
some of his disciples and in course of time arrived at the little island
;

of Aix, opposite is now La Rochelle, and there for a while he

where
remained. The bishop of Saintes at this time was Leontius, and
Malo deemed it expedient to visit him. He found Leontius in the
island of Eura, now Ayre, over against Marennes. He was well
"
received, and Leontius gave up for his use a church in villam qua?
"
dicitur Brea, quae est in parochia Santonicae civitatis probably ;

Burie, a few miles from Saintes. Malo accordingly moved thither,

and a happy accident occurring on the third day after his arrival,
predisposed the people in his favour. A little boy, going to a well
with a pitcher, fell in, and was drawn out Malo having
insensible.

spent the greater part of his life by the sea, knew how those should be
treated who were half-drowned, and by his attention and through his

experience, the child was brought round and the simple people
;

thought that he had performed a miracle.

There is a fashion in religion as in everything else, and a rush was
now made to Brea to see the bishop and induce him to attempt cures.
Malo was troubled by the concourse, and retreated to Mancras, near
Saujon, where the flat sandy land is covered with forest.
After Malo had been away from his diocese nearly seven years, a
deputation from Aleth arrived to entreat his return. The land had
suffered from drought, affecting the crops, and it occurred to the

people that this was probably due to the imprecations called down on
them and the land by the prelate, and that it would be advisable to
1
bring him back to withdraw his curse.
He could not in decency refuse, and so started on his return. No
sooner did he approach the Ranee than the rain came down in torrents.
Crowds came forth from Aleth to receive him with demonstrations
of respect and joy, and he solemnly revoked his curses. Malo was
now urged to remain, but after a visit to his favourite retreat at Aaron,

tias, a perniciosis contactibus mundi se subtrahens, maledicto excommunicate

populo," etc. Vita B, c. 92.
1 "
Ex Britannia missi a rege et a senioribus populi ad eum accesserunt,
rogantes ut ad terram hominesque, quos excommunicans maledixerat, illuc
iterum pergeret ut, unde maledictionem sua perfidia acceperant, inde
per oris
"
ejus eloquium benedictionem recipere merentur." Ibid., c. 101. Venerunt
ad ... pastorem quidam viri a tota regione Britannia missi,
preces omnigenas
offerentes quatenus sua reversione et benedictione recrearet sui
patriam male
perditam ob sui maledictionem, quam irato animo effudit tarn super terram
quam super habitatores ejus." Vita A, c. 28.
 S. Malo 429
he declared his intention of returning to the Saintonge. Great was
the regret expressed, and perhaps felt, and the old man started on his
way back. But at his age he could hardly endure much travelling,
and he broke down at Archingeay, near S. Jean d'Angely, a day's
journey from Saintes he took to his bed and died there on Sunday,
;

1
November 15, after three days' illness.
Leontius, on hearing of his death, hastened to Archingeay, and
carried off the body to Pardina, outside the walls of Saintes, now the
faubourg Saint Macoult, where he erected a basilica over his remains.
This was destroyed in the wars of the fifteenth century, but a little
chapel dedicated to S. Malo has been recently erected on the site.
On considering the quality and value of the two Lives of the Saint
that we
possess, it can hardly be doubted but that they paint a per-
sonality of much force of character and great individuality. They
differ from those banal Lives composed in the cloister, which present
for our admiration but a shadow of a man without characteristic
traits. Malo himself stands out on the canvas painted from life,
and although the picture has suffered much from daubing and re-
touching in later times, yet the vigorous outlines remain unaffected.
\Vecome now to a difficult problem, the chronology of the Saint's
Life. The first date to fix is that of his death.
He died on November 15. In order that this day should fall on
a Sunday, the year must have had for its dominical letter D or ED.
The year 621 has D as its dominical. He was buried by Leontius,
Bishop of Saintes, who attended the Synod of Rheims in 625. His
predecessor Audobert attended the Synod of Paris in 614. Venantius
Fortunatus, who died in 600, wrote a hymn (i. 3) on the reconstruction
by Leontius of the Church of S. Eutropius at Saintes. Leontius
must have done this before he became bishop.
Bili says, and so does the Saintes
biographer, that Malo died at
the age of one hundred and thirty-three years. But such a length of
life is
clearly impossible. Thirty-three is a number affected in his
fe. Malo was given thirty-three lads at Llancarfan to attend
im ; and the same number of disciples accompanied him when he
ift Aleth. Moreover, of these thirty-three, seven were of the same
as himself, so that we are given to suppose that eight lived to
prodigiously advanced age, which is absurd. Now, Malo had
i not quite seven years in voluntary banishment when the deputa-
tion arrived to recall him to Aleth. He remained there but for a
brief period, and then hurried back in the same year to the Saintonge.
"
Terrae vero matri redidit corpus humandum, septimo decimo Kalendas
Decembris," J'/te A. "Dominica nocte," Vita B.
43 Lives of the British Saints

This gives us the date 614-5 for his departure from Aleth in banish-
ment. This was just after the death of Haeloc, which is supposed to
have taken place in 613 or 614.
The and his welcome by Malo, must have occurred
arrival of Tyssilio,

very shortly before he left.

In 600 Columbanus was driven from Luxeuil by Brunehild conse- ;

quently Halo's visit to him took place before that date. The Paschal
meeting of Malo and Conmore cannot be fixed later than 555.
Malo had been forty years bishop of Aleth before he abandoned
his see, and that gives
574-5 as the date when his monastic settlement
was transformed by Judual into an episcopal see. He was forty
years old, says Bili, when he arrived at Cesambre, ut dicitur. Now
his arrival there was
probably in 547, flying from the Yellow Plague ;
but he cannot have been forty years old indeed, his biographers
;

represent him as a young man, disobeying when he quitted

his parents,
Llancarfan for Brittany. If we suppose that he was then a recently
ordained priest, this gives him an age under a hundred years. If
he were young when he left, after the cessation of the Yellow Plague
in 550, when and so many other Saints returned to Wales, he
Teilo
may have gone back with them, and then been ordained priest at
Llancarfan. He returned to Aleth after that, when aged forty,
and made a second halt at Cesambre.
With regard to his consecration as bishop, the anonymous bio-
grapher makes Malo undertake two voyages, and fixes his consecration
as bishop after the first. We may well suppose that he made more
than two visits to Gwent. He had a foundation there, S. Maughan's,
and he would need recruits for his Alethan houses. When Judual
elevated Aleth into an episcopal seat, he may have gone back to Gwent
to be consecrated.
There is still a difficulty to be surmounted. He was cousin to
S. Samson. Now
the Saintes biographer says that his mother Dervela
was aged sixty- six when she bore him. Here, again, we have the
thirty-three, and this time doubled. Bili states her age as forty.
No trust can be placed in either statement. Dervela may have been
the youngest sister of the family. The date of Samson's death we
do not know, but it was some years after 556 or 557. It was probably
about 565. But
this makes an interval of fifty- six years between
two men same generation. An alternative date assigned for
of the
the death of Samson is 576, reducing the time to forty-six years.
But we cannot rely on the parentage of Malo. The Welsh give as
his father Caradog, son (correctly father) of Ynyr Gwent, whereas the
Saintes biographer makes him son of Gwent, meaning, apparently,
 ^'-

S. Malo 43
iyr Gwentand in the Life of S. Tathan, as already shown, Ynyr
;

represented, not as the father, but as the son of Caradog.

It is remarkable that, although Malo lived so near Dol, there is

mention in either Life of his associating with his kinsman, Samson.

Reference has been already made to Leland's notes" from a copy
Bili, that he saw, but which is now lost.

Leland's notes are as follows :

"
Machutus venit ad Corsult, ubi juvenem defunctum vitae restituit.
imor dux tune temporis Domnonicae regionis.
Una die, petierunt palatium Philiberti regis
7 Britonum episcopi, videlicet Sampson, Machu, Paternus, Courenti-
is, Paulus Ninanus (Aurelianus), Fabu (Pabu) Tutuallus, Briomelius.
*
Lupercus quidam paenitentiam a Machuto coram Filiberto
accepit, et terras suas dedit sedi S. Machuti.
* Machutus Romam petiit.
*
('nnalchus insula, nunc S. Machuti.
!tutus~venit ad Leontium episcopum fugiens a suis, quos propter
lera maledictione mulctaverat."
And after the last chapter of Bili in the Second Book, with which
the MS. as we now have it concludes, Leland adds :

"
Tathu, f rater S. Machutis, cui altare consecratum fuit in mon-
asterio de Nantcarvan, sito in
patria qua natus fuit S. Machutus.
* dux Britonum.
Alanus,
*
Guormhelm comes in Cornavia.
*
Ego Bili episcopus, etc."
" "
The Bili episcopus must be either an addition or be due to a
re-edition of the Life by Bili when he became bishop of Vannes, if
the Bili, Bishop of Vannes 890910, be the same person.
The paragraphs to which an asterisk is attached refer to passages
not found in the extant MSS. of Bili's Life of Malo. Philibert
stands for Childebert II. The visit to Rome was an insertion at a time
when it was deemed advisable to make the Celtic Saints enter into
relations with the Holy See, so as to clear them from the imputation
of schism. This was also in the copy from which John of Tynemouth
made his compendium and he goes on to relate how that Malo,
;

seeing captives and boys for sale in the market at Rome, bought them
and baptised them and how that, on his way back to Aleth by sea,
;

his ship was overtaken by a storm, whereupon S. Peter appeared,

and encouraged Malo with assurance that he should not be wrecked.
his is an adaptation from Acts xxvii. 23, 24.
There is another miracle about bread in John of Tynemouth, that

not to be found in extant copies of Bili's Life. We see, accordingly,

432 Lives of the British Saints

that this Life has gone through amplifications and curtailments ;

it certainly has undergone as well notable falsifications.

As to the visit of Samson, Malo, Padarn, Corentine, Paul of Leon,.

Pabu Tudwal, and Brioc, it is impossible to admit that they all attended
"
on Childebert the same day or year. M. de la Borderie says, Pro-
bablement Leland a mal compris Bill, dont les phrases, les constructions,
sont souvent on peut le voir fort embrouillees. Bili avait . . .

cru devoir rappeler que tous les fondateurs des eveches bretons etaient
alles comme Malo, visiter ce prince, et grace aux obscurites du style,.
Leland a compris (a tort) qu'il^ s'agissait la d'une visite actuelle;
l Childebert died in 558, and
simultanee de ces sept apotres."
probably Malo went to Paris immediately after the fall of Conmore
to receive the confirmation of the grants made to him by Judual. 2
We would suggest a scheme of chronology of the Life of S. Malo,
but the only date that
S. Malo born
,,
.....
is certain is that of his death.
not earlier than 525
quits Wales on the outbreak of the Yellow Plague 547
,, returns to Wales, and is ordained priest . c. 550

revisits Armorica and settles at Aaron c. 552.

The Paschal Celebration before Conmore at Corseul, March 28 555

Defeat and death of Conmore, and elevation of Judual close of 555
S. Malo goes to Paris to have the grants
of lands confirmed c. 556
goes to Llancarfan to obtain assistants c. .
557
Judual transforms the monastery of Aleth into a See, and

Visit to Luxeuil
Death of
......
S. Malo consecrated in Wales .

Judual and usurpation of Haeloc

. . .

before
c.

. . c.
578
600
605
Arrival at Aleth of S. Tyssilio c. 610

Death of Haeloc, succeeded by a period of anarchy c. 614 .

S. Malo deserts Aleth and settles near Saintes .' .615 .

Revisits Aleth, and dies on his way back to Saintes Nov. 15 62 1

S. Machu, Machutes, Machlovus, Maclovius, or Malo is in most

Calendars on November 15 as the Sarum, 1521, that of the Preces
;

Privates, 1564, that of the of Common Prayer, the York, Hereford,

Book
Exeter, Oxford, Wells, Ely, etc., Calendars. An English Calendar
in Saxon characters, tenth or early eleventh centuries also in all ;

the Breton Calendars, and in the Roman Martyrology. So, too, as

Machudd, Mechyll, or Mechell, in some Welsh Calendars, from the
fifteenth century, and those prefixed to the earlier editions of the
Welsh Prayer Book and Bible.
The Translation of S. Malo on July n
MS. Missal of S. Malo,
;

fifteenth century, and Breviaries of S. Malo, 1537 and 1627.

1
Bulletin de la Soc. arch, d'llle
et Vilaine, xvi (1884), p. 308.
2
The name Philibert for Childebert is used pretty freely. In the account
of the recovery of the relics of S. Malo
by the people of Aleth, recourse is had
to Philibert perhaps the Childebert 695-711.
 S. Ma/o 433
S. M.ilo is patron of numerous churches in Brittany. In Normandy,
:ardy, Artois, Champagne, and the Isle of France he has churches
licated to him.
In a grant of several churches to the Church of Llandaff by Morgan
[en (d. c.
974), of Morganwg, are mentioned two Monmouth-
King
" "
lire churches, Lann Liuit Machumur," and Lann Vannar de
ichumur." l
Machumur stands for Machu Mawr, i.e., S. Malo
ic These two adjoining churches were dedicated to him.
Great.

lanlliwyd or Llanllwyd, now extinct, was at one time a chapel under

lanvannar (now corrupted into Llanvaenor). To Malo is also dedi-
ited the neighbouring church of S. Maughans. This and Llanvaenor
to-day under Llangattock-Vibon-Avel. S.Maughans is called
the Book of Llan Ddv, Lann Mocha (or Bocha),
2
and Ecclesia de
Machuto. 3
As already mentioned, Male's name appears in Welsh also as Mechyll,
Mechell, and under this form he is the patron of Llanfechell, in
4 "
Anglesey. Browne Willis 5 gives its dedication as S. Machutus
alias S. Mechell. November 15." The Welsh genealogies, however,
give Mechyll a totally different pedigree they make him the son of
;

6
Echwys ab Gwyn Gohoew.
His legend, in the abbreviated form known to the Welsh, agrees
generally with that of the Vitce. There is a poem, Cywydd i Fechell
Sant, written in his honour by an anonymous bard, which occurs (but
Llanstephan MS. I25, of the middle of the seven-
7
a little imperfect) in
teenth century. In it the panegyrist addresses the Saint as the
son of Gwyn Gohoyw, ofLlydaw, and of the royal line of Lludd ab
1
Book of Llan Ddv, pp, 240-1. The original saint of Lann Vannar was very
" "
probably the Banugar Sacerdos whose name occurs on p. 228.
2
Pp. 74, 171-2, 264-5, 272.
3
Ibid., p. 320. In the Taxatio of 1254 it occurs under the same name. In
the parish list, c. 1566, in Peniarth MS. 147, as Llan vocha.
4
In the Record of Caernarvon, p. 62, occurs the following relating to Llan-
"
fechell Lanvighel cu' Hamel' de Botenol. Ead'm villa simT cu' hamel' p'dicta
5t' de S'c'o Machuto."

Bangor, p. 280. A fair was held there on November 14, O.S. latterly ;

the 25th. Mynydd Mechell is in the parish.

Hafod MS. 1 6 Cambro-British Saints, p. 268. In Cardiff MS. 25, he is
;

entered twice as son of Echwys ab Gohoyu, and son of Ethnwys ab Gwynn

Gohoyw. One of the MSS. quoted in the Myv. Arch., p. 427, gives the name of
his great-grandfather Cynfarwy, of Cornwall. They give various corrupt
forms for his father's name, such as Echwydd, Cochwyl, and Mochwys. He is
unknown to the lolo MSS. genealogies, but it is stated on p. 151 that his college.
Cor Mechell, in Anglesey, was for a hundred Saints. In late documents Mar-
daughter of Brychan, occurs as Mechell and Mechyll.
chell,
For a modern Cywydd S. Mechell see Hugh Owen, Yr Hynafiaethydd,
7

Amhvch, 1890, pp. 65-6.

VOL. III. F F
434 Lives of the British Saints

Beli, who is credited with having given name to Caer Ludd, or London.
"
and Ludgate. He uttered naught in the cradle save the names of
Christ, and he was instructed as he grew up by the One God and
"
S. Brenda (i.e., S. Brendan). His life was once miraculously preserved
"
by land being placed under him," whilst he peacefully slept on the
tempestuous sea. He raised to life a giant whose body had long lain
in the grave, his soul the while in hell (vfferndan), and, baptising him,
"
converted his heart into a well of faith." Thieves he turned into
"
stone, and Maelgwn's men and greyhounds, that had acted foolishly,"
"
he put to death. The lord of the luckless crew he, in his wrath,
struck with blindness," who, on his sight being restored, gave the
"
Saint a free gift of land and strong men." The tract, now the
parish of Llanfechell, was circumscribed by a hare, divinely aided in
its course. The live coals that were meant to injure him he carried
in his bosom unhurt. The author concludes by invoking the Saint
to cure, from his grave, all sick persons, the maimed, and the blind.
"
A
Paradise is his church, the dwelling-place of heaven's good grace ;

it was a stone structure when he returned to it from the seas, from

fair Manaw." It had a statue of him, vested as bishop, in a golden

cope.
The poem
gives us to understand that he was buried at Llanfechell.
It has also been supposed that he lies buried in the churchyard of
Penrhos Lligwy, in another part of the island, where is a stone bearing
"
the inscription Hie Jacit Maccudecceti." 1 Needless to say,
:

it does not commemorate Mechell.

S. MANACCA, Virgin, Abbess

THE church of Manaccan or Minster, in Cornwall, was formerly a
monastic establishment, probably, at its first institution, for women.
Manacca, according to popular tradition, was either sister or nurse
to S. Levan.
In Bishop Stapeldon's Register, 1308, the church is called " Ecclesia
Stse Manacae in Menstre." No Minster would be without a founder,
but not easy to discover who the founder, or rather foundress,
it is

here was.
That she was Irish appears from the situation of the church, and
from the tradition associating her with S. Levan. And, if there be
1 " "
Cf. the Maccodecheti on a stone now at Tavistock.
 S. MANCUS.
Stained Glass, S. Neot.
 S. Marcan 435
iy reliance to be placed on this tradition, then she belonged to the
and beginning of the sixth centuries.
lose of the fifth
The name Manacca is the same as Monaca, in Irish Midnach, Mid-
hnech, or Midnat.
Now we do find that there was such a person placed by S. Patrick
in a hermitage called Disert Patraic, where was a holy fountain, in
the West of Ireland. Her principal church seems to have been Kil-
ican, the situation of which is not determined.
A statement is made by one Irish author that she was a child of
)arerca, sister of S. Patrick. But we can obtain nothing approaching
to certainty relative to S. Manacca. It is possible enough that Manac-
can means no more than Minster, a monastic establishment. The
iy of S. Midhnach is August 4 or November 18 in the Martyrologies
)f
Tallaght and O'Gorman. Manaccan feast is on October 14.

S. MANACCUS, or MANCUS, Bishop, Confessor

LANREATH church, in Cornwall, is dedicated to S. Monach or Manac-
cus. William of Worcester says that he was a bishop, and that his
body reposed at Lanreath. Lanlivery, in the same county, is said to
be dedicated to him in conjunction with S. Dunstan.
In Bishop Stafford's Register his name is given as Managhan.
He was probably Irish.
Lanreath Feast is now observed on August 3, although, according
to William of Worcester, the commemoration formerly was on the
Thursday after Whit-Sunday.
In the Young Women's Window, at S. Neot, he is represented in
episcopal vestments.

S. MANCEN, see S. MAWGAN

S. MARCAN, Priest, Confessor

THE only things we know relative to this Saint are derived from
he Life of S. Brioc, and these are few.
When "
Brioc was dying a certain Marcan, a priest, filled with
religious fear of God," had a vision. He beheld four angels, like
eagles, with fiery wings, carrying away the soul of Brioc in form like
a dove.
 436 Lives of the British Saints

, y / A MS. at Rouen not noticed by Dom Plaine, who has published

the Vita Brioci, -and is of the twelfth century, contains fragments of
a metrical Life of Brioc, apparently by Peter, a clerk of Angers. This
work, that is based on a much more ancient biography of the Saint,
says that Marcan came from Ceretica, Ceredigion, and was therefore
a compatriot of Brioc. None of the Breton dioceses, except that of
Dol, commemorates Marcan we may therefore suppose that he
;

settled there, and in fact there is a small parish in the diocese that
bears his name as patron, Saint-Marcan.
His day is 21, according to the Dol Missal of 1502.
May
Some local legends relative to him are given by the Abbe Duine
in his Notes sur les Saints Bretons. *
S. Marcan represented in the church near Dol, which takes its
is

name from him, as a priest in stole and chasuble, a book in one hand,
and the other hand raised in benediction. At the base is an ass being
devoured by a wolf.
In Welsh his name would become Marchan, which was once fairly
common. There is a place called Llanmerchan, or Llanmarchan, in
the parish of Llanychllwyddog, Pembrokeshire, where was at one
time a pilgrimage chapel, 2 no doubt dedicated to Marcan.
Marcan was the Old- Welsh form 3 of Margam, in Glamorgan, once
the name of a considerably larger area than that of the present

parish. In the Vita S. Cadoci 4 Marcan is mentioned as one of the

nine divisions of Glywysing, deriving its name from an eponymous
Mar, son of Glywys. Later, it frequently occurs as Morgan, and
is sometimes confounded with Glamorgan.

/I

S. MARCHELL, Matron
THE Welsh Marchell represents two Latin names, Marcellus and
Marcella, which has led to considerable confusion among late writers.
Welsh hagiology, however, knows only of three female saints of the
name.
The first in point of time was Marchell, daughter ofTewdrig ab
1
Hermine, T. xxxi (1904), pp. 49-51 ; T. xxxiii, pp. 83-7.
3 Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, pp. 346, 509. Marcan was also an Irish name.
There was a Marcan king of the Deisi, who is mentioned in the Life of S. Findchua
of Bri-Gobann, in the Book of Lismore.
3
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 224. For some Marchan names see the index, p. 411.
4
Cambro-Brttish Saints, p. 20.
 S. Marchell 437
Teithfall, king of that district which was afterwards called (from her
son) Brycheiniog, the Brecknockshire of to-day minus the Hundred
"
of Builth. She was the wife of Anlach, Rex Hiberniae," by whom
" "
she became the mother of the mysterious Brychan. Her legend
is told in the Cognatio de Brychan, for which see under S. BRYCHAN. 1
After her is named Caer Farchell, now a farm in
the parish of S. David's.
She sailed hence, from Forth Mawr, with her 100 men to Ireland.
The lolo MSS. 2
are the sole authority for her as a Saint.

S. MARCHELL, Matron
THIS Marchell was grand-daughter of the foregoing Marchell, being
the daughter of Brychan. In the Cognatio and other early documents,
her name is always written Marchel or Marchell, but in the later ones
3
generally, Mechell, or Mechyll, through not observing the contraction
mark. She was the wife of Gwrin Farfdrwch (with the Truncated
Beard), the sixth century regulus of Meirionydd, a descendant, through
Meirion, of Cunedda Wledig.
No churches are known to be dedicated to her.

S. MARCHELL, Virgin
THE virgin Marchell was the daughter of Hawystl Gloff and Tywan-
wedd, daughter of Amlawdd Wledig. She was
sister to SS. Teyrnog,
and Tudur, 4 according to the lolo MSS.
all Saints, 5
Deifer, Tyfrydog,
of Bangor Iscoed until its destruction, when they went, with others,
in a body to Bardsey.
Marchell is patroness of Whitchurch, or Eglwys Wen, the old parish
church of Denbigh, anciently called Llanfarchell, by which name the
irish of Denbigh was also known down to the fourteenth century

1
I, p. 304.
2 p. us.
3
Peniarth MS. 75 (sixteenth century) Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 427 lolo MSS.,
; ;

pp. in, 140. Late documents also convert her husband's name into Gwrgant
and Cynyr.
4
Peniarth MSS. 16, 45; Hafod MS. 16 Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. "8;
;

Mostyn MS. 144, p. 329 ; Cambro-British Saints, p. 271 Myv. Arch., p. 427.;

"
Cardiff MS. 25, p. 118, mentions her as y santes yssydd rhwng Dinbych a
Chhvyd," but the pedigree given is wrong ; cf. also'/o/o MSS., p. 124.
5
P. 142.
438 Lives of the British Saints

and later. 1
Her brothers, Teyrnog and Deifer, are patrons of the
adjoining parishes of Llandyrnog and Bodfari. The two brothers
and sister, we may believe, settled in the Vale of Clwyd to lead an
eremitical life, and had their cells on the very spots where those parish
churches to-day stand two other brothers settled in
; whilst their

Anglesey and Montgomeryshire. There was a trio of Saints of the

same family, who similarly established themselves near each other,
in Anglesey, two sons and a daughter of Caw, viz., Eugrad, Gallgo,
and Peithian, as we learn from the Life of S. Gildas, by the Monk of
"
Rhuis. There is a figure of Sea Marcella," in fifteenth century
glass, in the handsome chancel window of Llandyrnog Church. She
is holding a closed book in her right hand, and a palm branch in

her left. Edward Lhuyd, in his topographical notes (1699), says :

"
Ffynnon Fachell (sic) near Whitch :which is thought to be y
Saint's Well." now dried up, but is remembered as a well.
It is
"
Lhuyd also mentions,
among the Chappels formerly in y e Parish
of Llanrwst, Capel Marchelh in y e Township of Ty brith isa." The
chapel, of which there is nothing now to be seen, is believed to have
been at Rhyd Lanfair, and is supposed to have been dedicated to this
Saint.
It has been also suggested, but very doubtfully, that she gave
"
name to the commote of Ystrad Marchell, the Vale of Marchell,"
in the neighbourhood of Welshpool, where the Cistercian Abbey of
Strata Marcella (a Latinization of the Welsh name) was founded in
the twelfth century, by Owain Cyfeiliog. The Lordship of Ystrad
Marchell embraced a somewhat large area, but the name is now borne
by a manor only a little more in extent than the parish of Guilsfield.
The church of Marchwiel, in Denbighshire, is sometimes said to be
dedicated to S. Marcella, on September 5, 2 a mistake for Marcellus,
on the 4th, the second century martyr at Chalons-sur-Saone and at ;

other times to S. Marcellus, on October 7, an apocryphal first century

Roman martyr but there can be no doubt whatever that the church
;

is dedicated to S. Deiniol, and that the Marchell dedication has been

simply guessed from the parish name, which, in full, was formerly
" 3
Plwyf y Marchwiail." The two Marchell festivals that occur in

Welsh Calendars are those of Marcellus Saints.

