Samson of Dol

Born in Wales around 485 and trained at the monastery of Llantwit under Illtud, he was ordained bishop and then crossed to Cornwall and Armorica with the wave of British migrants fleeing the Saxons. He settled at Dol, founded there a monastery that would become an episcopal see, and took a hand in politics: his Life shows him going to the Frankish king Childebert to obtain the restoration of a dispossessed Breton prince, and his signature appears at the council of Paris around 562. That is what sets him apart from his six legendary companions: his *Vita*, written in the seventh or eighth century, is early enough for historians to draw facts from it. He is one of the seven founding saints of the Breton sees, whose tombs the Tro Breizh links.