Saint Melangell

Description

Saint Melangell
Patron saint of hares and rabbits

Saint Melangell, who may have lived around the 7th century AD, has been celebrated as the patron saint of hares and rabbits for over 1,300 years.
It’s believed that she was an Irish princess who fled an ‘arranged’ marriage to find refuge in the upper reaches of the Tanat Valley in Wales.
Her new life of peace, prayer and reflection was thought to have been interrupted in 604 AD when Prince Brochwel of Powys was leading a hunting party into the valley. Hounds chasing a hare were confounded when the animal sought refuge under Melangell’s cloak, abandoning their pursuit. Brochwel was so impressed he granted Melangell the land in perpetuity.
She established a religious community and the valley became a source of peace and pilgrimage. The story of the hare symbolises a place of sanctuary and tranquility.
St Melangell’s shrine, built in the 12th century, contains relics and stands in the chancel of the pilgrim church. During the Reformation it was dismantled, subsequently reconstructed and still contains elements of one of the oldest surviving Romanesque shrines in Northern Europe.

Melangell’s primary hagiography is the Historia Divae Monacellae, written in the 15th century. The Historia survives in three complete and two incomplete manuscripts, with the earliest dating from the late 16th century, along with one printed copy of a 17th-century manuscript. Melangell’s chronology is unknown, with some evidence pointing to the 7th or 8th century. Although the Historia gives a date of 604 AD, this date is suspect due to its likely origin in Bede‘s Historia Ecclesiastica, which is viewed as historically unreliable by scholars.

Jane Cartwright, a professor at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, draws a parallel between Melangell’s hagiography and Welsh apocryphal legends about Mary Magdalene; both having become penitents deep in the woods and not seeing men for many years. In their respective tales, men who attempt to approach them in the wilderness are struck by their divinity.

St Melangell’s church remains a place of sanctuary, healing and hospitality and is visited by pilgrims from all over the world.

For more information, please visit: www.stmelangell.org

The portrait was unveiled at the Pilgrim Church & Centre of Saint Melangell, Pennant Melangell, Wales in May 2025. See press coverage by clicking here.

A museum-grade giclée print from the original 30″ x 24″ oil painting of Saint Melangell. Size 375mm x 297mm (just short of A3) – hand printed by award-winning art printer Art4site.

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