" " "
1
Llanvarcell," Taxatio of 1254 Landwarchell," Taxatio of 1291
;
Rec- ;

toria de Saynt Marcelle," Valor of 1535, vi, p. xxxix.

-
Browne Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 363. Whitchurch he gives, p. 364, as
dedicated to S. Marcellus, on January 16, an early fourth century Pope.
3
J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, pp. 33, 914. March-wiail means
Saplings. In such compounds as march-fieri, march-redyn, march-ysgall, etc.,
march implies something of a larger growth or kind than the ordinary.
 S. MARCHELL.
From 1 $th century Glass in Llandyrnog Church.
 S. Martin 439
S. MARTHAERUN, Confessor
THIS Saint was one of the sons of Brychan. His name is not entered
in the Vespasian version of the Cognatio, but in the Domitian he is
"
mentioned as Marthaerun apud Keueilauc," and in Jesus College
"
MS. 20 as
Marcharairjun (or Marcharanhun) ygkeueilyawc." Cy-
feiliog isa commote of Montgomeryshire, which has Machynlleth as
its principal town, and its name is preserved in that of the Deanery

wherein that town is situated. The name Marthaerun has clearly

nothing to do with Mathafarn, in the parish of Llanwrin, which is

in Cyfeiliog.
name 1
In late documents the is given as Mathaiarn, and it is stated
in a MS. compiled 15781609, and
2
in another 3 compiled or transcribed
"
about 1670, that he lies buried in Ceredigion," a copyist's blunder,
of course, for Cyfeiliog ;
but it was left to Meyrick 4 and others to

convert Ceredigion into the town of known earlier, and still

^Cardigan,
in Welsh, as Aberteifi.

S. MARTIN, Priest, Confessor

S. MARTIN in Meneage, Cornwall, is in the midst of Irish foundations,

and it is possible that it may have been founded by the Irish Martin

from Ossory.
This man was
only Irish so far that he laboured in Ireland, and
belonged to S. Patrick's mission, but he was a native of Britain.
"
In the Homily on S. Patrick in the Lebar Brecc we read, Patrick
"
went into Ossory and founded churches and cloisters there (this
"
was in 474) ;
and he said that there would be nobles and clerics of
the men of Ossory, and that no province would prevail against them
long as they should bide as Patrick willed. Patrick afterwards,
)idding them with them Martin, an Elder, and a party
farewell, left
5
)f his
people, where is at this day Martharthech in Mag Raigne."
Martharthech is the cemetery consecrated for the interment of
the Middle Ossorian plain-dwellers, in the barony of Kells, co. Kilkenny.
Martin, accordingly, had the shaping of the church in Mid-Ossory.
He did not, however, confine himself to this part of the kingdom, but
also founded churches in I/iverk and in Upper Ossory.
1
Also as Mathayarn, Mathaearn, Mathaern Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 4 2 7
;
Iol
MSS., pp. in, 140.
2 3
Myv. Arch., p. 427. lolo MSS., p. 119.
* 8
Cardiganshire, 1808, p. in. Tripartite Life, ii, p. 469.
 44 Lives of the British Saints

Ciaran, who was at Saighir, held him in the highest respect. From
the fact that he himself belonged to the expelled royal family, and
that Ossory was in the hands of conquerors, who regarded him with
mistrust, he was not able to travel about in Ossory, and was glad of
the assistance of Martin, who, as a foreigner, was not looked on with
suspicion. So highly indeed did Ciaran appreciate him, that he made
Martin promise that, when they died, they should repose side by side.
Eventually Martin retired to Torry Isle (Tor Inis), off Donegal,
and there died. A copy of the Gospels that he valued highly was
laid on when he was buried. S. Columba, of Hy, visited
his breast
1
Tor opened the tomb, and carried off the sacred volume.
Inis,
Great confusion has sprung up between Martin, the Patrician
missionary, and Martin of Tours, that was furthered by the fact of
"
the former being of Tor Inis and the latter of the Turones." For
instance, in the Life of S. Senan we are told that he visited Tours
to converse with Martin, and he found the latter incessantly engaged
"
upon a Gospel that he was transcribing. Then said Senan, I would
that these diligent hands of yours should minister the Eucharist to
me on the day of my decease." " They shall indeed do it," replied
Martin. Then the two men swore brotherhood, and, in token of
affection, Martin presented Senan with the book of the Gospels he
had been copying. 2
"
Some years later, when Senan The angels of God
lay adying,
uplifted Martin from Tours, in a heavenly cloud, and set him down
in the place where Senan was biding, and he gave him Communion
and Sacrifice." After which Martin was carried back to Tours in the
same way. 3 Now, as Martin of Tours died about 397, and Senan
was born about 480, this is clearly impossible. The late redactor
of the Life found in his original text that Senan had made friends with
Martin of Tor Inis, who gave him a Gospel and ministered the Com-
munion to him, and he jumped to the conclusion that this must have
been Martin of Tours, and then he put in the above miraculous touches.
That Martin, who was a Briton, may have accompanied S. Ciaran
to Cornwall is not improbable, and it is possible that the church of
S. Martin in Meneage may be a foundation of this Martin. The
Feast there is on November 14, six days after the day on which Martin,
the Patrician Missionary, is commemorated at Temple-Marten in
Ireland, but also three days after the Feast of Martin of Tours.
At Temple- Marten, near Kilkenny, is a holy well of the Saint.
1
Book of Lismore, Anecdota Oxon., 1890, p. 175.
a 3
Ibid., p. 208. Ibid., p. 221.
 S. Mawes or Maudetus 441
S. MARUAN, Abbot, Confessor
MARUAN is said by Leland to have been one of the company that
arrived in Cornwall from Ireland with SS. Senan, Breaca, etc.
Maruan is either a mistake by Leland, or of the printer, for Mo-
ruan. The Saint is no other than S. Ruan, or Rumon (sceS. RUAN).

S. MATHAIARN, see S. MARTHAERUN

S. MAWES or MAUDETUS, Abbot, Confessor

THE authorities for the Life of this Saint are as follows :

1. A was employed in the Breviaries of Treguier and Leon.

Life that
Both have been lost, but a copy was made by the Breton Benedictines
of the seventeenth century, which is now contained in a thick volume
in the Bibliotheque Nationale, at Paris, MS. Fr. 22321. It has been

printed by M. de la Borderie in Memoires de la Soc. d'Emulation des

Cotes du Nord, T. xxviii, pp. 2029
'
an(^ a ^ so as a separate brochure,
Rennes, 1891.
This Life is composed of snippets for Lections in the Breviary.
Pope Pius V (1566-72) ordered that there should be only three his-
torical lessons in the Office of a Saint. The rest should be from Holy
'Scripture. Before that it had been felt that more place should be
given to what was edifying and less to legendary fable, and this Life
of S. Maudetus was curtailed from nine to eight lessons, the seventh
being from S. Matthew, xxv.
The Life as given in the Lections bears manifest tokens of the
scissors. jumps abruptly from the departure of Modez from
It
Ireland to his settlement on the He Modez. It gives two episodes
connected with his disciples Bothmael and Tudy at full bulk, and
leaves the main narrative incomplete with maimed head and no tail
at all, for it does not mention the death of the Saint. Moreover, the
introduction of lections from the Gospels necessitated considerable
excisions, and so the Life of the Saint was mutilated.
This Life is in the main a very early composition, but to it is tacked
on an episode concerning Duke Hoel of Brittany, that was written
at the end of the eleventh
century.
2. A second Life of the Saint, in this called Mandetus, is from the
Chapter Library of Orleans, and is now in the Town Library, No. 330.
I
-It has likewise been
printed by De la Borderie, in the same work.
 44 2 Lives of the British Saints

This Life at Orleans owes its existence to the relics of S. Maudetus

having been transported thither in the tenth century, when with them
went the original Vita of the Saint. But in the thirteenth century,
or perhaps a littleearlier, it was recomposed, to put it into more
polished shape. Happily this was done without excision of whole
passages and incidents. It reproduces in portions the original text,
which is found in the Vita ima. This is a consecutive narration, but
it labours under the disadvantage of having interpolated into it a
commonplace fiction of Maudetus being offered the crown of Ireland,
and a beautiful girl as wife, and praying God to afflict him with leprosy ;

his prayer heard, the Irish refuse him as king and the damsel declines to

accept him as a husband. After that he recovers his former beauty.

This is a hackneyed fable, and occurs also in the Legend of S. Fingar.
The Second Life is not treated by M. de la Borderie with his wonted
literaryacumen. He regards everything in it that is not found in
the First as a late interpolation.
The First Life, as already stated, consists of scraps only. The
Second Life is a later composition than the First, but it is a re- writ-
ing inwhat the author considered as better style of the material found
in the First Life, that he had before it was mutilated to convert it
into Breviary Lessons. The original Life, which served as basis for
both, was undoubtedly composed in Brittany, and the re-writer of
the Second Life has kept all the local allusions and names. He gives
"
the name of the estuary where Maudetus landed, ad portum qui
dicitur Banniged in Britannico, Latine vero Portus Benedictus."
He relateshow Maudetus settled at Lesheluan. He names the ruling
chief ;
he says that he granted Lesvanalec to Maudetus. All this
is no interpolation of the Orleans scribe he found it in his original
;

text. Moreover, his Vita is continuous, with no gaps, whereas, as

already said, what we possess of Vita ima is mere scrap work, ser-
viceable enough for Lections in the Breviaries of Treguier and Leon,
but very imperfect as history. The Second Life contains, in brief,
it is true, an account of the death of the Saint.

That in the recomposition the story has lost some freshness is

not to be doubted, but without it, we should have but a very scrappy
knowledge of the Life of Maudetus.
One of M. de la Borderie' s arguments in depreciation of the Vita
2da fails, and the facts tell in its favour. He says, of an account of
an invasion of the minihi or sanctuary of the Saint by Treguier robbers,
"
Aucun trait de la physionomie de saint Maudez son caractere
;

est la,au contraire, entierement defigure, calomnie. Ce rude Moine,

qui s'exile de son pays d'origine, qui evangelisa tout le nord de
 S. Mawes or Maudetus 443
I'Armorique et se retire ensuite avec quelques disciples, pour y vivre
et mourir, dans une ile sauvage, sterile, separee du reste du monde

par des courants perilleux et des greves perfides, voila qu'on nous
le represente comme un abbe de basse epoque, briile de la soif
d'augmenter le patrimoine du crucifix, c'est a dire, en bon fransais, les
biens de son couvent." If M. de la Borderie had known anything

of the character of the Irish Saints, he would have been aware that
this was their dominant passion. Not, indeed, that they were ambi-
tious on their own account ; they were above that sort of vulgar
greed ;
but because it was
essential to their existence as evangelisers
of the country to maintain the inviolability of their sanctuaries,
"
and the safety of those who belonged to their tribe. Unter den
Krumstab ist gut leben," was a German maxim, and this applied far
more freely in Celtic lands in the fifth and sixth centuries than in later
Mediaeval times. The redactor at Orleans has, doubtless, given a
more modern tinge to the story, but he has maintained the essential
elements most carefully.
3. A Third Life is in the fifteenth century MS. Breviary of Tr^guier
in the Petit Seminaire of that town. It has likewise been printed by
De la Borderie, pp. 225-7. I* * s f no additional value, as it gives
the Life in six lessons, extracts verbatim from the First Life.

4. To these may be added a Life in the Leon Breviary, printed in

17- >> an amalgam of the Second and Third Lives, with a few additions.

The Life of S. Modez in Albert Le Grand's Collection is made up

from the Treguier and Leon and Orleans Breviary Lives.
According to the Lives, Maudetus, also called in the Breviary of
Orleans Mandetus, was born in Ireland, of royal race. His father's
name was Ercleus, and that of his mother, Gentusa or Getusa. The
pair had ten children, and as Maudetus was the tenth, he was given up
to religion.
The Irish martyrologists have a Moduit in their Calendars ;
he
was of Cill Moduit, and of the Hy Many of Roscommon. But this
cannot be the same. Connaught sent no Saints to Wales, Cornwall
Brittany. Those who did come to settle were all from Leinster
Munster.
It is possible that by Ercleus may be meant Ere, son of Ercadh,
grandfather of Mac Dairre, of the Hy Bairrche. We know that
the sons of Mac Dairre were expelled their country
by Crimthan,
Kins of the Hy Cinnselach, and some of them went abroad. The
period would agree fairly with the departure of Maudetus from Ireland,
but he cannot have been the son, but the great-grandson, of Ere,
if he were one of the
Hy Bairrche.
 444 Lives of the British Saints

The reason of Maudetus leaving Ireland may have been the breaking
out of the Yellow Plague there, 547550, which swept away his father,
mother and brothers. When the hagiographers represent a Saint
as leaving his country for the love of God, we are generally justified
in looking for another reason, compulsion, either by some political
convulsion, or fright caused by plague.
The biographers say nothing of a visit to Cornwall, but there he
must have been, for he made a foundation on the creek of the Fal
"
estuary where is now S. Mawes. Leland says Scant a quarter
:

of a mile from the castel on the same side, upper into the land, is a

praty village or fischartown with a pere, caulled S. Maw's and ;

there is a chapelle of hym, and his chaire of stone a little without,

and his welle. They caulle this Sainct there S. Nat ... he was a
bishop in Britain, and (was) paintid as a scholemaster."
*
This
would seem to imply that he was represented seated in his chair, with
his pupils before him. These pupils, as we learn from the Vita, were
Bothmael and Tudy.
Unfortunately in the reconstruction of the sea wall and pier, some
years ago, the Chair of stone was built in, and is now no longer to be
seen, but the Well remains, with a pointed arch, and the water for
the little town is drawn from it. 2
From Cornwall Maudetus or Mawes crossed over into Armorica.
The Second Life says that he landed in the Portus Benedictus, or
Porz Beniguet, the entrance of the Treguier river, and that he brought
with him his disciples Bothmael and Tudy. For a while they settled
at Lesheluan, now Lesouan, near the port. This is probable enough.
And here they received authorization to settle from Deroc, the prince
of Leon, whom the Life calls Daeg.
This was most assuredly in the original Life which served as the
It is not in the First Life, which was
basis of the Orleans redaction.
cut down to serve for nine Breviary lections. No Orleans redactor
would have known the localities. And his ignorance of the history
of Brittany is shown in the misreading of the name of Deroc.
Deroc was the son of Righuel, who had constituted himself Prince
of Domnonia, and who received S. Brioc on his arrival. We learn
from the Life of S. Leonore that Deroc was at this time ruling in
Leon, with, probably, the consent of his father, who lived at Lishelion,
on the AnsedTfignac. 3 He was granted a site at Lesvanalec, near
1
I tin., iii, 30.
Quiller-Couch (The Holy Wells of Cornwall, 1894), did not see the wel], and
2

mistook another in private grounds for that of the Saint, and they give an illus-
tration of the well that was not his.
3
De la Borderie regards this as an invention of the Orleans redactor. We
 S. Mawes or Maudetus 445
the harbour. Maudetus soon gathered about him a number of ad-
1
herents, and he resolved on seeking a more quiet retreat, where he
could train his disciples more at leisure.
There was an island off the coast at the mouth of the Trieux, in the
archipelago of Brehat, where the tide at fall retires to a great distance,
leaving miles of sand, broken by rocks that bristle out of it, with
pools about them formed by the swirl of the retreating currents.
It was reported to be infested with serpents and venomous insects.

To clear the soil of these, Maudetus set fire to the dry grass that covered
the surface, 2 and then he crossed over with his disciples to it, and

tla-y constructed a series of separate cells, and a church of stone.

shortly before crossing over, an incident occurred of a serious

nature that called for the interposition of the Saint. Two of Deroc's
sons had been playing with bows and arrows, and by inadvertence
one of them shot his brother in the head and killed him. The boy
was so frightened that he ran away and concealed himself in the
woods. Deroc was wild with regret and rage, and in his fury might
have beat the survivor to death, had not Maudetus interposed, and
by degrees appeased his wrath, by representing the matter as the
result of an accident. At last, when the father had come to view
the matter in a calmer light, Maudetus communicated with the lurking

boy, and he came forth from his hiding-place.

3

Maudetus was wont to take a seat in the open air, where he had a
chair, and there to instruct his pupils. Now it so happened that
a great seal was wont to disport itself in the water near the isle, and
the bobbing about of the great black head with its strangely human

eyes distracted the attention of those he was instructing.

This happened so frequently that the patience of the abbot was
exhausted, and taking up a stone, he flung it at the seal, with such
good aim that he hit it on the head and thenceforth the beast troubled
;

him in his lessons no more. The biographer supposed it was- not a

real animal, but a demon such as the people called a Tuthe ;
that is,

our Deuce. 4

cannot agree with this view. The fragmentary nature of this part of Vita ima
ismarked and, as observed above, the passage shows acquaintance with the
;

localities.
"
Magna populi caterva comitatus qui salubribus ipsius sermonibus obtem-
1

perabat," etc. Vita ima, c. 5.

"
Frutecta et vermes omnes vis incendii usque ad interiora radicum in ciner-
em convertit." Vita 2da, c. 15.
s
Ibid., cc. 12, 13. The biographer of course makes Mawes resuscitate the
dead boy. That is his addition and invention.
4 "
Quidam daemon quem Britones Tuthe appellant coram eis apparuit in
specie marinae belluae," Vita ima, cc. n, 12. " Daemones quos Dusios Galli
nuncupant," says S. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, xv, 23.
44 6 Lives of the British Saints

One day the on the island had become extinct, and Maudetus
fire

sent his disciple Bothmael across to the mainland to fetch live char-
coal. He went to a woman, who only consented to let him have it
if he would carry the coals in the lap of his habit. This Bothmael
did, and his habit was unsinged. What made this more wonderful
was that the tide overtook him as he was on his way back over the
sands, and he was forced to take refuge on one of the rocks that rise
above the reach of the water except in a storm.
The story of carrying live coals in the lap is sufficiently common ;

it is reproduced in a great many Lives. It has been transferred

from Bothmael to Tudy it is told of S. Cadoc, and of S. Asaph and
;

S. Caffo. It is not to be rejected lightly. There is a basis of truth

in it, and it may well have happened to many. A fire had to be kept
in, for if it went out, it was no easy matter to rekindle it. When
extinguished by neglect or accident, a pupil would be sent to where
was the nearest fire to ask for coals. He would probably take with
him a pot to contain the glowing embers, and this pot he would carry
with considerable precaution in his lap. If it did not upset on his
way and burn his garment, the master would probably congratulate
him on his having escaped damaging his gabardine, and this easily
grew into being considered a marvel and a miracle.
On the mainland Maudetus had a church, now Lan Modez, which the
biographer latinizes into Landa Maudeti. The people were much
harassed by some ruffians, a piratical band which broke into their
houses, robbed, and carried away their goods. In their distress
they cried to their Saint to help them.
The day was one of sweltering heat, and the robbers had greatly
exerted themselves, and were thirsty. They went to the nearest
well for a drink.Then their leader, too indolent to descend from his
horse, stooped from his saddle, and endeavoured to fill a drinking
vessel from the spring, when, what with the heat and with this action,

apoplexy ensued and he dropped dead on the ground. The rogues

were alarmed, abandoned their booty, and retired. The people who
had been plundered attributed their relief to S. Maudetus and the ;

biographer, to make the story more marvellous, fabled that fire

1
leaped out of the spring and burnt the fellow.
The First Life ends abruptly after telling us the story of Bothmael
1 "
Praedicti praedones calore soils ferventes, siti mirabili coacti, quendam
de armigeris ad fontem praedicti sancti, qui prope erat, propter aquam, ut sitim
nimiam extinguerent, celeriter transmiserunt. Qui dum ad fontem perveniret
et ab equo suo se inclinaret ut cadum suum de impleret, statim, virtute
aqua
divina cooperante . . .
ignis mirabilis de fonte coram omnibus super eum
prosiliit," etc. Vita ima, cc. 13, 14.
 S. MAWES.
Statue at Ergue-Gaberic.
 S. Mawes or Maudetus 447
fetching fire from the mainland, but the Second says that Maudetus
died on the fourteenth of the Calends of December (November 18).
In the Life we are told that he crossed over in the days of Childebert,

50748. This agrees with the date of the breaking out of the Yellow
Plague, 547. As we are not told the age of Maudetus when he died,
we do not know the exact date. It would be towards the end of the
sixth century.
Local tradition has added to the story of the Saint. He is said at
Henvic, in Cotes du Nord, to have brought over from Ireland his sister,
whom they call Juvetta, in Breton Hulven.
On a mediaeval diptych are statues of S. Modez, as he is called in

Brittany, and S. Juvetta ;

also four bas-reliefs representing severally
the story of S. Modez and that of his sister. The first give S. Modez
healing the sick, receiving his father's blessing, casting out a devil,
and restoring sight to the blind, blessing his disciples, and dying.
The four others exhibit S. Juvetta restoring to the dead, healing
life

maniacs, giving sight to the blind, driving away the wild birds from
a field of corn.

In Cornwall, the only dedication to him is S. Mawes ;

his chair and
wi-ll there have been already mentioned.
In Brittany something like sixty churches and chapels have been
erected to his honour. The list of these is given in the new edition
ot Albert le Grand's Vies dts Saints, in additional notes by Canon
Thomas.
Earth taken from the He S. Modez, and dust from below his statue,
are regarded as a vermifuge. At Edern so much earth has been
scooped from under the stone altar in his ancient chapel, that the
itself has collapsed.

is usually represented as a mitred abbot with staff. There is,

er, a good early statue of him at Pencran near Landerneau, in
which he wears no mitre, but a shaven head, and bears in his right
.d a book, in the left a staff with
octagonal knobbed head,
t Plogonnec, near Quimper, is a triptych, on which various scenes
his life are represented in bas-relief.
the highest point of the He S. Modez is a sort of beehive hut, but
large,and this is kept in constant repair as a sea-mark. It is commonly
called Le Forn de S. Modez, or the Saint's Oven * Near it are traces
of another circular habitation. The extension of the cult of the
Saint, and the numerous churches placed under his invocation, seem
1
De la Borderie, Hist, de Brctagne, i, p. 392. It must be admitted that it
closely resembles a mediaeval dove-cot. It deserves to be examined, to ascertain
whether it was not really such.
44 8 Lives of the British Saints

to indicate that he did not remain always in his islet, but travelled

about in Domnonia and Cornouaille, on mission work.

In estimating his epoch we have only a few data to go by. We
are told in his Life that he arrived in Brittany during the reign of
Childebert, King of the Franks, that is, between 511 and 558. It

was probably early in that reign, for his disciple Tudy passed from
him into the monastery of Landevenec under S. Winwaloe.
In the Second Life, to which we are inclined to attribute more
value than does M. de la Borderie, he is brought into association with
Deroc, the son of Righuel, or Rhiwal, who ruled in Domnonia from
about 515 to 520. This Deroc, as we judge from the Life of
S.Tudwal, exercised some sort of authority in Leon during the lifetime
of his father,whom he succeeded in Domnonia in or about 520, and
ruled till about 535.
Whether the Pagi of Castell, Treguier and Goelo were ever included
in Le"on we do not know, but they formed a portion of the old region
occupied by the Curiosoliti. Accordingly we dare not say whether the
intercourse between Maudetus and Deroc took place whilst he was
prince or regent in Leon, or after he was king or chief in Domnonia.
There is not any allusion in the Lives to the troubles occasioned
by the usurpation of Conmore in 540 to his death in 555, and we
may therefore judge that Maudetus died in the first half of the sixth
century, perhaps about the time when died Deroc.
There is now no Feast at S. Mawes.
In Bishop Brantyngham's Register, S. Mawes is entered as Capel -
Sti Mawdeti, 1381.
In Brittany his day is November Breviary of Vannes, 1586,.
18,

1589 ;
Breviary of S. Malo, 1537 Breviary of Leon, 1516
;
Missal ;

of Leon, 1526 ;
Breviary of Dol, 1519 Albert le Grand, and Lobineau.
;

But November 16, Breviary of Treguier, 1779 ; Breviary of Quimper,.

