This saint reproached King and clergy alike for their sloth in defending the Faith

           January 29----St. Gildas the Wise

St. Gildas was born about 494 to a British family of high rank.  At a very young age, he was placed in a monastery in order to procure the best education possible. 

Early on, he distinguished himself in genius and in maturity of judgment so that eventually he applied himself only to the study of the science of the saints.  The more he read the greater became his virtue because he emulated the great masters of the interior life.

In addition to sacrifice and prayer, St. Gildas wrote eight canons of discipline and a severe treatise against the crimes of the Britons.  Although he tried all methods of saintly persuasion, a large number of Britons did not convert.  Consequently, God punished the lot by allowing the scourge of the Scots and the fierce Saxons.

Then, St. Gildas went on the reproach Kings and clergy alike for their sloth and lack of zeal in defending the spreading the Faith.
St. Gildas died in solitude in 570.

St. Gildas rightfully earned the title "wise" because he had the wisdom to understand how to defend the Church of God conforming his actions according to a variety of different circumstances.

Therefore, during his life he was a hermit, a preacher, a writer, a teacher, a rebuker of kings,clergy and laity, a monk and a missionary.  Let us ask St. Gildas for the virtue of his wisdom.