Venerable Eleri, Abbot of Gwytherin

St Winifreds Church, Gwytherin
Originally dedicated to Saint Eleri

The thirteenth of June is the commemoration of the blessed repose of the first male Benedictine abbot in Wales, Saint Eleri. A saint of Welsh and Cumbrian ancestry, being the grandson of King Lot of the old North, he was noteworthy primarily as the sponsor and close friend of Saint Gwenffrewi in Gwytherin.

Eleri [the Welsh version of the Greek name Hilarion] was the son of Saint Teneu of Glasgow by her rightful husband Dyngad ap Nudd. He was therefore also the younger half-brother of Saint Cyndeyrn of Glasgow. He had four other full siblings: Lleuddad, Baglan, Tygwy and Tyfriog. Eleri was sent to study under the great Saint Asa of Tegeingl in Llanelwy, and learned the ways of Christ from him. After Dyngad died, Eleri chose a life of eremitical seclusion, and his mother also became an anchoress, living close by. He and his mother established a church at Gwytherin in Gwynedd, in the far north of Wales.

Saint Eleri was one of the few holy men in Wales who was willing to listen to Saint Gwenffrewi’s proposals for a community of women living under the same monastic rule. Gwenffrewi helped to establish a Benedictine double monastery in Gwytherin. Eleri was placed in charge of the community of monks, and Teneu in charge of the community of nuns, with Gwenffrewi placing herself under the older woman’s rule.

It’s worth considering why Saint Eleri would have been receptive to Saint Gwenffrewi’s proposals, when so many other holy men in Wales were not. Saint Teneu and Saint Gwenffrewi were both victims of sexual violence in their youths. Saint Teneu was raped and bore Saint Cyndeyrn; Saint Gwenffrewi resisted rape and was beheaded by her assailant. It is entirely likely that Teneu and Eleri were sympathetic to the Benedictine Rule on account of the greater physical security the cloister provided. It was also likely the case that Saint Gwenffrewi’s close family ties to Saint Beuno were influential on Saint Eleri, for he may have been kin to Eleri and Teneu.

At any rate, Saint Eleri spent the rest of his life leading the abbey at Gwytherin. Both his mother and Saint Gwenffrewi predeceased him. In November of 660, he took charge of the burial of the younger abbess in the churchyard at Gwytherin. He lived several years after that, an elderly man, and reposed in the Lord on the thirteenth of June, probably between 665 and 670. Holy father Eleri, filial and pious hermit and abbot of Gwytherin, pray unto Christ our God for our salvation!