Gwinear, Guigner, was a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

, one of only two early

Cornish saints This is a list of Cornish saints, including saints more loosely associated with Cornwall: many of them will have links to sites elsewhere in regions with significant Britons (historical), ancient British history, such as Wales, Brittany or Dev ...

whose

biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

survived 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 ...

. The ''Life of Gwinear'' was written in the early 14th century by a priest named Anselm, and has sometimes been printed among the works of

Anselm of Canterbury Anselm of Canterbury OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also known as (, ) after his birthplace and () after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher, and theologian of the Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Canterb ...

. His feast day is March 23. Born in Ireland with the Irish name of Fingar, he was converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick and after spending time in Brittany went with 7 (or 777) companions to Cornwall, landing at Hayle, where he was martyred by King Teudar. Gwinear was said to have died with his followers by being thrown into a pit of reptiles. An alternative version sets the story in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

with Guigner being martyred at the hands of Prince Tewdwr. The Victorian clergyman, hagiographer and antiquary

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould (; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 pu ...

believed that an Irish group, driven from their homeland in Ossory in the fifth century, invaded

Penwith Penwith (; ) is an area of Cornwall, England, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...

(="pen-gwaeth", the "bloody headland"), and that the legend of Gwinear was a distorted recollection of these events.Baring-Gould, Sabine, 1899, ''A Book of the West: Cornwall'', Methuen, pp 285, 305

References

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gwinear 6th-century Christian martyrs Cephalophores Executed Irish people Medieval Breton saints Medieval Cornish saints Medieval Irish saints of Cornwall