Saint Einion Frenin ( Welsh: old ', mod. ' or ', "Saint Einion the King"; or ''Anianus'') was a late 5thAbersoch 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. Welsh

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

and

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

of the

Celtic Church Celtic Christianity is a form of Christianity that was common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. The term Celtic Church is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified and identifiab ...

. 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 does n ...

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, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Life

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

Cuneglasus 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 ...

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

of Rhos, and of saints Seiriol and . Part of

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

Cunedda Cunedda ap Edern, also called Cunedda ''Wledig'' (reigned – c. 460), was an important early Welsh people, Welsh leader, and the progenitor of the royal dynasty of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd, one of the very oldest of Western Europe. Nam ...

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

, he seems to have ruled as a local

() over the

Llŷn Peninsula The Llŷn Peninsula ( or , ) is a peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales, with an area of about , and a population of at least 20,000. It extends into the Irish Sea, and its southern coast is the northern boundary of the Tremadog Bay inlet of Cardigan Ba ...

southwest of

Anglesey Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...

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, p. 422ff
Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 18 November 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 Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

() at Penmon on Anglesey and, later, his hermitage on Puffin Island. He also lured the Breton

saint Cadfan Cadfan (), 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 Einion Frenin, king of Llŷn, around 516 and to have serv ...

from

Tywyn Tywyn (; ), 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 location of the Cadfan Stone, a ...

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

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

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

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

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 or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

s were claimed by the church at Llanengan.

Legacy

Einion Frenin was credited with the establishment of the original church at Llanengan, 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, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

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 November 2014. and bears Latin inscriptions reading ''Æniani Rex Wallie'' and ''Rex Walliæ'' ("Einion,

king of Wales Latin versions of "King of Wales" () were titles used on a handful of occasions in the Middle Ages. They were very rarely claimed or applied by contemporaries, because Wales in the Middle Ages, Wales, much like Gaelic Ireland, Ireland, usually h ...

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

Well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth 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 ...

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 ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

. Llandogo in

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

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 ...

'' 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 royal saints Monarchs of Gwynedd Welsh Roman Catholic saints 5th-century Christian saints 6th-century Christian saints 5th-century Welsh monarchs 6th-century Welsh monarchs People from Llanengan

Life

Legacy

See also

References