Righteous Fragan, Prince of Cornwall

A dolmen at Ploufragen

The third of October is the feast-day of Saint Fragan, the fortunate second husband (following the Welsh hagiographical tradition here, as well as Baring-Gould) of Saint Gwen ‘the Three-Breasted’, and father of four of her saintly children: Saints Gwyddnog, Iago, Gwenolau and Creirwy. Some sources have him as being of Scottish origin, but it is more likely that Fragan was a nephew of King Cadwy of Dumnonia and a son of Prince Selyf of Cornwall. He was thus probably also a brother of Saint Cybi.

Fragan [also Fragan, Frégant or Bracan] was born in Cornwall and inherited the kingdom after his father’s death. He married the widowed Breton princess Gwen, and fathered the twins Gwyddnog and Iago by her. However, a plague broke out in Devon in 507 – perhaps an ancillary effect of the repeated Saxon incursions into that territory – and Fragan took Gwen, his infant children and as many refugees as he could from his own territory of Cornwall, put them onto ships in the English Channel and fled with them into Gwen’s homeland of Brittany.

Fragan’s ship landed on the then heavily-wooded Côtes-d’Armor. Upon learning that the country was peaceful and free of disease, he decided to settle his refugee family there. Searching up along the coast, he managed to find a small plot of arable land (a plou) surrounded on all sides by woods and brakes, and watered by the stream Gouet, up which they steered their craft to find the place. It was evening by the time they landed, and Fragan took Gwen and their two infant children up into the woods, made a campfire and settled down for the night with the sheep and oxen they had brought. The following morning Fragan rose early and sought out a more suitable permanent dwelling-place. He found it – a ring of cairns surrounding dolmens which had once belonged perhaps to the Gauls. Fragan and Gwen’s party threw up a rough earthen embankment and staked it, and began building houses. Thus Saint Fragan founded the village of Ploufragan on the Côtes-d’Armor, which still bears his name. There he and Gwen had two more children: a son, Gwenolau; and a daughter, Creirwy. Saints Fragan and Gwen sent their children to the Île-de-Bréhat, to be educated by Saint Beuzeg, the hermit living on the island.

This plou was a beachhead for several trickles of migration across the Channel, not only by Britons fleeing Saxon incursions and plague, but also for Irish and Scottish migrants. Soon Fragan found his little plou to be overstressed. His wife, Saint Gwen Teirbron, also exerted some of her own political influence in getting their claim to the land recognised. She appealed to her father, the King of Brittany, who not only gave her husband rights to Ploufragan but also rights in her own name to another farmstead far further up the coast, which would become Plouguin. There is some evidence that Fragan was working in close concert with his friend Prince Riwal Mawr, who had previously set up in Brittany.

Fragan and Riwal seemed to have a friendly rivalry as well, though. One story has it that Riwal boasted to Fragan that he owned a far swifter horse than he, to which Fragan took objection. A race was held between Riwal’s steed and Fragan’s, but the jockey for Fragan’s horse was thrown headlong and broke his neck, nearly killing him. Fragan’s son Saint Gwenolau was looking on, however, and rushed to the jockey’s side, laying on his hands and healing him. Riwal, who had been watching the whole time, was stricken with awe at this wonder. He became a humbler man, and gave generously to the Church – in particular to his cousin, Saint Briog.

Fragan himself worked a wonder of a different sort. A folk tradition in Léon has it that a huge swarm of pirate ships appeared, a thousand masts between them such that they resembled a forest, off the coast of Guisseny. The commander of the British immigrants raised a cry, ‘Mil guern!’ (that is, ‘A thousand masts!’). Afterwards a cross would be righted on the spot, the Cross of Milguern. But one who answered the cry was Fragan, who took a band of Cornish and Welsh refugees and attacked the pirate camp. Despite the pirates having greater numbers, Fragan’s warriors cut them to pieces, overran their camp and burned their ships, saving Léon from their plunder.

We do not know much about Fragan’s later life, but it is known that his wife Gwen outlived him and became an anchoress in Dorset, where she was martyred. His fatherly holiness is attested more through the acts of his saintly children. Righteous Fragan, royal refugee and loving husband and father, pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved!

O noble exiles Fragan and Gwen
Who fled to Brittany in troubled times:
You established churches to God’s praise and glory;
Your children brought joy and gladness to the Breton people.
We praise you, glorious Saints.