1783 and 1835. November 27 in the Leon Breviary of 1736, and that
of Dol, 1775.
Gautier du Mottai " Saint
says : Maudez, ainsi qu'on peut
en juger par le nombre des oratoires qui lui sont dedies, est le

saint dont le culte est le plus repandu en Bretagne, apres celui de

*
Saint Yves."
S. Maudez or Modez
is invoked against boils, and is offered a handful

of slaters' nails,which must not be counted. His chapel at Trebry,.

Cotes du Nord, is near a dolmen that bears his name. The Pardon
there is on Trinity Sunday. Near it is his Holy Well. 2
1
Iconog. Bretonne, p. 233.
2
Legende doree de la
Sebillot, Petite Haute Bretagne, Nantes, 1897, pp. 72-3-
IS.
flame issued to
still
stone boat in which
vvn at

at certain times to emit flames.

much time in retreat
S.

Lanhiron on the Quimper

Mawgan
Maudez

consume the freebooter

in it is
crossed over the sea to Brittany

A
river.
is
449

His spring whence a

shown, and is supposed
cave is also shown where he
his bed, Gwele-sant-Modez, which
spent ;

is visited every year by pilgrims on the occasion of the Pardon. Every

sailor is bound once in his life to visit the island of S. Modez under
1
pain of risking shipwreck.
At Banalec, in Finistere, in the chapel of Locmarzin, is a statue of
S. .Maudez, and beneath it a hole about a foot in depth, formed by
pilgrims who take thence pinches of dust or earth to put on their feet
when inflamed, or to preserve them from inflammation. 2

S. MAWGAN, Abbot, Confessor

THERE were several Saints who bore names very similar to that
of this Saint, but there are two alone between whom we have to decide
which is the Saint who came to Cornwall.
One Maucan, Mancen, Manchan, or Monin, son of Dubh-
of these is
tarh. chief bard to King Laoghaire. The other is Meugant, son of
Gwyndaf Hen, first cousin to S. Samson. His mfether was Gwenonwy,
a sister of Anna, mother of S. Samson, and his father was brother to
Amwn Ddu, father of S. Samson.
The Cornish Mawgan is most probably the former, because his
settlement in Meneage is among the Irish colonists, and that in Pyder
isalmost in connexion with the chain along North Cornwall, within
a few miles of Perranzabuloe and Crantock.
Another reason for the identification is that the Feast of S. Mawgan
in Meneage is on the same day as that of the Irish Saint.
There can be no question as to which was the more important man
the two. The cousin of S. Samson lived at a later period he died ;

the middle of the sixth century.

it

lucan or Mancen, the Irish Saint, belonged to a family of pro-

>ional bards, and, as already said, his father was the poet attached
to the person of
Laoghaire, theHigh- King of Ireland.
Dubhtach must have known something about Christianity before
the arrival of Patrick, for, from the first, he warmly seconded the

1
De Cerny, Conies et Legendes de Bretagne, Paris, 1899, pp. 15-22.
a
Bulletin de la Commission Dioc. de Quimper, 1902, p. 282.
VOL. III. G G
45 Lives of the British Saints

Apostle,who entertained the highest opinion of the poet, and consulted

him in many of his difficulties.
Dubhtach contributed largely to the success of S. Patrick, in that
he had the ear of the king, and that he was a man of wisdom and
prudence. He used his best endeavours to disarm opposition to the
progress of the Gospel, and Ireland has never thoroughly recognized
how much she has owed to his good offices.
At the same time that Dubhtach was baptised, 447, his son Maucan
was received into the Church.
When S. Patrick went into Tirawley, in Mayo, he converted the
seven sons of the king, Amalghaid, or Awley, on which occasion
twelve thousand persons followed the example of their chiefs. This
abundant ingathering demanded a corresponding supply of labourers,
and S. Patrick placed over them this same Maucan " surnamed The
Master, a holy man, well read in the Scriptures, and a teacher of faith
and doctrine." These epithets do not apply to him at this period,
but describe the Maucan who was left in Tirawley, as he was after-
" "
wards well known as The Master a great teacher of theology.
The Apostle of Ireland crossed between Waterford and Porth
Mawr, about 468. In the Life of S. David we are
in Pembrokeshire,
told that the Apostle took a great fancy to the spot, where he could
" The Chair of S.
sit on a rock, afterwards called Patrick," and watch
the summer sun go down in amber and gold behind the mountains
of distant Waterford. He would have liked to remain there, but
felt that the good work he had begun must be carried on and com-
pleted ;
and he went back to his duties. However, he seems to have
fixed on this spot, within sight of Ireland, as a suitable site for a

nursery of missionaries for Munster and Leinster. Over this establish-

ment he placed Maucan. 1 In like manner, for Ulster and the whole
North, a collegiate establishment was founded at Candida Casa, or
Whitherne, in Galloway, over which S. Ninian presided. The house
in Wales was Ty Gwyn (the White House), or " The Old Bush."
Ty Gwyn is situated above Porth Mawr, and about two miles from
S. Davids. It stands on the south slope of Cam Llidi, the purple
rocks above it springing out of the heath, with here and there a gorse
bush, like a puff of flame breaking out of the crannies of the rock.
Below it, near the sea, are the foundations of S. Patrick's chapel,
on the site of his embarkation.
The foundations of the church at Ty Gwyn, the cradle of Christianity

Rhygyfarch, Cambro-British Saints, p. 117, calls him Maucannus. Mr.

1

E. W. B. Nicholson, in Y Cymmrodor, xxi (1908), pp. 92-3, identifies Maucannus

with S. Mawgan.
 S. Mawgan 451
the Southern Irish, are trodden under foot by sheep and oxen,
Ing wander over the wide cemetery where lie thick, in narrow coffins
of unshaped stones, the bodies of the first inmates of that earliest
Mission College in Britain. When we visited the spot in 1898, the
farmer had torn up the grave-slabs of the tombs in the cattle yard,
and the drainage of his cow-stalls and pig-styes soaked into the places
where the bodies of ancient fathers of the British and Irish Churches
had crumbled to dust. 1
Much confusion has arisen between the White House in Menevia
and the Candida Casa in Galloway, as the names are the same, and
those also of their first presidents are also similar. For Maucan is
also called Ninnio, and Ninian was the head of Candida Casa. Inci-
dents connected with one establishment have been transferred to the
other. Another cause of confusion has been that Ty Gwyn has been
supposed to be the same as the monastery of Ty Gwyn ar Daf, or
\Yhitland, which, however, was not founded till Norman times.
Let us now take in order the incidents in the life of S. Maucan.
His conversion and baptism took place presumedly in 447. He was
placed in charge of the new converts in Tirawley in 455. About 465
he was recalled and sent with his kinsman S. Fiacc to evangelize their
relatives the Hy Cinnselach in Wexford. He went thence very shortly
after to South Wales to organize the college of Ty Gwyn. In the
Collections of Tirechan he is called Manchan, and in Lives of the Irish
Saints he figures as Nennio and Ninidh. There can be no doubt as
to these names belonging to the same person.
There is but one incident recorded relative to his work among the
Hy Cinnselach. S. Fiacc of Sletty had a bad leg. S. Patrick heard
of it, and sent him a chariot and a pair of horses, to enable him to

get about. This aroused the jealousy of Sechnall (Secundinus), another

of his missionaries, and he scolded Patrick soundly as giving way to
partiality. But after he became cool, Sechnall repented ;
he had
tercepted the present, and he sent it to Maucan, and begged him
forward it to Fiacc. This Maucan did, with an apology but ;

iacc, too charitable to receive a gift that had caused heart-burnings,

stored chariot and horses to Patrick, and refused to use them. 2
Maucan is called variously " The Master," as the great trainer of
"
ts, and The Bard," as a member of an hereditary family of poets.
1
Mrs. Dawson, in Arch&ologia Cambrensis, 1898, pp. 1-20, conclusively proves
this tobe the site of the Ty Gwyn the nursery of Saints and Missionaries. She
wrote the article without being aware of the extensive remains of this early
Christian cemetery, or that the foundations of the old church remain.
-
Additions to Tirechan's Collections, Tripartite Life, ii, p. 347.
452 Lives of the British Saints

To him, but hesitatingly, is attributed a Latin hymn on the occasion

of a plague.

Parce domine peccantibus

Ignosce penitentibus
Miserere nobis rogantibus
Salvator omnium Christe
1
Respice in nos Jesu, et miserere.

We next hear of him at Ty Gwyn, or Rosnat. He is named as

its master in the Lives of the Saints who were his pupils.
"
In the Life of S. Tighernach the monastery is called Monas-
2
terium Rosnacense, alio nomine Alba/' and in the Life of S.Eoghain
"
we are expressly told that Sanctus et sapiens Nennio, qui Mancennus
dicitur,de Rosnacensi monasterio," a received him and Tighernach.
"
Another name by which the establishment was known was Mon-
asterium Magnum." It was one of those double houses that after-
wards became common, and were introduced among the Northumbrians
from Hy. The arrangement had great practical disadvantages.
For how long Maucan governed the college we have no means of
saying. He was succeeded by Paulinus, who had been for a while
his disciple.
It is remarkable that no date is given by the Irish annalists for
the death of a man
of so great importance, and this leads us to suppose
that he died out of Ireland.
He is identified by Mr. Shearman (Loca Patriciana) with the Irish
professor who carried into Armorica the Book of Cuilmenn. As no
other copy existed in the island, a deputation was sent by the chief
poet, in 580, to Brittany to recover it. This is probable enough.
Maucan is venerated in Brittany as a founder of La Meaugon. It
is also likely that an institution such as Ty Gwyn should have branches
in Cornwall and in Armorica, as places for recruiting students and
missionaries for the work undertaken by the mother-house.
The feast at Mawgan in Meneage is June 18. The day of the Saint's
Pardon at La Meaugon is June 19. The feast at Mawgan in Pyder
is July 25. This is the day of his commemoration in the Irish Calendars
as Ninnio the Aged. There is in these Calendars a second commemo-
ration as Mancen the Wise, on January 2. He is included in the
Exeter Litany of the tenth century as Sanctus Maucan, and is placed
between S. Winnow and S. Gildas.
The churches in Cornwall dedicated to S. Mawgan are but the
two, one in Meneage and the other in Pyder. That in Brittany, Lan
1
Liber Hymnorum, Henry Bradshaw Society, 1898, p. 24.
2 3
Vitce SS. Hib. in Cod. Salam., col. 213. Ibid., col. 915.
 S. MAWGAN.
Stained Glass at La Mtaugon.
 S. Mawnan 4.53

Meaugon, now La Meaugon, is in the narrow rocky valley of the

Gouet, near S. Brieuc. There is also S. Maugean in Ille et Vilaine ;

and possibly we have the name in the Lomogan of Ste. Seve, in Cotes
du Nord. But see also under MEUGAN
In Art S. Mawgan should be represented in black habit, with a book
and a staff, and with his foot on a harp, as indicating that he had
abandoned the hereditary profession of bard for the Christian ministry
and as teacher. At La Meaugon he is represented in stained glass,
of the fifteenth century, vested in chasuble, and holding in his hands
a pyx.

S. MAWNAN, Bishop, Confessor

THIS Saint has given his name to a parish in Cornwall. In Bishop

Quivil's Register, 1281,he is called Sanctus Maunanus. In that of
Bishop Grandisson, 1328, Robert Flammanke is called Rector of S.
Maunany, but in the same year, in another document, Rector Sancti
Maunani. So called in 1347, I 34^ I 35> an d 1361 ; also in the Taxatio
of 1291, in the Registers of Bishop Brantyngham, 1381 and 1391 ;

and in that ofBishop Stafford, 1398.

Mawnan is the softened Brythonic form of the Goidelic Magnenn.
The Feast of S. Magnenn of Kilmainham is observed on December 18,
and that of S. Mawnan on December 26.
At the re-dedication of the Church in the fifteenth century, it was
a second patron, according to the practice of the Bishops of
xeter, who endeavoured by this means to displace the old Celtic
ints. The new patron was S. Stephen, and the feast was then
btless transferred to his Day, which coming immediately after
ristmas, was near enough to the old feast not to wound the sus-
ptibilities of the Mawnan people, and
obviated the unsuitablity
it

f
keeping the Patronal Feast during Advent.

L mA-
Mawnan is in the district colonized by the Irish and although
do not know that S. Magnenn was in Cornwall, yet it is by no
means improbable that he did visit it
;

and had there a branch establish-

ment, as he was a notable traveller.
Magnenn or Maignenn was one of four brothers, sons of Aedh,
and was an intimate friend of S. Findchu of Kilgoban, S. Loman of
Lough Owel, and of S. Finnian of Moville.
He was ordained Bishop, and when at home was at Kilmainham,
but he was of a restless disposition, and was
I
incessantly on the move
 454 Lives of the British Saints

accompanied by twenty-seven clerics, a peripatetic school, like that

of the bards.
He visited Diarmid, son of Fergus, King of Ireland (544-65), and

preached vigorously before him on the terrors of hell, and so fright-

ened many of his hearers, that thirty of the court abandoned the
world and became monks. The King, moreover, was so panic-struck
"
that, to make his peace with God and the Saint, he granted him a
scruple on every nose, and an ounce of gold for every chieftain's
daughter on her marriage."
Magnenn had a favourite ram that attended him on his missionary
tours,and the Saint was wont to fasten his book of prayers round the
neck of the beast, and make it carry the volume for him. One day
a thief stole and killed the ram. Magnenn found out who was the
culprit and went to his house, where he cursed him that his eyes should
go blind, and his belly swell till he burst. The man was so tenified
that he admitted he had killed and partly eaten the pet ram, and
offered to do penance.
S. Magnenn paid a Molaiss of Leighlin, who was wont,
visit to S.
like an Indian on the ground upon his face, with his arms
fakir, to lie
and legs extended, and to howl. He was covered with thirty sores,
and was enclosed in a narrow hovel.
Magnenn asked him why he lived such a horrible life, and Molaiss
"
replied that his sinfulness like a flame pervaded his body," and
that he lived in this manner to extirpate his sins.
Magnenn enjoyed the privilege of solemnly burying the fellow .

He also paid a visit to an equally nasty Saint, Findchu of Kilgoban.

"
It was this Findchu who often times occupied a stone cell somewhat

higher than his own stature, with a stone overhead and one under f cot
and two iron crooks, one on each side of the cell on those he was
;

wont to place his armpits so that neither did his head touch the stone
above, nor his feet the flag beneath. He was wont also to lie for the
first night in the grave with every corpse that was buried in the church-

yard."
Magnenn seems to have relished visiting these monsters of asceticism.
Another whom he favoured was Maelruan of Tallaght, whom he found
in a well, up to his chin in water, lustily chanting the entire Psalter..
When Maelruan got out, he took a brooch from his hairy habit and
smote himself on the breast with it, and then invited his visitor to
observe that from the wound made by the pin of the brooch, a liquid
exuded that was pale in colour and not red like wholesome blood,.
"
and that," said Maelruan, "is token that there remains very little-
pride in me."
 S. Mawnan
Magnenn was so impressed, that he begged the Saint to hear his
"
mfession. Maelruan hesitated. Do you exercise yourself in any
"
lanual labour ? he asked. Magnenn was forced to confess that he
His time was occupied in saying his Offices, and in wandering
not.
ibout the country. Maelruan then bluntly told him that he could
not and would not minister reconciliation to a man who did not work
for his daily bread, but lived on alms.
The visitor then humbly entreated the ascetic to give him at least
some spiritual counsel. This Maelruan did in these words " Weep :

for tin* sins of your friends and neighbours as though they were your

own. Set your affections on God and things above, and not on persons
and things below. Meditate on Mary, Mother of Glory, on the Twelve
Major Prophets, on John the Baptist, and the Minor Prophets, together
with Habaccuc. Think on the Four Gospels, the Twelve Apostles,
and the Eleven Disciples, on the band of youths that attend on the
King Eternal, the token of their service being a cross of gold on their
fort-heads,and a silver cross on their backs. Meditate on the Nine
Angelic Orders, and on the bliss of the Heavenly City."
Maelruan then promised Magnenn that his fire should be as cele-
brated at Kilmainham as were the two other famous fires in Ireland,

that to say, those kept perpetually burning at Kildare.

is

Magnenn seems to have been inspired to imitate these austerities,

and lie allowed his body to become a prey to vermin. But one day
he met S. Fursey, and the two Saints began to talk of their mutual

db comforts. Fursey said that he was much bothered with dysentery.

"II" you will take my vermin, I will take your dysentery, and so ex-
change troubles," said Magnenn and we are gravely assured that the
;

Saints did thus pass over their afflictions to one another. 1

On one occasion, when wandering over the bogs and hills, S. Mag-
iHMin lost his way night and rain came on, and no house was in
;

sight. So he planted his and he and his disciples

staff in the earth,
attached their cloaks
spread them
to out, and all huddled
it,

underneath this extemporised tent, and spent in it a most miserable

night. He, like most other Irish Saints, maintained a leper. His
leper was a woman, and for her support he gave her a cow. A robber
stole the cow. Thereupon Magnenn and his clergy excommunicated
the thief with bell and book. Magnenn so roundly cursed the man,
it some of his
clergy interposed, and entreated the Saint
at least
allow the wretch a nook in Heaven, however much he might afflict
with cramps and blains on earth. But Magnenn was inexorable.
"
Rather," said he, so great is my indignation, that I seek to rouse
1
Vita S. Cuannathei in Cod. Salam., col. 936.
 45 6 Lives of the British Saints

God's anger to increase the everlasting torment of the man hereafter."

Then he burst forth into maledictions against such as should violate
"
his privileges and sanctuary. I curse them that they may lose the

sight of their eyes, that they may die violent deaths, and that the
gates of the Heavenly City may be shut in their faces."
Magnenn is also credited with having uttered a prophecy, which,
it is the conviction of many, has been fulfilled.
"
A time shall come when girls shall be pert and tart of tongue ;

when there will be grumbling and discontent among the lower classes ;

when there will be lack of reverence to elders ; when churches will be

slackly attended; and when women shall exercise wiles."
Magnenn is said to have studiously shunned the society and favour
of kings, and to have interposed when he heard of war breaking out.
He had a faculty of discerning the spirit of a man, after he had been
three hours in his company, and deciding whether he was a sincerely
good man or a hypocrite.
He could give good advice. One day he said, " Of all the absurd
things I ever saw, was an old fellow haranguing his sons on virtue,
when the rogue himself never exercised the least self-restraint."
He was himself unmarried, and was strongly opposed to clerical
marriage, and said some hard things, and even extravagant things,
thereon. Being such a rambler himself, he was able to give good
advice relative to pilgrimages. He declared that the wish to visit a
holy spot sufficed, if so be that he who desired to undertake the journey
was detained by domestic duties. He strongly condemned those
who proposed to themselves pilgrimages with the object of shaking
off religious responsibilities and moral discipline such as they had
exercised, but found irksome, at home.
It is quite possible that some of the extravagances attributed to

Magnenn are due to the invention of the biographer of Kilmainham,

who imagined the curses, so as to deter the violent from laying hands
on the property of the monastery.
So many of his sayings exhibit sound sense and real piety, that we
are inclined to doubt the genuineness of such as breathe a different

spirit.
The authority for the brief notice here given is an Irish Life published
in the Silva Gadelica, that is unfortunately incomplete, consequently
we do not know the particulars concerning the close of his life. Nor
can we fix, with any confidence, the date of his death.
Magnenn was a friend of S. Fursey before the latter left Ireland,
which was in the reign of Sigebert of the East Saxons, in or about
637. He was also a friend of S. Findchu, who was a contemporary of
 S. Medan 457
Cairbre Crom, King of Munster, \vho died in 571 ; but Findchu was
certainly older than Magnenn. The Maelruan he visited was not
Mat Iruan of Tallaght, who died in 782, but Maelruan of Druim Raithe,
in West Meath, who lived earlier. He is also spoken of as visiting

Diarmid, King of all Ireland

(544-65) so that probably Magnenn
;

lived in the latter part of the sixth century, and died about 638.
Tlu- >tory of his taking dysentery after a visit to S. Furseymay mean
that hewas prostrated after that visit, and died of it.
The only dedication to Magnenn in Cornwall is S. Mawnan. The
church was given a secondary dedication to S. Stephen, and this
may account for the transference of the Feast to December 26. It
lies at the mouth of the Helford river, close to the sea, over against
S. Anthony, with its camp on Dinas Head. The church is mainly
Perpendicular, and has the remains of a fine screen with painted
figures of Saints on it. There was a sanctuary attached to Mawnan
Church, called the Lawn or Llan. At the extremity of the point is

a rock called Mawnan 's Chair.

The Church is situated in a circular enclosure, probably the original
" "
bank of the monastery, and in the Lawn is a Holy Well.

S. MECHELL, see S. MALO %

S. MECHYDD, Confessor
Ix one entry in the lolo MSS. Mechydd ab Sanddef Bryd Angel
1

ab Llywarch Hen is given as a Welsh Saint. There is a mistake here,

for Mechydd was not a grandson of Llywarch, but one of his twenty-

four sons. He is mentioned in two poems in the twelfth century

Black Book of Carmarthen, 2 wherein his steeds and his death are re-
ferred to, and it is added in the last verse of the first poem :

Mechydd, the son of Llywarch, the undaunted chief,

Fine and fair was his robe of the colour of the swan,
The first that fastened a horse by the bridle.

He was a warrior and not a Saint.

S. MEDAN, Monk, Confessor

ONE of the disciples of S. Petrock, whose body, according to Leland,
3
reposed at Bodmin. It is just possible that he may be the same

P. 128; Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 280.

2 8
Ed. Evans, 1906, pp. 93, 108. Collect., i, p. 10.
 4.58 Lives of the British Saints

as Mydan, grandson of Urien Rheged, and a disciple of S. Cadoc.

This latter Saint visited Cornwall, and may have left Mydan there.

S. MEDDWID, or MEDWIDA, Virgin

"
A FESTIVAL, entered against August 27 as Gwyl Feddwid," occurs
in the Calendars in Peniarth MSS. 187 and 219, the lolo MSS., and
the Prymers of 1618 and 1633 (the last as Foddwid). The name is
in a mutated form, and can only stand for either Beddwid or Meddwid.
In a will, dated 1530, a cleric of Bangor Diocese directs his body to
"
be buried in ecclesia Sancte Medwide Virginis," x which is identified
with the parish church of Clocaenog, in Denbighshire. Down to

1859 ^ was in the Diocese of Bangor, but is now in that of S. Asaph.

2
Browne Willis Vodhyd, with
gives the church as dedicated to S.

festival on August 27, and other spellings of the name are Foddyd, and

Foddhyd. Sometimes the church is said to be dedicated to an imagi-

3
nary S. Caenog, and also to S. Trillo, but it is perfectly clear that its
real patron is Medwida, Meddwid, or Meddwyd.
The Welsh accounts know nothing of a Saint under that form,
but w e think she is none other than the Meddvyth of an entry in a
r

Genealogy of the Welsh Saints which occurs in Cardiff MS. 5 (p.

118), written in 1527, and in Llanstephan MS. 81 (p. 2), in the auto-
"
graph of Moses Williams (d. 1742), which runs, Meddvyth verch
Jdlos vab llawvrodedd varchawc." This is the only record of her
name that we know of. Her father, S. Idloes, who is patron of Llan-
idloes, in Montgomeryshire, was, correctly, the son of Gwyddnabi,
who was again the son of Llawfrodedd Farfog.

S. MEDROD
MEDROD'S title to be regarded as a Welsh Saint rests entirely r.n
one entry in the lolo MSS* He was the son of S. Cawrdaf ab Caradcg
1
Arch. Camb., 1876, p. 221.
Bangor, 1721, pp. 278, 327. In a register at Clocaenog of moneys collected
2
"
on briefs and otherwise is entered the following Collected to Jo n Robert .

