St Samson of Dol in Brittany and Caldey Island in Wales (d. 565)
Samson
of Dol is one of the seven founder saints of Brittany. Most of these
were Welsh missionary saints of the sixth century who crossed over to
Cornwall first and then sailed on to Brittany.
St Samson of Dol (died c. 565)
is one of many saints of Welsh origin in the 6th century - others were
Paulinus, Austell and Mean - who spent time in Cornwall on their way to
Brittany.
They seem to have shared the same spirit of "wandering for
Christ" that the Irish monks such as Colmcille and Columbanus had of
going into exile for Christ - peregrini pro Christo.
Educated by St Illtud
Samson was of noble
birth: his father was from Dyfed and his mother from Gwent. His parents
placed him under the care of Saint Illtud, and he grew up in the
monastery at Llaniltud Fawr. He was ordained priest by St Dubricius in
531.
Dubricius wanted Samson to succeed him as abbot of Llaniltud Fawr,
but Illtud's nephews, who were also monks in the same monastery, became
envious of him and in the face of their hostility he left the monastery.
Caldey Island
Samson retired to the island monastery of Caldey off the coast of Dyfed (Pembrokeshire), and became abbot there.
But it was not a happy move as his predecessor, Pyr, had left Caldey in
such a lax state that he was unable to control the monks and
re-establish discipline.
Ireland
Samson left there also and went to Ireland, where he reformed a monastery, thought to be a religious house at Howth.
Cornwall
Samson then joined a party of Welsh
churchmen including Paulinus, Austell and Mean who were going to
Cornwall on their way to Brittany.
Because of his reputation as a
monastic reformer, a monk named Winniavus was dispatched to tell him
tactfully that they would prefer that he went somewhere else.
Scilly Isles and Guernsey
Samson took the hint,
and moved on to spend some time in the Scilly Isles, where an island now
uninhabited - Samson - is named for him, and in Guernsey, where St
Samson is the second port of the island. He then moved on to found his
main monastery near Dol in Brittany.
Dol in Brittany
Dol was then an island on flat
marshlands, though the coastline has changed, and it is now about eight
kilometres inland. Mont Dol, a large flat-topped rock, had been the site
of druidic sacrifices, and Samson made that his hermitage.
The image
shown above is of the altar of the Church of Saint Samson in
Dol-de-Bretagne.
At the royal Frankish court in Paris
Samson is
said to have made a journey to the royal Frankish court in Paris to
plead for Judual, king of Brittany, who was detained there by King
Childebert I.
Here a series of incidents, in which the queen imposed a
series of bizarre trials and eventually tried to poison the saint ended,
when the king released Judual and confirmed the granting of land for
the monastery at Dol.
Samson peccator episcopus
Samson may have had quite close relations with the Frankish clergy. He is probably the Samson peccator episcopus
who signed the acts of an episcopal council in Paris in 557. He is
described in Breton accounts as archbishop of Dol.
Motiffs similar to
those in the Lives of other saints, such as a dove perching on
his shoulder at ordination and he capturing a dragon with his stole and
throwing it over a cliff, symbolically proclaim the importance of
his mission and the reverence in which he was held by his successors.
One of the seven founder saints of Brittany
Samson
is revered as one of the seven founding saints of Brittany, along with
Saint Pol Aurelian, Saint Tugdual (Tudwal), Saint Brieuc, Saint Malo,
Saint Patern, and Saint Corentin.
Tidal wave in 709
Dol was overwhelmed by a
catastrophic tidal wave in 709, and there is now no trace of the
monastery.
Samson's relics were taken to Canterbury and Ely in the time
of King Athelstan of Wessex (895 –939).