St. Elined

St. Elined

Virgin and martyr, flourished c. 490. According to Bishop Challoner (Britannia Saneta, London, 1745. II, 59), she was a daughter of Bragan (Brychan), a British prince, after whom the present province of Brecknock is named, and her memory was kept in Wales. Giraldus Cambrensis, in his "Itinerarium Cambr." (I, c. ii), the chief authority for Elined, speaks of the many churches throughout Wales named after the children of Bragan, and especially of one on the top of a hill, in the region of Brecknock, not far from the castle of Aberhodni, which is called the church of St. Almedha, "who, rejecting the marriage of an earthly prince, and espousing herself to the eternal King, consummated her course by a triumphant martyrdom". Her feast was celebrated 1 August, on which day throngs of pilgrims visited the church, and many miracles were wrought. William of Worcester says that she was buried at Usk. The church mentioned by Giraldus was called, says Rees, Slweh chapel. The Bollandists (1 August) express themselves satisfied with the evidence of her cultus. This saint is the Luned of the "Mabinogion" (Lady Guest, I, 113-14, II, 164) and the Lynette of Tennyson's "Gareth and Lynette". She is also supposed to be identical with the Enid of the "Mabinogion" and Tennyson's "Idylls".

G.E. PHILLIPS