¹ Formerly there lived a gentleman in the land of Powys, at a place called Banhenic, near the river which at that time was called Sabrina, but which is now named in Welsh Hafren and in English the Severn. The name of that gentleman was Bugi, and his wife was called Beren, who was the daughter of Llawdden. They were blameless people and lived virtuous lives; they kept the commandments of God in every way as far as they were able, and no evil whatever could be alleged against them. They had no son to be their heir, and they were advanced in years, so that they were not expected to have children; for they had passed much of their lives and had lived together for twelve years without sexual relations, and that by mutual agreement. One evening, as they were speaking together, they saw an angel coming towards them, whose clothing was as white as snow, and he said to them, “Be glad and rejoice, for God has heard your prayer.” The angel then said to them, “Let there be sexual union tonight between you and your wife, and she will conceive; and from that conception a son will be born to you, and he will be honoured before God and humankind.” As the angel had commanded them, so they did; and Beren conceived that night, and from that conception a son was born to her, and to that son they gave the name Beino. They brought up their son and instructed him as he grew, and afterwards sent him to a saint who was living at Caerwent; the name of that saint was Tangusius. By agreement his parents placed him with him, and with that saint, through God’s help, he gained knowledge of all the holy Scriptures; afterwards he learned the services and rules of the Church, took orders, and became a cleric. Ynyr of Gwent, who was king of that country, seeing that he was humble, chaste, generous, and in every respect observant of God’s commandments, received him with honour and kindness, and gave him a gold ring and a crown. He also became a disciple and monk of Saint Beino, and granted him three estates in Ewias, together with all the people who lived on those estates and their possessions.

² At that time Beino’s father fell ill with a disease from which there was no hope of recovery, and he sent messengers to his son Beino, asking him to come to him to receive his blessing. Then Beino said to his companions and disciples, “Let three of you remain this city, and I will go to my father, who is gravely ill,” and so they did. Saint Beino commended them to the king and to the leading men of the land, and he went on until he reached the place where his father lay sick. After his father had received communion, made confession, and brought his life to a perfect close, he departed from this world. Afterwards Beino remained in his father’s township, and there he built a church, which he consecrated in the name of the Lord Christ; and he placed an acorn beside his father’s grave, which grew into an oak of great size and height, and of fine shape. From this tree there grew a branch which reached down to the ground and then rose up again from the ground as high as the other boughs of the tree, and part of this branch lay buried in the earth, as it does to this day. If an Englishman were to pass between that branch and the trunk of the tree, he would die at once, but if a Welshman were to pass through, no harm would come to him. After remaining there for some time, Beino left his father’s township and went on to Maun son of Brochwel, who received him graciously and honourably, on account of his friendship, generosity, and observance of the commandments of God.

³ Then Maun, for the sake of his own soul and the soul of his father, gave Aberrhiw to God and to Beino. One day, as Beino was travelling near the River Severn at a ford, he heard a voice on the far side of the river, urging dogs to hunt a hare; it was the voice of an Englishman, who was shouting as loudly as he could, “Cergia,” which in that language was used to incite the dogs. When Beino heard the Englishman’s voice, he immediately turned back, and on returning to his disciples he said to them, “My sons, put on your clothes and your shoes, and let us leave this place; for the people of this man have a strange and detestable language, and I heard his voice on the other side of the river, urging the dogs after a hare. They have invaded this place, and it will be theirs, and they will hold it in their possession.” Then Beino said to one of his disciples, whose name was Bithyliut, “My son, be obedient to me; I wish you to remain here. My blessing shall be with you, and I will leave with you the cross which I have made.” And the blessing of Beino bound that disciple, and he remained there.

⁴ Beino and his disciples then travelled as far as Meivod, and there he stayed with Tysilio for forty days and forty nights. From there he went to King Cynan, son of Brochwel, and asked him for a place in which to pray for his soul and for the souls of his friends. Then the king gave him Gwydelwerun, a place which had received its name from an Irishman whom Beino had raised from the dead there, together with the man’s wife, who had been the cause of his death. There Beino built a church. At that time the nephews of Cynan came to Beino from hunting and asked him for food, and from then on they always remained there. Beino ordered his servants to take a young ox from the mountain, kill it, and prepare food for the men who had asked it of him, and the servants did so. The meat was put to boil in a pot on the fire at the third hour of the day, and it remained on the fire until evening; the men continually kept the fire burning beneath the pot, yet by evening the water had not grown warm, nor had the meat changed its colour. Then one of the laymen said to the scholars, “This man does this by his art, so that we may have nothing to eat.” When Beino heard these words spoken by him, he laid his curse upon him, and he died before the end of the day. Then Beino turned to the sons of Selyff and said to them, “What your fathers have given to God, do you wish it to be given subject to tribute and obligation? As God has given it to me, and as he will deal with me as one who serves him, may your heir never possess it, and may you be destroyed from this kingdom and from the eternal one hereafter.” And what Beino asked for in his prayer was granted.

