Carte
postale de 1904 de l'église de Guer
Guer
ː l'église Saint-Gurval, vue intérieure après sa restauration de 1923-1924
(carte postale)
Saint Gurval
Évêque et
Confesseur (7ème s.)
Gudwal, Gurval ou Goal.
Saint
Gurval patron du doyenné de 56380 Guer (diocèse de Vannes)
Gurval (ou Gudwal)
succéda à saint Malo à la fin du VIe siècle comme évêque d’Aleth, puis se
retira dans l’ermitage de Guer, en Morbihan. Nom issu du breton “gour” (homme)
et “uual” (valeureux). (source: Pays
de Guer-Coëtquidan)
Saint Gurval, fondateur
de Guer - Plusieurs récits d'après les historiens et la tradition (InfoBretagne)
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/12602/Saint-Gurval.html
Saint Gudwal
Évêque d’Aleth
Fête le 6 juin
Église de France
† Guer, diocèse d’Aleth,
6 juin v. 623
Autre mention : 26
mars
Autres graphies :
Gudwal, Gurval, Gulval ou Goal
Il fut probablement l’un
des tout premiers missionnaires de la Bretagne, où il fonda plusieurs
monastères. Évêque d’Aleth (puis Saint-Malo) au VIe siècle, il fonda le
monastère de Plécit.
A la fin du VIe siècle,
saint Gurval aurait succédé à saint Malo à l’évêché d’Aleth, puis il se serait
retiré dans un ermitage à Guer (Morbihan). Il semble que le clergé malouin ait
inventé ce saint Gurval au milieu du XVe siècle afin de soustraire sa paroisse
natale à l’éphémère diocèse de Redon, dont le duc François II avait obtenu
l’érection en 1449. Gurval aurait alors été paré des mérites d’un saint Gudwal,
ou Goal, qui ne doit pas être antérieur au Xe siècle, et qui aurait fondé
plusieurs monastères dont un sur la rivière d’Etel, aujourd’hui Locoal-Mendon,
dans le Morbihan.
SOURCE : http://www.martyretsaint.com/gudwal/
Also
known as
Curval
Gudwal
Gurval
Gurwall
Gudual
Guidgal
Goual
Profile
Monk. Abbot of
a monastery on
the isle of Plecit. Bishop.
Founder of monasteries in Devon and Cornwall in England,
and in Brittany, France.
Born
6th century of
natural causes
Additional
Information
Book of
Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Book
of Saints and Friendly Beasts, by Abbie Farwell Brown
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
MLA
Citation
‘Saint Gudwall‘. CatholicSaints.Info.
9 November 2020. Web. 19 April 2026. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-gudwall/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-gudwall/
Article
(Curval) (Saint) Bishop
(June 6) (7th century) A Welsh Saint and Bishop who founded monasteries in
Devon and Cornwall. By many he is supposed to be the Saint Gurval who succeeded
Saint Malo at Aleth in Brittany. Ghent in Belgium claims to possess his relics.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Gudwall”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
27 July 2013. Web. 19 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-gudwall/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-gudwall/
St. Gudwal
Feastday: June 6
Death: 6th century
Welsh bishop who
founded Plecit Monastery, near Locoal, and monasteries in Brittany, France.
Also called Gurval, he may be the Gudwall who succeeded St. Malo at
Aleth. His relics are
venerated in Ghent, Belgium.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3614
St. Gudwal, Abbot and
Bishop in Cornwall, Near Penzance
6 June
St. Gudwall, Gunwall, or
Gunvell, was born in Wales about A.D. 500. Being entirely devoted to religion,
he collected eighty-eight monks in a little island called Plecit, being no more
than a rock surrounded by water. For some reason however, he abandoned this
establishment, and passed by sea into Cornwall; and from thence he went into
Devonshire, where he betook himself to the most holy, perfect, and useful state
of a solitary anchorite; at length however again emerging, he sailed into
Brittany, and there succeeded St. Malo, as bishop of that see, although he is
said even then to have dwelt in a solitary cell, and to have died there at a
very advanced age. His relics have been widely distributed, and various places
in France have been called by his name.
