St Gildas

29^th January is the saint’s day for Gildas, a British saint who also has a claim to fame as an early historian, although his judgments on the evils of his time should probably not be taken at face value. He is an important source for the legend of King Arthur.

Gildas was born in about the year 500 in Scotland but moved south to Wales, where he became a hermit at Llanilltud. However, he did not stay put for long, and his travels took him to many places, including Ireland and Rome.

At one time in his life he married but was then widowed. At another, he lived on the island of Flatholm in the Bristol Channel. He founded a religious house at Ruys in Brittany, which is where he died in the year 570.

He was clearly very well read, and his travels brought him into contact with many different people of all levels of society. He became disenchanted with the morals of his fellow men, particularly the clergy and those in power, and one purpose of setting pen to paper was to contrast the laxity of his age with the purity of the rulers of past times. His stated aim was to chronicle “the miseries, the mistakes and the downfall of Britain”.

The history that he wrote (entitled “De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae” or “On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain”) reads more like a sermon than a historical document, but it is still a valuable contribution for understanding a period that is often referred to as the “Dark Ages” that followed the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain in the early 5^th century.

However, it was written with a specific moral purpose in mind, and Gildas may well have exaggerated some of the details of the evils of his time.

© John Welford