THIS saint, who was formerly honored with great devotion in Wales, was
son to the king of the Dimetians in South-Wales. After the death of his
father, though the eldest son, he divided the kingdom with his six
brothers who nevertheless respected and obeyed him as if he had been
their sovereign. He married Gladusa, daughter of Braghan, prince of that
country, which is called from him Brecknockshire, and was father of St.
Canoe and St. Keyna. St. Gundleus had by her the great St. Cadoc, who
afterwards founded the famous monastery of Llancarvan, three miles from
Cowbridge, in Glamorganshire. Gundleus lived so as to have always in
view the heavenly kingdom for which we are created by God. To secure
this, he retired wholly from the world long before his death, and passed
his time in a solitary little dwelling near a church which he had built.
His clothing was sackcloth, his food barley-bread, upon which he usually
strewed ashes, and his drink was water. Prayer and contemplation were
his constant occupation, to which he rose at midnight, and he subsisted
by the labor of his hands: thus he lived many years. Some days before
his death he sent for St. Dubritius and his son St. Cadoc, and by their
assistance, and the holy rites of the church, prepared himself for his
passage to eternity. He departed to our Lord towards the end of the
fifth century, and was glorified by miracles. See his life in Capgrave
and Henschenius, from the collection of John of Tinmouth. See also
bishop Usher.