¹ For Saint Gundleus was the son of the king of the South Britons; and after his father’s death, when the kingdom was divided into seven parts, his six brothers received their portions and obeyed him as their elder in all things. Gundleus begot by his wife Gladys his son Cadog, a holy man and pleasing to God. For when they were sleeping one night in their bedchamber, an angelic voice addressed them, saying: “The King of heaven, the ruler of earthly things, has sent me here, that you might be converted with your whole heart to His service. He calls you and invites you; He chose you, and redeemed you as He mounted the gibbet. I will show you the right path which you must hold to God’s inheritance; lift up your minds, and do not despise your souls for perishing things. By the river’s bank there is a certain small hill; and where a white ox shall be seen standing, there will be the place of your dwelling.” Rising in the morning, he left the royal palace, and, entrusting the kingdom to his son Cadog, came to the hill announced to him by the angel. And finding the white ox, he built a church, and began to live there in great abstinence and holiness of life. He wore a hair-shirt, and barley bread with a third part of ashes mixed into it; and was accustomed to drink water. Rising in the middle of the night, he would plunge himself into cold water; and taking nothing from anyone else, he lived by his own labour. Saint Cadog his son, made abbot of Nantcarfan, often visited and comforted him, declaring that the crown is promised not to those who begin, but to those who persevere in good. And Gundleus, because of the dryness of the hill, poured out prayers to God, and touching the dry earth with the point of his staff, caused a spring, most clear and ever-flowing, to well up in that place. At last, when the end of his life approached, he sent to Dubricius, bishop of Llandaff, and to his son Cadog, that they might deign to visit him. And when they had comforted him and fortified his soul with holy communion, he departed to the Lord on the fourth kalends of April. And his body being honourably buried, frequent angelic visitation was seen around the place of his burial, and the sick, imploring his aid and cured of every sickness, glorified God in His saint.

² Now Griffith, king of Gwynedd, driven from the bounds of Britain by king William the elder and fearing ambush, sailed to the Orkney islands; and gathering twenty-four ships he returned and took much plunder. His servants, breaking into the church of Saint Gundleus, seized whatever precious thing was found in it. And while they were seeking to return to the Orkney islands, they saw a terrible man riding by day and night and pursuing them. And the more diligently the oarsmen drove the ship, the more they were driven back crosswise by the surge of the sea. Each prow dashed against another, and the whole fleet, except two ships, was sunk, as their crimes deserved. King Griffith himself was not aware of the robbery, but waited on the shore with his companions for the pirates’ arrival. Afterwards, reconciled with king William, he recounted to everyone the marvels he had seen.

³ For in the time of Saint Edward the king, earl Harold, offended by the Welsh, came with an army and burned and laid waste everywhere; sparing no one, he seized all that he found. For certain men, forcing the lock of the church of Saint Gundleus, entered and seized everything found there. And when the stolen cheeses were cut open, they appeared bloody within. The astounded army therefore restored everything it had seized, together with many offerings. A certain thief, entering the church of Saint Gundleus one night and carrying off a chalice and sacred vestments, began to make his way home. On the journey, however, he saw the sea rising against him, towering up to meet him. At length, driven back by this vision of the sea, he returned as far as the threshold of the church. And entering the church, he stayed there until morning. And being caught, he was freed from temporal death by the bishop of Llandaff.

An account. #

¹ At that time Saint Antidius, keeping the night in vigil with prayers on the third feria after Palm Sunday, and going round the cemeteries, was crossing a certain bridge when he saw a host of demons reporting their deeds to their prince, and among them an Ethiopian holding out a sandal in his hand, as a token that he had assailed the Roman pontiff for seven years and had at last drawn him into a fall. Calling the Ethiopian to him, and mounting upon him by the power of God and of the holy cross, he commanded that the demon should carry him to Rome, under the Lord’s hand, safe and unharmed, at the same speed with which it had come. And so, mounted upon the demon and repeating that verse “O God, come to my aid,” he arrived at Rome borne by it, at the hour for celebrating the office on the fifth feria. And while the demon waited outside the doors, he reported the matter to the pope, and, though the pope denied it, moved him to penitence by means of the sandal. And mass being celebrated on his behalf, and part of the chrism consecrated by himself being taken, he returned to his church on Holy Saturday at the hour for celebrating the office, the demon bringing him back. This holy bishop was afterwards martyred by the Vandals. So says Vincentius.