Stefan's Florilegium

St-Gildas-art

St-Gildas-art - 1/21/02

"A short biography of St Gildas, known as The Wise" by Master Hrolf Herjolfssen

NOTE: See also the files: religion-msg, St-Hildegard-msg, Wales-msg, England-
msg, Arthur-bib, cl-Rom-Brit-art, monks-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that
I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some
messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with
seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes
extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were
removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I
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individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
mark.s.harris@motorola.com stefan@florilegium.org
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A short biography of St Gildas, known as The Wise
by Master Hrolf Herjolfssen

Who was St Gildas? He was probably born about 517 AD, but we do not even know
for sure where he was born. Various ecclesiastic authorities give the North of
England or Wales. The North of England is the more likely. This is one of the
things connecting him with the "real" Arthur, who was probably also based in
this area. He was also sometimes known as Badonicus - as he was born in the
year of Arthur's victory in a battle of that name against the Saxons. Gildas
thus spent his childhood during the time when the Saxons were kept quiet by this
defeat. We know his father's name was Cau (or Nau) and that he came from noble
lineage. He probably had several brothers. It is likely that one of these,
Cuil (or Hueil), was killed by Arthur (who died in 537 AD). It also appears
that he may have forgiven Arthur for this.

He lived in a time when the glory of Rome was faded from Britain. The permanent
legions had been withdrawn by Maximus, who used them to sack Rome itself and
make himself Emperor. Despite several expeditions to the island to drive off
Saxons, Picts and Scots (most notably under the great general Stilicho), the
Britons had generally been left to their own devices and were made responsible
for their own defence. Most of the landed Romans (as all Britons had Roman
citizenship) left for the more defensible lands of Brittany.

Of his character, he seems to have been a very sombre and severe figure. He was
noted for his piety in a time when this meant a denial of the flesh. In a time
when this was usual for holy men, he was regarded as notable. He was well-
educated and was not afraid of publicly rebuking contemporary monarchs, at a
time when libel was answered by a sword, rather than a Court order. He was a
figure more familiar with the Old Testament than with the New and he may have
regarded his sermons on vice as being comparable to the Prophets in denouncing
the sins of Kings.

Gildas lived for many years as a very ascetic hermit on Flatholm Island in the
Bristol Channel. Here 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.

In about 547 he wrote a book De Excidio Britanniae (The Destruction of Britain).
In this he writes a brief tale of the island from pre-Roman times and criticises
the rulers of the island for their lax morals and blames their sins (and those
that follow them) for the destruction of civilisation in Britain. The book was
avowedly written as a moral tale and it probably should not be regarded as
history. It contains only one date (and gets it wrong).

He is tireless in his criticism of the Britons. Indeed his description of pre-
conquest Britain is more harsh on his countrymen than Roman commentators whom he
was familiar with (such as Tacitus). He never neglects a chance to comment on
their faults and never uses a single example of British victory or moral
uprightness. This is probably one of the reasons that he says nothing about
Arthur, although Nennius and the Welsh Annals (slightly later histories), both
mention him.

He also wrote a longer work, the Epistle. This is a series of sermons on the
moral laxity of rulers and of the clergy. In these Gildas shows that he has a
wide reading of the Bible and of some other classical works. We also have some
fragments of some of his letters. I rather like: "Miriam was condemned to
leprosy because she and Aaron agreed in blaming Moses because of his Ethiopian
wife. We should be afraid of this fate when we disparage good princes for
trifling faults."

He was also a very influential preacher, visiting Ireland and doing much
missionary work. He was responsible for the conversion of much of the island
and may be the one who introduced anchorite customs to the monks of that land.
By legend he brought a bell of very pure tone back from Ireland. This bell was
associated with Llancarfan, where he taught. While based here, it appears
likely that he went on a voyage of pilgrimage to Rome - a very rare thing in
those days. Gildas took the bell with him as a present for the Pope. Despite
being intact, it refused to ring. This was taken by everyone to mean that the
bell was to be returned to Wales and Gildas returned with it. He retired from
Llancarfan to Rhuys, in Brittainy, where he founded a monastery.

Of his work on the running of a monastery (one of the earliest known in the
Christian Church), only the so-called Penitential, a guide for Abbots in setting
punishment, survives. It is interesting as it shows, not only the severity of
the penances, but also the sorts of crimes that were common enough for Gildas to
write about. Sodomy, natural fornication, bestiality, masturbation, dropping
the Host, arriving late for Mass, drunkenness and the eating of carrion are all
covered.

He died around 571 AD, at Rhuys. The monastery that he had founded became the
centre of his cult.

Gildas had two biographies (or Lives) written about him within the Middle Ages.
They were written in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, although it appears
that they had (different) earlier works to draw upon. The earliest is written
by a monk of Rhuys, and so he may have had monastic records to draw upon. The
other was written in Wales, probably by Caradoc of Llancarfan. They differ
markedly. This probably represents different local writings and traditions.
Gildas is the patron of no particular group, nor has he any usually associated
iconography or items. Both of these are to be expected as he is a clear
historical figure, based in the West, with no major allegorical legends attached
to him. If depicting him however, a bell would be the most likely associated
item.

He is regarded as being one of the most influential figures of the early English
Church. The influence of his writing was felt until well into the Middle Ages,
particularly in the Celtic Church. He is also important to us today as the
first British writer whose works have survived fairly intact. His feast day is
29 January (which, co-incidentally, is when I am writing this). Happy Feast Day
St. Gildas!

Note: The Welsh Annals, famous for their brief coverage of history (not all
years have an entry - most are one line) has the following entries that are
about Gildas:

565 Navigatio Gildę in Hybernia (The sailing of Gildas into Ireland)
570 Gildas Britonum sapientis-simus obiit (Gildas the snub-nosed, wisest of
Britons, he died)
_____

Bibliography

Black A&C (1989) The Book of Saints: A Dictionary of Servants of God canonized
by the Catholic Church, compiled by the Benedictine monks of St Augustine's
Abbey, Ramsgate A & C Black, London. ISBN 0 7136 3006 X

Farmer, David Hugh (1987) The Oxford Dictionary of Saints Oxford University
Press, Oxford. ISBN 0 19 282038 9

Marsh, Henry (1970) Dark Age Britain - sources of history Dorset Press, New
York. ISBN 0 88029 156 7

Williams ab Ithel, Rev. John (editor) (1860) Annales Cambrię (number 20 of the
Rolls Series) HMSO, London. Uni Library: DA 25.B5 no.20 1968

Winterbottom, Michael (editor and translator) (1978) Gildas: The Ruin of Britain
and other works Phillimore & Co, Chichester. ISBN 0 85033 295 8. Uni Library:
DA 135.G5413 1978

I wish to thank Lady Medhbh Anceann de Ehilean for her assistance with the
translation of Latin.

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Copyright 2002 by Cary J Lenehan, 16 Maweena Pl, Kingston, Tasmania, 7050,
Australia. <lenehan@our.net.au>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-
related publications, provided the author is credited and receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in
the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also
appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being
reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

<the end>