Saint Richard Gwyn

Richard Gwyn (ca. 1537 – 15 October 1584), also known by his anglicized name, Richard White, was a Welsh teacher at illegal and underground schools and a bard who wrote both Christian and satirical poetry in the Welsh language. A Roman Catholic during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, Gwyn was martyred by being hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason at Wrexham in 1584. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Since its creation in 1987, St. Richard Gwyn has been the Patron Saint of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wrexham. Along with fellow lay martyr St. Margaret Clitherow, Gwyn is the co-patron of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. While little is known of Richard Gwyn's early life, it is known that he was born about 1537 in Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, Wales and, reportedly, "descended of honest parentage, bearing the surname of Gwin (sic)." Only at the age of 20, "he did frame his mind to like of good letters", and accordingly matriculated at Oxford University, "where he made no great abode", and did not complete a degree. He then went to St John's College, Cambridge, "where he lived on the charity of the College", and its then Master, the Roman Catholic Dr. George Bullock. During his time at University, Gwyn's fellow students began calling him by the alias of "Richard White", "as being the English equivalent of his name". In the early part of the reign of Elizabeth I, Bullock was forced to resign the mastership in July 1559 and Gwyn was forced to leave the college. After leaving the university, Gwyn found that, "need and poverty compelled him to become a teacher before he could perfectly lay the foundation to be a learner," and returned to his native district in Wales. Gwyn served successively as schoolmaster in the Wrexham area villages of Gresford, Yswyd, and Overton-on-Dee while continuing his studies of the liberal arts, theology, and history.