14 December 2008

St Tugdual of Tréguier


I almost forgot to post about a very obscure Saint today. St Tugdual of Tréguier (c. AD 528-564) was a native of Wales who lived as a hermit on an island off of the Welsh coast before relocating to Brittany, where he preached the Gospel and founded a number of monasteries. He was eventually made bishop of Tréguier at the insistence of the Frankish king, Childebert. St Tugdual reposed on 30 November 564. He is commemorated on a number of different dates in different breviaries--1 December, today's date according to the Orthodox patristic calendar, is the date he is listed in the Breviary of Léon, 1736 (S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher, The Lives Of The British Saints; The Saints Of Wales, Cornwall And Irish Saints, Vol. 4 [Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2005], p. 273). He is listed for both 30 November and 1 December on my favourite online Orthodox calendar.


St Tugdual is one of the Seven Founding Saints of Brittany, and his shrine in Tréguier is still part of the 1,300 year-old Tro Breizh pilgrimage route that takes in the shrines of all seven of these holy bishops. See the article in the wonderful journal, Road to Emmaus. Also, see the interview with a Breton Orthodox priest, Fr Maxime Le Dirisain.

Oh yeah, just one more thing. I really like Breton folk music.

2 comments:

David Stone said...

If you like Breton folk music you should check out the pipe and drum band Teribus:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=163975266

They play some Breton folk music featuring the Bombard. They have a cd out entitled: 'How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bombard' : )

The cd is for sale at their website:

http://www.teribusmusic.com/

Aaron Taylor said...

Thanks for the tip, David! I'll have to add them as a MySpace friend.