A Welsh Saint – The “Historia” of St Melangell

A rather charming twitter post from here, about a saint unknown to me: In Wales, the 27th of May is the feast day of St Melangell, the patron saint of hares. St Melangell’s patronage of hares is attributed to a story of how she protected a hare (under her dress) from a pack of snarling hunting dogs belonging to a Welsh prince, named Brochwel. After hearing how she came to be in Wales (she was an Irish princess who had fled an arranged marriage in Ireland) Prince Brochwel granted her the land on which she was standing. There, St. Melangell founded – and became abbess to – a community of nuns. She lived out her life in this place and community, until her death, 37 years later. Hares and other wild animals behaved as though tamed in St. Melangell’s company, and miracles were attributed to them. Her church still stands today at Pennant Melangell in the Berwyn Mountains, and remains a place of pilgrimage. Art by Jemima Jameson St Melangell, by Jemima Jameson This led me to wonder how we…