Saint Gwenffrewi of Gwytherin
The third of November is the feast-day of Gwenffrewi [or Winifred or Winefride] of Gwytherin, the niece of Saint Beuno. The beautiful only daughter of Beuno’s sister Gwenlo and her husband, the British chieftain Thewyth ap Eliud of Tegeingl in northern Wales, Saint Gwenffrewi was martyred for refusing the hand of a proud and violent suitor, and then raised to life again by the power of Christ through the wonderworking prayers of her uncle.
Gwenffrewi was born sometime in the early 600s. It seems reasonable to assume that she was still a young woman when Beuno was already in exile from the court of Selyf ‘the Battle-Serpent’ ap Cynan who came to power in 610 and ruled until 616, which would probably place her date of birth sometime in the late 600s, to possibly as late as 613. However, what is known is that upon his arrival at his kinsman Thewyth’s home, he offered to tutor Gwenffrewi, who was a bright and obedient girl. For this service, Thewyth offered Saint Beuno the church at Abeluyc – now Treffynnon or Holywell. On this land, in a place called the Valley of Sechnant, at a chapel he built for himself, Holy Father Beuno taught young Gwenffrewi in all subjects. From him she learned to love Christ and to prise holiness, and dedicated herself to becoming a nun. She took from him the veil in secret, though with the blessing of her father and mother.
On one Lord ’s Day when Saint Beuno was celebrating the Liturgy, Gwenffrewi was staying at home when a young British lordling named Caradog ap Alaog Pennarlag came riding by. He saw her through the open doorway and was immediately stricken with a fierce lust to possess her. He called to her for a drink of water, saying he was thirsty, but he was already formulating an evil intent against her. When the kindly Gwenffrewi invited him into the house, he made an advance which was at once rejected, she having already taken vows of chastity. He then grabbed her and attempted to force himself on her, and thus she fled from the house up toward the church.
Fearing she would expose him, Caradog took to his horse and rode after her. He overtook her, and as she was running up the steps of the church he drew his sword and struck her on the neck, beheading her. Saint Beuno, who had been celebrating the Liturgy within the Church, came outside and found Caradog still over his niece’s headless body, holding the bloody sword – clearly unrepentant of what he had done. Enraged at the violence and sacrilege of the young prince, Saint Beuno issued forth a terrible curse, and at once Caradog’s flesh melted from his bones like water and the earth swallowed him whole.
Beuno then turned about and told his flock about Gwenffrewi’s blameless chastity and her desire to become a nun. He took up his martyred niece’s head and attached it to her shoulders. Where Gwenffrewi’s head had fallen, there sprang up at once a spring of fresh water – this is St Winefride’s Well at Holywell, which can still be found there. Once he had done this, he asked the people’s prayers for Gwenffrewi. As the townsfolk prayed with Saint Beuno, Saint Gwenffrewi arise from the dead through their prayers, just as Jairus’s daughter who was thought to be dead. But forever thereafter Gwenffrewi bore a thin red scar all the way around her neck where it had been sliced through by Caradog’s sword.
Saint Gwenffrewi took instruction from Father Beuno to remain cloistered at Treffynnon, as it was now known. She gathered to her eleven other young women of good character and they all took vows together with Gwenffrewi, who became their abbess. Saint Beuno would continue his travels westward into Ireland, but Saint Gwenffrewi and her nuns would always furnish him forth with handiwork of their own, and that of excellent craftsmanship, for him to use in the Liturgy.
Saint Gwenffrewi was instrumental in establishing within Wales and within the Celtic tradition of Christianity, the regular common life of the cloister over-against the hitherto common custom of the eremitical life. From her own experience and out of sympathy for her sister-nuns, she felt that there was both spiritual and physical safety to be had in numbers, and also that cloisters for women could serve as shelter for women who had suffered abuse in their own homes or who desired sanctuary for other reasons. Gwenffrewi made a pilgrimage to Rome, and then called a gathering of women religious from her own monastic home upon her return. Thereafter, she began promoting her ideas throughout the Welsh north. It wasn’t until she met Saint Eleri [i.e. Hilarion] of Gwytherin that she found a receptive audience – the other men she met preferred the hermit’s cell to the monastic brotherhood. However, with the help of Saint Eleri and his mother Saint Tenoi she established a double monastery in Gwytherin, where she served the rest of her life – first as a nun under Abbess Tenoi, and then succeeding her as abbess.
When she reposed a second time on the third of November, 660, she was given an honourable Christian burial in the monastic cemetery. Her relics would be translated in 1136 to a magnificent shrine in Shrewsbury Abbey, on the orders of Abbot Herebert of that house. The translation would be carried out by the Norman prior of that house, Robert Pennant, who would write Gwenffrewi’s Vita. (This cross-border translation provides the factual basis for the historical fiction / murder mystery novel by Edith Pargeter, A Morbid Taste for Bones – the first of her Chronicles of Brother Cadfael. Saint Gwenffrewi’s feast day provides the backdrop for several of the other novels in the series, and her intercessions occasionally make themselves felt in the life of the eponymous monk.)
Saint Gwenffrewi and her family were all very proudly and very steadfastly British. There were those among her kin who were eager and sanguinary defenders of their lands against the English. However, she has bridged the two nations and their religious customs in more ways than one. She was a significant influence on the Celtic church in creating an option for the common life and a rule of community, rather than the hermitage. She was notably an advocate for women’s physical security and voice within the Celtic church. She bestowed her blessings not only upon one nation alone, but on both where her cultus prevailed. She has been considered, therefore, as much an English saint as a Welsh one. Holy Mother Gwenffrewi, pure-minded martyr and gentle tutor of nuns, pray unto Christ our God to save our souls!
Desiring union with the eternal Bridegroom alone, O pious Gwenffrewi,
Thou didst spurn the advances of the arrogant prince,
Who, thwarted in his vile lust, struck off thy holy head with his sword.
But thy pure body was by a miracle of God
Restored to life at the prayers of the holy Beuno.
Wherefore, thou didst consecrate thyself wholly to the service of thy Lord;
And having now joined the choirs of virgins and martyrs on high,
Thou prayest unceasingly that He grant grace and salvation
to those who honor thy holy memory with love.
No comments:
Post a Comment