St Brynach’s Church, Nevern, Dyfed
The seventh of April is the feast day, in the Orthodox Church, of a contemporary and friend of Dewi Sant, a sixth-century anchorite of Dyfed, Saint Brynach of Nevern. A widely-travelled itinerant saint, not unlike many of his eremitical brothers and sisters in the Celtic Church, Brynach was widely respected for a simple way of life that was close to nature. Wild animals, in particular deer and birds, were said to obey him.
Brynach [also Brannock or Brenacus] was likely born in Ireland. His name, which is Gælic, and also his cognomen Wyddel (‘Irishman’) attest to this as his place of origin; though there is another, rather more fanciful tradition that holds that he was born in Calabria, Italy. As a young man he made his way to Rome on pilgrimage, and fought and slew a great serpent there. On his return journey he stopped and evangelised among the Bretons. He made a name for himself there in healing the sick and the infirm.
He thereon made his way across the English Channel on a ‘floating stone’ – probably a reference to the portable altar he brought with him from Brittany – to Milford Haven. He was severely tested upon entering Wales, both spiritually and physically. He made his way to Llanboidy, where the local villagers proved inhospitable and would not give him lodging. He slept in a cow-shed. He received the same treatment in the neighbouring village of Cilymaenllwyd and had to sleep out-of-doors. He came at last to Llanfyrnach where he was to make his hermitage, but he came across a lewd woman who attempted to sleep with him to prove he wasn’t a saint. This woman, however, was a local nobleman’s daughter. After he rebuffed her, she ordered several of her father’s men to attack the saint with cudgels and spears and leave him for dead. Brynach survived only on account of a kindly passer-by who washed his wounds in a nearby stream. This may be Ffynnon Goch in Llanfair-Nant-Gwyn.
He moved on to Pont-faen on the River Gwaun, but was attacked there by dæmons and forced again to move. He tried again to make a hermitage at Brynhenllan but, at first, the locals stole all of his building materials, and an angel even appeared to him and told him that this place was not meant for him. From there he set off to Nevern, where he was able to settle at last.
Once in Nevern, Saint Brynach set about building his hermitage, which is now St Brynach’s Church in Nevern. He did this, so the story goes, by speaking with the wild deer that lived thereabouts, and entreating them to help him haul timber and break ground for the foundations. He also called to the hinds, who tamely let him milk them, and this was how he fed himself and his workmen. As he was building, he so impressed the local landlord – Clether, a son of Brychan Brycheiniog – that the man gave up his holding entire to the saint, and entrusted to him his twenty sons for tutoring. Clether went into Cornwall and retired into a hermitage of his own.
Saint Brynach had a cow which wondrously gave enough milk that the entire monastery could be fed by it. It is said that Maelgwn King of Gwynedd, on hearing of this cow, sought out Saint Brynach’s hermitage in Nevern with mischief on his mind. He went to Nevern and demanded of Brynach that he and his monks entertain him and his retinue, and provide them with enough meat and bread and cheese to feed them all. Of course Brynach and his monks had but their own poor fare with them, and so Maelgwn had the cow brought out and slaughtered, and prepared the water in which to boil the meat. Yet however hot the fire he put underneath the cauldron, the water within remained ice-cold and would not boil so much as a leaf. Maelgwn, understanding that this was a holy wonder that he was beholding and perceiving Saint Brynach to be a man of God, knelt before the monk and begged his pardon sincerely. Saint Brynach, not being a vengeful man, pardoned Maelgwn. He touched his cow and restored it to life, and then went around the trees of the hermitage and gathered bread and meat and other dainties from them, and used these to prepare the feast for Maelgwn Gwynedd and his men. Maelgwn, charmed, departed from Nevern and never harried it again; moreover, he declared it exempt from taxation as long as he lived.
Saint Brynach often moved around the south of Wales preaching the Gospel, founding churches in the realms of Brycheiniog and Morgannwg. He also made the acquaintance of Dewi Sant, who became his firm friend. The two monks strengthened each other in faith, and were known to visit each other. On one occasion Saint Dewi came toward Nevern bearing a stone cross toward Brefi in memorial of the synod that had been held there in 545. Saint Brynach, however, saw this cross and persuaded the saint of Mynyw that it was too heavy for him to bear all the way to Brefi. Dewi Sant saw that the journey of the cross had come to an end and left it to Brynach, who had carved an ornate pillar on which to place it. This became the Nevern Cross, which he installed on the south side of the church. (The one that stands there today is a facsimile wrought sometime during the 900s.)
Local tradition in Wales holds that Saint Brynach reposed in the Lord on the seventh of April. He went up Carn Ingli where once he had conversed with angels, and there offered up his spirit. On that date, throughout the Middle Ages, a cuckoo would light on the Nevern Cross and begin to call, well before any other of its kind. So regular was this occurrence that the priest at Nevern would not begin to hold the Liturgy on that day until the bird appeared and sang. It is likely that Saint Brynach is the same person as the Devonian Saint Brannoc of Braunton, who is commemorated on the seventh of January. Holy father Brynach, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!
O holy Brynach, thou didst leave thy native Ireland
To seek God in Pembroke's solitude.
As thou dost now stand before Christ our God,
Intercede with Him, we pray, that He may have mercy on us.
The Nevern Cross
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