St Gurthiern apparently comes from a noble family, and his genealogy seems at first sight to harbour some surprises. The one from his father’s side is surprisingly similar to the one given to Vortigern in the Historia Brittonum. His father is Bonus, who is the son of Vortigern’s paternal great-grandfather Gloiu ! In the Vita, Glou is Gurthiern’s grandfather, but undoubtedly that same eponym of Gloucester. Glou’s ancestor Beli has a brother called Kenan who is to be identified with Conan Meriadoc, who was said to have begun the first colonization of Brittany during the reign of Magnus Maximus in the late 4th century. St Gurthiern’s maternal grandfather is Lidinin. Some identify this with Lludd of the Breton version of the Life of St Cybi. I would, at face value at least, suggest another eponym, this one meaning London (Londinium) or Lincoln (Colonia Lindum), which could possibly explain why Gurthiern is erronously called ‘Rex Anglorum’ (King of the Anglians). This is usually translated with 'King of the Britons', although I fail to see why. However, 'Lidinin' could mean London (as Tanguy suggests), and this could be a piece of real information, which gives us information about Vortigern’s mother (or her family), which is not related to any other source.
The story of the Life goes that the young Gurthiern went to war with his father the King of Britain, and not knowing his identity, Gurthiern slew his sister’s son. When he realized what had happened he was struck with grief and fled into the wilderness to lament, do penance and pray for a year, dwelling alone in a valley between two mountains in the northern part of Britain. One day a huntsman found him, and though Gurthiern made him swear not to reveal his whereabouts, the hunter immediately told the king, who went to find his son to make him accept the kingdom. But Gurthiern would not comply, and after yet another yeare in pious retirement he was commanded by an angel (at the river Tamar in Cornwall) to make his way to Brittany. There he did a great miracle, by restoring the head to a dead young man.
The parts are Vortigern, Gurthiern, the discovery of Merlin in the Vita Merlini (stories about Lailoken, one of the components for the figure of Merlin) and the related St Kentigern. The royalty is of course connected to Vortigern, but the shameful act of killing a relative belongs to Lailoken, the proto-Merlin, who did also slay his sister's son by mistake in battle and also retired to do penance. last connection comes from the material about St Kentigern, who of course is the original saint that re-attaches lost heads to poor dead souls. He also supplied the genealogical material for St Gurthiern’s maternal ancestors. St Kentigern also closes the circle to Lailoken again.
Another link to northern Gaul and St. kentigern was recently shown that a 6th-century bishop by the name of Gonothigernus could also be considered a source for the legendary saint. While by no means conclusive to show a link between Kentigern and Gaul, it does show that cultural contact between Britain and Gaul in the early Middle Ages provided ample room for tales to be exchanged freely. The Breton kings had no surviving dynasty, and new nobles struggled for the supreme position. Their claim had to be advanced, and it was not uncommon to do this by founding an abbey. Unlike in Britain, the 11th-century social, ecclesiastical and political structure was very different from that of the 9th century and all affected had to struggle to re-establish themselves. No ‘real’ history of the principalities of Cornouaille or Dumnonée was left outside that what was written in the Frankish kingdoms, not even in the form of pseudo-history such as the Historia Brittonum.
During the early 11th century, the new dynasty of Budic replaced that of the counts of Poher (who were relegated to Rennes), which had very faint connections to the last Breton prince. The new counts of Cornouaille became dukes of Brittany within 60 years only, Budic having died by 1019 at the latest and his great-grandson replacing the Rennes dynasty by 1066. Their intended main ecclesiastical seate was the abbey of Sainte-Croix de Quimperlé, which was founded between 1046 and 1050 by Alain Cianhart, grandson to Budic by the latter’s son Benoît.
The Benedictine abbey was not without rivals: especially the abbey of Landévennec (associated with Grallon) and the cathedral of Quimper were tough rivals for the dynasties’ attention. In fact, none of the ruling dynasty of Budic was buried there, possibly because the attention shifted from the southwest to the east. Though still generously endowed by the ruling dynasty, Sainte-Croix had to fight for their donations. History was a powerful tool, and an abbey not ‘in control’ of its own founding history could lose lands to others, or even face dissolution!
