Gŵyl Gildas Ddoeth/ St Gildas Day : Father of Welsh historians.

 

St. Gildas, Patron Saint of Welsh historians and bell founders. generally known as Venerable Gildas the Wise (c.500-c.570) feast day is celebrated today 

 He was probably born in the year when the Britons defeated the Saxons at the battle of Mount Badon (most scholars presume that this took place in the 490s near the city of Bath in Somerset). Though Gildas's own origins are obscure;  tales suggest that he was born in Scotland on the banks of the Clyde (possibly at Dumbarton), the son of a Pictish king, named Cau (or Nau) and, and he most likely had several brothers and sisters. 

In his youth St. Gildas was married but was later widowed. The saint became a close disciple of St Illtyd in South Wales in his famous Llanilltud Fawr Monastery in the Vale of Glamorgan. Such great saints as Sts. Samson and Paul Aurelian may have studied in Llanilltud together with him. St. Gildas is regarded as one of the principal apostles of the Orthodox faith and early preachers of Wales, though very scarce details of his activities in the region survive. He was one of the most influential fathers of Welsh monasticism in the sixth century. Some biographers even attribute to him the composition of a monastic rule.

He lived in a time when the glory of Rome had faded from Britain. The permanent legions had been withdrawn by Maximus, who used them to sack Rome and make himself Emperor.

Christianity had arrived in Wales at the height of Roman power and was banned initially by the authorities who were suspicious of its secrecy and exclusivity. At first it was an urban religion, and the first Christian martyrs in Wales were killed early in the fourth century at the legionnaires' town of Caerleon.

However it soon became tolerated. and by the end of the 4th century Christianity became the sole official religion of the Roman Empire.

Gradually Roman power declined in Britain, until finally in 410 AD Emperor Honorarius advised the Britons to organise their own defences against the Barbarian threat. The only account to survive from this period comes from  St Gildas.

Gildas wrote of the decline and ruin of Britain caused by its debauched and decadent rulers, with the pagan invaders being God's revenge for their spectacular fall from grace. The conflict, particularly with the Anglo-Saxons, created a process during the next two hundred years whereby a 'Welsh' people emerged out of the remaining Romano-Britons and native peoples, with their identity being chiefly based on a common religion and a common language.

According to St. Gildas  writing in about 540, the British Christians “received the faith without enthusiasm”, but nevertheless kept it “more or less pure right up to the nine-year persecution by the tyrant Diocletian” in the early fourth century. He goes on to describe that persecution, when lack of enthusiasm turned into great zeal: “Before ten years of this whirlwind had wholly passed, the wicked edicts were beginning to wither away as their authors were killed. Glad-eyed, all the champions of Christ welcomed, as though after a long winter’s night, the calm and serene light of the breezes of heaven. They rebuilt churches that had been razed to the ground; they founded, built and completed chapels to the holy martyrs, displaying them everywhere like victorious banners. They celebrated feast days. With pure heart and mouth they carried out the holy ceremonies. And all her sons exulted, as though warmed in the bosom of the mother Church."

Gildas was known for his piety and his education. He was not afraid to publicly rebuke monarchs who did not uphold Church teachings, even though rebukes were typically met with swords rather than Court penalties.

What is fiction and what is fact sometimes becomes blurred in the telling of many saints’ stories from the early Church. Such is the case with St. Gildas. There are two accounts of the life of St. Gildas the Wise, and it is important to note neither of which tell the same story. Both biographies contain irritatingly unchronological and misleading statements, which have led some critics to reject the lives as altogether valueless. 

The earlier one, from the 9th century, was written by an anonymous monk of Rhuys, at the monastery where Gildas ended his days. It is long, detailing Gildas' studies with St. Illtud and his work in Ireland, and emphasizing Gildas' work in Brittany. The second life, is by Welsh cleric Caradoc (or Caradog) of Llancarfan, from the 12th century. He was a friend of Geoffry of Monmouth (c. 1095 - c. 1155), author of a famous History of the Kings of Britain, one of the earliest sources for Arthurian mythology; besides the Life of Gildas and another of Cadoc (or Cadog), another Welsh saint, Caradoc is also claimed to have written a continuation of Monmouth's work. Caradoc's life emphasizes Gildas' ties to Wales, and it also connects him to Arthurian mythology, having Gildas meet King Arthur and forgive him for slaying one of Gildas' brothers,Cuil (or Hueil) nevertheless  no contemporary sources support that hypothesis. In truth however , we know little of the man beyond his name. The Life also includes the first mention of Meligaunt (here Melwas), an Arthurian villain who kidnapped Queen Guinevere. According to the most popular version, the future saint was born in Scotland, in what is now Dumbarton on the banks of the River Clyde, but according to another version, his birthplace was in North Wales.