Parish Clark of Clocaenog on Clocaenog Wakes viz. 27 Die Aug. 1710 the sum
of 45. in ye Morning and 8d. in y e afternoon." The nearest approach to this
Saint that we find in the Irish Martyrologies is Feidhilmidh mac Crimthain,
who is commemorated on August 28. 3
ii, p. 49.
4
P. 123 Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 280.
;
A proverb, formerly current in Gla-
"
morgan, plays upon the name, Medrod-mab Angen yw'r Athraw Ysgol goreu'n
y byd."
 S. Meigan
the brother of S. Cathan, and the father of S. Dyfnog.
Yc-ithfras,
He not to be confounded with the better known, but dishonourable.
is

Mt-drod or Modred, nephew of King Arthur.

S. MEDWY, Confessor

MKDWY, Latin Medwinus, belongs, with Elfan, Dyfan, and

in
i

group of persons who figure in the Lucius legend.

an, to the
The only Ac-haw' r Saint that include Medwy are the three late Gla-
morgan copies printed in the lolo MSS.
1
He was, we are told, " a
nirssenger for Lleurwg (Lucius) to Pope Eleutherius, and was made
"
a bishop in Rome and was subsequently bishop at Llanfedwy, in
;

Glamorgan, of which he was patron. Llanvedw is now the township

name of the Glamorgan part of the parish of Michaelston-y-Vedw.
The church is extinct, having been burnt down in the wars of lestyn
ab Gwrgant in the eleventh century, and was never rebuilt. 2
The churches neighbourhood of Llandaff dedicated to the
in the

reputed messengers of Lucius and evangelizers of Britain probably

<n\v their dedications to genuine Welsh Saints, of a later age than

thf second century, whose names have been pressed into the legend.

Medwy's festival does not occur in any early Welsh Calendar, but
3
January i is mentioned as his day.
See further what has been said under the names of the trio usually
associated with Medwy.

S. MEIGAN, Confessor
MEIGAN was, according to the lolo MSS.* the son of Goromvy of
G \\areddog, or Gwredog (in Arfon), who, with his brothers Padrig,
Cyffyllog, and Garmon, was a Saint of Cor Beuno at Clynnog, in
Carnarvonshire. Nothing further seems to be known of him indeed, ;

ie
authority for him is not above suspicion. Meigan, no doubt,
tands for Meugant.

1
Pp. ioo, 115, 135.
2
Ibid., p. 220. This seems to have been in 1069, when the battle mentioned
"
as Gwaith Llanfedwy " was fought Gwentian Chronicle, p. 60. (Suppl. to
;

Arch. Camb., 1863).

3 4
Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 86. Pp. 143-4-
 460 Lives of the British Saints

SS. MEIGIR and MEILIR

IN a passage in a document relating to Cunedda and the partition
of Wales among his sons, printed in the lolo MSS., 1 which has been
unaccountably foisted among the saintly genealogies, we read:
"
and Meigir, the sons of Gwron ab Cunedda Wledig,
Cynir, Meilir,
went with Caswalkm Lawhir, their cousin, to expel the Goidels and
Picts from the Island of Anglesey, whither they had fled from the
sons of Cunedda, and had established themselves in that Island. After
furious fighting they drove the Goidels out of Anglesey, and Caswallon
Lawhir slew Serigi the Goidel there with his own hand."
This is the only reference to Meigir and Meilir that may be adduced
in favour of including them among the Welsh Saints but the passage ;

'

is an unwarranted interpolation.

Meilyr or Meilir is the later Welsh form for Maglorius. Besides

being a man's name, it is also the name of a tributary of the Arth, in
Cardiganshire. Meilir is given by mistake in one entry in the lolo
MSS. 2 for Maelrys, the son of Gwyddno ab Emyr Llydaw. In the
Calendar in the Welsh Prymer of 1546 Meilir is given against November
12, now in error for Meilic, later Meilig.
The church of Llysyfran, Pembrokeshire, is usually given as dedi-
cated to a S. Meilir, but of him nothing is known, unless we assume
that by him Maglori^us is intended.

S. MEILIG, see S. MAELOG

S. MEIRION, Confessor
MEIRION, the Saint, was son of Owain Danwyn ab Einion Yrth ab
Cunedda Wledig. 3 The
older pedigrees usually describe him as a Saint
" "
in the Cantref," but that in Hafod MS. 16 as in Merthyr Meirion,
in the Cantref of the sons of Owain Danwyn," etc., i.e.,
Dunoding. By Merthyr Meirion is meant Criccieth Church, form-
mer known as Merthyr, and now dedicated to S. Catherine.
He was the brother of SS. Einion Frenin and Seiriol. His name in

the later documents is sometimes written Meirian.

The only other known dedication to him is that of the chapel of Llan-
feirion or Llanfeirian, in the parish of Llangadwaladr, Anglesey. It is

1
Pp. 122-3 Rees, Welsh Saints, pp. 165-6.
;

2
P. 133 Rees, op. cit., p. 222.
;

Peniarth MSS. 12, 16, 45; Hafod MS. 16

3
Myv. Arch., pp. 424, 427;
;

Cambro-British Saints, p. 266 lolo MSS., pp. 102, 125 (on pp. no, 124, he is
;

said to have been son of Einion Yrth). Meirion is the Latin Marianus borrowed.
Jt occurs in Breton as Merion.
 SS. Mel, Melchu, and Muinis 461
lieved to have been originally a parish church. It was allowed to
to ruins in the eighteenth century, and has not been since restored.
" 1
'udur Aled, in an elegy, mentions plwyf Meirian."
The festival of Meirian occurs in the calendar in the Grammar of

John Edwards of Chirkland on February 4, but Browne Willis 2

gives
under Llanfeirian as on the 3rd.
Mririon, the son of Tybion ab Cunedda, is in one passage in the
lolo MSS. 3 included among the Welsh Saints, but the foisted document
in which it occurs is not of a hagiological character. His father Tybion/
having been slain in battle, the cantref which should have been allotted
to him on the Cuneddan conquest of Wales was bestowed upon Meirion
hence Meirionydd, Merioneth.

SS. MEL, MELCHU, and MUINIS, Bishops, Confessors

THESE were Britons who assisted S. Patrick in his work in Ireland-
It has been supposed that Melchu is but another form of the name
Mrl, and that these were identical, for both are represented as Bishops
cf Ardagh, and both are commemorated on the same day, and as
nothing is related of Melchu apart from Mel. But he is probably
Mai-log, who had a church not far from Kilkenny, in which town
his brothers Mel and Rioc had foundations.
Theyare represented as sons of Conis and Darerca, and nephews
of the Apostle of Ireland, but small confidence can be placed in the
late genealogists who elaborated pedigrees of the family of Patrick. 4
That they were Britons who laboured with him need not be ques-
tioned. Mel and Melchu are spoken of as Bishops from Britain in
the Life of S. Brigid.
Mel settled or was placed at Ardagh, where he formed a monastery,
and ruled as abbot and bishop.
He confirmed S. Brigid and bestowed the veil upon her.

He occasioned some trouble to S. Patrick, for he was accused to

him of undue intimacy with Lupait, Patrick's sister, and his own
1
Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru, 2nd ed., pp. 226-7
'
CI - tne parish list in Peni-
arth MS. 147.
2
Bangor, 1721, p. 280; Paroch. Angl., 1733, p. 215.
3
P. 122. There was also a Meirion ab Ceredig ab Cunedda (Jesus College
MS. 20).
4
Chronolog. Tract in Lebar Brecc, in Tripartite Life, ed. Stokes, ii, p. 551 ; i,

P- 83.
462 Lives of the British Saints

aunt, if it be true that he was son of Darerca. They lived in the

same house, and there was much unpleasant talk about it, and the
priests appealed to Patrick to put a stop to the scandal. Patrick
came to Ardagh. Mel, alarmed at his coming, pretended to be out
of his wits, and went fishing between the furrows of a ploughed field,

that had been drenched by heavy rain.

" "
Fishing for salmon in ploughed land ! exclaimed Patrick ;

"
God helps not an idiot." *
He made arrangements that thenceforth men and women should
live apart in the monasteries.
We know little if anything more of S. Mel. Lupait is said to have
cleared herself of the charge brought against her by carrying hot
coals in her lap. But on another occasion, apparently, it was other-
"
wise. Patrick was enraged with his sister, namely Lupait, for th<
sin of lust shehad committed, so that she became pregnant. Whc
Patrick came to the church from the east, Lupait went to meet him,
'
and cast herself down on her knees before the chariot. Drive over
her/ said Patrick. The chariot went over her thrice, for she still
would come in front of it. Wherefore she there went to heaven at
the Ferta, and she was afterwards buried by Patrick, and her requiem
was sung." 2
Whether these are mere idle legends, or are based on facts, we have
no means of judging.
The best authority for Mel is to be found in the Collections of Tireclian,
"
and he merely states Et venit per flumen Ethne in duas Tethbias
:

et ordinavit Melum episcopum." 3

A curious story is told in the gloss on the Felire of Oengus, that

when Mel was veiling S. Brigid, he blundered, and in place of reading
the office for consecrating a virgin, read that ordaining her a bishop. 4
Of Bishop Muinis or Munis still less is known or told.
He left his crozler behind, hanging on a branch, one day, and when
he lamented this to Patrick, lo it was found before them, hanging!

5
to another branch. Then Patrick exchanged croziers with him.
He was sent by Patrick to Rome to fetch relics, and, being of a forgetful
memory, them behind him one night in a hollow elm, and never
left

recovered them. 6 He was appointed bishop in Forgney in the county

of Longford.

Bishop Mel is commemorated in the Irish Calendars on February 6.

1
Chronolog. Tract in Lebar Brecc, in Tripartite Life, ed. Stokes, i, p. 89.
- 3
Ibid., i, p. 235. Ibid., ii, p. 310.
* 5
Felire of Oengus, ed. Stokes, p. Ixviii. Tripartite Life, i, p. 83.
'>
Ibid., i, p. 85.

L* XxL
 S. Me/angel/ 463
ie Annals of Ulster give as the date of his death 488, according to
Jssher.

He and Melchu, Munis and Rioc are commemorated on this day in

ic Sarum Calendar ; but Munis is entered in the Irish Martyrologies
December 18.

S. MELANGELL, Virgin, Abbess

MiiLANGELLis in her Latin legend called Monacella, 1 a name which

is under either form, we believe, unique. She is identified with the

Melangell who
entered in the Welsh pedigrees as either a daughter
is

01 ^rand-daughter of Tudwal Tudclud, of the race of Maxen Wledig.

;i

The earlier, as well as the most authentic, pedigrees 2 make her his
^rand-daughter, her father's name being variously written Cyfelch,
Cyfwlch, Cynwalch, and Ricwlff but they agree in giving her mother's
;

name as Ethni Wyddeles. Tudwal was father also of Rhydderch

Hael, who won the battle of Arderydd in 573. Melangell would,
most probably, be his niece.
Her legend, Hisloria Divce Monacellce, has been published in the
Archaologia Cambrensis for i848, from a transcript made in 1640
3

from a MS. of at least the sixteenth century, in the Wynnstay Library,

wlich was destroyed by fire in 1858. Also in Edward Lhuyd's Paro-
chial ia, from a Llanfyllin MS. 4 It is believed to have been written

by Matthew of Westminster it is in any case late.

;

Her legend relates that she was the daughter of King lowchel of

1
We cannot explain how the form Monacella came to be regarded as the Latin
equivalent for the Welsh Melangell. Possibly the latter stands for Myn-Angell
Acella (imperfectly written for Ancclla) or, the Latin may have been
;

made out of the Welsh name by some one desirous of bringing in such a word
as monac(h}a, a nun. There is a stream called Nant yr Angell in the neighbour-
hood, and another Angell in the Dovey Valley.
Hafod MS. 16 Cardiff MS. 25, pp. 37, 120; Cardiff MS. 5 (1527). P-
2
;

118 Myv. Arch., pp. 420, 428

; lolo MSS., pp. 113, 139-
;
For Tudwal as
her father, Peniarth MS. 74 (sixteenth century) Myv. Arch., p. 428. In
;

Hafod MS. 16 (Myv. Arch., p. 416 Cambro-British Saints, p. 268) the pedi-
;

grees of Collen and Melangell are made to run in a manner that has led to no
little confusion, Melangell becoming the wife of Pedrwn, and mother of Collen.
For the name Ethni, see ii, p. 157.
3
Pp. I39-4I-
4
Supplement, pp. 130-2, to Arch. Camb., 1909. There is a copy also in
Gwallter Mechain's Miscellanies, i, pp. 63-8, in the National Library of Wales,
and iragments in Cardiff MS. 50, and Harlcian MS. 2059.
464 Lives of the British Saints

1
Ireland, who desired to marry her nobleman but
to a certain Irish ;

she had vowed celibacy. She fled from her father's dominions, and
secreted herself among the hills of Pennant (called after her Pennant

Melangell), in Montgomeryshire, within the principality of Powys,

"
where she lived for fifteen years without seeing the face of man, serv-
ing God and the spotless Virgin." One day in the year 604, as we
are told, Brochwel Ysgythrog, prince of Powys, being a-hare-hunting,

pursued his game till he came to a great thicket, within which he wi

amazed to find a virgin of surpassing beauty engaged in deep devotion,
with the hare he had been pursuing under the folds of her garments,
boldly facing the hounds. He shouted to them, " Catch her, little
"
dogs, catch her ! But the more he urged them on the further the
2
retired, howling.
In answer to Brochwel's questioning she told him her history.
" "
Because," said he, it hath pleased the supreme and almighty God,

for thy merits, to give safety to this little wild hare, I give and present
unto thee these my lands for the service of God, to be a perpetuj
'

asylum, refuge, in honour of thy name

and defence, assigning
to her the spot as a sanctuary for ever.
Here she spent thirty-seven years of her life in solitude, and the
"
hares had become so tame that they were in a state of familiarity
about her every day throughout her long life." She gathered arounc
her a convent of virgins, with herself as head, and the privileges tl
were granted by Brochwel were maintained by his successors in tl
principality of Powys. Some time after her death a certain man
named Elisse came to Pennant with the intention of violating the

nuns, but he met with a well-deserved death.

The only church dedicated to her is that of Pennant Melangell,
which is situated in a secluded but very beautiful valley. It was
replaced in 1855 by a new and more central parish church at Penybont,
dedicated to S. Thomas. In 1878 S. Melangell' s was annexed to
Llangynog,
Pennant became famous as a safe asylum for the oppressed,
and also as a nunnery, but how long it so continued cannot
3
be determined. the items returned in the Valor of 1535
Among
"
we have Oblacion' ad reliquias Ivjs. viij^.," that is, the average
" " "
Regis lowchel de Hibernia Regis de lowchel de
1
(Wynnstay MS.) ;

"
Hybernia (Llanfyllin MS.). Her father was, more properly, a Scotus of North
Britain.
2
Pennant, in his account, Tours in Wales, ed. 1883, iii, pp. 163-4, adds here,
"
Even when the huntsman blew his horn it stuck to his lips," which, no doubt,
formed part of the original legend.
3
iv, p. 451.
 S. Melange II 465
offerings at her shrine in the small rectangular chapel or oratory adjoin-
ing the east end of the chancel, still called Cell y Bedd, the Cell of
the Shrine. This has a door and a window, but no.entrance in to the
church. There are portions of the carved stone work of the shrine
built into the porch and south wall of the church and the lych-gate.
Her relics have long since disappeared.
The principal object of interest in the church is the carved woodwork
"
representing Melangell's tale humane," now affixed to the front of
the west gallery, but originally it formed a cornice or frieze on the old
rood loft or the screen which divides the church into nave and chancel.
It consists of six compartments (i) Brochwel, on horseback, with
:

both arms extended, and brandishing a sword in his right hand ;

(2) the huntsman, kneeling on one knee, with the horn raised to his

lips ;
Melangell, seated on a red cushion and represented as an
(3) S.
abbess her right hand slightly raised, and her left hand grasping a
foliated crozier ; (4) a hunted hare, crouching or scuttling towards
1
the figure of the Saint (5) a greyhound in pursuit
; (6) a dog.
;

Melangell properly became the patroness of hares, which were

popularly called Wyn Melangell, her Lambs, and so strong a super-
stition used to prevail that no person would kill a hare in the parish ;
and was even firmly believed that if any one cried/' Duw a Melangell
it
" " "
a'th gadwo God and Melangell preserve thee
! after a hunted
!

2
hare, it would surely escape.
Gwely Melangell, her hard Bed, is shown in the cleft of a rock
called Craig y Gwely on the opposite side of the valley, about quarter
a mile to the south of the church.

[elangell's festival occurs as January 31 in Peniarth MSS. 186,.

219, Mostyn MS. 88, Additional MS. 14,882, the lolo MSS.,

For a detailed and illustrated description of the church, the screen, and
shrine (restored), see Thomas, Hist, of Dio. of S. Asaph, ii (1910), pp. 260-5 ;
rch. Camb., 1848, I 93. PP- 109-13;
pp. 137-42, 324-8; 1894, pp. 139-51 ',

Montgomeryshire Collections, xii, pp. 53-80 ; J. C. Wall, Shrines of British Saints,

pp. 48-9.
, The following is found written in the oldest parish register,,
was probably once current in the parish " Mil engyl a Melangell, Trechant
" over the whole
yddin y Fall (a thousand angels and Melangell shall triumph "
of the Devil). It is elsewhere given in a slightly different form, Engyl
Trechant flin fyddin y Fall " (the angels and Melangell's staff
ffon Melangell,
shalltriumph over the vexatious host of the Devil). She seems to be confounded
with the Archangel.
" "
2
The parishioners of Pennant are nicknamed Ysgyfarnogod (hares).
The sacred character of the hare among the Celts is indicated by the story of
Boudica loosing one from her robe in order to observe its movements as an omen
(Dion Cassius, Ixii, c. 3 ;cf. Caesar, v, c. 12). S. Brendan provided an asylum
for hares, as well as
" stags and wild boars. Cf. also the incident of the chaser!
are in the Life of S. Anselm.

VOL. HI. HH
466 Lives of the British Saints

and Nicolas Roscarrock ;

as May 4 in Peniarth MS. 187, the lolo
MSS., the Prymer of 1633, Allwydd Paradwys, and Nicolas Roscarrock ;

and as May 27 in Peniarth MSS. 27 (pt. i), 172, 186, 187, 191, 192,
219, Jesus College MS. 141, Mostyn MS. 88, Llanstephan MSS. 117,
181, Additional MS. 14,882, the lolo MSS., and the Prymers of 1546,
1618, and 1633. At Pennant Melangell her festival was observed
on May 27. On January 31 she may have been confounded with S.
Marcella, and on May 4 very probably with S. Monica.

S. MELERI, Matron
MELERI was, according to both versions of the Cognatio de Brychan'
a daughter of Brychan, who married Ceredig ab Cunedda Wledig>
and became the mother of Sant, the father of S. David. John of
1
Tynemouth says that she was Brychan's second daughter. In the
2
later genealogies she is always called Eleri, due to the rubricator
not having filled in the initial letter of the name in the copy from

which they emanated. Nothing more seems to be known about her.

S. MELLONIUS, Bishop, Confessor

MELLONIUS, Bishop of Rouen, is said to have been a native of

Cardiff, and to have been born about the year 257. Unhappily,
however, the material for his Life is of very poor quality. The Vita
was written in the seventeenth century by Dom F. Pommeraye,
O.S.B., from earlier material, but none very reliable, or very ancient.
Ada SS. Boll., October 22, ix, 570-4.
Mellonius was selected to carry the British tribute to Rome, being
at that time a pagan. On reaching the Eternal City he offered sacrifice
to Mars. But making acquaintance with Pope Stephen I he was
1
Nova Legenda, ed. Horstman, 1901, ii, p. 103. She is not so given in the
Cognatio.
Jesus College MS. 20; Peniarth MS. 75 (i6th cent.) Myv. Arch., pp. 4*9,
2
;

425; Cambro-British Saints, p. 271; lolo MSS., pp. in, 120, 140.- Mr. Egerton
Phillimore points out that the names Meleri and Teleri (of Aber Tileri) are
derived from Hilaria, with the common honorific or endearing prefixes tn
and to.
 S. Melor 467
converted, and on his way home stopped
at Rouen, having been

greatly assisted on the road by walking-stick kindly furnished him

a
by an angel. At Rouen he preached to crowds. A youth named
Praecordius climbed on to a roof the better to hear him, but tumbled
down and was killed. Mellonius prostrated himself on the body and
revived him. This incident is appropriated from the Acts of the

Apostles. Mellonius became first bishop of Rouen, and governed the

church there for fifty-one years, and died in 311.
The Life is stuffed with absurd stories of miracles of no interest to
any one. As may be judged, it is practically worthless historically.
All that we can
predicate concerning Mellonius is that he was bishop
of Rouen, and that possibly he came from Cardiff.
He is the patron of S. Mellon's, in Welsh Llaneirwg, 1 four and a
half miles east of Cardiff. Probably the dedication was due to the
Norman conquerors of Morganwg. In the Taxatio of 1254 the church
"
is called In that of 1291," Eccl'ie (sic) de Sco
Eccl. Scti. Melani."
"
Melano." In the Valor 1535,2 Eccl'ia P'o
lis
Sancti Melani." Rees 3
gievs him from Cressy as Mello, Mallo, Melanius, or Melonius, a Briton.
Browne 4
Willis gives his festival at S. Mellon's as October 10.
There a farm called Pont Melon in the parish of Llandaff. A
is

modern figure of him is in the east window of Roath Church, Cardiff.

S. Melon is the name of a parish in Leon. It is very questionable
whether S. Mellion and S.Mullyon, in Cornwall, and the chapel of
Lamellion, in Liskeard, be dedicated to S. Mellion of Rouen, and
not to S. Melanius of Rennes. Melanius was a much more genuine
personage than Mellion. He assisted at the Council of Orleans in 511,
and died between the years 530 and 535. The introduction of his
name into Cornwall was probably due to the settlement there by
Athelstan of refugee Bretons from the inroads of the Northmen.
They brought the bodies of their Saints with them.

S. MELOR, Martyr
'HE authorities for S. Melor, and for his father S. Meliau, or Melyan,
these.
:. A Life, supposed to have been written before 849, but this is

"
1
For a very fanciful explanation of this -name derived from his swarthy
"
complexion see Coxe, Monmouthshire, 1801, p. 61.
2 3
iv, p. 363. Welsh Saints, p. 316.
4
Llandaff, 1719, append., p. 8 ; Paroch. Angl., 1733, p. 205.
 468 Lives of the British Saints

questionable, published in Analecta Bollandiana by Dom Plaine, v

(1886), pp. 166-85.
2. A Life by John of Tynemouth in Capgrave's Nova Legenda
Anglia.
3. A short Life in MS. Reg. 8, C. vii, of the thirteenth century,
published in Horstman's new edition of the Nova Legenda, Oxford,

1901, i, p. xxv.
4. A Life in Grandisson's Legendarium for the Church of Exeter,
still in MS. in the Chapter Library, Exeter. This was drawn up in
1366.
Great difference of opinion has reigned relative to the date at which
S. Melor lived. The Bollandists, who reprinted the Life from Cap-
grave, Ada SS., January i, 136-7, supposed his date was 411 Lobi- ;

neau put him as late as 798 but since the publication of his complete
;

Acts by Dom Plaine, very little doubt can exist as to his period,
which is fixed by the mention therein of Conmore, Regent of Domnonia,
with whom he found refuge.
1
According to the pedigree of the princes of Cornouaille, in Armorica,
lan-Reith, a noble Briton, migrated to that peninsula, and established
himself in Cornu-Gallia. He was succeeded by his son Daniel, and
Daniel by his son Budoc I. Budoc died, according to De la Borderie's
reckoning, about 530. According to the Life of S. Melor he left two
sons, Meliau and Rivold. But it seems that there must have been
three, of whom one was named Budoc, who, however, did not imme-
diately succeed his father, but had to fly for his life to South Wales,
as there was a struggle between contending factions, and the Cartu-
laries of Quimper and Landevenec give Grallo Plain and Concar
Choevoc as princes between Budoc I and Budoc II. 2 ^Meliau, perhaps,
had his residence at Plounevez-Porzay, near Quimper, during his
father's life, as tradition asserts, and as the church there claims him
as patron. But after the death of Budoc I he secured the chief dom
of Leon. The Life, of S. Melor does not assert that Meliau succeeded
" "
his father in Cornouaille as King, but that he held the ducatum
"
for seven years, during which time no rain fell, in ipso regno," nor
1
Dom Morice,-Me' moires pour servir de preuves, etc., Paris, 1742 and Cart.
;

of Quimper in Bulletin de la Commission dioce'saine, ed. Peyron, Quimper, 1901 ;

Cart, of Landevenec, ed. De la Borderie, Rennes, 1888.
2 "
Quidam nobilis apud transmarinos extitit, cui cognomen erat Lex vel
Regula vir quidam genere regius, terra, familis, opibus admodum opulentus
... Is post desolationem Frixonum et Corsoldi ducis, nostram adiens disertam

Cornugalliam, (parata) classe, mare cum maximo apparatu transmisit, regnum

accepit, habitavit, excoluit. Post ejus decessum Daniel films ejus regnum
tenuit cui successit films Budic
; huic vero duo existere filii, Meliavus vide-
;

licet et Rivodius." Vita 5. Melori, ed. Plaine, p. 166.

