Dunod of Bangor

Saint Dunod of Bangor, also called Dunawd or Dinooth, was the first abbot of the monastery of Bangor Iscoed (Bangor-⁠on-⁠Dee) in north-⁠east Wales. He was originally a chieftain of northern Britain, driven by reverses of fortune into Wales. He was married to Dwywai, daughter of Lleënog, and they had three sons: Deiniol, Cynwyl and Gwarthan.

Under the patronage of Cyngen Glodrydd, prince of Powys, Dunod and his sons are said to have founded the monastery of Bangor on the river Dee. The community there was very numerous, and the "laus perennis", the unceasing divine service, was kept there; the Triads speak of 2400 monks, who sang in turn, a hundred each hour, day and night. It was an important religious center in the 5th and 6th centuries. The monastery was destroyed around 613 by the Anglo-⁠Saxon king Æthelfrith of Northumbria, after he defeated the Welsh at Chester; a number of the monks then moved to Bardsey Island.

Dunod is mentioned by Bede in the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" as abbot of Bangor at the second meeting of Saint Augustine of Canterbury with the Welsh bishops, "at Augustine's Oak", in 602 or 603. The Catholic Encyclopedia doubts that he attended, as he would have been very aged. He is often identified with Dunod Fawr, a king in the north of Britain and father of Saint Deiniol, but this is chronologically unlikely. Saint Mirin of Bangor is said to have studied under him. He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church, and the primary school in Bangor-⁠on-⁠Dee bears his name.