St. Dubricius

Dubricius belongs to the early Christian history of Wales. Butler honours him especially as a teacher of clergy and religious, naming the schools at Hentland and Mochros beside the River Wye. The account connects St. Samson, St. Teilo and other Welsh churchmen with the instruction and discipline of these communities.

The life presents his teaching as the fruit of a life already given to prayer. Before instructing others, he sought to order his own soul through retirement and meditation. His importance in the traditional account lies in the formation of those who would continue the Church’s ministry, as well as in the episcopal offices associated with his name.

Butler links Dubricius with Llandaff and Caerleon, and describes his eventual retirement to Bardsey Island. The early chronology and the precise account of those sees are difficult to establish, so this reading does not turn the edition’s dates into certain milestones. It preserves the central remembrance of a Welsh bishop and teacher whose later years were spent in retirement, rather than the romantic details accumulated around the period.