Saint Samson of Dol

Samson of Dol (also Samsun; born c. late 5th century) was a Welsh saint, who is also counted among the seven founder saints of Brittany with Pol Aurelian, Tugdual or Tudwal, Brieuc, Malo, Patern (Paternus) and Corentin. Born in southern Wales, he died in Dol-de-Bretagne, a small town in north Brittany, and was the nephew of Athrwys ap Meurig. The primary source for his biography is the Vita Sancti Samsonis, written sometime between 610 and 820 and clearly based on earlier materials. It gives useful details of contacts between churchmen in Britain, Ireland and Brittany. Samson was the son of Amon of Demetia and Anna of Gwent. His father's brother married his mother's sister so that their son Maglor was Samson's cousin twice over. Due to a prophecy concerning his birth his parents placed him under the care of Illtud, Abbot of Llantwit Fawr, where he was raised and educated. Samson later sought a greater austerity than his school provided, and so moved to Llantwit's daughter house, the island monastery of Caldey off the coast of Dyfed (Pembrokeshire), Wales, where he became abbot after the death of Pyr. Samson abstained from alcohol – unlike Pyr, who was killed when he fell down a well while drunk. As a cenobitic and later an eremitic monk, he travelled from Caldey to Ireland, where he is said to have founded or revived a monastery. There is one fairly certain date recorded of Samson's life; that he was ordained bishop by Bishop Dubricius on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter (22 February) at the beginning of Lent, which can be calculated to have fallen in the year 521. If, as is usual, he was 35 years old at the time then he would have been born in 486. Iolo Morganwg was responsible for the re-discovery of the Samson Pillar at St Illtud's Church, Llantwit, in about 1789, but his suggestion that it was erected by Samson himself was discredited by later historians with access to more reliable written sources.