Saint Beuno

Saint Beuno
St Beuno's church (left) and chapel (right) at Clynnog in Gwynedd
Abbot
Born	late 6th century Powys
Died	(640-04-21)21 April 640 Clynnog Fawr
Venerated in	Orthodox Christianity Roman Catholism Anglicanism
Canonized	Pre-congregation
Major shrine	Clynnog Fawr
Feast	21 April (trad.) 20 April (Cath.)
Attributes	Abbot
Patronage	sick children; against diseased cattle

Saint Beuno (Latin: Bonus;d. 640), sometimes anglicized as Bono, was a 7th-century Welsh abbot, confessor, and saint. Baring-Gould gives St Beuno's date of death as 21 April 640, making that date his traditional feastday. In the current Roman Catholic liturgical calendar for Wales, he is commemorated on 20 April, the 21st being designated for Saint Anselm.

His name has been reconstructed as *Bou[g]nou in Old Welsh, with a proposed derivation from the common Celtic *Bou[o]-gnāw-, with a meaning related to "Knowing Cattle".

Beuno was said to have been born at Berriew in Powys and to have been the grandson of a prince of the local dynasty, which descended from Vortigern, king of Britain. After education and ordination in the monastery at Bangor in northern Wales, he became an active missionary with the support of Cadfan, king of Gwynedd. Cadfan's son and successor Cadwallon deceived Beuno about some land and, when the saint demanded justice, proved unsympathetic. Thereupon, Cadwallon's cousin Gwyddaint "gave to God and Beuno forever" his land at Clynnog Fawr on the Llŷn peninsula. Beuno established his own monastery at the site and died there peacefully "on the seventh day of Easter".