Saint of the Day – 21 April – Saint Beuno Gasulsych (c 545-c 640)

Saint of the Day – 21 April – Saint Beuno Gasulsych (c 545-c 640) Monk, Abbpt, miracle-worker Born in c 545 at Powis-land, Wales and died in c 640 at Clynnog Fawr, Wales of natural causes, Also known as – Beunor Gasulsych, Benno Gasulsych, Bennow Gasulsych. Patronages – diseased cattle, sick animals, sick children.

Beuno is said to have been born in the kingdom of Powys and educated at Bangor. As a Monk, he worked in North Wales – the many dedications to him in Gwynedd, Clwyd and the island of Anglesey reflect either Monasteries founded by him, or by his disciples.

He had a reputation of being relentless with hardened sinners but compassionate to those in distress.

He is especially associated with the township of Clynnog Fawr in the Llyn peninsula, where he Beunos Church died and was buried and where many miracles took place at his Tomb.

Beuno was credited with raising seven people from the dead, including his niece, the virgin St Winefride and his disciple and cousin, St Aelhaiarn. He was said to have had a “wondrous vision” prior to his death.

Eleven Churches bear Saint Beuno’s name, including one in his Monastery at Clynnog Fawr and one in Culbone on the Somerset coast. Although his establishment at Clynnog is destroyed, his Grave and Chapel survive.

At Tremeirchion near St Asaph in Clwyd is the Jesuit retreat house of St Beuno’s  which specialises in Ignatian spirituality and thirty day retreats. Formerly a theological College, the Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins spent three years (1874-7) here as a theology student and it was here, that he wrote some of his best poetry: God’s Grandeur and The Wreck of the Deutschland.