Goeznovius

Saint Goeznovius, known in Brittany as Goueznou or Gouesnou, was born in Cornwall in the early seventh century according to traditional reckoning. In the wake of the Anglo-Saxon invasions that drove many Britons from their homeland, he crossed to Armorica with his father Tudon (Tudogilus), his brother Majan, and his sister Tudona. They landed on the coast of Léon, perhaps near Landéda. The father settled as a hermit near Ploudiner, Majan at Plouguin, and Tudona first at Plabennec before establishing herself at what became Saint-Thudon in Guipavas. Goeznovius himself sought out the local lord Conomor. The lord offered him as much land for a monastery as he could enclose with ditches in a single day. Accepting the gift, the saint summoned his brother Majan, took a forked staff, and dragged it across the ground for roughly two Breton leagues square. As he walked, the earth rose of itself on either side and formed a great ditch that forever marked the boundary of the minihy of Land-Gouesnou, a sacred enclosure long regarded as a place of asylum.

Within this territory Goeznovius founded his monastery and forbade women to enter the monastic enclosure, though they might approach the church. His virtues led the people of Léon to choose him as bishop. He governed the see with pastoral zeal, continuing the work of the early British missionaries who had planted the faith in Brittany. Tradition places his death on 25 October 675 at Quimperlé, while he was visiting Saint Corbasius, who was then building a monastery there. An offended architect is said to have dropped a stone from the scaffolding onto the saint's head, ending his earthly life.

His cult flourished around Brest and throughout the former diocese of Léon. Until the Revolution his relics were carried each year in procession around the minihy on Ascension Day; fragments were also venerated at Saint-Goueno. The church of Gouesnou preserves the memory of his stone bed, on which he once slept when refused hospitality, and a pierced stone associated with his penitential practice; both became places of popular devotion for the healing of bodily pains. Though his tomb was desecrated in the revolutionary years and most relics scattered, a finger in a silver case remains at Gouesnou, and local churches across Léon, Tréguier, Cornouaille and Saint-Brieuc still honor his name.

May Saint Goeznovius obtain for us the grace of generous detachment from worldly security, that we may mark out our lives for God alone.