 S. Me lor 469
snow, but the land yielded her increase in abundance. But the author
" "
adds that Meliau held the rule in regno post patrem for these
seven years. This, however, may mean no more than that under
Budoc I Leon had been subject to him as well as Cornouaille. The
documents available for the determination of the history of this
period are so scanty that we are driven to conjecture. What makes
the suggestion probable is the absence of the name of Meliau from
the lists of the princes of Cornouaille, and the presence in Le*on of

traces of his presence there, as Guic-Miliau (Vicus Melovii), now

Lampaul-Guimiliau, near the Elorn, and at Ploumiliau (Plebs Melovii),

near Plestin, now included in Cotes du Nord, and an He de Miliau,
off the coast, and Trebeurdin, of which he is patron.

His headquarters would seem to have been on the Elorn, where

two important parishes bear his name.
Meliau took to himself a wife from Domnonia, named Aurilia,
daughter of Judoc, whom the biographer apparently confounds with
the Count of Domnonia who lived in 640, but who was a petty chief
of the same name. Rivold, Meliau's brother, did not get a share of
the father's principality, or if he did, desired more, and, in a colloquy
with Meliau, treacherously stabbed him, and seized on his domain
and rule. is accounted a martyr, and receives a cult on October
Meliau
25. Meliau about 537, leaving an only son Melor (Melior). Rivold
fell

seized on the lad, and would have put him to death but for the inter-
vention of some of the chiefs. He therefore contented himself with
hand and left foot, so as to incapacitate him from
cutting off his right
becoming a pretender to the throne, as, according to Celtic usage,
no one with a bodily defect was eligible.
The affection of the attendants for the young prince led them to
a silver hand and brazen foot fitted to the stumps, and, so says
the legend, Divine power was manifested, in that the boy was able
to employ these metal members as though they were flesh and bone.
For precaution, the boy was sent to Quimper, and placed in the monas-
founded by S. Corentine.
Tow it fell out, one day, that Melor and other boys were nutting
wood, and his comrades made their little piles of hazel nuts, and

mght them to Melor, who received them into his silver hand. More-
over, when he returned home, to the amazement of the good folk
in the street,
they saw his silver hand passed through the grating of
the door, as he cast away the nut-shells he had broken to get at the
kernels.
One day he was playing with a toy catapult, and shot his bolt,
which came down on a stone and penetrated it. When he withdrew
 47 Lives of the British Saints

the bolt a spring gushed forth, and the spring is shown to this day
at Meilars, near Pont-Croix, in Finistere, west of Quimper. The
tidings of these wonders having reached Rivold, he sent for Cerialtan,
the foster-father of Melor, and promised him that if he would make
away with the lad, he would give him as much land as he could see
from the top of Mount Coc. 1
Cerialtan 's greed was excited, and he confided the proposal to his
wife. She was horror-struck, and resolved on saving the boy. Whilst
her husband was absent, she fled with Melor to Domnonia, and took
refuge with the regent Conmore, whose wife was a daughter of Budoc
I, and therefore aunt to Melor. They found shelter in the Castellum
Bocciduum, which De la Borderie conjectures to have been Beuzit,.
west of Lanmeur, where considerable remains of a caer may still be
seen. Rivold was incensed, but he did not dare to complain to the
-powerful and masterful regent. He therefore urged Cerialtan to use
guile, entice the boy away, and cut off his head.
Cerialtan, accordingly, went to Beuzit, and took with him his son
Justan, who had been a play-fellow of Melor, and to whom he was
attached. The treacherous foster-father persuaded the prince of his

good intentions. Melor and Justan were placed to sleep in one bed.
During the night Cerialtan stole into the room, and murdered the
prince as he slept. Then, rousing Justan, he fled with him but as.
;

they were leaving the castle, by climbing over the wall, Justan's
foot caught, and he fell and was killed. Cerialtan, however, pushed
on till he reached a place called Kerlean, near Carhaix, when exhausted
and parched with thirst, he halted, and putting down the head of
"
Melor, which he carried off with him, he exclaimed, Confounded
be I ! I have lost my son, and now am myself perishing for water."
"
Thereupon the dead head spoke Cerialtan, drive thy staff into
;

the soil, and water will spring up." Much astonished, the murderer
complied whereupon a spring boiled up more than that, the staff
; ;

took root, threw out branches, and in time became a great tree. On
reaching the residence of Rivold, Cerialtan delivered up the head,
and demanded the price of his crime. The prince thereupon put
out the eyes of the murderer, led him to the top of Mount Coc, and
bade him take as much land as he could see.
Such is the legend in its complete form.
That in the Legendarium of Bishop Grandisson confounds Cornouaille
"
with Cornwall and Armorican Domnonia with Devon. Sanctus
Melorus, Melani Cornubise regis films, cum esset septem annorum,
1
Or Seoc. This cannot have been the Menez Horn, as has been supposed,,
as that was out of Conmore's district.
 S. Me/or 47
>rbatus est patre. Genetrix autem illius erat de Devonia regione,
mrilla nomine, ex Rivoldi comitis stemmate, qui a transmarinis
"
tibus quondam advenerat." John of Tynemouth says : Fuit
mini beatus Melorus de nobili Britannorum genere, cujus pater Meli-
mus ducatum Cornubiae tenuit Rivoldus veniens, Melianum
. . .

ratrem suum occidit, et pro illo regno cepit," and does not mention
the name of Melor's mother.
The legend is mixed up with fable, but contains a basis of historic
ict. The Melor of Brittany has acquired the silver hand of Nuada,
ling of theTuatha De Danann of Irish Mythology.
What is probably factis that Rivold mutilated his
nephew, and
it the amputated members were replaced by some rude make-
lifts, which he was able to employ after a fashion, and that
eventually he was murdered.
The date of his death was about 544, when he was aged four-
teen.

Conmore, we may be quite sure, used the occasion to extend his

authority over Leon, which thenceforth was incorporated in Domnonia,
and ceased to be attached to Cornouaille, and it was in Leon, at Plou-
neour-Nevez, that the battle was fought in 555 in which he lost his
and Judual became king over both Domnonia and Leon.
life, Popular
tradition has improved the legend. In Brittany it attaches to every
stage of the flight of Melor from his uncle. His estates are said to
have been at Lanmeur, between Lannion and Morlaix, in Domnonia.
Between Carhaix and Lanmeur, according to the legend, when he
was pursued, the earth sank and formed a hollow, in which he concealed
himself. This is still shown, and called Guele San Velar, or the Bed
of S. Melor. A chapel was built over the spot. Thence he pushed
on in the direction of Boiseon, but was overtaken by night and took
refuge at a farm in Plouigneau, now called Gouer Velar, or the Rivulet
of Melor. On leaving the farm next morning, without his breakfast,
he ascended a and fainted from exhaustion, where now stands a
hill

small chapel dedicated to him at Coat-sao-bell (the Wood of the Long

Ascent). Thence he pushed on to Boiseon. Thither Cerialtan came
and carried him off to Lanmeur, where he stabbed him at a spot near
the parish church, which is pointed out as the scene of the murder.
Indeed, even a room in the old wooden house is called Cambr-ar-Sant,
or the Chamber of the Saint. Tradition is so minute in its particulars
relative to the localities, that it is difficult to doubt that S. Melor
belongs to Brittany and not to Cornwall.
In the Church of Lanmeur in Finistere is a crypt, very early, with
rude carvings, probably of the tenth century, perhaps even earlier,
472 Lives of the British Saints

in which it is supposed that the martyred prince was buried. In this

crypt is his Holy Well.
The only grounds for associating his father Meliau or Melyan with
Cornwall are the statements in Grandisson's Legendarium, and in
John of Tynemouth. As also, that in the parish of Par is a Lanmelin,
and hard by a Merthyr. S. Mellion can not be regarded as dedi-

cated to the father of Melor, almost certainly S. Melanius of Rennes

is patron. Melor is venerated at Mylor, in Cornwall, where tra-
dition says he was murdered. The Feast Day there is on October
25, which is the day of Meliau or Melyan, the father. Linkinhorne
is also dedicated to him. Here also is a Holy Well in admirable
preservation, but Mylor is more probably S. Maglorious.

Mylor Church is interesting on account of its Norman doorway

and very early crosses, one of which is traditionally held to mark
the site of S. Melor's grave. 1

The document known as the Tramlatio S. Maglorii informs us that,

on account of the ravages of the Northmen, the body of S. Melor
,was translated from Lanmeur, between 875 and 878, to Lehon but ;

between 910 and 913 the relics were carried thence, probably when
Mathuedoi and a large number of Bretons fled to the protection of
Edward the Elder and Athelstan, and the body of S. Melor was taken
to Amesbury, in Wiltshire. The abbey church of Amesbury is dedi-
cated to SS. Mary and Melor.
The Feast of S. Melor in Bishop Grandisson's Calendar is October i.
This is also the day in the Sarum Breviary, and in a Norwich Martyr-
ology of the fifteenth century.
Cressy in his Church History of Brittany, Rouen, 1668, gives as his
day August 28, which was the day of the Feast at Mylor, till changed
to October 25. In the Quimper Breviary of 1642, 1701, 1835, he is
entered on October 2. This also is the day given by Albert le Grand
and by Lobineau. On October I, however, in the S. Malo Breviary
of 1537, and Missal of 1609.
Wilson, in his English Martyrology, arbitrarily inserted him on
January 3, but with an asterisk to indicate that he had no authority
for the day, and he has been followed by the Bollandists.
In Brittany he
is patron of Lanmeur, Loc-Melar, Meilars, in
Finistere, and Tremelior, in Cotes du Nord, near Chatelaudren
of
and of S. Meloir des Ondes in Ille et Vilaine also of numerous
;

chapels.
In the crypt of Lanmeur is his statuette, of the fourteenth century,
1
Mylor Church, by W. Jago, in Journal of the R. Institution of Cornwall.
iii
(1868-79), p. 164.
 S. Melycl 473
representing him in a long robe, covered with a royal mantle, wearing
a crown, and holding in his right hand the left which has been cut off.
In Loc-Melar, he is represented crowned, with alb, dalmatic, and a
royal mantle, holding an amputated hand in his right, and a palm
branch in his left. The statue is of the seventeenth century. Here
also are some bas-reliefs, painted, representing his legend. Perhaps
a better symbol would be a bunch of hazel-nuts held in his silver right
hand.
We append the Life from Bishop Grandisson's Legendarium, ii, fo. 154
(1366), as it has been hitherto unpublished.
In translacione Sanctorum confessorum remigii et vedasti
^
fist October 1
pontificum et bavonis pontificis [nine lessons].
'*(
Sanctus melorus, meliani cornubie regis filius cum esset septem :

annorum orbatus est patre. Genitrix autem illius erat de devonia one^de'Vancto
regione, haurilla nomine ex rivoldi comitis stemmate qui a trans- Meloro mart ire :

marinis partibus quondam advenerat. Hunc itaque melorum ec

scelestissimus pervasor regni fratricidaque nephandissimus rivoldus compre-
hensum deduxit inter primates in cornubie concilium redempnandum. Erant
:

quippe in eorum conventu episcoporum nonnulli innumerabiles vero clerici :

ac ephebatorum cohortes. Moliente itaque rivoldo nepotem suum melorum

perimere non permiserunt proceres terre. Nee eum tamen revertere poterant
:

ad sinum pietatis.
Tune proehdolor absciditur sancto meloro manus dextera pes :

eciam levus cesus est ab ipso maligno patruo suo. Insitaque est
sancto meloro manus argentea pes eciam eneus pro carneis. O quam inso-
: :

litum et dampnosum omnimodis est tale commercium pro manus vel pedis :

carne commutare est sive argentum. Manet tamen omnibus mirabile nulli
sanctorum conferendum quod peritissimorum narracione virorum compertum
:

est. Adeo siquidem manus sancti melori argentea crescebat et pes eneus :

quemadmodum solent in reliquis pueris naturalia carnis excrescere membra.

Nutritus est sane in cenobio sancti corentini donee corpore adultus bonisque
:

actibus ornatus mira patraret opera per reliquas iam notus provincias.
Cumque de meloro tarn sancta fama per vicinas quasque divul-
garetur provincias et ad malivolum rivoldum patruum eius diver-
tisset invidere cepit suo nepoti et dolo diem mortis eius moliri.
: Dum vero
intra se diucius volveret quomodo hoc nephas perageret nutu stimulatus :

diaboli invitavit beatissimi nutritorem melori ut secum pranderet. Quod ipse

illis prandentibus de sancto meloro
facere nequaquam distulit. Interea
: :

cepit habere colloquium dicens. Si perimeris clientem tuum melorum faciam

te auri argentique ditissimum. Hec autem dicebat quia si voluisset eum palam
interimere metuebat ne sui eum milites eruerent. Ideoque clam volebat :

eum interfici. Quod audiens uxor nutricii :

puerum secrete ad amitam suam
misit. Hoc intelligens nutricius illuc proficissitur et quasi alumpnum suum :

visitaturus hospicium secum suscepit. Utrosque ergo recepit lectus unus. :

Set cum dormisset puer ille surrexit et decollavit eum.

:

S. MELYD, Archbishop, Confessor

MKLYD cannot properly be regarded as a Welsh Saint, but he is
1
included as such in one of the late documents printed in theloloMSS.,
1
P. 136.
474 Lives of the British Saints

where stated that he was son of Cynfelydd, of the family of Bran

it is

Fendigaid, and that his church is in London, where he was bishop.

Elsewhere in the genealogies of the Welsh Saints he is simply entered
"
bishop of London, a man from the country of Rome."
l
as

By him is intended Mellitus, an abbot of Rome, who was sent,

with Justus, and others, by Gregory to England in 601 to assist S.
Augustine in his mission, by whom he was consecrated first bishop
of London in 604. In 619 he become archbishop of Canterbury, and
died in 624.
The only church in Wales that is claimed to be dedicated to Melyd
is that of Meliden, in Flintshire, a name which stands, apparently,
2
for Melid-ton, but generally called in Welsh Gallt Melyd, Melyd's
it is

Slope. Edward Lhuyd, in 1699, entered under the parish,

"
Ffynnon Velid in Galltfelid township."
Welsh MS. additions to the Calendar
Melyd's festival is given in the
in a copy of the Preces Private, 1573, in S. Beuno's (Jesuit) College
Library, as May 9. So Edward Lhuyd, and Bishop Maddox in Book
Z, in the Episcopal Library, S. Asaph. The festival of Melydyn is
entered in the Calendar in Llanstephan MS. 117 on the same day.
The festival of Mellitus, however, is on April 24.

S. MENEFRIDA or MINVER, Virgin, Abbess

MENEFRIDA is the Latin form of the name. She is reckoned by

Leland and William of, Worcester among the daughters of Brychan

who settled in north-east Cornwall. She was, however, his grand-

daughter, if she be equated with Mwynen, daughter of Brynach, by
3
Corth, daughter of Brychan. As shall be shown under S. MERRYN,
there is reason for holding the latter to be the same Saint as Minver ;

and also probably the same as the Irish Monynna. See further under
S.MORWENNA. According to the Bodmin Antiphonary, S. Menefrida's

Day was November 24.

Nicolas Roscarrock says of her that the present church is distant
"
half a mile from where she was wont to live, and at this daye is
called Tredresick, where in my time I remember there stode a chapell

1
Llanstephan MS. 81, p. 3; Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 119; Cambro-British
Saints, p. 270.
2 In the Taxatio of 1291, pp. 287-8, it is Allt Meliden (or Melydyn).
3
ii, pp. 218-9, 256-7. The yer in the name stands for verch, virgin.
 S. Merin 475
Iso dedicated to her, by less than two miles from the place where her
sister S. Endelient lived and there is also a well of her name, where
;

it sade the Ghostlye Adversarie coming to molest her, she was

is

combing her head by the said well, she flinging the combe at him
enforced him who
left a note behinde him in a place called at
to flye,
this daye Topalundy, where on the topp of a rounde high hill, there
a straunge deepe Hoale (as men there have by Tradition) there
lade by the devile in avoyding S. Menfre." He gives November 23
>tead of 24th, as her day. She was not sister, but niece of S. Ende-
ienta.
Her well is near the Church of
S. Minver, near Padstow, and the

rater from it
always used for
is baptisms.
The hole Topalundy is probably Lundy Hole near the sea. It is
an old cave, the top of which has fallen in.
Mynwer, or Minwear, is the name of a parish in Pembrokeshire,

now subject to Slebech and lower down, in the parish of S. Florence,

;

is a place called Minerton. It is just possible that we have here the

name Minver, and that Minwear Church, which has now no dedication,
was dedicated to this Saint. 1

S. MERCHGUINUS, Confessor
MERCHGUINUS was a disciple of S. Dubricius, who is named in his
"
Life 2
as among the many learned men and doctors who flocked
to him
for study." He is probably the Merchguinus, or Merchui,
mentioned in the Life of S. Oudoceus 3 as prominent among the clergy
and others who chose that Saint to be bishop of Llandaff in succession
Teilo, and went with him to his consecration at Canterbury.
A king Merchguinus, the son of Gliuis, and a clerical witness of the
ic name, occur in a grant to the Church of Llandaft 4 They were
mtemporary with Dubricius.

S. MERIN, Confessor

MERIN was the son of Seithenin Frenhin, of Maes Gwyddno, whose

territory was submerged by the sea, and now lies under Cardigan
1
Owen, Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 348.
a 3
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 80. Ibid., pp. 131-2. Ibid., p. 76.
 47 6 Lives of the British Saints

Bay. He was brother to SS. Tudclyd, Gwynhoedl, Tudno, and

Senewyr.
1
The bonedd in Peniarth MS. 45 gives his name as Meirin,
and the later documents 2 as Meiryn, Merini, and Myrini. He and
his brothers are in the latter stated to have become, on losing their
possessions, Saints or monks of Bangor-on-Dee.
Merin is patron of the little parish of Bodferin, in Carnarvonshire,
near which is the foundation of his brother, Gwynhoedl. His festival,
which does not occur in any of the Calendars, was observed here on
3
January 6. The parish is a very small one. It runs for about a
mile along the coast, and is a little more in breadth, with a population
in 1901 of 49 souls. Only the foundations of its old parish church,
which was subject to Llaniestyn, now remain. In 1900 was conse-
crated the new church of S. Merin, at a distance of over a mile, within
the parish of Aberdaron. The newly constituted parish includes
Bodferin, and parts of Aberdaron and Bryncroes. There is a small
creek in the parish called Forth Ferin, and the brook Rhyd Merin
forms part of the parish boundary. 4
It is stated in one of the late documents in the lolo MSS. 5 that

Meiryn ab Myrini ab Saethenin had a church dedicated to him in

Gwaen Llwg (Gwynllywg). Meiryn, between Newport and Cardiff,
is intended, which is called in the Book of Llan Ddv 6 Maerun, and

in English Marshfield but it would be impossible to equate the names

;

Meiryn and Merin. Llanvetherin, or Llanverin, in Monmouthshire,

iscommonly supposed to be dedicated to him. Its correct dedication,
however, is S. Gwytherin.
A S. Merin is culted in Brittany at Lanmerin, in the diocese of
Treguier, where the Pardon is on the 3rd Sunday after Easter. Ker-
viler gives as his day April 4, as does also Gautier du Mottai, but
without stating their authority. A statue of him at Lanmerin, of
the sixteenth century, represents him in rochet and cope, his head
bare, and a book in his hands. No record exists as to who he was.
A sixth century bishop, S. Merinus, is known to Scotland, with
festival on September 15. The church of Paisley was formerly dedi-

1
Peniarth MSS. 16, 45 Hafod MS. 16. Merin is the Latin name Marinus
;

borrowed. It was borne by several persons at an early period, and is the name
to-day of at least two streams (besides that at Bodferin), one a tributary of
the Mynach, near Aberystwyth, and the other of the Dovey, near Machynlleth.
3
Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 428; lolo MSS., pp. 105-6, 141-2. In Cardiff MS.
25, p. 35, it is spelt Merfyn.
3
Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 275Cambrian Register, iii (1818), p. 224.
;

4
Hanes Eglwysi a Phlwyfi Lleyn, ed. Davies, Pwllheli, 1910, pp. 174-7. For
the legend respecting the foundation of the old church, see Myrddin Fardd,
Lttn Gwerin Sir Gaernarfon, 1909, pp. 2078.
5 6
P. 106. .
Index, p. 411.
 S. Meubred or Mybard 477
ited to him and SS. Milburga and James. His Acts are in the Bre-
1
iary of Aberdeen.

S. MERNOG, Bishop, Confessor

IN a list of church founders in Glamorgan, given in the lolo MSS.,~
"
entered, Llanfernog, S. Mernog, of Cor Dochwy," i.e. Llandough,
Mernog's name does not occur in any of the Welsh
jar Cardiff.

tintly pedigrees,but by him is no doubt meant Mernoc, or Marnoc,

m of Barurchus, who is mentioned in the Life of S. Brendan, 3 and
identified in the Irish Calendars with S. Ernan. Mernoc is com-
icmorated on October 25 at Kilmarnock, in Scotland, where he had
cell, and where he died. The Aberdeen Breviary gives a collect
for him.

Llanfernog is in all probability intended for the original form of

Lavernock, subject to Penarth, the church of which is dedicated to
S. Lawrence. Its real Welsh form is, however, Llywernog, 4 which
does not appear to embody Mernog's name.

S. MERRYN, Virgin, Abbess

IN the Episcopal Registers, Bronescombe, 1259, 1274 Grandisson, ;

1332, 1338, I349 I 35i 1362 Stafford, 1395, 1396, etc., the church
;

bearing the name of this Saint in Cornwall is called that of Sta. Marina.
A Saint so called was a Bithynian damsel who went into a monastery
of in male clothes.
men, dressed She is given two commemorations
in the Roman
Martyrology, on June 18, and December 4. The Feast
at S. Merryn is on July 7, or the Sunday nearest, and this agrees with
neither of the days of commemoration of S. Marina. It does, however,

ipproximate to that of S. Morwenna, which is July 6. Merryn is,

>parently, a corruption of Morwen, and Nicolas Roscarrock says,
I have heard S. Morwenna spoken of as S. Merina of S. Merrin."

See on under S. MONYNNA.

MEUBRED, or MYBARD, Hermit,

S. Martyr
ACCORDING to W illiam of Worcester, Mybard was
r
son of a King
Ireland, and was also called Colrog. He settled at Cardinham
1872, pp. 397~ 8 -
1
Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, Edinb.,
2 3
P. 221. Cambro-Bntish Saints, pp. 251, 253.
4
Myv. Arch., p. 748.
47 8 Lives of the British Saints

near Bodmin,, in Cornwall, as a hermit, where he was murdered

His companions were Mannach, or Mancus, and Wyllow.
Morbred was the name of a Saint, a contemporary of S. Win-
waloe, of Landevennec and the name occurs in the Cartulary of
;

"
Landevennec, but in one of the forged deeds. Haec descriptio
declarat quod Sanctus Morbretus habuit colloquium apud sanctum
Uuingualoem, cui et seipsum et benencium, quod eidem sancto Mor-
breto dedit Euenus comes qui dictus est Magnus, et omnia quae
habuit, perpetualiter, ut ilium apud Deum haberet intercessorem,
x
commendavit."
This is dated March 31, 955. Either Morbred lived in the tenth
century, and his commendation of his land was made, not to S. Win-
waloe personally, but to his monastery, or else there is a gross anach-
ronism. The settlement of S. Morbred made over to Landevennec
was Lanrivoare, south of Ploudalmezeau, in Finistere.
In the diocese of Quimper, at Ploumodiern, is a hamlet with a
chapel called Loc-Mybrit, and he is said by tradition to have for a while
led there an eremitical life.

If Morbred or Mybrit were a contemporary of S. Winwaloe, he

might possibly enough, after resigning his settlement at Lanrivoare,
have gone to Cornwall, and there died. But this is not likely if he
lived in the tenth century.
Meubred is represented in one of the windows of S. Neot, carrying
one head, and wearing a yellow cap on the head, which is on his shoulder.
"
The inscription is, Sancte Mabarde ora pro nobis." His Feast at
Cardinham is on the Thursday before Pentecost.
The name Meuprit (in the Irish, Mepric) occurs in Nennius in the
genealogy of Fernmail, King of Gworthigirniaun and is also found;

"
on the Phillack stone in Cornwall, Clotuali Fili Mobratti," unless
the last word be read "Mogratti."

