Saint Gwynnog of Llanwonno

Saint Gwynno’s Church, Llanwonno, Wales

In the Holy Orthodox Church, the twenty-sixth of October is the feast-day – along with that of Saint Éata of Hexham and Saint Ælfrǽd the Great – of Saint Gwynnog, a Breton holy man of the Welsh Age of Saints who accompanied both Saint Illtud the Knight and Saint Dyfrig the Bishop. Unfortunately, there is little else we know about him for certain.

Saint Gwynnog [also Gwynno or Gwonno] was probably born in Armorica – that is to say, Brittany – to a man named Cau [who is also called Euryn y Coed aur]. He was likely a student of Saint Illtud in West Wales. There was a pestilence in West Wales at some point after Illtud’s repose in the Lord, called the Yellow Plague of Rhôs; this is the same plague that bore off my sinful ancestor Maelgwn Gwynedd and may very well have done the same to Saint Illtud. Many of the monks who were at Cor Tewdws fled from thence into Brittany; Saint Gwynnog is supposed to have been among these. When he returned to Wales he settled in Glamorgan, where he founded two church enclosures, Llanwonno (literally, ‘Saint Gwynnog’s Church’) and Llantrisant (‘Church of the Three Saints’; the other two being Saint Illtud and Saint Tyfodwg). A nearby farmhouse at Daerwynno may have been the dwelling-place of the saint.

There is no record of any miracles performed by the saint; neither are any of his writings still extant. Not even the whereabouts of his grave or his relics are known. But his churches both still stand, and so do the toponyms of Llanwonno and Daerwynno which attest to his presence as a Christian missionary there. A holy well, Ffynnon Wonno, is located near the church and had been restored sometime in recent centuries, though now it is somewhat overgrown. Holy saint Gwynnog, missionary in the Welsh south, pray unto Christ our God for our salvation!