Máel Dub (the Gaelic name ''Máel'' meaning "disciple" and ''Dub'' being a byname, "dark"; Latinized as ''Maildubus'', anglicized as ''Maildulf'' and other variants) was a
Saint and reputed Irish monk of the 7th century, said to have founded a monastic house at
Malmesbury
Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...
, England.
[Lapidge, "Máeldub"]
It was implied by
Bede that the monastery was said to have been named after him (HE 5.18, the monastery "which they call the monastery of Máel Dub"
'quod Maildubi Urbem nuncupant''.
[ There is evidence from a later charter that his name was Máel Duin.][
Among his pupils were Aldhelm,][ the founder of ]Malmesbury Abbey
Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, is a religious house dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It was one of the few English houses with a continuous history from the 7th century through to the dissolution of the monasteri ...
, and Daniel of Winchester
Daniel (Danihel) of Winchester (died 745) was Bishop of the West Saxons, and Bishop of Winchester from c. 705 to 744.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 223
Life
The prominent position which he held among the English clergy of hi ...
.
He died in around 675 and was buried in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Malmesbury. His bones were cast out in the 11th century by the Norman abbot Warin of Lyre and relegated to a far corner of St. Michael's Church.
Notes
References
* Lapidge, Michael, "Máeldub (supp. fl. mid-7th cent.)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
, accessed 29 March 2009
675 deaths
7th-century Irish priests
Irish Christian monks
Irish expatriates in England
History of Wiltshire
Year of birth unknown
Malmesbury Abbey
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