Saint Einion Frenin (

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

', mod. ' or ', "Saint Einion the King"; la, Ennianus or ''Anianus'') was a late 5th-Abersoch Virtual Guide
"History: The Pilgrim's Trail and Some of Its Churches"
Accessed 18 Nov 2014. and early 6th-centuryCarlisle, Nicholas
''A Topographical Dictionary of the Dominion of Wales'', p. 305
W. Bulmer & Co. (London), 1811.

confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...

of the

Celtic Church Celtic Christianity ( kw, Kristoneth; cy, Cristnogaeth; gd, Crìosdaidheachd; gv, Credjue Creestee/Creestiaght; ga, Críostaíocht/Críostúlacht; br, Kristeniezh; gl, Cristianismo celta) is a form of Christianity that was common, or hel ...

. His

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context do ...

was originally given as 9 February, although this had moved to the 10th or 12th by the 16th century and is no longer observed by either the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Life

Saint Einion was a son of Owain Whitetooth (Ddantgwyn) and the brother of

Cuneglas Cuneglasus (fl. 540) was a prince of Rhos in Gwynedd, Wales, in the late 5th or early 6th century. He was castigated for various sins by Gildas in ''De Excidio Britanniae''. The Welsh form Cynlas Goch is attested in several genealogies of the Rhos ...

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

of Rhos, and of saints

Seiriol Seiriol was an early 6th-century saint, who created a cell at Penmon Priory on Anglesey, off the coast of north Wales. He later moved to Ynys Seiriol ( Puffin Island). Narrative Seiriol was a son of King Owain Danwyn Owain Danwyn ( fl. 440) ...

and . Part of

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...

Cunedda Cunedda ap Edern, also called Cunedda ''Wledig'' ( 5th century), was an important early Welsh leader, and the progenitor of the Royal dynasty of Gwynedd, one of the very oldest of western Europe. Name The name ''Cunedda'' (spelled ''Cuneda ...

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

, he seems to have ruled as a local

( la, regulus) over the

Llŷn Peninsula The Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn or , ) extends into the Irish Sea from North West Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the historic county of Caernarfonshire, and historic region and local authority area of Gwynedd. Mu ...

southwest of

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

and possibly over Anglesey itself.Baring-Gould, Sabine & al
''The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain'', Vol. II, pp. 422 ff
Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.Pennick, Nigel (1996). ''Celtic Sacred Landscapes''. Thames & Hudson. Pennick, Nigel. ''Celtic Sacred Landscapes''. Thames & Hudson, 1996. . He was credited with granting his brother Seiriol the land for his

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

( cy, clas) at

Penmon Penmon is a promontory, village and ecclesiastical parish on the eastern tip of the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, about east of the town of Beaumaris. It is in the community of Llangoed. The name comes from cy, pen (which can mean "head", "end" ...

on Anglesey and, later, his hermitage on Puffin Island. He also lured the Breton

saint Cadfan Saint Cadfan ( la, Catamanus), sometimes Anglicized as Gideon, was the 6th century founder-abbot of Tywyn (whose church is dedicated to him) and Bardsey, both in Gwynedd, Wales. He was said to have received the island of Bardsey from Saint ...

from

Tywyn Tywyn (Welsh: ; in English often ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the lo ...

to found St Mary's Abbey, the first religious establishment on

Bardsey Island Bardsey Island ( cy, Ynys Enlli), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", while its English name refers to the "Islan ...

. Although not part of the Cistercian Way, this became a major site of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

in Wales. Einion himself is sometimes said to have joined Cadfan's community on the island, although his

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s were claimed by the church at

Llanengan Llanengan ( Welsh for " St. Einion's") is a small village and community around Abersoch in Gwynedd in north-west Wales. It had a population of 2,024 at the 2001 census, which had been reduced to 1,989 at the 2011 Census. The popular seaside r ...

Legacy

Einion Frenin was credited with the establishment of the original church at

(St Einion's). The present church there, which was erected in the late 15th or early 16th century, had a gilt and crowned statue of him prior to the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Jones, T. Thornley
"The 'Llannau' of Cwmdauddwr Parish" in ''The Transactions of the Radnorshire Society'', Vol. XXXVI, pp. 18–19
Radnorshire Society, 1966. Hosted at the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth), 2009. Accessed 18 Nov 2014. and bears Latin inscriptions reading ''Æniani Rex Wallie'' and ''Rex Walliæ'' ("Einion,

king of Wales King of Wales was a rarely used title, because Wales, much like Ireland, rarely achieved a degree of political unity like that of England or Scotland during the Middle Ages. While many different leaders in Wales claimed the title of "King of ...

"). Miraculous locations nearby include Ffynnon Engan ("Einion's

Well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

") and Ol Troed March Engan ("The Hoofprint of Einion's Horse"), a

petrosomatoglyph A petrosomatoglyph is a supposed image of parts of a human or animal body in rock. They occur all over the world, often functioning as an important form of symbolism, used in religious and secular ceremonies, such as the crowning of kings. Some a ...

near Castell Cinan whose collected rainwater was claimed to possess curative powers. Other placenames possibly related to the king are Ogo' Engan ("Einion's Cave"), Bryn Engan ("Einion's Hill"), Caer Engan ("Engan's Camp"), and Croes Engan ("Einion's Cross"), a farm in

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

Llandogo Llandogo ( cy, Llaneuddogwy) is a small village in Monmouthshire, south Wales, between Monmouth and Chepstow in the lower reaches of the Wye Valley AONB, two miles north of Tintern. It is set on a steep hillside overlooking the River Wye and a ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, wit ...

was also sometimes previously known as ''Lann Enniaun'' ("Llanennion") and the bard Hywel Rheinallt composed a ''

cywydd The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry (cerdd dafod). There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is b ...

'' to the "golden-handed" Saint Einion in the late 15th century, recording another (now unknown) church in Gwynedd dedicated to St Einion.

References

{{authority control 5th-century Welsh people 6th-century Welsh people Welsh royalty Monarchs of Gwynedd Medieval Welsh saints Welsh Roman Catholic saints 5th-century Christian saints 6th-century Christian saints 5th-century Welsh monarchs 6th-century Welsh monarchs

Life

Legacy

See also

References