of this college were married and allowed to marry, as
all Celtic clergy were.
S. Winnow was son of Gildas the historian. Gildas and Finian were together for some time at S. David's monastery, and became close friends. Then Gildas entrusted his son Winnoc, or Winnow, to Finian to be educated, and Finian took the boy with him to Clonard and educated him. When Winnoc thought that it was time for him to leave, he returned to Britain and settled in Cornwall. As he was allied to the royal family, he received large grants of land, and certainly chose a lovely spot for his establishment. S. Veep, or Wennapa, was his aunt, and he served as her spiritual adviser. After a while, for some reason unknown, but probably on account of a breeze with his kinsman King Constantine, whom Winnow's father, Gildas, has abused in the most uncompromising terms, and Constantine's mother as well, Winnow left Cornwall and settled in Brittany. He was accompanied by his brother Madoc and his sister, whom the Welsh call Dolgar and the Bretons Tugdonia. He landed in the neighbourhood of Brest, where he was found by Conmor, Count of Vannes, the usurper, who was killed in 500. Conmor granted him as much land as he could enclose in a day. The story goes that Madoc, or Madan, as the Bretons call him,[1] took a pitchfork and drew it behind him, and it formed a ditch and a bank that enclosed a bit of land. The fosse and embankment
- ↑ Madoc and Madan are the same name; oc and an are diminutives. The real name was Aed. It became Mo-aedoc. Mo is a term of endearment—"my"—given to many Irish and Welsh saints.