⁵ Then Beino left that place and went as far as the banks of the River Dee, seeking a place in which to pray to God, but he did not find one. After that he came to Temic, son of Eliud, and Temic granted to Beino for ever, free from all claim, a township. Beino built a church there and consecrated it to God, and soon afterwards Temic withdrew from that solitary place and left it entirely to Saint Beino. One day Temic and his wife went to church to hear mass and preaching from Beino, and they left their daughter at home to keep watch. The maiden was very beautiful and had not yet been given in marriage. As she was keeping watch, she saw the king who ruled that place coming towards her; his name was Caradoc. She rose to meet him and greeted him kindly. The king then asked her where her father was. “He has gone to church,” she said; “if you have any business with him, stay a little while and he will soon return.” “I will not wait,” he said, “unless you will become my concubine.” The maiden replied, “I will not be your concubine, because you are a king, born of kings, and I am not of equal blood to be joined to you in that way; but stay here while I go to my chamber, and I will do what you wish.” At once she left the house and went towards the church where her father and mother were. When the king saw her going, he was angered, and as she reached the church door he overtook her and cut off her head with his sword; the head fell inside the church, and the body remained outside.

⁶ Beino, together with her father and mother, saw what had been done, and Beino, looking the king in the face, said, “I ask of God that he will not spare you, nor show you any more respect than you have shown this good maiden.” At that very hour the king melted away into a pool and was seen no more in this world. Then Beino took the maiden’s head and placed it back upon her body, and spreading his mantle over her, he said to her father and mother, who were standing at her head in grief, “Be silent for a little while, until the mass is finished.”

⁷ Then Beino offered sacrifice to God, and when mass was finished the maiden rose up completely restored; the sweat was wiped from her face, and God, through Beino, returned her to perfect health. In the place where her blood had fallen to the ground a spring arose, which remains there to this day, healing both people and animals of diseases and wounds. That spring is called, after the maiden, Winefred’s Well. Many people witnessed these things and believed in Christ, and among those who believed was Cadfan, king of North Wales, who granted Beino much land territory. After Cadfan’s death, Beino went to visit his son Cadwallon, who succeeded him as king. Beino asked for the land of Cadfan, for at that time he had no place in which to pray to God or to dwell, and the king granted him a place in Arfon called Gwaredauc. Beino gave the king a golden sceptre, which Conan son of Brochwel had given him when he was about to die, and that sceptre was worth sixty cows. There Beino built a church and began to build a wall around it. One day, while he and his disciples were working on the wall, they saw a woman coming towards them carrying a newborn child and asking Beino to bless the infant. Beino said, “Woman, wait a little while until this is finished,” but the child was crying so loudly that it was hard to bear. “Woman,” said Beino, “what is causing the child to cry?” “Good saint,” replied the woman, “there is a reason.” “Good woman,” said Beino, “what is that reason?” “Truly,” she said, “the land which you possess and on which you are building a church is the township belonging to the child’s father.” Then Beino said to his disciples, “Take your hands off the work while I baptise the child and prepare my chariot; we will go with this woman and child to visit the king who gave me the child’s father’s township.”

⁸ Beino and his disciples then set out with the woman and the child and came to Caerseint, where the king was, a place now called Caernarfon. Beino said to the king, “Why did you give me the township when it belonged to someone else? The child in that woman’s arms owns that land is its rightful heir. Give the land to the child, and give me some other land in its place, or return to me the gift I gave you, namely the golden sceptre.” But the proud king gave Beino an arrogant reply: “I will not exchange the land with you; the gift you gave me I have already given to another.” Beino became angry and said, “I ask God that you will not long possess the land territory,” and he departed, leaving the king under a curse.

⁹ The king had a cousin named Guideuit, who went after Beino and met him on the far side of the river called the Seint, where Beino was sitting on a stone by the riverbank. For the sake of his own soul and that of his cousin Cadwallon, he gave to God and to Beino for ever his township, called Kelynauc, free from rent or service, and without anyone possessing or laying claim to it. There Beino, through the power of God, performed miracles which no one in this world could number.