St. Gudwal is known to have been a prominent figure in the Breton Church during
the sixth century, from whence his relics were removed during a period of
Viking activity. They were translated with due ceremony in 959 to the abbey of
Mont Blandin, Ghent, where subsequently his feast was kept on 6 June.
SOURCE : https://celticsaints.org/2014/0606b.html
June 6
St. Gudwall, Bishop and Confessor
HE was born in Wales, and
having consecrated himself to God with his whole heart from his cradle, he
became abbot of a numerous monastery in the little isle of Plecit, which was a
rock on the sea-coast surrounded with water, where one hundred and eighty-eight
monks are said to have served God in constant unanimity and with perfect
fervour. 1 He
afterwards passed by sea to Cornwall, and travelling into Devonshire built
himself an hermitage, which by the number of disciples who flocked to him, grew
into a second monastery. Alford thinks this happened in the fourth, but he certainly
flourished only in the seventh century, or at least in the close of the sixth,
as Henschenius shows, who yet mistakes in placing his death in Devonshire, for
he is the same person who in the calendars of Brittany in France is honoured on
this day under the name of St. Gurwall, as is shown by F. Le Large the canon
regular. 2 This
holy man passing into Brittany in France, continued there to lead a retired
life in the heavenly exercises of contemplation and prayer, and never ceasing
by watching and fasting to subdue his body, and consummate the sacrifice of his
penance. St. Malo pitched upon him for his successor in the episcopal see which
he had founded at Aleth, and which since bears his name. St. Gudwall governed
this diocess some time with great sanctity; but resigned it when broken in his
old age, and retired to Guern, near St. Malo’s of Baignon in the diocess of St.
Malo. Certain monks attended him though he lived in a grotto separated from
them, devoting himself entirely to the preparation of his soul for his last
passage. His death happened in that place about the end of the sixth, or
beginning of the seventh century, on the 6th of June. In the inroads which the
Normans made on the coast, certain monks carried away the treasure of his
relics, first into Gatinois, where at Yevre-le-Chatel is still shown an old shrine
in which they were deposited for some time; and one of the bones which was left
is still preserved in another parish church in that country at Petiviers or
Pluviers. 3 The
monks some time after removed with their treasure towards their own coast, but
chose Montreuil in Picardy, then a place of strength, for their second retreat.
These relics remained there till the tenth century, Arnold I. or the Great,
count of Flanders, who carried on a long war against the Normans, caused them
to be translated to the great monastery of St. Peter’s of Blandine at Gant. He
is honoured on the 6th of June in the British calendars, and called Gudwall;
also in several churches in Gatinois, at Montreuil sur mer; and with
singular veneration in the great monastery of St. Peter’s at Gant, which
glories in possessing the treasure of his relics. By the corruption of a letter
he is called St. Gurwall at St. Malo’s, and honoured on the same day; but an
ancient calendar of that church, quoted by the Bollandists, calls him St.
Gudwall, bishop of St. Malo’s. He is titular patron of Guern. In an ancient
calendar of that diocess he is called St. Gudual, and St. Guidgal in another of
the abbey of St. Meen in that diocess; St. Goual in a parish of the diocess of
Vannes, of which he is titular patron, and St. Gudwall in a priory which bears
his name, in an island depending on the abbey of Redon in the same
bishopric. See Henschenius, F. Le Large, and Lobineau, Vies des SS. de la
Bretagne, p. 131.
Note 1. His acts in
Henschenius, written by a monk of Gant, pretend he was bishop in Wales, and
resigned that dignity to lead a monastic life on the rock; but he was only
raised to the episcopal dignity in Little Britain long after. [back]
Note 2. Le Large in
his history of the illustrious men of St. Malo’s and in his posthumous history
of the bishops of St. Malo. [back]
Note 3. See
Chatelain. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume VI: June. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/6/063.html
The
Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts – The Fish who helped Saint Gudwall
The Welsh coast is famous
for its beautiful scenery and its terrible storms. People who see it in the
summer time think only of the beautiful scenery. But if they should happen to pass
that way in midwinter they would be very apt to meet an unpleasant reminder of
the terrible storms.
Saint Gudwall was born a
Welshman, and he should have known all this. Perhaps he did know, but chose to
run into danger just because it was dangerous, as so many saints loved to do in
those years when it was thought no virtue to take care of one’s life. At all
events, it was summer when with one friend Gudwall moved to his new home, a
tiny island off the coast of Wales, which at that time was very beautiful.
The first thing they did
was to set about finding a place to live in. The island was one of those high
mountains poking up out of the sea, with green grass on top, like colored
frosting to a cake; and gray rocks below, all hollowed out into deep caves and
crannies, as if mice had been nibbling at the cake. These caves are just the
sort of places which smugglers and pirates choose to hide in with their
treasures, for no one would think of hunting for any one there. And Gudwall
wanted to be left alone with his pupil; so he thought there was no reason why a
bad man’s hiding-place should not make a good saint’s retreat. So they chose
the largest and deepest of all the caves, and there they put their books and
their beds and their little furniture, and set up house-keeping.
Their home was one of
those caves into which the sea rushes a little way and then suddenly backs out
again as if it had changed its mind this time but would call again. Gudwall and
his pupil loved to lie in their cave just beyond the reach of the waves and
watch them dash laughingly up on the rocks, then roar and gurgle in pretended
anger and creep away out into the blue basin beyond. In summer their daily
games with the sea were great fun, and Gudwall was very happy. They spent some
lovely months alone with the waves and the rocks and the sea-birds which now
and then fluttered screaming into the dark cave, and then again dashed
bashfully out when they found they had come uninvited into a stranger’s home.
It was all very nice and peaceful and pretty in the summer time, just as
tourists find it to this day.
But oh! what a change
when old Winter came roaring down over the waves from the North in his chariot
of ice, drawn by fierce winds and angry storm-clouds. Then the temper of the
sea was changed. It grew cruel and hungry. It left off its kindly game with the
lonely dwellers on the island, and seemed instead to have become their enemy.
It tried to seize and swallow them in its cruel jaws.
One morning there came a
terrible storm. In the far end of the cave Gudwall and the other were nearly
swept away by a huge wave which rushed in to devour them. No longer content
with pausing on the threshold, the sea swept through their whole house, dashing
away their little store of books and furniture, a most unneighborly thing to
do. It tried to drag the two men from the corner where they clung to the rough
rock. Choked and gasping they escaped this time, while the sea drew back for
another plunge. But they did not wait for this, for they knew it would mean their
death.
Drenched as they were and
blinded by the salt spray, they scrambled out of the cave and began to climb
the slippery seaweed to the rocks above. It was a hard and dangerous ascent,
for the sea leaped after them to pull them back, snarling angrily at their
heels like a fierce beast maddened by their escape. But it could not quite
seize them, and at last they reached the top of the cliff where they were safe
for the time.
But what were they to do
now? There were no houses on the island, no place to go to keep warm; yet they
could not live out in the open air to freeze in the snow and cold. It was no
longer possible to live in the cave if the sea was to wash through it like
this. But if only there were some barrier to keep out the stormy waves they could
still live in their beloved cave. Saint Gudwall fell upon his knees and prayed
for help, prayed for some defense against the winter waves.
