saint
Gweltaz' s life:
a piece of breton history
Take
a map of Great Britain, cast your eyes towards the North: this is Scotland,
formely Albann. In 493, Gweltaz war born here, near the Estuary of Clyde,
in Alclwyth - a stone's throw from Ireland. This grand region was the northern
most point of Brittany.
Gweltaz'
father war a Breton prince. When he was seven, his father sent him to the
Llancarvan monastic school, in Wales, at the other end of Brittany. The
abbot was called Ildud, one of the religious fathers tutor in Brittany,
and some of Gweltaz companions were Pol and Samson who later became famous
in Armorican Brittany.
The monastic schools provided an excellent
humanistic education. Time was divided between prayer, manual work and
intellectual work; Gweltaz took a liking to bell-making - a practice he
continued all his life. But more than anything, he learnt to love and to
know God. For this purpose, Gweltaz had a thirst for knowledge and travelled
all through Europe to study, notably spending seven years in Gaul.
Back
in his own country, he became a priest at the age of twenty-five. He travelled
from Cornwall to Scotland, eager to announce the Love of God, so often
ignored by his fellow countrymen. To the most obdurate one's hi warned
them of God's wrath at their conflict and said that a barbaric invasion
woult be the ensuing consequence: "Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the
north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land" (Book
of Jeremiah in the Bible, chapter 1 verse 14).
In
525, Bridget of Kildare asked Gweltaz to come to restore faith in Ireland,
in the first steps of saint Patrick, another Breton who a hundred years
before after being kidnapped by the Irish ended up converting their entire
country. Gweltaz stayed in Ireland for seven years.
Then
the tragedy that Gweltaz prophesied came to pass: Brittany was invaded
by the Angles and the Saxons. Thousands of Bretons escaped by sea and docked
on the coast of Armorica. Gweltaz was among them. He stayed on Hou island.
A monastery in Lokentaz was built on ther moors under his direction. He
travelled all through this new Brittany. Hundreds of places preserve the
memory of Gweltaz, in Kernev-Uhel ("North-Cornwall", from the same word
as in Great-Britain) and espacially around Gwened (french: Vannes): Koad-Mael,
Tremargad, Karnoed, Magor, An Alre ("Auray"), Houad, Gavr, Bieuzhi-an-Dour...
Gweltaz
is prophet for Brittany. He was determined to proclaim the truth, and with
courage (not being one to mince his words, many annoyed people wanted to
assasinate him but he managed to evade all attemps). Being very attracted
to his country he dit not reject his civilization (a great one!) but warned
his people of the disruptive influence and the immorality or princes and
of the clergy: "But my people have changed their glory for that which doth
not profit" (Jeremiah 2,11). If he seems very severe, it was in the face
of the aforementioned crimes, never a call for revolution, but rather a
return to the Will of God Who is Love, Unity and Peace. A Breton himself
sharing in the pain and distress of his people, he was with them in their
exile, consoled them, and strengthened themp with a new land and a new
faith.
Gweltaz
wrote a book, De excidio Brittaniae (Of the downfall of Brittany) published
recently in French - in wich he explains the situation of his country in
the 6th after the birth of Christ. His book is crucial to the understanding
of Brittany: its origins, its caracter and its mission in the world. But
you can also read it on a different level - a spiritual level if you join
in the prayer of Gweltaz, this celtic-born man and this saint who in rising
to Heaven, gave his life to the people.
Let
us ask of Saint Gweltaz the Grace of Living, and to hear the call of God
for his children of Brittany and of all Celtic countries, by making us
understand once more what the Father meant when he invented the name Breton.
Thus shall the Bretons heal their wounds.
Brittany
is called "Breizh" in modern Breton language and "Llydaw" in Wales. We've
forgotten its meaning, but God never forget.
Gweltaz
o kontañ Sant Alban, merzher kentañ Breizh / Gildas
raconte saint Alban, premier martyr de Bretagne
homepage
Craig
Lodge: a christian community in Scotland / ur gumuniezh e Bro-Skos