Ronan of Locronan

Saint Ronan
Renan, Ronan the Silent
Saint Ronan statue in Locronan church (Brittany, France)
Personal details
Buried	Locronan
Nationality	Irish
Sainthood
Feast day	1 June
Patronage	Locronan, Quimper

Saint Ronan (fl. c. 6th century?) is the name of an Irish pilgrim saint and hermit in western Brittany, who was a son of Saint Berach and eponymous founder of Locronan and co-patron of Quimper (France), together with its founder, Saint Corentin.

The village of Locronan (lit. “the place of Ronan”), which is located about 17 km northwest of Quimper, owes its name to its reputed founder, the Irish pilgrim St Ronan. To judge by his entry in the cartulary of the abbey of Quimper, he is known to have been venerated at Locronan since at least the 1030s.

At some later stage, his remains were translated to the nearby abbey of Quimper, whose patron saint was St Corentin. This must have occurred by 1274 at the latest, when the abbey produced an inventory mentioning the saint’s body and head among its cherished relics.

Sometime in the same century, a Latin Life of the saint, the Vita S. Ronani, was written at Quimper to familiarise the local community with the origins of the saint and his posthumous importance for the town through the miracles wrought by his relics.

The text begins by telling that Ronan was a well-educated native of Ireland, whose good works as a bishop had brought him great renown in his home country (§ 1). However, he longed to have a closer communion with God and so at the height of his career in Ireland, he chose voluntary exile, per Genesis 12:1-3, by severing all ties with kin and country and embarking on a voyage to Brittany. Having landed "in the region of Léon", he continued his journey southwards to the kingdom of Cornouaille (Latin Cornubia) and set up a hermitage at what would become known as Locronan, near the woods of Névez. Here he devoted himself to prayer and an ascetic way of life, through which he soon attracted a multitude of admirers from the region (§ 2). In this way, his presence also came to the attention of Gradlon, king of Cornouaille and a prominent figure in Breton legend (§ 3).

A local peasant much admired the saint, offering hospitality and paying frequent visits to his cell, but Keban, the peasant's wife, grew jealous and devised a scheme to bring the holy man into disrepute (§ 4). Before Gradlon at his court in Quimper, she openly accused the saint, saying that he was a sorcerer who could transform himself into a wild animal and that in the shape of a wolf, he had devoured numerous sheep and worst of all, her only daughter (§ 5). Ronan was put to the test to prove his sanctity. First, the king’s two ferocious dogs were unleashed on him, but by the token of Christ, Ronan managed to pacify them (§ 6). Second, he was given the opportunity to account for the disappearance of the peasant’s daughter. He revealed that Keban had locked up her own daughter in a place so small that she had stifled to death, and named the exact location (§ 7). When the girl was found dead just as the saint had told, local citizens insisted on Keban’s execution. Ronan, however, prevented this, preferring to practise Christian benevolence, and brought the dead girl back to life (§ 8). In spite of this, the saint continued to be harassed by Keban’s malice and therefore left for the petty kingdom of Domnonia in northwest Brittany, where he settled near Hillion (§ 9). He died in his cell (§ 10).