And what do you think
happened? The dwellers in the sea were kinder than the sea itself. The little
fish who live safely in the angriest waves were sorry for the big men who were
so powerless in the face of this danger. From the sea caves far under the
island’s foot, from the beds of seaweed and the groves of coral, from the sandy
bottom of the ocean fathoms deep below, the fish came swimming in great shoals
about Gudwall’s island. And each one bore in his mouth a grain of sand. They
swam into the shallow water just outside the cave where Gudwall had lived, and
one by one they placed their burdens on the sandy bottom. One by one they
paused to see that it was well done, then swiftly swam away, to return as soon
as might be with another grain of sand. All day long a procession of fish, like
people in line at a ticket office, moved steadily up to the shallows and back again.
So by night a little bar of sand had begun to grow gradually before the
entrance to the cave.
Now Saint Gudwall and his
pupil were shivering on the top of the cliff, and looking off to sea, when the
pupil caught his master’s arm. “What is that down there in the water?” he said,
pointing to a little brown spot peering above the waves.
“I know not,” answered
the Saint; “what seems it to be, brother?”
“I have been watching
it,” said the other, “and I think it grows. Look! it is even now higher than
when first you looked; is it not so?”
And sure enough, Gudwall
saw that ever so little at a time the brown patch was growing and spreading
from right to left. Grain by grain the sand bar rose higher and higher till it
thrust bravely above the blueness a solid wall extending for some distance
through the water in front of the cave. Against this new breakwater the surf
roared and foamed in terrible rage, but it could not pass, it could no longer
swoop down into the cavern as it had done before.
“The Lord has given us a
defense,” said Gudwall with a thankful heart. And then his eye caught sight of
a great bluefish swimming back into the deep sea. “It is the fish who have
built us the wall,” he cried. “Blessed be the fish who have this day helped us
in our need.”
For the fish had piled up
a stout and lasting barrier between Saint Gudwall and the angry sea, and
thenceforth he could live in his cave safely during both summer and winter.
– from The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts, by Abbie
Farwell Brown, illustrations by Fanny Y. Cory, 1900
GUDWAL, Saint (fl. 650), bishop and confessor, is said to have been of noble parentage and a native of Wales. At an early age he entered the priesthood, and became a bishop. Afterwards he led a party of 188 monks across the sea to Cornuvia (Cornwall), where they were hospitably received by Mevor, a prince of the country, and Gudwal founded a monastery not far off (according to the Bollandists, in Devonshire). After his death his monks carried his body to Monstreuil in Picardy, and it eventually, in 955 or 959, found a resting-place in the monastery of Blandinberg at Ghent, where his festival was kept on 6 June. Relics of Gudwal were also preserved at Yevre-le-Chastel and Pluviers in the Gatinois. Such is briefly the legend as given by the Bollandists, but Surius and Malebrancq make Mevor a native of Picardy, reading Corminia (Cormon) for Cornuvia, and say that it was there that Gudwal established his monastery. The parish of Gulval, near Penzance, is dedicated to him, and there is a celebrated holy well there, but the old oratory has been destroyed. Gudwal's life and miracles were written by a monk of Blandinberg in the twelfth century (the writer refers to Abbot Gislebert, who died in 1138), but there seems to have been an older life which has perished. The full life is printed in the 'Acta Sanctorum,' and abbreviations of it are given by Capgrave and Surius.
Gudwal must be distinguished from St. Gudwal or Gurval, an Irish monk and disciple of St. Brendan (484-577) [q. v.], who became second bishop of St. Malo in the seventh century. This saint's festival was also kept on 6 June, though the day is sometimes given as 6 Jan.
[Acta Sanctorum, 6 June,
i. 715 sqq.; Surius Vitæ Sanctorum, vi. 108; Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglie, p.
167; Malbrancq, De Morinis, lib. ii. c. xv.; Hardy's Cat. Brit. Hist. i. 371-3
(for a description of the various manuscripts of the Vita S. Gudwali); Haddan
and Stubbs, i. 28, 31, 36, 161, ii. 82, 85; Dict. Christ. Biog. ii. 807, 823.]
Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. Gudwal . Dictionary of National
Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23
