Saint Dunod (variously spelled Dinooth, Dinodh, Dinuth and Deynoch) was the first

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

of Bangor Iscoed of north-east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

.Alston, George Cyprian. "St. Dinooth." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 22 July 2021

Life

Originally a North British chieftain, he was driven by reverses of fortune into Wales, where under the patronage of Cyngen Glodrydd, Prince of Powys, he founded the monastery of Bangor on the Dee. The community at Bangor was very numerous, and the ''laus perennis'' was established there. The Triads say there were 2400 monks, who in turn, 100 each hour, sang the Divine Service day and night. It was an important religious centre in the 5th and 6th centuries. The monastery was destroyed in about 613 by the Anglo-Saxon king

Æthelfrith of Northumbria Æthelfrith (died c. 616) was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death. Around 604 he became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the development of the later kingdom of Nort ...

after he defeated the Welsh at the

Battle of Chester The Battle of Chester (Old Welsh: ''Guaith Caer Legion''; Welsh: ''Brwydr Caer'') was a major victory for the Anglo-Saxons over the native Britons near the city of Chester, England in the early 7th century. Æthelfrith of Northumbria annihilated ...

; a number of the monks then transferred to

Bardsey Island Bardsey Island ( cy, Ynys Enlli), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", while its English name refers to the "Islan ...

. Dunod is best known as being the only

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

ecclesiastic mentioned by name, in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Bede states that Dunod (Dunawd) was still abbot of Bangor Iscoed at the time of the second meeting of Augustine of Canterbury with the seven Welsh bishops at 'Augustine's Oak' (possibly

Aust Aust is a small village in South Gloucestershire, England, about north of Bristol and about south west of Gloucester. It is located on the eastern side of the Severn estuary, close to the eastern end of the Severn Bridge which carries the M ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Cressage Cressage is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies on the junction of the A458 and B4380 roads and the River Severn flows around its northern boundary. The Royal Mail postcode begins SY5. The parish council is combined w ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

) in 602 or 603. George Cyprian Alston, writing in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' doubts that Dunod attended the meeting. While it is true that delegates from Bangor attended the conference, Dunod would have been far advanced in years, and the journey from North Wales to the Lower Severn would have been a difficult one for an aged man. He is often identified with

Dunod Fawr Dynod son of Pabo ( cy, Dynod or ''Dunod ap Pabo''; la, Dunaunt; died c. 595), better known as Dynod the Stout ( cy, Dynod Bwr) or Dynod Fawr was the ruler of a small kingdom in the North Pennines in the post-Roman Hen Ogledd ("Old ...

Pabo Post Prydain Pabo Post Prydain (''supp. fl.'' before 500) was a king from the Hen Ogledd or ''Old North'' of sub-Roman Britain. According to tradition Pabo "the Pillar of Britain" was driven out of the North in 460 and settled in Anglesey. He is said to have ...

, a

Brython The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', la, Britanni), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were people of Celtic language and culture who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age and into the Middle Ages, at which point the ...

ic King ruling somewhere in the North of Britain and father of Saint

Deiniol Saint Deiniol (died 572) was traditionally the first Bishop of Bangor in the Kingdom of Gwynedd, Wales. The present Bangor Cathedral, dedicated to Deiniol, is said to be on the site where his monastery stood. He is venerated in Brittany as Sai ...

, the first

Bishop of Bangor The Bishop of Bangor is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Bangor. The see is based in the city of Bangor where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Cathedral Church of Saint Deiniol. The ''Report of the Commissioners appointed ...

in Gwynedd. However, this is chronologically unlikely. The primary school in Bangor-on-Dee is named in his honour; Ysgol Sant Dunawd.

References

7th-century Christian saints Welsh abbots Medieval Welsh saints {{Wales-bio-stub