Ronan of Locronan

Saint Ronan of Locronan was an Irish pilgrim bishop and hermit, the founder of Locronan in western Brittany and, with Saint Corentin, co-⁠patron of Quimper. Our calendar places him around 700, while the sources say he lived around the sixth century; our list adds that he was a bishop of Cornish origin who preached in Cornwall and in Brittany. He is commemorated on 1 June.

The name of the village of Locronan means the place of Ronan. His veneration there is known from the 1030s, and his relics were later moved to the abbey of Quimper, by 1274 at the latest. A Latin Life of him was written at Quimper in the thirteenth century. According to the earliest Life, Ronan was a well-⁠educated native of Ireland, renowned as a bishop. Longing for closer communion with God, at the height of his career he severed all ties with kin and country and sailed for Brittany, landed in the region of Léon, went south to the kingdom of Cornouaille and set up a hermitage at Locronan, near the woods of Névez. His fame reached King Gradlon.

A local peasant admired him and visited his cell, but the peasant's wife, Keban, grew jealous and accused him before Gradlon at Quimper of being a sorcerer who could turn into a wolf and had devoured sheep and her only daughter. Ronan was put to the test: the king's fierce dogs were pacified by the sign of Christ; then he showed that Keban had shut her daughter in a place so small that she had stifled to death, named the exact spot, and, when the girl was found dead, prevented Keban's execution and brought the girl back to life. As Keban's malice did not cease, he left for Domnonia, near Hillion, and died in his cell. He is also honoured in the parish of Kilronan in Ireland.