¹⁰ At that time it happened that one of the workmen at Aberffraw went to the palace of Ynyr of Gwent, and no young man was more handsome than he. When the daughter of Ynyr of Gwent saw him, she could not bear to be away from his company even for a moment. When the king became aware of this, he chose to give the young man to his daughter in marriage, lest she should have him in some other way, being willing to have one so handsome as both his son-in-law and his subject. After some time the young man returned with his wife to his own country, and they came to a place called Pennard in Arfon. There they dismounted and rested, and through fatigue and weariness sleep overcame the princess. While she slept, he became deeply ashamed to go to his country with a wife of such noble birth without having a place to take her to, and being obliged to return again to the place where he had been working and earning his living. Then, through the prompting of the devil, he cut off her head as she slept, and afterwards returned to the king’s country with the valuable horses and the gold and silver. By this means he obtained an office from the king and became his steward.

¹¹ Beino’s shepherds saw the corpse and at once went to inform him; Beino immediately went with them to the place where the body lay. He took the head at once and pressed it to the body, and falling on his knees prayed to God in these words: “Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, to whom nothing is hidden, restore this body to health.” Immediately the maiden rose up completely restored and told Beino all that had happened. Beino then said to her, “Will you choose to return to your country, or to remain here serving God?” The good and gentle maiden replied, “Here I will remain, serving God, near you who have raised me to life from the dead.” In the place where her blood had fallen to the ground, a clear spring arose, and that spring took its name from the young woman and was called Digwc’s Well.

¹² After some time Iddon, son of Ynyr of Gwent and brother of the princess, came to Beino to seek his sister. When he arrived, the young woman was with Beino serving God, and he asked her whether she would leave that country and go with him; but she said that she would not go, nor leave the place where she had been raised from the dead. When Iddon saw that he could not persuade her, he asked Beino to go with him as far as Aberffraw, to make a request to the king and recover from him the horses, and the gold and silver which the man had taken away with his sister. They both went to the king’s palace, and there Iddon saw the man he was seeking.

¹³ Immediately he drew his sword and struck the man, cutting off his head. The king then became angry and ordered that the man who had committed the killing should be seized. Beino said, “Do not lay your hand on the man who came with me.” In his anger the king hurried away and swore that the man would be put to death at once unless Beino would restore the slain man to life. Beino, trusting firmly in God, raised the murdered man to life. The king then repented of having tested the saint and gave him the house in which he lived, and it is called Beino. Many other things we have passed over and left untold, lest this account should become wearisome. These are but a few of the miracles of Beino, and no one knows what God did through Beino except God himself. It is clear that whoever does good, God will help him. All that God commanded, Beino carried out: he gave food and drink to all whom he saw hungry and thirsty, clothing to the naked, lodging to strangers; he visited the sick, showed kindness to prisoners, and did everything that the Holy Scriptures command to be done.

¹⁴ When the lifetime of Beino was drawing to a close and his final day was near, on the seventh day after Easter he saw heaven opened, and angels descending and ascending again. Then Beino said, “I see the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and Peter and Paul, and the Druids, and Deiniol, and the saints, and the prophets, and the apostles, and the martyrs appearing to me. I see among them seven angels standing near the throne of the Most High Father, and all the fathers of heaven singing their songs, saying, ‘Blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken to dwell with you for ever’” [Psalm 65:4]. “I hear,” he said, “the sound of the trumpet of the Most High Father calling me and saying, ‘My son, cast from you the burden of your flesh; now the time is coming, and you are invited to share with your brethren in the feast that never ends. Your body will remain in the earth, but the hosts of heaven and the angels will bring your soul to heaven, which you have gained here by your works. And on the day of judgement you will be present when the Lord will say to the saints, “Come, you blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” where there will be life without death, youth without old age, health without sickness, and joy without sorrow; and the saints in the upper world, with God the Father, will be united with the angels and archangels in the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’” [Matthew 25:34]. Amen. Let us beg the mercy of Almighty God, that through the help of Saint Beino we too may, with him, obtain eternal life for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁵ Here is the pedigree of Saint Beino. Beino was the son of Bugi, the son of Gwinlliu, the son of Tegit, the son of Cadell Deyrnllwg, the son of Gortegyrun, the son of Gorthevyn, the son of Gorthgeyrun, the son of Rutegyrn, the son of Deheuwynt, the son of Eudegan, the son of Eudegern, the son of Elud, the son of Endos, the son of Endolen, the son of Avallad, the son of Amalech, the son of Belim, the son of Anna, who was cousin to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ.