Samson of Dol

Saint Samson of Dol was a Welsh monk, a disciple of Saint Illtud, bishop and founder of a monastery at Dol in Brittany, one of the seven founder saints of Brittany (with Pol Aurelian, Tugdual, Brieuc, Malo, Patern and Corentin). He was born around 490 to 495 in southern Wales and reposed at Dol around 565. He was one of the greatest missionaries of his century.

The main source for his life is the Vita sancti Samsonis, written between 610 and 820 and based on earlier materials, which gives useful details of contacts between churchmen in Britain, Ireland and Brittany. He was the son of Amon of Demetia and Anna of Gwent; because of a prophecy concerning his birth, his parents placed him under the care of Illtud, abbot of Llantwit Major, where he was raised and educated. Seeking greater austerity, he became monk and abbot of the monastery on Caldey Island, visited Ireland, then went to Cornwall, where he was consecrated bishop by Saint Dubricius and founded a community at South Hill or Golant. He went on to the Scilly Isles (the island of Samson is named after him), to Guernsey, of which he is patron, and finally to Brittany, where he founded the monastery of Dol.

He secured the excommunication of King Conomor and successfully petitioned the Merovingian king Childebert I on behalf of Judael, Conomor's estranged son. He is recorded as having attended a council in Paris between 556 and 573, by which time he was old. He was buried in the cathedral of Dol with his cousin Magloire. King Athelstan (924 to 939) obtained several of his relics, an arm and a crozier, and deposited them at his monastery at Milton Abbas in Dorset. The 2004 Roman Martyrology lists him on 28 July. At Llantwit stands the "Samson Pillar", considered one of the oldest inscribed Christian monuments in Britain. He is commemorated on 28 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.