Gildas

Gildas (c. 500-570 CE) was a Romano-British monk, known primarily for a work entitled De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, translated as On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain. Gildas' work is a polemical sermon recounting British history while also rebuking the British kings and clergy of his own lifetime. While little is known of Gildas himself, it is generally accepted that he was writing at some point in the mid-6th century CE. He probably lived near western Britain, modern-day Wales and Cornwall. Later in life, he emigrated to Brittany in what is now northwestern France. There he joined many of his fellow Britons fleeing the oncoming Germanic invaders. Gildas founded there the monastery which came to be known as St. Gildas de Rhuys and he came to be venerated as a saint; at times referred to as Saint Gildas Sapiens, or Saint Gildas the Wise.