S. MEUGAN, Confessor
MEUGANT, Meugan, or Meigan, was the son of Gwyndaf Hen ab
Emyr Llydaw, by Gwenonwy, daughter of Meurig ab Tewdrig, king
of Morganwg. He was brother to S. Henwyn, or Hywyn. He does
not appear to be included in any pedigrees but those in the lolo MSS.
These state 2
that he was a Saint or monk of Cor Illtyd, at Llantwit,
and afterwards of Cor Dyirig, at Caerleon-on-Usk. In his old age
1
Cart. Landevennec,
Rennes, 1888, p. 163.
2
lolo MSS., p. 132.In Old-Welsh his name would have been Moucant.
Maucant, son of Pascent, occurs in the genealogies in Harleian MS. 3859 (c.

r It
(A- ^^. *'& 'falob
 S. MYBARD.
From Stained Glass, S. Neot.
 S. Meugan 4.79

he retired to Bardsey, where he lies buried. He thus followed closely

in his father's steps. The
was his superior at Caerleon. It
latter
l
is further said of him that he had a college, Cor Meugant, on the
banks of the Wye, which was one of a number of Corau, containing
in all 2,000 Saints, that Dyfrig presided over as penrhaith or principal.
The authorities for these statements, it must be remembered, are late. -

We know very little but he must have had a somewhat

of Meugan ; V^^V^^L
extensive cult in Wales, judging by the impress his name has left on
the topography.
In Anglesey, the now extinct Capel Meugan stood in a field near
PI as Meugan, in the parish of Llandegfan. The chapel gradually
fell decay after the founding of the Chantry of our Lady of Beau-
to
niaris. Here his festival was observed on September 25. 2 Gorsedd
Meugan, Dinas Meugan, as well as Plas Meugan (modern) are in the
parish.
In Denbighshire there dedicated to him the quaint little church
is

ofLlanrhydd (the Red Church), now under Ruthin, but originally its
mother church. 3
Llanfigan, in Breconshire, is under his invocation. In the Taxalio
"
of 1291 it is called Eccl'ia de S'c'o Mengano."
It is in Pembrokeshire, however, that he has left most traces, especi-

ally in the Deanery of Kernes, in the north-east. He had formerly

a chapel in the parish of Llanfair Nant Gwyn, known as S. Meugan 's
in Kernes. It was pulled down in 1592 by order of the Privy Council,
" "
mse
of the superstitious pilgrimages to his shrine. 4 There
fas once a Capel Meugan in the parish of Bridell, in the same Deanery,
hich is mentioned as a pilgrimage chapel, being used for solemn pro-
issions on holy days. 3 There are places called Trevigan, in Llanrian,

:oo). not improbable that the name is the same as that of the Cornish
It is
Mawgan. It is the Maucannus of the Life of S. David. Cf. also Lo-Mogan
Sainte-Seve, C6tes-de-Nord.
1
P. 151.
2
Richard Llwyd, Poetical Works, London, 1837, pp. 24-5, note, where he is
" " "
Iso referred to in verse as the lonely Hermit cf. the Miganus heremita,"
;

ider Llandegfan, in Leland, Collect., 1774, iv, p. 89.

3
Pant Meugan, divided into Pant Meugan Ucha and Isa, occurs in the Ruthin
istle
Papers as the name, in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, of a tract
land lying in the adjoining parish of Llanfwrog. It is mentioned also in two
cni(irth MSS. (Report, i, pp. 845, 973). Tir Meugan, at Bathafarn, is mentioned
as boundary land in an account of the
perambulation, in 1810, of the adjoining
parish of Llanfair (Llanfair Papers). For an account of the Llanrhydd Wakes,
on September 25, see Edw. Pugh, Cambria Depicta, London, 1816, pp. 437~9-
Bodeugan, one of the townships of S. Asaph parish, probably stands for Bod
Feugan for the elision of the F cf. Bodeilir, Bodeurig, Bodorgan, Boduan, etc.
;

*
Dr. Henry Owen in Pembrokeshire Antiquities, Solva, 1897, p. 54.
5
Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, p. 509.
 480 Lives of the British Saints

and Llanfoygan and Pistyll Moygan, near Pant y Deri, in the same
county. A great fair, called Ffair Feugan, was held at Eglwys Wrw
on the Monday after Martinmas, O.S., and is still held on the Monday
after November 22. Another Ffair Feugan was held at S. Dogmael's ;

both in the Deanery of Kernes. 1

His father has also a dedication in the same county at Llanwnda,
as well as another in Carnarvonshire.
S. Maughan's, in Monmouthshire, which is called Lann Mocha,
and Ecclesia de S. Machuto in the Book of Llan Ddv, is dedicated to
S. Malo, and not to S. Meugan, as is sometimes stated. There is a
Kilvigan, or Cilfygan, west of the town of Usk, which probably
perpetuates the name.
There are several Meugan festivals in the Welsh Calendars. Feb-
ruary 14 (festival of Manchan, abbot of Mohill, co. Leitrim), in that
in Mostyn MS. 88
April 24 in Llanstephan MS. 117
; September ;

25 in PeniarthMSS. 27 (pt. i), 172, 186, 187, and 219, Mostyn MS. 88,
Llanstephan MS. 181, the lolo MSS., Allwydd Paradwys, and the
Prymers of 1546, 1618, and 1633 September 26 in Jesus College MS.
;

141, and Additional MS. 14,882 November 15 in the Demetian

;

Calendar Bishop and Confessor)

(as and November 18 in Llanstephan
;

"
MS. 181, with the words added, ffair gapel feygan." Browne
2
Willis gives the festival at Llandegfan and Llanrhydd as September
25. It is worthy of note that S. Mwrog, whose festival falls on the
previous day, is patron of Llanfwrog, adjoining Ruthin and Llanrhydd,
and also of another parish of the name in Anglesey.
There is in the twelfth century Black Book of Carmarthen 3 a poem
that is sometimes attributed to
Meugant, who has been supposed to
be the Saint, but on what authority it does not appear. It is almost
entirely composed of unconnected rhyming adages, most of which
may be found in collections of Welsh proverbs. The conclusion of
the poem is wanting. Two other poems are attributed to Meugant
in the The first is an elegy on Cynddylan,
Myvyrian Archaiology.*
which Stephens believed " has the marks of genuineness," but the
other he regarded as " not older than the Norman Conquest." 5
One of the " Sayings of the Wise " triplets runs 6
:

1
Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, pp. 100, 143.
2
Bangor, 1721, pp. 278, 281 but September 23, no doubt by mistake, at
;

Llanfigan, Breconshire, Paroch. Angl., 1733, p. 182.

3
Ed. Evans, 1906, pp. 7-8.
4
Pp. 121-3. The latter part of the second poem is given again on p. 134.
5
Literature of the Kymry, 1876, pp. 283-5.
lolo MSS., p. 252.
(i
The triplet occurs also among the " Stanzas of the
"
Hearing in Myv. Arch., p. 128, but with the addition of Pob before Enwir.
 S. Meurig 481
Hast thou heard the saying of Meugant
At parting from his enemy :
"
The children of the wicked are evil spoken of."
(Enwir difenwir ei blant).

Geoffrey of Monmouth says

l
that a certain Meugant (Mauganius)
was made bishop of Caer Fuddai, or Silchester, in Hampshire, by
King Arthur, but assuming that he is not apocryphal, it is very im-
probable that he is the same person as Meugant ab Gvvyndaf Geoffrey .

" "
also introduces a Meugant Ddevvin,
Magician (Maugantius), the
into the legendary history of Vortigern as having been consulted by the
2
king respecting the birth of Myrddin.
Meugan may have been the holy man Moucan, or Maucan,
mentioned in the Life of S. Cadoc 3 as intervening to obtain a reconcili-
ation between that Saint and Maelgwn.

S. MEUGANT HEN
"
MEUGANT Meigent) Hen, or the Elder," is said to have been son
(or
"
of Cyndaf Sant, a man of Israel," meaning probably a converted
4
Jew. Cyndaf is stated to have accompanied the mythical Bran
Fendigaid to Britain in the first century. Meugant's existence is
5
equally questionable with his father's.

S. MEURIG, King, Confessor

MEURIG AB TEWDRIG AB TEITHFALL, King of Morganwg, has been
numbered among the Saints as a great benefactor to the Church.
Almost all that we know of him is from the Book of Llan Ddv, in
which his name occurs repeatedly as making grants to S. Teilo and
to the church of Llandaff.
His father, Tewdrig, resigned the rule into the hands of his son
1
Red Book Bruts, ed. Rhys and
"
Evans, p. 204 ;
Hist. Brit., ix, c. 15.
Leland, Itin., iv, p. 144, mentions sedes S.
Maugani."
Lewis Glyn Cothi (Works, p. 143) refers to
3
Ibid., pp. 142-3; vi. c. 18.
him :

"
Mai Meigant pan gant a'i gyrn
Araith dda i Wrtheyrn."
3
Cambro-British Saints, pp. 94-6.
4
lolo MSS p. 102
, Myv. Arch., ; p. 427. For another Saint of the same
"
name see S. MEIGAN ;
and for Meugant Hen, of Caerleon-on-Usk," one of
"
the Baptismal Bards of the Isle of Britain," see lolo MSS., p. 79.
5
ii, pp. 229-30.
VOL. III. I I
482 Lives of the British Saints

and retired to lead a hermit's life at Tintern, where he fell

fighting
against the Saxons. Meurig had his body conveyed to Mathern,
buried there, and made a grant of the land about the Martyrium to
S. Oudoceus. 1
He founded Llandaff not, as is pretended, as a monastery for S.

Dubricius, but for Teilo. And the manner in which he dedicated it

is described. He carried the Gospels on his back, and, with the clerks

going before carrying crosses, he paced round the territory thus made
over to the Church. The twelfth century compiler of the Book of Llan
Ddv pretends, and no doubt believed, that he thus made the circuit
of the whole diocese of Llandaff. 2
He was married to Onbraust, daughter of Gurcant Mawr, 3 king of
Erging, and had by her four sons, Athruis, Idnerth, Frioc and Comereg,
and daughters, Anna, married to Amwn Ddu, Afrella, married to
Umbrafel, and Gwenonwy, married to Gwyndaf Hen.
In his old age all the portion of the kingdom west of the Towy
was wrenched from him, and formed into a separate kingdom. 4
The incursions of the Hwiccas into Ewyas and Erging had devas-
tated it, and desolated the monasteries of Dubricius. The compiler
of the Book of Llan Ddv pretends that he thereupon gave these sites
to the Church of Llandaff, but it may be doubted whether this grant
was made by him or by his son. The probable date of this inroad
was 577, and Meurig can hardly have lived to so late a period. He
must have died some thirty or more years before. He made a grant
of Llancillo, in Herefordshire, to Bishop Ufelwy, 5 which was after-
wards swept into the possession of the Church of Llandaff. Meurig
was buried at Llandaff. 6
He was not what can be considered a saintly character, for after
having solemnly sworn with one Cynvetu over the relics of the saints
to keep peace together, Meurig treacherously slew Cynvetu. There-
upon Oudoceus summoned the great abbots of Llancarfan, Llantwit,
and Llandough, and excommunicated the king, and at the same time
placed an interdict on the land. This last statement is certainly
"
false. They also solemnly cursed the king. May his days be few,
and let his children be orphans, and his wife a widow."
The king remained excommunicate for two years and more, and
then bought his absolution by making over to Llandaff four vills. At
this time he was an old man, for among the witnesses is his grandson
7
Morgan.
Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 141-2.
1
Meurig is the Latin name Mauricius. It also
occurs as a brook name.
2 3 4
Ibid., p. 71. Ibid., pp. 132, 140. Ibid., p. 133.
5 6 7
Ibid., p. 1 60. Ibid., p. 149. Ibid., p. 147.
 S. Meuthi 43
In one document in the lolo MSS. 1 he is said to have been killed

by added, a church was dedicated

the Goidels in Ceredigion, where, it is

to him, by which is probably intended that of Ystrad Meurig but ;

the two statements are manifestly not true. In another document

2
he given as the founder of Llanfair Misgyn, in Glamorgan.
is
"
A memorandum further states 3 Meurig, King of Glamorgan,
:

gave, at his baptism, lands to God and to S. Teilo, and to the bishops
of Llandaff for ever, namely, territorial lands and privileges. And
from this it became customary to give lands to God and the Saints

upon baptism."
One other document in the lolo MSS. gives another Meurig as a
Welsh Saint in the following two passages 4
:

"
Meurig, King of Dyfed, the son of Gwrthelin ab Eudaf ab Flaws
Hen, King of Dyfed, the son of Gwrtherin, a prince of Rome, who
expelled the Goidels from Dyfed and Gower."
"
Meurig, King of Dyfed, was one of the four Kings who bore the
Golden Sword before the Emperor Arthur, on the Three Principal
Festivals, and on every festival and feast of rejoicing and dignity."
He is apocryphal as a Saint, but Cynyr of Caer Gawch, S. David's
"
grandfather, is also traced up to the same prince of Rome."
There is a place called Llanfeirig in the parish of Ceirchiog (annexed
to Llechylched), in Anglesey.

S. MEUTHI, Abbot, Confessor

IN the Harley Charter 75. A. 19, of the time of Bishop Henry of
Llandaff, 1193-1218, is notified the confirmation of certain lands at
Llanfeithin to Margam Abbey, and it is stated that one acre was
" "
to help in building the chapel to the honour of S. Meuthin there. 5

Llanfeuthin, otherwise Llanfeithin and Llanoethin, is an extra-

parochial district
(of 433 acres) within the parish of Llancarfan,
Glamorganshire, deriving its name from S. Meuthi or Meuthin. It

is situated close to Cadoc's monastery, and he is the Meuthi of the Life

"
of that Saint, who was baptised by him. He was a religious Irishman
1
P. 136. 2 221.
Ibid., p.
P. 153. On p. 10 stated that he gave lands also to Llantwit
it is ; and on
p. 139 that he was father of Pawl, or Paulinus, of Ty Gwyn.
4
Ibid., pp.
141-2.
5
De Gray
Birch, Penrice and Margam Abbey MSS., 1893, *> P- T 4." Margam
Abbey, 1897, pp. 127-8, 393 Clark, Cartes, i, pp. 44, 4950.
;
484 Lives of the British Saints

who was a hermit, and devoutly served God." When Cadoc was
seven years of age he was placed with Meuthi to be instructed, and
remained with him twelve years. 1
S. Tathan that Saint is made to perform Meuthi 's
In the Life of
part. The two names represent, in fact, but one person, Meuthi
" "
being the pet form. See further under S. TATHAN.

S. MEVEN, Abbot, Confessor

THE Life of S. Mewan, Me van, or Meven has been published in the

Analecta Bollandiana, iii (1884), pp. 142-80, byDom Plaine, O.S.B.
This was composed, not by a writer of the period of Charles Martel
(720-50), as supposed by Dom Plaine, but much later. M. Lot
concludes not earlier than the end of the ninth century. 2 Mgr.
Duchesne considers this Life as of the eleventh century 3 .

There is, as well, a portion of a Life in the Dol Breviary of 1519,

published by the Abbe F. Duine, in Saints de Broceliande, i. Saint

Meen, Rennes, 1904, that appeared in the Annales de Bretagne,
January, 1904.
Albert le Grand, in his Vies des SS. de Bretagne, gave a Life of S.
Meven, and the Bollandists, not having an original text, translated
the Life by Albert le Grand into Latin and published it in the
Ada SS., Jun. IV, pp. 101-4. Albert le Grand derived his Life from
the Breviaries of Leon and S. Malo, and the Proprium Sanctorum
of the Diocese of Rennes.

Meven, also called Conaid, was born in Gwent. His father, Gerascen
or Geraint, was of Erging, 4 or Archenfield, and of the race of Cadell
5
Deyrnllwg. < .

The mother Meven was, apparently, a sister of S. Samson. This

of
is not stated in the Life, but Meven is said to have been a kinsman
of Samson (propinquus non solam genere sed etiam vicinio). Samson's
sister is described in no complimentary terms in the Life of this latter

1
Cambro-British Saints, pp. 25-8.
According to M. Lot the name comes
2
Annales de Bretagne, x, p. 75, note i.

from maw, a servant.

3
^Les anciens catalog, episc. de la province de Tours, Paris, 1890, p. 94, note 2.
4
The biographer calls it " Orcheus pagus in Guentia provincia." prob- He
ably wrote Orchen for Erging, but a copyist altered it. The text is in a MS.
of the sixteenth century.
5
iii, p. 50.
 Meven 485
Saint, as one given
up to the world and its pleasures. 1 This means
no more than that she was indisposed to embrace the religious pro-
fession.
When Samson left Wales for Armorica, Meven probably accom-
panied him, taking with him his friend Austell, and both tarried with
Samson in Cornwall. Our grounds for supposing this is that there are
churches bearing the dedication of Meven at S. Mewan and Mevagissey,
at no great distance from S. Samson's foundation at Golant, and
Austell founded one that still bears his name. Meven had also a
place of solitary retreat where stands still his Holy Well and Chapel,
at Menacuddle, i.e., the cuddigl (cell or retreat) of Meven, in a pic-
turesque glen, by the side of a stream near S. Austell.
When, however, Samson crossed into Armorica, Meven and his
friend Austell accompanied him. Samson settled at Dol, about the
year 550.
2
He at once employed Meven to agitate against Conmore,
the usurper of Domnonia. 3 In order to draw Weroch, Count of Bro-
Weroch, into the conspiracy, he despatched Meven across the great
central forest which the British colonists called Trecoet, or Brecilien.
Onway, Meven came on a clearing that had been made by a
his
British settler called Caduon, or Cadfan, who, having no children
proposed to Meven to settle at a suitable distance, and found a Ian, and
he, on his part, undertook to make over his plou, on his death, to
Meven, so that all his lands and its colonists over whom he exercised
jurisdiction should pass eventually under the authority of Meven as
its secular and ecclesiastical chief. To this Meven consented, and
this originated the abbey of S. Meen in Montfort. With the assistance
of Samson, Judual, the rightful heir to Domnonia, defeated and killed
Conmore. On the death of Judual he was succeeded by his son
Juthael, who died about the year 608, when the third son of Juthael,
named Hoeloc, usurped the throne, and his foster-father Rethwal
murdered all the brothers of Hoeloc on whom he could lay his hands.
The eldest, Judicael, to save his throat, took sanctuary with S. Meven,
who shaved his head and put on him the monastic habit.
Hoeloc had a residence in Goelo, as that portion of Brittany was
called, where was the abbey of S. Meven. One day, as Meven was
passing under its walls, he heard the lamentations of a servant of the
"
1
... ad mundanas voluptates data est." Vita S. Samsonis
Ista pusilla
in Mabillon, Acta SS.O.S.B., saec. i, p. 162.
"
- 2 Dol cujus nomen, ut aiunt, a quodam eventu Dolis dicitur." If the author
had been a Briton he would have known that Dol signifies a fruitful bottom or
meadow by the water.
3
"Ad Guerocum comitem ut . . . sibi auxilium ferret, beatum Conaidum
transmittere decrevit."

J
 486 Lives of the British Saints

prince who was in a dungeon under sentence of death. Meven at

once thrust his
way and implored pardon
to the presence of the tyrant,
for the wretch but Hoeloc angrily turned him out of his caer or
;

house. However, perhaps by the connivance of the gaoler, the man

was allowed to escape, and he fled for sanctuary to S. Meven. Hoeloc
was highly incensed, and went to the monastery and demanded that
his servant should be surrendered. When Meven refused, the tyrant
violated the sanctuary, and carried the man away. As, however, the
horse he rode soon after stumbled and threw the prince, who broke his
" "
thigh, in a panic Hoeloc, regarding this as a judgment on him
for breaking sanctuary, released the prisoner, and made his peace
with the abbot.
Hoeloc then lived on better terms with the ecclesiastics, and favoured
S. Malo, who was a kinsman of S. Meven, though at first he had treated
him badly.
The story is told a sufficiently hackneyed one of Meven having
delivered the neighbourhood from a dragon that lived by the river
Loyre. He passed his stole round the beast, and led it to the bank
of the river, into which he precipitated it. This is only a figurative
way of saying that he tamed Hoeloc. The account of the death of
the Saint, and of his words to S. Austell, has already been given. 1
He died in or about 611.
His day is June 21 in almost all the Brittany Calendars, but the
fifteenth century missal of S. Malo gives June 19. The feast at Meva-
gissey is on June 29 at S. Mew an five weeks before Christmas.
;
r

In Cornwall he is patron of S. Me wan and Mevagissey, and had a

chapel in S. Austell. In the Taxatio of 1291, S. Mewan is S. Mawan ;
in the Register of Bishop Brantyngham, 1370, Eccl. S 11 Mewani ;
so also in that of Bishop Stafford, 1403-4, In Brittany he is patron
of S. Meen, of Cancale, of Plelan, of S. Meen-Ploudaniel, of Tremeven,.
Lanvallay, Lesneven, etc. He is represented in a statue at Lanvallay,
as bald, habited in a long mantle, holding a crozier in his right hand,
and a book in his left. His tomb is at S. Meen, with a statue over
it of the fourteenth century.

S. MINVER, see S. MENEFRIDA

S. MIRGINT, Confessor
"
IN the grant by Caradog, son of Rhiwallon of Villa Gunhucc
in Guartha Cum," to the Church of Llandaff, in the time of Bishop
1
i, p. tSg.
 S.
Moling 4.87
Herwalcl, who was consecrated mention is made of " the four
in 1056,
saints of Llangwm, Mirgint, Cinficc, Huui, and Eruen." l There
are two Llangwms in Monmouthshire, Llangwm Ucha and Isa,
forming
one benefice, the churches of which are to-day dedicated to S.
Jerome
and S. John respectively.
Mirgint 's name does not appear to occur anywhere else.

S. MODDWID, see S. MEDDWID

S. MOLING, Bishop, Confessor

MOLING, in Welsh, Mylling or Myllin, was a famed ecclesiastic and
politician of the seventh century. Several MS. Lives of him exist.
One, that appears to have been a panegyric on his festival, is in the
so called Codex Kilkenniensis, in Bishop Marsh's Library, Dublin.
Of this an English translation has been published by Patrick O'Leary,
"
With Notes and Traditions," Dublin, 1887.
A Latin Life from the Salamanca Codex is given in Ada 55. Hibernicz,
Edinburgh, 1888, pp. 819-26 the same in Ada 55. Boll., June, III,
;

i>p. 408-10.
" "
His Irish Birth and Life occurs in three MSS. (i) The so-
called Liber Flavus Fcrgussiorum, a vellum of the end of the fourteenth
the beginning of the fifteenth century, now in the Library of the
'oval Irish Academy. (2) The Brussels MS. 4190-4200, written

)y Michael O'Clery in 1628-9. (3) The Brussels MS. 5301. The

[rish text of the first two MSS. has been edited, with translation,
>v Dr. Whitley Stokes, in the Revue Celtique, xxvii (1906), pp. 257-305 ;

:viii, p. 70.
There is a full Life of the Saint in O'Hanlon's Lives of the Irish
taints, vi, pp. 691-724 ;
and a compendium in Bishop Comerford's
and Leighlin, iii, pp. 305~9-
Collections relating, to the Diocese of Kildare

Moling's father was called Faolain, and he was descended from

S.

Cathair Mor, monarch of Ireland, and seventh in descent from a

brother of Crimthan Cas, the first Christian king of Leinster. The
father had been a brugaidh, or farmer, at Luachair, now Slieve Lougher,
a wild upland district near Castle Island, in Kerry, who settled finally
in the country of the Cinnselach, on the river Barrow, and there
Hy
probably Moling was born, the Ossorians suppose that the
though
place of his birth was at Mullennakill, in the parish of Jerpoint West
1
Book of Llan Ddv, p. 274.
488 Lives of the British Saints

some four miles north-west of Roscommon. He embraced the religious

lifeat an early age, and founded a monastery at Ross Bruic, Badger
Wood, on the Barrow, then called Tech Moling, and now S. Mullins,
in the county of Carlow. His baptismal name had been Daircell or
Taircheall, but he is commonly known as Moling Luachra. For
awhile he was at Glendalough, and then was appointed Bishop of
Ferns, co. Wexford. There he laboured with his own hands to conduct
a stream of water for the distance of a mile to his episcopal residence.
This occupied him for seven years, and he prayed that thenceforth
all who should paddle in this stream, walking up it against the current,

should have their sins remitted, and should secure eternal life in
Heaven.
A great number of miracles are attributed to him, most of them
absurd. We do not give his Life at any length, because there is no
certainty that Moling ever visited Britain, though according to the
Dublin copy of the Annals of Tighernach, he died in Britain. This,
however, is not the account given in his Lives.
Moling Luachra was largely instrumental in the abandonment
of the hated Boromha tribute imposed on the men of Leinster, which
had been a fertile source of insurrection and bloodshed. He contrived
itsremission by trickery. He had been sent on a mission to King
" "
Fianachta the Festive (673-95) from Leinster to complain of the
hardship of the tribute. Much opposition was raised to his request,
"
and, as the king hesitated, Grant me, O king, that this question be
not again raised till luan."
To Fianachta consented, supposing that it was merely postponed
this
till Monday. But luan has a double signification it means Dooms-
;

day as well as
Monday. The celebrated Adamnan
bitterly reproached
the king for allowing himself to be outwitted by Moling. The story
is told that Fianachta, repenting of having yielded, sent men after

Moling and his clerics as they were leaving for Leinster. Moling
proceeded thundering forth a hymn of his own composition in praise
of holy Virgins, beginning with S. Brigid, and winding up with the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and a sudden drift of fog came over the hillside,
and threw out those who were in pursuit.
A
very curious Irish poem in praise of S. Moling is attributed to
the Devil, who visited the Saint, and asked for his blessing. This
"
Moling declined to give him. Well then," said Satan, " curse me
" " "
roundly." Why do that ?
should I inquired the Saint. Be-
cause, if you cursed, the curse would recoil on and cleave to your
own lips." Then the Evil One asked for advice. Moling replied,
" "
Kneel in prayer." That is beyond my powers," replied Satan,
 S. Moling 489
"
for my knees bend backward." Then I can do nothing for you,"
lid Moling. But Satan, thereupon, composed and intoned a hymn
praise of holiness.

