GUDWAL, ST.

Missionary in Brittany also known as Curval, Gurval, and Goal; d. c. 640. Probably one of the earliest evangelizers of Brittany, Gudwal is third on the list of the seven pioneer saints of that region, although he was very likely a native of Cornwall in England. He founded the monastery of Plec on the island of Locoal-Mendon, which is still an important center of his cult. Gudwal made other settlements on the neighboring mainland and a more distant one at Guer in western France, which has his holy well. The chapel of St. Stephen at Guer is probably his hermitage. He seems to have died in one of his woodland monasteries, but was buried on Locoal-Mendon. With the 10th-century invasion of Britain by Northmen, his relics were moved first to Picardy and then to Ghent, to the Abbey of St. Peter. He may have been a regional bishop, perhaps of Aleth, but not of Saint-Malo, for the see had not yet been founded. The history of Gudwal presents many problems and has occasioned many conflicting interpretations.

Feast: June 6.

Bibliography: Acta sanctorum, June 1 (1863) 716–736. f. duine, Memento des sources hagiographiques de l'histoire de Bretagne (Rennes 1918) 74, 146, 454, 459. S. Gudwal, évêque et confesseur (S. Brieuc 1934). Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901) 1:3687–90. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige (Metten 1933–38) 2:285–286. a. butler The Lives of the Saints (New York 1956) 2:489–490. u. chevalier, Répetorie des sources historiques du moyen-âge (Paris 1894–1903) 1:1998. g. marsot, Catholicisme. Hier, aujourd'hui et demain, ed. g.jacquemet, 5:432. The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 8:759.

[b. cavanaugh]