Saint Guigner

Fingar, otherwise Guigner , was the son of Clyton, one of the kings of Hibernia, to whom Sain t Patrick went to preach the Gospel. The respect that the young prince showed, in a general assembly, for this holy missionary, despised by all the other kings and lords of the island, and the eagerness with which he embraced the faith, led his father to drive him from his states, as an enemy of his person and his gods. Guigner took refuge, with a troop of friends, Christians like him, in Armorica. Audre n, who then reigned in that country, gave him a favorable welcome, and gave him lands for his companions and for himself; he lived there in the exercises of the religious life for some years, imitating, as much as he was able, the life of Saint Patrick, his master. The desire he felt to occupy himself only with God led him to separate from his companions, and to retire into a cave, where he spent all his time meditating on eternal truths, and fed only on acorns. Having then returned to his country, with the design of converting his compatriots to Jesus Christ, he refused there the crown that death had just taken from his father, and which his subjects, converted during his absence by Saint Patrick, presented to him with an eagerness which clearly showed that those who profess the true faith never lack fidelity to their legitimate sovereigns. The love of retreat and the contemplative life led Guigner to leave his country a second time, in the company of more than seven hundred people, among whom were seven bishops, and his sister Piale, as humble and as detached from the world as he was. The goal that this holy troop proposed was to announce the Gospel to the Saxons who had established themselves in a part of Great Britain, and followed the errors of paganism. Arrived in insular Cornwall, Saint Guigner and his companions had no sooner manifested their intentions, than Theodoric, a Breton prince, gathered his soldiers, and fell upon them with such fu ry that h e had them all massacred. This carnage was, it is said, solely the effect of the hatred that the Bretons had against the Irish, without religion having any part in it. However, as the death of these holy personages was very unjust, they have always been honored as martyrs. Saint Guigner, who had not ceased to exhort his own to suffer death with patience, had his head cut off after them. This event occurred around the year 455.