He pure gold, he is a heaven round the sun,

is

He a vessel of silver full of wine,

is
He is an angel, he is the wisdom of saints,

Such is he who doeth the will of the King.

He a bird round which closes a trap,
is

He a leaky vessel in dangerous peril,

is

He is an empty bowl, he is a withered tree,

Such is he who doeth not the will of the King.

He a sweet branch in full bloom,
is
He a goblet filled with honey,
is
He is a precious stone very choice,

Such is he who doeth the will of God's Son in heaven.

He a blind nut, wherein is no profit,
is

He stinking rottenness, he is a withered tree,

is

He is a wild apple branch that blossoms not ,

Such is he who doeth not the will of the King.

and so on. The whole story and the hymn are in the Book of Leinster.
In his old age, Moling retired from Ferns to Tech Moling, and he
died on June 17, in the year 696. *
An odd story of S. Moling getting into S. Aidan's bed, and being
seized with cramps for so doing, is told in the Life of that Saint. 2
If he was denied rest in S. Aidan's bed, he at all events occupied
his seat at Ferns.

Moling isusually regarded as one of the four prophets of Ireland.

The Evangelistarium of 5. Moling, fragments of a copy of the Gospels
in its case or shrine, is preserved in the Library of Trinity College.
Dublin.
The church of Llanfyllin, in Montgomeryshire, is dedicated to
S. Moling, or Myllin. It is not easy to account for the dedication,
inasmuch as there is no evidence that he ever visited Wales. There
is a holy well of his in the parish, called Ffynnon Fyllin, and Ffynnon
Coed Llan. It is on the left side of the by-road leading from the

Rectory to the summit of Coed Llan.

The Irish and Welsh Calendars agree in giving his day on June 17.
Whytford, in his Addicyons to the Martiloge, under that day, says :

"
In yrelond the feest of saynt Molyng, a bysshop of synguler sanctite,
& had reuelacyon of augels, & he reysed a kynges sone to lyfe
1
The Annals of Clonmacnois place his demise at 692 the Chronicon Scottorum
;

at 693 the Annals of the

; Four Masters at 696, which also the date given by
is

the A nnals of Tighernach. Duald Mac Firbis accepted this latter date as correct.
2
Cambro-British Saints, pp. 249-250 ; see Y Cymmrodor, xiii, p. 92.
 49 Lives of the British Saints

and cured the blynde & defe, dombe & lame, lepres & dyuerse
infyrmytees & many grete myracles."
A fair was held at Llanfyllin on June 17, O.S., and is still held on
the 28th. 1
2
Dafydd ab Gwilym, in the fourteenth century, makes use of the
" "
expression, Myn Myllin nef !

S. MONACELLA, see S. MELANGELL

S. MONYNNA, Virgin, Abbess

FEW Lives of Saints present greater difficulties than that of .Monenna
or Monynna, for .she has been confounded with Modwenna of Burton-
on-Trent. But this is not all. There were two Monynnas, one in
the North of Ireland, the other in the South, who lived at different
periods and there were, as well, two Modwennas, also separated
;

from one another by a considerable tract of time. Yet all four have
been run into one.
The Life that w e have has been
r
attributed to one Concubran, who
died in 1082. It is printed in the Ada 55. Boll., Jul. II, pp. 297-
312. It exists in MS. in the British Museum, Cotton MS. Cleopatra
A. ii, a MS. of the eleventh century. Another version was by Geoffrey
of Burton, Royal MS. 15. B. iv, of the thirteenth century.
and this is in

John of Tynemouth condensed them in a Life that is printed in Cap-

grave's Nova Legenda Anglice. An Irish Life, or rather a Life in Latin
written in Ireland, of Monynna alias Darerca, is in the Ada 55. Hiber-
nice in Cod. Sal., coll. 165-88. This confounds the two Monynnas,
but does not confound with them Modwenna of Burton.
We will take the Modwennas first.

i. Irish Abbess who was visited in Ireland by

Modwenna was an
Alfrid, son of Oswy, in 670, when he fled to Ireland, and, as Bede
informs us, remained there for some time. Afterwards Modwenna
crossed into Northumbria, and Alfrid, who was King in 685, placed
her over the monastery founded by S. Hilda at Whitby, and com-
mitted to her charge his sister, Elfleda. After a brief stay, she returned
to Ireland, but hearing that her brother, Ronan, was labouring in

1
For an account of the observance latterly of the Gwyl Mabsant, see Gohid
yr Oes, Carnarvon, i
(1863), p. 510.The river Cain is called Myllon above Llan-
fyllin.
2
Barddoniaeth, ed. 1789, p. 37.
 S. Monynna 491
)tland, she sent some of her spiritual daughters there to assist him
his work. The probable date of her death would be circa 695.
2. Modwenna, abbess of Burton-on-Trent, was the instructress of

>. Edith of Polesworth. Edith was the sister of Athelstan, and great-
it of Edith of Wilton, who died in 984 and the death of her great-
;

it, widow of Sithric of Northumbria, took place about 954. \Ye

lay accordingly calculate that the death of Modwenna fell at the
lose of the ninth century, or early in the tenth. 1

3. Monynna, daughterMochta, of the diocese of Armagh, received

of
ic veil from Her principal house was Fochard, naar
S. Patrick.

indalk. According to the Annals of Ulster she died in 518 accord- ;

to those of the Four Masters, in 517, in the reign of Murchertach

lac Earca, who ruled from 508 to 533. The Chronicon Scotorum
ives 514 as the date of death.
4. Monynna, disciple of S. Ibar, cannot have been the same as the
receding, for her sphere of work \vas in the South of Ireland, whereas
her name-sake was active as a founder in the North. She lived later
than Monynna, daughter of Mochta.
What makes the confusion worse confounded is that Monynna is
"
not a proper name. It is Mo-nin, my dear nun," a term of endear-
ment given to a spiritual mother, and consequently applied to others.
Thus there was a Monynna who attended the Synod of Easdra,
which took place before the banishment of S. Columcille in 563, or,
more probably, after that of Drumceatt, in 590. 2
The confusion caused by the identification of the two Monynnas
led to the attempt to explain it by giving to Monynna a life lasting
to the age of 180.
The explanation of the name Monynna is given in the Felire of
" ' '

Oengus Moninne, i.e., My-mindach the nuns used to call her,

:

and of Ui-Echach of Ulster was she, i.e., Moninne, daughter of Mochta,

>n of Lilach, son of Lugaid, son of Rossa, son of Imchad, son of

^edlimid, son of Cas, son of Fiachra Araide, son of Oengus Goibniu ;

a poet said :

Nine score years together,

According to rule, without warmth,
Without folly, without crime, without fault,
Was the age of Moninne.

Geoffrey of Burton mistakes Alfrid of Northumbria,

who visited Ireland in
ith Alfred the Great, who reigned from 871 to 901 and identifies Elfleda,
;

the sister of Alfrid, who was Abbess of Whitby, and died in 715, with Edith of
Polesworth, of Alfred the Great, who must have died about 954.
grand-daughter
-
Vita Sti. Ferannani in Colgan, Ada SS. Hibern., cap. vii, pp. 337, 339-
492 Lives of the British Saints

Since she took a girdle on her body,

It is according to knowledge of her that I hear
She ate not her fill of food,
Monnine of Slieve Gullion.

"
Moninne of Slieve Gullion, and Sarbile was her name previously,
or Darerca was her name at first. But a certain poet fasted with her,
and the first thing he said (after being miraculously cured of his
dumbness) was Ninnin. Hence the nun was called Mo-ninde, and
the poet himself Nine-ecis. Mo-nine quasi Monanna the nuns used
to call her. A sister of Mary (was she) for she was a virgin, even as
l
Mary."
What appears clearly enough from the above is that there were
two Monynnas, one whose original name was Darerca, and this was
the daughter of Mochta there was also another named Sarbile or
;

Orbilia, as she appears in the Vita Moninnce alias Darercce.

Of the parentage of the latter nothing is recorded, but she occurs
as Sarbhil in the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal on September

4, and as of Pochard consequently she must have succeeded Monynna

;

alias Darerca in the charge of this house of hers in Louth and it ;

is possible enough that she also may have acquired the affectionate
" "
designation of my dear nun given to her mistress and predecessor.
She it is, perhaps, who attended the Synod of Easdra, if it occurred
at the earlier date to which it is attributed. But she, again, is distinct
from the Leinster Monynna.
Of the first Monynna, the outlines of her Life come out clearly
enough. Her pedigree was well known, and distinguished, and her
family held a position of importance in the neighbourhood of Armagh
When S. Patrick visited that part of Ireland, she was baptized by

him, and confirmed by him, and from him received the veil and she ;

is reckoned among his disciples. 2 Under his direction she remained

for some time, and then he committed her to the charge of a priest

living near her father's home, in proximity to Armagh, that she might
learn the Psalter.
In course of time she founded a monastic establishment at Pochard,
near Dundalk, in the County of Louth. But after a while she left it
and went to Slieve Cuillin or Gullion, as it is now called, and her
cill there now bears the name of Killevy. It is situated in a wild
spot on the mountains, near a loch that has traditions associated
with Fionn Mac Cumhall and his people. And here she died in 57:7
or 518.
1
Filire of Oengus, ed.Whitley Stokes, p. cxvi.
2 Trias Thaumaturga, append, v, ad Acta S. Patri ii, cap. xxiii, p/ajc.
 S. Monynna 493
A Monynna was venerated in Scotland, the sister of S. Ronan ;
and she is said to have died at Longfortin. This is the Modwenna
1
No. i.

In dealing with the Life of Monynna of Leinster, we must

put
aside all that appertains to the two Modwennas. This is easy enough.
Then we have to disentangle the Acts of the Northern and Southern
Monynnas, which is not so easy. The Life in the Salamanca Codex
has in nothing about Modwenna.
it

Monynna alias Darerca associated with herself eight virgins, and

a widow who joined her, along with her little son, Lugaid by name,
who afterwards became a bishop. 2 She placed herself under the
direction of S. Ibar, of Begery, in Wexford Harbour.

Hearing of the virtues of S. Brigid, Monynna visited her, and re-

mained with her for a while at Kildare. Then she returned to Ibar,
who commended to her charge a girl of whom he had formed a high
opinion. Monynna, however, with a woman's eye, saw through
"
her at once, and said to the bishop, I have a shrewd notion that this

young woman and I will never agree, and that in the end one of us
will have to go." In fact, after some years, this girl headed a faction
in the convent against Monynna, that led to the expulsion of the
abbess, with fifty of her nuns, who clave to her.
When thus turned out of her own house, Monynna went back to
Brigid. As she died in 503, and Brigid in 525, this Leinster Monynna
was beginning her monastic education when her name-sake in the
North of Ireland was drawing to the end of her days.
The occasion of the revolt in the monastery was, apparently, due
to the too great strictness of Monynna's rule, for we are told that,
whilst she was lavish to strangers and beggars, she half-starved the
sisters, so that Ibar was constrained to interfere. Indeed, she allowed
them to eat " only raw herbs, tree-bark, and roots."
One day a pig-driver lost his herd, and by her instrumentality they
were found, whereupon he offered her one of the swine for a meal.
She refused it, and we may conjecture that the prospect of a good
dinner off pork, thus denied them, caused the final explosion of ill-

that led to her being driven out of her own monastery.

In the Life the two Monynnas are so mixed up that it is not always
ssible distinguish the incidents connected with each. The
to
tuthor goes on to say that she had a monastery at Kilslieve-Cuillin,

Armagh, but this certainly belongs to the other Saint of the same
1
Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish SS., pp. 404-7
a
But this may pertain to the Ulster Monynna. Lugaid became a Bishop
ir
Carlingford.
494 Lives of the British Saints

name and then follows a story which most probably belongs to the
;

second. Some bishops were on their way to visit her, when they
were waylaid by a band of freebooters, under one Glunelach, or Glun-
sealach, and murdered. Monynna heard of this and went with her
nuns to recover the bodies. When encountering the robber and
murderer, she reprimanded him with such severity that he was fright-
ened. That night he had a dream. He thought Heaven was opened
and that Monynna pointed out to him a throne set in a flowery meadow,
and told him that it might be his if he repented.
Next day Glunsealach and his nephew, Aelfinn or Alfin, came to
Monynna, and begged to be instructed in the way of God. She sent
them to S. Coemgen of Glendalough, who baptized them, and both
led thenceforth such holy lives that Glunsealach was elevated to the

episcopate, and he and Alfin were numbered with the Saints, and are
commemorated on June 3, along with their master Coemgen.
Now, as S. Coemgen, or Kevin, died in 618 or 619, it is clear that
the conversion cannot have been effected by Monynna of Fochard
who died a century earlier. Moreover, a Saint in Armagh would
hardly have committed her proselyte to a Saint in the South of Ireland ;

and that her convent was at no great distance from Glendalough

appears from the tale, which is sufficiently curious and characteristic
more at large.
to be told

Monynna had taken Glunsealach and his nephew into the convent,
"
where they lived literas discentes et cum virginibus cohabit antes."
Now, it came Coemgen that Monynna had promised
to the ears of
to her reclaimed highwayman that she would take away the throne
in Heaven ordained for Coemgen, and give it to him. 1
When this story reached Coemgen, who had now been seven years
living an eremitical life at Glendalough, he was full of rage, and armed
his monks and servants, and they went to the convent with full purpose
to burn it down, and kill Monynna and her nuns, and above all Glun-
sealach.

Monynna heard that they were coming, and, at the head of her
spiritual daughters, went to meet the irate Saint, and to pacify him,
which after a while she succeeded in doing and then she gave up to
;

murderer and his nephew, that their perfecting

his charge the converted
2
might be done by Coemgen, and so redound to his credit.

1
Vita
"
by John of Tynemouth in Capgrave, Nova Legenda Anghce.
2
What avail my seven years of rigorous life in the desert, my vigils, sighs
and moans, the nettles, mallows and wild herbs, raw, that I have eaten, the
bark of trees and roots and wild fruit ... if my mansion in Heaven is to be
taken from me by Modwenna, and given to a robber ? " The author, however,
 S. Monynna 495
Then she conducted Coemgen and his fellows to a tank she had
"
formed, and to which was led a stream of tepid water. There,"
"
said she, off with your clothes and get in, and wash off your nasty
temper."
The biographer goes on to say that Monynna went about founding
which provoked a good deal of ridicule
religious houses in all directions,
which of the abbesses of the same name this applies
in some, but to
we do not know.
The Life by Concubran and that by Geoffrey of Burton now drift
away to Modwenna, and are quite regardless of chronology. Monynna
is made a contemporary of Congal or Conald II, who reigned at the
close of the seventh century, or of Congal III, who was slain in 956.
Also, King Alfred the Great, when a prince, comes to Ireland to be
miraculously cured by her of a grievous infirmity and then she ;

goes to England, and is given Edith of Polesworth to be her pupil.

The Life in the Salamanca Codex is free from this absurdity. It
"
says that she founded her monastery at a place called Caput Litoris,"
a four days' journey from Kildare, but this applies to the Saint of
Fochard.
Desiring a good Rule of Life, she sent one of her maidens, Brig or
Brignat, across to Rosnat or Cill-Muine (S. David's), to obtain thence
the best monastic regulations.
One night, when the sisters had risen for Matins, and were about to
commence the Psalms, Monynna stopped them. "Know," said she,
"
that our prayers hover about in the roof and cannot rise. That is

due to one of you having committed a fault."

After a long silence, one of the sisters, a widow, rose and said :

"
It is true.I am to blame. I suffer from cold feet, and so a man I

know gave me a pair of woollen stockings, and I am wearing them."

Monynna ordered them there and then to be stripped off and thrown
into the river, after which the arrested prayers were able to get through
the roof. 1
As the time of Monynna's death drew on, the faithful Brig or Brignat
was wont to watch at her cell, and she saw two swans fly away from it.
ic mentioned this to her mistress, who was very angry at her prying,

and foretold that in consequence she would become blind. The

Siihimanca Life says that in her last moments Monynna was ministered

makes this a suggestion of the Devil. Rather, it was what Coemgen said to
himself.
"
1
Duos sotulares a quodam viro . . . confiteor me recipesse, et oblivione
"
retardente, licentiam vestram non habui ; quos propter frigus in pedibus porto
Cod. Sal., col. 181.
49 6 Lives of the British Saints

to by her old director S. Ibar, whom it calls Herbeus ;

but this is

impossible, as Ibar died in 503.

We
come now to the question whether she be the same as the Mwynen
represented to be a daughter of the Irishman Brynach, and his wife
1
Corth, daughter of Brychan. It is possible. The Brychan family
had many connexions with precisely that part of Ireland where she
lived. According to the Tract on the Mothers of the Saints, Mogoroc,'
Abbot of Delgany, in Wicklow, was a son of Brychan Cynog was ;

also for a while in Ireland, also in Wicklow ;

Mobeoc and Cairbre,
other sons, were in Wexford ;
so was another, Elloc by name, and a
daughter, Cairine, was in Wexford.
2

This points to established and close intercourse between the family

of Brychan and South Ireland and this same family occupied the
;

North-east of Cornwall. Mwynen's brother (or uncle), Berwyn, is

expressly said to have settled in Cornwall, where he was murdered,

and Nicolas Roscarrock assures us that this Berwyn is the Bruer of
S. Breward, and that the place of his martyrdom was shown in his

day (1549-1634).
Considering the connexion, it is probable that the Brychan clan in
Wales would desire to of their own family to organize
have there one
the education of the daughters of the colony, and who so suitable ?
Of direct evidence there is none. At the best we have but a pre-
sumption. But the Irish authorities tell us nothing of the family of

Monynna of Leinster.
The foundations in Cornwall not necessarily made by Monynna in
person, but by disciples, and affiliated to her head house, and under
her rule, would be Morwenstow, Marhamchurch, perhaps S. Minver, and
S. Merryn.
The following tradition relative to S. Morwenna is in a MS. at
"
Portledge, of about 1610. Morwinstow its name is fromS. Moorin.
The tradition is that, when the parishioners were about to build their
church, this Saint went down under a cliff, and chose a stone for the
font, which she brought up upon her head. In her way, being weary,
she laid down the stone, and rested herself, out of which place sprang
a well, from thence called S. Moorwin's Well. Then she took it up
and carried it to the place where now the church standeth. The
parishioners had begun their church in another place, and there did
convey this stone, but what was built by day was pulled down by

1
See under S. MWYNEN, further on.
Shearman, Loca Patriciana, Table VIII. Colgan, Ada SS. Hibern., p.
2

311. Colgan attributes the tract to Oengus it was probably by Mac Firbiss.
;
 S. Mor 497
night, and the materials carried to this place whereupon they forbore ;

and built it in the place they were directed to by a wonder." 1

The day of Morwenna, Modwenna, or Monynna is July 5. She
S.

H entered on day in a Calendar of Reading Abbey (1220-46),

this
Cotton MS. Vesp. E. v also in a Calendar of the thirteenth or four-
;

teenth century, Additional MS. 27,866 and in both editions of ;

Wilson's Martyrologie. Also in Whytford, who gives both July 5

and September 9. In the Irish Calendars, those of Tallaght, O'Gorman,
Cashel, Donegal, and the Drummond Calendar, on July 6, as Monynna
of Slieve Cuillin, now
Killevy, in Armagh.
2
The Merryn is on July 7/
feast at S. That at Marhamchurch is on
August 12. At Morwenstow on June 24, as both the Church and
Holy Well were withdrawn from S. Morwenna, and placed under the
patronage of S. John Baptist. The feast at S. Minver, according to
William of Worcester, is on November 24. Roscarrock says November
23-
At Morwenstow Church is a fresco representing the Saint as a nun,
with one hand raised in benediction, and the other holding something
indistinguishable, in her hand, to her breast. In Art she could be
appropriately figured as an Irish Abbess in white, and with a swan
at her side.

S. MOR, Confessor
THREE persons of this name have been supposed to be Welsh Saints,
it the authorities are late.
1. Mor, son of Ceneuab Coel.
3
He was the father of Arthwys, and
>, according to the late genealogies, of S. Cynllo.

2. Mor, son of Pasgen ab Urien Rheged, and brother of Gwrfyw and

Llamined (or Lleminod) Angel. He is said to have been buried in
4
Bardsey.
3. A Mor mentioned in a hagiological note, of late date, in the lolo
"
MSS. 5 : Mor ab Morien brought (hither) Baptism and Faith (i.e.,
the Christian Religion), but would not bring Baptism into Gwynedd.
1
Transactions of the Exeter Dioc. Arch. Soc., \, pt. 2, Second Series, p. 216.
-
Nicolas Roscarrock says that in his day he heard S. Merryn or Marina called
Morwenna.
3
lolo MSS., p. 126. In Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd in Peniarth MS. 45 he
occurs as Mar ; cf the Mar of
.
Margam, Cambro-British Saints, p. 22.
* *
lolo MSS., pp. 128, 145. Pp. 146, 263-4.
VOL. ill. K K
49 8 Lives of the British Saints

The first that did so was Gwydion ab Don. Mor afterwards . . .

went to Rome and Jerusalem."

The last named may be at once dismissed his association with the
;

Culture Hero, is, to say the least, unfortunate. The other two, though
genuine as regards their existence and their pedigrees, do not occur
as Saints in any early Bonedd y Saint, the sole authority for them being
the lolo MSS. There was undoubtedly a Saint of the name, but
nothing authentic isof his origin. 1
known His protection, with that
of many other Saints, is invoked in an ode for Henry VII ; 2 and
Lewis Glyn Cothi, 3 about the same time, also invokes his protection
for the subject of one of his eulogies. His festival does not occur in
any of the Welsh Calendars, but it is mentioned as Gwyl For, without
4
date, several times in the late additions to the Laws of Hywel Dda.
The name Mor, though not common, was by no means rare in early
Welsh history.
There are three churches that are doubtfully attributed to Mor
as patron. In the case of two he is usually coupled with another
Saint, in fact, their true patrons. They are Llanfor, in Penllyn,
Merionethshire, Llannor, in Lleyn, Carnarvonshire, and Llanynys, in
Denbighshire. Rees assigns the three to Mor ab Ceneu, associating
with him Deiniol in the dedication of Llanfor, 5 and Saeran in that of
Llanynys.
6
The latter is, with much more probability, attributed 7
to Saeran alone and there can be no manner of doubt as to the
;

dedication of Llanfor to Deiniol. Of this there is sufficient evidence.

As supplementing what has been already said, 8 may be cited the
references in elegies by three bards of the early sixteenth century to

parishioners who were buried at Llanfor. Lewys Mon, in his elegy

" "
to Rhys Llwyd, of Gydros, mentions Eglwys Deinioel as his place
of sepulture Tudur Aled, in his to Wiliam ab Morys, of Rhiwaedog,
;

" "
says that he was buried dan weryd Deinioel and similarly Rhys ;

"
Cain, in his to Elsbeth Owain, of Rhiwaedog, mewn gweryd Dei-
nioel." The true dedication of Llannor is the Holy Cross, September
9
I4-
The error, in the case of Llanfor and Llannor, is, on the face of it,
comparatively recent. Mor has been simply read into the two names.
The early forms of both would now appear as Llan Fawr as one word
becoming Llanfor (cf. Dolfor, Trefor, Nanmor, etc.). In the Taxatio
See under S. MAGNUS ; Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 470.
3
lolo MSS., p. 314. Gwaith, 1837, p. 88.
Ed. Aneurin Owen, folio, pp. 522, 686, 700.
Welsh Saints, 1836, pp. 117-8, 341. 6
Ibid., pp. 118, 271, 334.
8
E.g., Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 278. ii, p. 330.
Willis, Bangor, p. 275.
 S. Moran or Mo derail 499
" " "
of 1254 Llannor occurs as Lan Vaur ;
in that of 1291 as Llan-
" * "
vawr and Llanfor in the latter as
; Lanvaur." The name
"
means The Large Church," but neither church could be described as
" "
large now. As applied to Llanfor, mawr may have had reference
to the large size of the original parish, and, as well might be assumed,
of its church also in the early Middle Age. Until the middle of last
century, when three parishes were carved out of it, Llanfor was a very
extensive parish, embracing an area of over 20,000 acres. Llannor at
one time included also Pwllheli.