In his youth St. Gildas was married but was later widowed. The saint became a close disciple of St Illtyd in South Wales in his famous Llanilltud Fawr Monastery in the Vale of Glamorgan. Such great saints as Sts. Samson and Paul Aurelian may have studied in Llanilltud together with him.

St. Gildas is regarded as one of the principal apostles of the Orthodox faith and early preachers of Wales, though very scarce details of his activities in the region survive. He was one of the most influential fathers of Welsh monasticism in the sixth century. Some biographers even attribute to him the composition of a monastic rule.

It is possible that for some time Gildas lived as  a very ascetic hermit on Flatholm – an island in the Bristol Channel, situated off the coast of Cardiff in Wales. A number of other ancient ascetics of South Wales used to live on this island as well.  There he established his reputation for that peculiar Celtic sort of holiness that consists of extreme self-denial and isolation. At around this time, according to the Welsh, he also preached to Nemata, the mother of St David, while she was pregnant with the Saint.

Gildas is noted not only as a prominent ascetic, preacher, founder of monasteries and teacher of monks, but also as a spiritual author. Gildas was not a trained historian. His book, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae  (“On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain”), was written in c.540. In this work Gildas strictly reproaches his compatriots the Britons, for whose sins Britain was attacked and invaded by Angles and Saxons. In this book the saint gives an account of British history from the Roman period until his own time (which makes him sadly an invaluable source), describing the corruption and decline of faith among many of his contemporaries, including rulers and clerics. Gildas is scathing in his condemnation of clerics, but even more so in his criticism of the British kings during his lifetime, particularly those in Wales and the south-west of modern England. He seems particularly upset that these kings pay homage to an unnamed, but presumably pagan, ruler. Gildas veils his writings as metaphors and veiled allusions based on Biblical tales. Gildas saw the devastation wrought by Germanic invaders as the wrath of God visited upon the British for the sins of their churchmen and kings. Later this book was cited by such distinguished historians as St. Bede of Jarrow and the learned monk Alcuin. The writings of Gildas reflect his profound knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, works of some authors of antiquity (for example, Virgil) and even books of Church Fathers of East and West, like St. Ignatius the God-Bearer of Antioch and St. John Cassian. Unfortunately his book, leaves out just about everything we'd really like to know. Although that was the era of the legendary king Arthur, Gildas never mentions him. In fact, he ignored all too many names and dates. Mostly he was concerned to show how the sins of the clergy and nobles weakened the Celts and made them a pushover for the Saxons.

Sadly  almost nothing survives of the literary works of Gildas, except for a longer book, “The Epistle,” a series of sermons on the moral failings of rulers and the clergy. The book demonstrates Gildas’ vast knowledge of the Bible and classical works. and these books enjoyed great popularity in Wales, England and Ireland for many centuries. .

Gildas' reputation stood high among the early monks, but he is less esteemed by later and modern writers. Historians who have quarried his early chapters are understandably irritated that he did not provide a clear narrative with names and dates; and the extraordinary Latin-bias of his main invective seems tiresome, its purpose irrelevant to other ages. The narrative is unclear because it was written from oral memory, which is always defined by the direct limits of people within their own age - anything outside of living memory takes on a slightly unreal, or legendary air.

All Gildas understood of the Roman past was that it was orderly; although he knew two northern walls, he knew nothing of when or why they were built. Oral memory took him back to the wars and a dateless Vortigern but no further.

Through the missionary work Gildas did in Ireland, he converted many there, and may be the one who introduced anchorite customs to Irish monks. From Ireland, Gildas retired to Rhuys, in Brittany, where he founded a monastery. He wrote many works on running a monastery, but only the Penitential, a guide for abbots to set punishments, still exists.

 He is considered one of the most influential men in the early English Church.The influence of his writing was felt until well into the middle ages, particularly in the Celtic Church.Today this celebrated saint is venerated in France, Wales and Ireland, but above all in Brittany. One of the main centers of his veneration is Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys (named after him) in the Rhuys Peninsula, Morbihan, Brittany where he is said to have died  around 571. The major relics of this saint were kept here in ancient times (and, according to later traditions, a portion of his relics was kept at Glastonbury in England where he may have labored for some time).

In the eighteenth century a part of his relics was said to be preserved at Vannes Cathedral in Brittany. The wooden monastery founded by Gildas in Rhuys was rebuilt in the eleventh century in stone and the large abbey existed there more or less until the French Revolution, and the saint’s relics healed the mental diseases of numerous pilgrims.

As far as historical accuracy goes, the accounts of Gildas must be regarded with a pinch of salt, but nevertheless his writing remains one of the few early written histories of Britain, and as such has remain a popular reference point in an age with few written records.and is quoted by Bede and Alcuin.. Two manuscript copies of his writings are preserved in Cambridge University.Whether completely factual or peppered with inspiring (and sometimes strange) myth, the legends of saints are still powerful and fascinating tales,