ON ST. GWENFAEN, VIRGIN, IN WALES,
IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY?
CommentaryGwenfaen, virgin in Wales. (S.)
C. D. S.
The holy virgin's kindred: They record that the virgin Gwenfaen was honored with ancient cult in the island which was formerly called Mona, and by a more recent and common name Anglesey, which lies off the western shore of Greater Britain but the northern shore of Wales, especially in the small island Holy Island, nearest to Mona, where in the village of Rhoscolyn she had founded a convent of virgins, whose church was afterwards made a parish church and named Llan Gwenfaen [H. Rowlands, Mona antiqua restaurata, 2nd ed. (London, 1766), p. 155; Sam. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, vol. II (1833), sign. 2 U2 (s.v. Rhoscolyn).], and there are still to be seen there a chapel and a well marked with her name, Capel Gwenfaen and Fynnon Wenwaen H. Zimmer, in Neues Archiv…, vol. XIX (1894), p. 668.. She had as father Pawl Hèn or Paulinus, as brothers SS. Peulan and Gwyngenau [Bonedd y Saint in The Myvyrian Archaeology of Wales, 2nd ed. (Denbigh, 1870), pp. 426, 429; Rice Rees, An Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 237; Zimmer, loc. cit.]. Some have thought [W. Pughe Owen, Cambrian Biography, p. 157; Rice Rees, op. cit., p. 187; Zimmer, loc. cit.] that her father was the same as that Paulinus whom St. David W. J. Rees, Lives of the Cambro British Saints (Llandovery, 1853), pp. 122–23. and St. Teliavus Liber Landavensis, eds. J. Evans and J. Rhys (Oxford, 1893), p. 99. had as master, and who is venerated on the 22nd of November. Yet I see this opinion confirmed by no argument except the very name of the man and the likeness of that name to the name of this St. Paulinus.
her history is unknown. They say that the festival of St. Gwenfaen is celebrated on the 5th of November [Rich. Challoner, A Memorial of ancient British Piety (London, 1761), suppl. p. 30; Rice Rees, op. cit., p. 237.]. But what the holy virgin did while she lived in this life we have found noted nowhere.