S. MORAN or MODERAN, Bishop, Confessor

THE parish church of Lamorran (Lan-Moran), in Cornwall, is dedi-
cated to this Saint. The district is one of irregular settlements.
In Brittany S. Moran is known and venerated.
Nicolas Roscarrock calls him Moran or Morwene and says that r

his day as observed at Lamorran waTthe Tuesday before All Saints'

Day. This is about the time in which he is commemorated in the
Roman and Gallican Martyrologies, October 22.
Moran's or Moderan's Life by an anonymous writer has been pub-
lished by Dom Plaine in Studien u. Mittheilungen aus dem Benedict,
u.d. Cisterc.
Orden, Jahrg. viii, 1887, pp. 196-201. See also Mabillon,
Ada SS. O.S.B., saec. iii, i, pp. 517-21. Mention is also made of
the Saint by Flodoard.
4
Moran was son of the Count of Tornacis. He was destined for the
church, and brought up by Desiderius, Bishop of Rennes. The story
goes, that his father went to Britain, and there fell desperately in
love with a young and noble maiden. He
determined to marry her,
back the fact that he had a wife in Gaul, and to remain the
keeping
rest of his days in her native island. But the night before the marriage
Moran appeared to his father, and gave him so severe a lecture on
Ins conduct, and on the immorality of persuading a maiden to marriage
when his wife was alive, that the Count ran away from his intended
bride, and sneaked back to Brittany. He probably trusted that
the news of his adventure would not reach Tornacis, and the ears of
his wife. But he was undeceived his son had revealed his father's
;

" "
1
So to a late period, especially in poetry e.g.,
;
Llanfawr yn Llyn (1649).
The
in Cefn Coch MSS., 1899, p. 17. For the elision of / see under S. MABON.
name is the same as the Breton Lanveur.
500 Lives of the British Saints

delinquency, which was an unworthy and ungenerous proceeding,

and the Count's life thenceforth at home was anything but peaceful.
In the reign of Chilperic Moran was made Bishop of Rennes. Amelo,
Count of Rennes, was a thorn in his side, vexing the Church with
his exactions and violence, and Moran, to escape these annoyances,
or from motives of piety, resolved on absenting himself from his ses
for awhile, on the plea of a pilgrimage to Rome. He passed through
Rheims, where the treasurer of the church gratified him with some
choice relics a portion of the stole, horsehair shirt, and handkerchief
of S. Remigius. He continued his route to Rome, and crossed Monte
Bardone, one of the Apennines near Parma. There he made the
vow that, should he reach Rome in safety, he would spend the rest
of his days on this charming spot. As the major portion of his journey
and most of its perils were passed, it is pretty clear that he had made
up his mind to remain there, and not return to the dull country of
Rennes, and the vexations of an insolent Count. On his way back
from Rome, having happily accomplished his journey in safety, he
found that his legs inexorably refused to move into the plain below
the mountains, and only when he communicated to his companions
his intention of settling there did they regain their flexibility and

power of locomotion. He seems to have reconsidered the matter,

and seen that it was absolutely necessary for him to return to Rennes
and formally resign his bishopric. This he therefore did. He gave
up his office into the hands of his grand vicar, Aunscand, who was
consecrated in his room, and then he hastened back to Monte Bardone,
and built on its slopes a monastery called Berzetto. He died there
about the year 730, and was buried on the left hand of the altar.
Flodoard gives another version of the story. Moran forgot his
relics, and left them hanging on the branches of a leafy oak. On his
road he remembered them, and sent back a clerk named Wulfhad for
them but the clerk could not reach them, for the bough lifted them
;

into the air, high over his head. The bishop then returned, but he
could not recover his relics till he had made a vow to leave a portion
of them there in a little chapel dedicated to S. Abundius. Luitprand,
King of theLombards, hearing of the miracle, gave him lands on
Monte Bardone in honour of S. Remigius.
The which Lamorran is situated is between two creeks
district in
of the Fal, and has near by dedications to S. Clement, and S. Cornelius,
to the Irish S. Feacc, and the Cornish S. Cubi (Cybi). The explanation
of the existence near Truro of a dedication to a peculiarly uninteresting
Breton Saint is to be found in the migration of the Bretons to our
island. Rennes was not included in Brittany till after the conquests
 S. Mordaf 501
of Nominee in 846-50. The border land or marches were ravaged

remorselessly by Franks and Bretons indiscriminately, and it is quite

possible that some of the inhabitants of these marches then abandoned
their homes but the great exodus took place later, and was due to
;

"
the incursions of the Northmen. The Danes and Northmen burnt
the towns, the castles, the churches, the monasteries, the houses,
ravaged the country, desolated Brittany through its length and breadth,
till they had reduced the whole land to a solitude, to one vast desert.

Then was that the bodies of the Saints were taken out cf the land." l
it

Another chronicler says "As the pirates by the permission of the

:

Almighty devastated the whole of Brittany and reduced it to servitude,

the inhabitants, overwhelmed by the invaders, abandoned their homes,
and found places of refuge in other lands, but carried away with them
the precious relics of the Saints." -
The Nantes Chronicler says "At this time :
(i.e., at the beginning
of the invasion of 919) Mathuedoi, Count of Poher, escaped to Athelstan ,

King of England, with a crowd of Bretons (cum ingenti multitudine

Britonum), and with his son, Alan, whom he had of the daughter cf
Duke Alan the Great, and who later was called Barbetorte. King
Athelstan had before held this son at the font, and because of this
3
j
piritual tie, was greatly attached to him." There is an inaccuracy
in this. Athelstan was not king in 919 or 920 but the fact that ;

Mathuedoi and crowds of fugitives went to Britain is not disturbed by

this slip.
We may suspect that the introduction of the cult, and the founda-
tion of a church to S. Moran, was due to these refugees, who would
more readily go to a Celtic part of Britain than any other.
S. Moran or Moderan is given by Albert le Grand on October 22 ;

also in the Rennes Breviaiy of 1627 also in Sauss aye's Gallican;

Martyrology. But on May 13 in the thirteenth century Breviaiy of

S. Yves, at Treguier, and on May 16 in the MS. Breviary of S. Me-

lanius, at Rennes, due apparently to a translation of relics.

ft-

S. MORDAF
MORDAF, generally called Mordaf Hael, or the Generous, has been
included among the Welsh Saints in two late documents printed in
1
Vet. Coll. MS. De rebus Britannia in De la Borderie, Hist, de Breta%nc
T. ii, p. 356.
2 3
Ibid., p. 357. Chron. Namn., ed. Merlet, pp. 82-3.
 502 Lives of the British Saints

the lolo MSS., 1 but without any authority whatever. He was the
"
son of Serf an ab Cedig ab Dyfnwal Hen, 2 and one of the Men of the
"
North," who were warriors. In the chapter headed The Privileges
"
of Arfon in the Venedotian Code of the Welsh Laws, 3 we are told
that he, with Clydno Eiddin, Nudd Hael, and Rhydderch Hael all
northern chieftains invaded Arfon, in the time of Rhun ab Maelgwn
Gwynedd, to avenge the death of Elidyr Mwynfawr, another of the
"
Men of the North," and devastated Arfon. He is celebrated in the
"
Triads,* with Rhydderch and Nudd, as one of the Three Generous
Ones of the Isle of Britain." There is no evidence that he at any
time devoted himself to religion.
The compilers of the lolo Achau'r Saint probably thought that the
inclusion of Mordaf would account for the name Llanforda, now borne

by one of the townships of Oswestry, where is also a brook, Morda.

5 "
Leland says, Morda risith in a hille caullid Llanvarda wher was
a chirch now decaid." Llanfordaf simply means " the Church on
the Mordaf brook." There is nothing unusual in a river bearing a
man's name in fact, it is a common characteristic of the names of
;

Welsh rivers, especially brooks.

" "
Lanvorda was a chapel formerly in the parish of Llanedern,
near Cardiff, which is mentioned in a document of 1393, and also
" "
in one of 1236 as Lanbordan." Another Lambordan," mentioned
in 1392, was at Coed y\7Jores, in the parish of Roath, Cardiff it is ;

now a cottage called Ty'r Capel. There is a place of the same name
in the parish of Llangattock Feibion Afel, near Monmouth. 6
\ x. o

S. MORDEYRN, Confessor
"
THE cywydd m praise of Mordeyrn, an honoured Saint in'Nant-
glyn," by the sixteenth century bard Dafydd ab Llywelyn ab Madog, 7
" "
Pp. 106, 138. For a
1
saying attributed to him, see ibid., p. 253.
Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd. Mordaf is a somewhat rare name.
2 It was borne
by the blind man in Hanes Taliessin, and by the Bishop of Bangor who accom-
panied Hywel Dda to Rome for the confirmation of his Laws.
3 4
Ed. Aneurin Owen, folio, p. 50. Myv. Arch., pp. 389, 397, 404.
6
I tin., v, fo. 40.
6
Cardiff Records, i, pp. 101, 156 ii, p. 14 v, p. 386 Annales Monastici,.
; ; ;

ed. Luard, i, p. 100.

7
There are copies of the panegyric in at least four seventeenth century
MSS. Cardiff MS. 23, p. 252 ; Llanstephan MS. 167, p. 339 Additional MS.
;

12, 230, p. 240 ; Hafod MS. 10, fo. 34 (fragmentary). There is a summary of it in
Lewis Morris, Celtic Remains, pp. 315-6. Dafydd ab Gwilym in two of his poems
(ed. 1789, pp. 418, 448) alludes to Mordeyrn.
 S. Mordeyrn 53
seems to contain all that is known of him. His name is not entered
in a single Bonedd or Achau y Saint. The bard informs us that he
"
was a king's son, the offspring of blessed Edeyrn," a grandson of
" "
Cunedda Wledig, and of the same blood as S. David. This makes
him the son of Edeyrn (or rather, Edern) ab Cunedda, who, n the
Cuneddan Conquest of Wales, is credited with having received as his
share the district of Edeyrnion, in North-east Merionethshire.
Mordeyrn served God from his youth up. When many of his kin
of the twenty thousand Saints went to Bardsey, a causeway rose out
of the sea for their passage, but Mordeyrn crossed thither to them
on his golden-maned steed without wetting so much as a hoof hence ;

" "
his name, the Sovereign of the Sea." This leader and confessor of
"
the Faith afterwards returned to his home in the vale of Nantglyn,
"
where he has a befitting house (church), with ornate Sacrifice."
Here, where he died, is his shrine, as well as his beautiful image, which
imparted health to all sick folk. His devotees he rid of every affliction,
and such as resorted to him for their cattle had them preserved from
"
disease for a whole year. They came laden with obktions of fine
wax and gold." Might he ever defend his people from all harm and
ill, and finally bring them all safe to heaven !

His festival is not given in any of the Welsh Calendars, but in the
MS. additions to the Calendar in a copy of the Preces Private of 1573
in the S. Beuno's (Jesuit) College Library there is entered against
"
July 25, G. mab. Na'tglyn," the Feast of the Patron of Nantglyn.
e
Edward Lhuyd says that "his Feast (is) y First Sund : after St.

James's."
The only parish of which Mordeyrn is known to have been patron
is Nantglyn, near Denbigh. The
old Capel Mordeyrn has long since

disappeared. The present parish church is dedicated to S. James the

Apostle, whose festival day is the same as Mordeyrn 's, which accounts
for the ousting of the native Saint. The chapel was situated about
a quarter of a mile from the church, on a part of Clasmor farm. Le-
"
land 1 writes of it, There is a Chapelle by a Paroch Chirch in a Place
caullid corruptely Nanclin for Nantglin by Astrat-brooke, where as
divers Sainctes were of auncient Tyme buried." Lhuyd, 1699, says
that foundations were to be seen in his time, and adds that the
its
"
people there were accustomed to sell turf (gweryd, terra) out of the
chapel for the cure of diseases on cattle." He also mentions Ffynnon
2
Fordeyrn, his Holy Well.
1
Itin., iv, fo. 46.
2
Parochialia, pp. 151-2, Suppl. to Arch. Camb., 1909. He observes of Nant-
"
glyn Sanctorum, It was a sanctuary, they say."
 504 Lives of the British Saints

The two ancient townships of the parish were named Nantglyn

Canon and Nantglyn Sanctorum. What Leland says has, no doubt,
reference to the latter and the bridge over the brook is called Pont
;

Rhyd y Saint. The former township took its name from Canon (or
1
Cynon) ab Llywarch, whose progenies was Iccated there.

S. MORFAEL
"
IN a brief chronicle, printed in the lolo MSS., 2 entitled the Periods
of Oral Tradition and Chronology," but which is utterly unreliable,
"
we are told that the mythical Llyr Llediaith drove the Goidels
out of his country and made a caer on the banks of the river
. . .

Loughor, which he called Dinmorfael, from the name of his dearest

daughter, who died there. He subsequently erected there a church
which was called Llanmorfael, but now its name is Loughor Castle."
We should have expected it to appear as Llanforfael.
The Bonedd or Achau y Saint know nothing of a Morfael as Saint,
"
but there was once a church that bore the name. One of the Verses
"
of the Graves in the twelfth century Black Book of Carmarthen 3
informs us that
The grave of Owain ab Urien (Rheged) is in a secluded part of the world-
Under the sod of Llan Morfael.

Morfael was also a man's name. It occurs in the Old-Welsh pedi-

grees in Harleian MS. 3859 as Mormayl. It was the name of a son

of Cyndrwyn, and of an early bishop of S. David's.

S. MORHAIARN, Confessor

OF Morhaiarn absolutely nothing appears to be known beyond the

fact that he ispatron of Trewalchmai, subject to Heneglwys, in Angle-
sey,
4
and that his festival was observed there on All Saints' Day. 5

1
Seebohm, Tribal System in Wales, 1904, append. B (Extent of Denbigh,
1335).
2 P.
38-
3
Ed. Evans, 1906, p. 64 Skene, ii, p. 29. Stephens, Literature of the Kymry,
;

1876, p. 184, thought it was in Pembrokeshire, east of Fishguard.

4
J. Gwenogvryn Evans, Report
on Welsh MSS., i, p. 912. With the name
compare the Breton Morhuarn.
5
Browne Willis, Bangor, 1721, p. 281 ; Nicolas Owen, History of Anglesey,
1775. P- 57-
 S. Mwrog 505
S. MORWENNA, see S. MONYNNA
S. MWCHWDW
THERE were some years ago the remains of a chapel, dedicated to
this Saint, on an eminence some three-quarters of a mile south of
Parys Mountain towards its western end in the parish of Rhosybol,
Anglesey. There is nothing to be seen of it to-day. But the tenant
farmer in ploughing the field comes across its foundations and a ;

tombstone, which now does duty as a door-step to a house in the parish,

is believed to have come from the cemetery which the chapel is known

to have had.
The Saint's name occurs under various spellings, but oftenest as
Bwchwdw and Mwchwdw, and the chapel is generally known as
" "
Bettws Bwchwdw. Leland 1 gives it as Bettws Machwdo and ;

"
in a parish-list of 1590-1 2 it occurs as LI. vochwdw." Nothing is
known locally of the Saint.

S. MWROG, Confessor

THIS Saint's name does not occur in any copy of the Welsh saintly
pedigrees. Two
parish churches are, or were, under his invocation.
One, the more important church, is Llanfwrog, Denbighshire, on the
outskirts of the town of Ruthin, but which has for many centuries,
no doubt at some re-building, been re-dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.
Above the church is a field called, in the terrier of 1672, Bryn Mwrog,
which forms part of the glebe. 3 The other church is Llanfwrog,
under Llanfaethlu, in Anglesey. There is a tradition that there was
formerly a small chapel, dedicated to him, in a field called Mynwent
this church, but not a
Mwrog, on Cefnglas Farm, about a mile from
4
vestige of it now
remains. It has been supposed, but quite wrongly,
that Bodwrog Church, under Llandrygarn, also in Anglesey, is

dedicated to him, and not to Twrog.

Festival days in two different months are given him in January,

1
Collect., 1774, iv, p. 88.
a
J. Gwenogvryn Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 912. For Bettws ( =
Bead-house) becoming Llan, cf. Bettws Cadwaladr, now Llangadwaladr, in

Denbighshire.
3 "
Bryn y Golwg (the Hill of the View) was the name formerly of the spot
where Llanfwrog Church now stands "Peniarth MSS. 134, 176 Cardiff MS. 1 5. ;

4
Lewis Morris, Celtic Remains, pp. 41, 321.
 506 Lives of the British Saints

but unknown to the calendars, and in September. Browne Willis '

gives January 6 for Anglesey, and the i6th for Denbighshire

2
Rees, ;

the 6th and I5th. Possibly he has been mistaken for S. Maurus
founder and abbot of Glanfeuil or S. Maur-sur-Loire, on January 15.
September 23 is his festival in the Welsh MS. additions to the calendar
in a copy of the Preces Private?, 1573, in S. Beuno's (Jesuit) College

Library ;
the 24th in the Calendars in Peniarth MSS. 27 (pt. i), 172,
186, 187, 219, Jesus College MSS. 22, 141, Mostyn MS. 88, Llanstephan
MSS. 117, 181, the lolo MSS., and the Welsh Prymer of 1546 and the ;

25th in Additional MS. 14,882. These calendars, almost unanimously,

give the 24th as his day and the festival of the neighbouring S.
;

Meugan at Llanrhydd, Ruthin, on the 25th, would favour that date.

There is a poem written in his honour, Cywydd i Fwrog Sant, to be
found in Llanstephan MS. 167, of the end of the seventeenth century,
by an unknown bard, but it contains no particulars of his life.
3
He
" "
is a crosiered shepherd in his choir, supreme, like a Beuno of Ruthin ;

and we have related his posthumous miracles in the cure of the sick
and the blind and the lame. William of Worcester 4 says that he
" "
reposes at Ruthin. Mwrog haeldeg (the bounteous-fair) is men-
" " "
tioned among the dozen seamen who formed S. Cybi's family,"
and who are nearly all associated as Saints with Anglesey. 5 Lewis
Glyn Cothi invokes his protection for the subject of one of his
poems,
" "
and in another poem exclaims, Myn delw Fwrog Wyn !
(By the
Blessed Mwrog's image !). 6 His name occurs twice in an ode to King
Henry VII, wherein the poet invokes the protection and aid of a
7

great number of Saints for that king.

A Ffynnon Fwrog is mentioned as being near Llansannan, and Cae
Mwrog is the name of a parcel of land belonging to a Llanfyllin charity.
There was a S. Moroc, Bishop and Confessor, in Scotland, whose
festival isNovember 8. His church and sepulchre (Maworrock) are
stated in the Martyrology of Aberdeen to be at Lekraw, near Stirling.
At Dowally, near Dunkeld, is a place called Kilmorick, and a Kil-
morack in Inverness-shire. 8

1
Bangor, 1721, pp. 278, 280. Nicolas Owen, Hist, of Anglesey, 1775, p. 59
gives the 6th for the Anglesey parish.
2 Welsh
Saints, p. 308.
3
It is probably this poem that is referred to in Myv. Arch., p. 428.
4
I tin., p. 119.
5 Their names are given in a short poem, Teulu Cybi Sant, which occurs in
Peniarth MS. 225, Mostyn MS. no, and elsewhere.
6 7
lolo MSS., pp. 313-5*
Gwaith, 1837, pp. 53, 96.
8
Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, 1872, p. 414.
 S. Myfor 507
MWYNEN or MWYNWEN, Virgin

IS. MWYNEN and M\vynwen

1
represent one person. In the Myvyrian
Archaiology she is made, as Mwynen, to be a daughter of Brychan,
but in the lolo MSS., 2 as Mwynen and Mwynwen, his grand-daughter,
being the daughter of Brynach Wyddel by Brychan 's daughter Corth
or Cymorth, and she is there further said to be the sister of Gerwyn,
Gvvenan, and Gwenlliw. The early Brychan lists know nothing of her
or of her mother.
See S. MONYNNA.

S. MYBARD, see S. MEUBRED

S. MYDAN, Confessor
THE an entry in the lolo MSS., 3
sole authority for this Saint is
where he stated to have
is been the son of Pasgen ab Urien Rheged,
and a Saint of Cor Catwg, at Llancarfan. He had a brother, S. Gwrfyw,
who was the father of S. Nidan. It is quite possible that Mydan is a
misreading for Nidan, with the father's name dropped out, as not
infrequently the case in late documents. See, however, under S.
ME DAN.

S. MYFOR, Confessor
THE early forms of the Monmouthshire Church-name, Llanover,
clearly suggest, as the name of the Saint involved, a form which might
appear in modern spelling as Myfor. The church is now dedicated
to S. Bartholomew, but it has been generally supposed that its original

patron was a hermit named Gofor or Cover. See what has been said
of the church-name and the Saint under S. GOFOR (p. 133). The
Mawr of Merthyr Mawr
4
(now dedicated to S. Teilo), in Glamorgan-
shire, is a corruption of the Myfor name. It should be stated that

Merthyr does not appear to have borne in Wales the same meaning
as the Latin Martyrium, but probably meant, as in Ireland, a cemetery
*
1
P. 428. 2
pp. I2 I, 141. P. 102.
4
For the Book of Llan Ddv forms of the name see the references in its index,

p. 412.
 5 o8 Lives of the British Saints ,

which had been sanctified by the relics (in Irish, martre) of a Saint, in
this case Myfor, with perhaps a small chapel so that it does not ;

follow that the Saint was a martyr.

a rare name. Sir John Rhys suggests *
Myfor is that the doubtful
reading, Mavorius, of an inscribed stone at Kirkmadrine, Wigtown-
shire, may perhaps be related to it.

S. MYGNACH
THE sole authority for Mygnach as a Saint is the lolo MSS., where
"
occur the two following entries Mygnach, the son of Mydno, of
:

Caer Seon, was registrar of Cor Cybi. He was a Saint at Caer Gybi,
"
in Anglesey, and afterwards principal of that Cor." 2 S. Mygnach,
of Caer Leon, the son of Mydno ab Gwron ab Arch ab Gwrddyled
ab Eginir ab Owain Finddu ab Macsen Wledig." 3 By Caer Seon is,
no doubt, meant the Roman fortress Segontium, near Carnarvon.
The same work contains the following notice, with, it would appear,
"
a reference to Mygnach The three Chief Bards of Maelgwn Gwy-
:

nedd, who were also the three primitive Chief Bards of Gwynedd, were
Mynach ab Nywmon (al. ab Mydnaw), the son of the King of Ore
(Orkney), Unhwch Unarchen, and Maeldaf ab Unhwch but Taliessin, ;

Chief of the Bards, acquired superiority over these three, by releasing

Elphin ab Gwyddno from the prison of Maelgwn Gwynedd, where he
was confined under thirteen locks." 4
Mygnach may have been a Saint for all we know, but he was certainly
a bard. In the twelfth century Black Book of Carmarthen 5 occurs
"
a dialogue in verse, which is entitled in the Myvyrian text, 6 A
Dialogue between Ugnach ab Mydno, of Caer Seon, and Taliessin, of
Caer Deganwy." It is of a purely secular character, and represents
Ugnach or Mygnach as lord of a dinas, or stronghold, near Carnarvon.
Taliessin addresses him as " the most affluent in riches," and invokes
"
a blessing upon his throne."
A Mygnach Gor, or the Dwarf , recorded in the Triads
as having
is
1

a daughter named Fflur, who was carried away by the Romans, an

incident which, it is alleged, led to the invasion of Britain under

Julius Caesar.
1 Y Cymmrodor, xviii (1905), p. 36.
2 3 *
P. 109. P. 139. P. 73.
6
Ed. Evans, 1906, pp. 101-2 Skene, ii, pp. 56-7.
;

6 P. 44. 7
Myv. Arch., pp. 392-3, 399. 410.
 S. Mynno 509
S. MYLLIN, see S. MOLING
S. MYNNO, Confessor
THIS "is the now-forgotten patron Saint of Moylgrove (in Welsh,
Tre Wyddel), Pembrokeshire, which is to-day given, but doubtfully,
1
S. Andrew as its patron. In the Vairdre Book, under the parish,
2 "
we find : the said stang of grownd wrch was geven to the churche
for the said tithe \\^ stange is called stanged mynno vzd such a saintes

stang." In composition with Llan the name would be liable to be

modified into Wynno.
1
Lewis, Topog. Diet. (1833), and Diocesan Calendar ; Browne Willis, to S.
David Rice Rees, no dedication.
;

2 Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii,

p. 307.

END OF VOL III