Bernachus (or Brynach) Saint

Bernachus (Or Brynach) Saint of Wales, in the 5th century, Was said to have been the instructor of Brychan, king of Brecknock. His life is given in the Cotton MS. Vesp. A. 14 of the 12th century, and is printed in W. T. Rees's Lives of the Cambro- Briton Saints (1853). The details are fabulous: the saint comes from Brittany to South Wales, and his disciple, St. Clether, retires to Cornwall, to lead there the life of a devotee. The Life dates his death April 7; but other authorities give his festival as March 9 or July 7. R. Rees (Welsh Saints, p. 156) enumerates several churches named after Brynach in or near Pembroke or Brecknock. Another account makes Brynach contemporary with Maelgwn, and if so he must be placed in the first half of the 6th century. See Haddan and Stubbs, i, 158; Hardy, Cat. of Materials, i, 91.