Neventer

Saint Neventer is a Breton saint of Armorica, somewhat legendary, who has not been officially recognised by the Roman Catholic Church. His feast is kept on 7 May (new style, Western calendar). Very little is known of him.

According to Albert le Grand, Neventer and Derrien were two knights from the island of Britain who in the sixth century were returning from the Holy Land by sea. On the river then called Dour Doun, today the Élorn, they saw Count Élorn throwing himself into the water in despair, because the lot had fallen on his two-⁠year-⁠old son Riok as the next victim of a dragon that devoured men and beasts. They saved him and promised to rid the land of the dragon if he gave up paganism and raised his son in the Christian faith. The two knights went to the dragon's lair, ordered it to bring Riok back to his father's castle, and then led it to Tolente, where they forced it to throw itself into the sea. The count was later persuaded by his wife and son and built a church in the wood of Barguet, from which the village of Plounéventer grew. Tradition says that there Neventer's horse left its hoofprint on a stone, still to be seen near the grotto of Notre-⁠Dame-⁠de-⁠Lourdes. Derrien and Neventer are said to have returned to the island of Britain to end their lives. His name survives in Plounéventer and in Plaintel, and at Plounéventer a gwerz, a traditional Breton song, about him is still sung.