Street, London, founded in the tenth century; Earsdon in Northumberland as under Tynemouth, a priory of S. Alban's Abbey; Wymondham in Norfolk, as well a priory of S. Alban's; Worksop Priory in Nottinghamshire, and Wickersley in Yorkshire; Withernwick in east Yorkshire; Frant in Kent, and perhaps originally Almondbury in Yorkshire. Camden so thinks. In Brittany he is supposed to be patron of several parishes and chapels. This is, however, due to a mistake: he has been confounded with and has superseded S. Albinus, who was a native of the Diocese of Vannes, and became bishop of Angers, and died circ. 550.

S. ALLECCUS, or GALLGO, Confessor

ACCORDING to the Life of Gildas by the monk of Ruys, Alleccus, or Allectus, was a brother of that saint, He says: "Mailocus, Alleccus and Egreas, with their saintly sister (Peteova), after contemning all the wealth and luxuries of the world, strove with the whole bent of their soul to reach the celestial country, and devoted. their lives to fastings and prayers. At last they were called to God, and received the reward of their labours. They were buried in the oratories which they had built, and are preserved there, famous and illustrious for their constant miracles, and destined to rise again in glory." 1

Alleccus, or Allectus, there can be hardly a doubt is the Gallgo, or Gallgof ab Caw, of the Welsh pedigrees,2 to whom Llanallgo, a chapel subject to his brother's church, Llaneugrad, in Anglesey, is dedicated.

Gallgo was for a while a saint at Llantwit and Llancarfan.3 He appears to be the Calcas ab Caw who is mentioned in the Tale of Culhwch and Olwen as having been in the service of King Arthur.1 Probably, owing to the insults dashed in the face of Maelgwn Gwynedd by Gildas, his brother, Alleccus may have been forced to leave Anglesey, and then perhaps retired to Ireland for a time. Colgan conjectured that he is the saint named Oilleoc in the Irish Martyrologies, but hesitated between him and Elloc, one of the reputed sons of Brychan.5

1 Gildas, ed. Hugh Williams, p. 327.

2 Iolo MSS., pp. 101, 109, 116, 137, 142–3; Myv. Arch., p. 425.

3 Iolo MSS., pp. 101, 116.

4 Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 107; ed. Guest, 1877, p. 224.

5 Acta SS. Hibern., Jan. 29, p. 188. The situation of Cluan Etchen, cf which Oilleoc was saint, has not been determined.

It is possible that Alleccus may have been with Gildas at an early period in Ireland, till the latter was recalled by the murder of his brother Huail.

The day of S. Gallgo, or Alleccus, is given as November 27 in most of the Welsh Calendars from the fifteenth century; also by Nicolas Roscarrock. Oilleoc, or Oileac, of Cluan Etchen, is venerated in the Irish Calendars on July 24.

The Wake at Llanallgo was, however, held on the first Sunday in May. Near the church is Ffynnon Allgo, his holy well. Its waters, which are strongly impregnated with sulphate of lime, were formerly held in high veneration for the cures ascribed to them, and are still, we believe, regarded as highly beneficial in some chronic diseases. Adjoining the west end of the church is Capel y Ffynnon, the Well Chapel, a small edifice anciently appropriated to the use of the votaries of the patron of the spring.2

S. ALLEN, Confessor

S. ALLEN is the name of a parish in Cornwall in the Deanery of Pyder. The name is given in the Exeter Episcopal Registers as Allun or Alun. In that of Bishop Bronescombe, 1261, the church is Ecclesia Sti. Alluni; in that of 1274 Ecclesia de St. Aluno; so also in 1274, 1284; in that of B. Bytton, 1302; in the Taxation of Pope Nicolas, 1288-91; in the register of B. Stapeldon, 1314; and in those of B. Grandisson, 1349, and B. Brantyngham, 1376, 1383, 1384, 1392.

Leland (Itin., ii, 77; iii, 2) gives the forms Aleine, Alaine and Alein. It is not possible, with any approach to confidence, to determine who the Saint was who is patron of the parish. He can hardly be Alan, son of Emyr Llydaw.

The Feast at S. Allen is on February 22; but also on the Fifth Sunday after Easter. Whether he be the Elwyn, one of the Irish immigrants who came over with Breaca, may be doubted. See under S. ELWYN.

S. ALMEDHA, see S. EILIWEDD

S. ALUD, see S. EILIWEDD

S. AMAETHLU, see S. MAETHLU

1 Nicolas Owen, Hist. Anglesey, 1775, p. 57; Ang. Llwyd, Hist. Anglesey, 1833, p. 215.

2 Ang. Llwyd, op. cit., p. 215.

S. AMBROSIUS, Abbot, Confessor

THE Church of Amesbury claimed to have been founded by one Ambrosius, but whether this were an abbot, or whether he were Aurelius Ambrosius who headed the revolt against Gwrtheyrn; whether this latter, after having led the Britons to battle against the Saxons, in his old age became a monk and founded a religious house over which he ruled as abbot at Amesbury, is all uncertain, and never will be cleared up; but the latter supposition is not improbable. Aurelius Ambrosius, or Ambrosius Aurelianus, is the only one of his countrymen against whom the venomous Gildas does not inveigh. "After a certain length of time the cruel robbers returned to their home "—he is speaking of the Saxons. "A remnant, to whom wretched citizens flock from different places on every side, as eagerly as a hive of bees when a storm is threatening, praying at the same time unto Him with their whole heart, and, as is said, ' Burdening the air with unnumbered prayers,' that they should not be utterly destroyed, take up arms and challenge their victors to battle under Ambrosius Aurelianus. He was a man of unassuming character, who alone of the Roman race chanced to survive in the shock of such a storm (as his parents, people undoubtedly clad in the purple, had been killed in it), whose offspring in our days have greatly degenerated from their ancestral nobleness. To these men, by the Lord's favour, there came victory.” 1

In the Welsh Pedigrees, Ambrosius is Emrys Wledig, or as Nennius calls him, Embreis Guletic.

Nennius tells the marvellous tale of Vortigern being unable to lay the foundations of his castle in Gwynedd, and sending to find a boy whose father was unknown in order to sprinkle his blood on the foundations to make them firm. Messengers were sent throughout the Isle of Britain in the quest, and they came to a place in Glywyssing where they heard boys playing at ball, and a dispute having arisen among them, one sneered at the other, "O boy without a father, thou hast no good at all." The messengers asked, Whose son is the lad to whom this is said?" Those who were playing ball replied: "We know not. His mother is here." The mother of the boy of whom this was spoken said: "I know not that he has a father, nor do I know how he happened to be conceived in my womb."

Then the messengers took the lad to the king, who would have sacrificed him, according to the counsel of his Druids, but he escaped by telling Vortigern that the reason why his foundations gave way was

1 Gildas, De Excidio Brit., ed. H. Williams, p. 61.