Dunod

Saint Dunod (variously spelled Dinooth, Dinothus and Dunawd) was the first Abbot of Bangor Iscoed of north-east Wales.

Early life Originally a North British chieftain, Dunod was driven by reverses of fortune into Wales. He was married to Dwywai, daughter of Lleënog, and they had three sons: Deiniol, Cynwyl and Gwarthan. The monastery was destroyed in about 613 by the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelfrith of Northumbria after he defeated the Welsh at the Battle of Chester. A number of the monks then transferred to Bardsey Island.

Dunod is best known as being the only Welsh ecclesiastic mentioned by name in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Bede states that Dunod (Dunawd) was still abbot of Bangor Iscoed at the time of the second meeting of Augustine of Canterbury with the seven Welsh bishops at 'Augustine's Oak' (possibly Aust in Gloucestershire or Cressage in Shropshire) in 602 or 603. George Cyprian Alston, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia doubts that Dunod attended the meeting. While delegates from Bangor did attended the conference, Dunod would have been far advanced in years, and the journey from North Wales to the Lower Severn would have been a difficult one for an aged man.

Legacy St. Dunod's feast day is 7th September.