A good example for this danger was the conflict between Sainte-Croix and Redon over the estate of Belle-Isle, which was quite legitimately received by the latter from the Rennes ducal family. It was during this conflict that Gurheden compiled the Cartulary (between 1124 and 1127), and probably the reason that Gurheden did not hesitate to include forged, chronologically contradictory documents in it. Had Redon fought this false claim in the court it would probably have won. However, it called for armed support from the ducal army, against which Sainte-Croix managed to get papal support, and in 1148 Belle-Isle was ceded to Gurheden’s abbey. In a similar conflict, the church of Quimper claimed the estates and the church of St Ronan through a Life of St Ronan compiled by them of course. The focus of this argument was the lacking of a founding saint for saint-Croix. Their founder, Alain Cianhart, was actually buried at Quimper, which must have been very hard to swallow. Although Quimper did not actually claim Saint-Croix, it severely weakened the latter’s position during conflicts such as that over St Ronan, whose relics were at Quimper, but the lands were held by Sainte-Croix.
The abbey of Sainte-Croix was of course very much aware that they needed a clear founder, around which a cult could be created. Their first attempt failed: the first abbot (died 1057) was denied sainthood by pope Urban II on the grounds of failing miracles - that’s what you get for living a dull life! I think that it set the tone for future developments as well, the abbey would not let that happen twice. If no miracles happened, they would have to be created! A saint was needed, preferably one such as in the possession of Landévennec (St Guénolé). Such a saint was found in the person of Gurthiern, some 40 years after the first attempt and rejection.
The including of the Life of St Gurthiern as only vita among the opening documents signals its primacy over other saints ( such as St Ninnoc, below), though its origin is murky. From all we kno, it seems very likely that Gurheden created all the saints connections with Sainte-Croix. The Life remains a curious combination of unintegrated and sometimes contradictory pieces of information, like the Cartulary itself. We can be sure that Gurheden created it, and we must ask the question why he chose Vortigern for his saint.
Vortigern had a bad reputation, which by the 11th and 12th centuries was only growing. Vortigern lived at the time of or even before Grallon the Great and St Guénolé (mentioned above), which would be perfect for the cause. However, I cannot imagine that Vortigern’s bad rep would have been of no issue here. The elements of the Life are so very clearly ‘borrowed’ from the legend of Vortigern (though ‘cleaned up’ by adding those of St Kentigern) that I find it hard to swallow that Gurheden would have gotten away with it. Apparently, Gurheden was not laughed out of court by his colleagues for using an incestuous traitor for his founding saint.
Why Gurheden simply had to use the material that was known from the British Vortigern, and feel that he could embellish that with (vaguely) related material from the legends of Lailoken and St Kentigern. An original saint, whether minor or not, but identified with the 5th-century Vortigern, would indeed do for a founder saint, and all kind of material could safely be added. The reputation of the king may indeed have been bad, but that would have been cancelled out with the reputation of the ‘St Vortigern’ that lay beneath it. It would also solve the apparently mysterious dedication of the parish church of Langolen (Finistère) to St Gurthiern. Langolen is the virtual namesake of Llangollen in Wales, where in the Valle Crucis stands the Pillar of Elise, commemorating the ancestors of the local dynasty up to Vortigern! Might this be an indication of how a cult around a ‘St Vortigern’ could end up in Brittany? After all, it has been supposed that Broerec or Weroch (Vannes) was named after Wroxeter, not far from Llangollen and in Powys as well. Maybe some settlers of Brittany rived from Powys, where Vortigern was held in high repute, as the Pillar of Elise testifies. Such a favoured ancestor could very well become a saint if detached from his historical context. The details of this saint may have been lost during the time of the Viking raids, like so much else was lost during that period of devastation. It does not sound very unreasonable that Gurthiern’s relics were discovered in a sack containing the bones of several saints, which was probably ‘saved’ from the heathen and hidden on the island of Groix, where Sainte-Croix had possessions. The context of the past, however, had become irrevocably lost.
The relics of Gurthiern seem to have turned up between 1066 and 1079, after which he became important to Sainte-Croix. However, within ten years another church was dedicated to him, all before in the 12th century Gurheden began writing the Vita. Therefore, earlier material was present. It has been supposed that Gurheden worked from two manuscripts, of which that from Vannes may be the older. It would explain why Gurthiern is connected with the unlocated Anaurot (Quimperlé) as well as Kervignac, which was the primary cult site and place of his death in the Vannes traditions. The Quimperlé traditions were either later or invented.