Saint Tanguy of Locmazhé (6th century)

Who is Saint Tanguy of Locmazhé

The original name is Gurguy ; the Breton and French forms of the first name are Tangi, Tangui, Tanchi, Tangoù, Tanneguy.^[6][7] Tradition makes him a legendary 6th-century monk, a native of Gerber (Le Relec), in Léon, founder of Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre Abbey at Plougonvelin, and buried at Pointe Saint-Mathieu (Locmazhé, “the place of Mahé / of Matthew”).^[8]

The date of his death is one of the least certain facts : the infobox of the Wikipedia notice gives 592, the body of the same article 12 March 594.^[9] Neither figure is corroborated by a primary source read. Nominis, which proposes no year, is the most honest here.^[10] His principal feast is 19 November ; he is also celebrated on 12 March, the feast day of his spiritual father, Saint Paul Aurelian.^[11]

Confusion with Saint Tugdual

One persistent file error surrounds this name : the assimilation of Tanguy of Locmazhé to Tugdual of Tréguier. It must be set aside. The two figures are distinct in modern sources :

Nominis carries two separate notices, one Saint Tanguy (19 November), the other Saint Tugdual (30 November) ; the 19 November calendar lists no Tugdual, and the 30 November one lists no Tanguy.^[12][13] French Wikipedia does the same.^[14][15] The name Tanguy is well attested in the onomastics of Breton saints as one of the avatars of Tugdual (Bernard Tanguy, “Pabu Tugdual alias Tudi”), but that is not the name of the abbot of Locmazhé, which is his own.^[16]

This article therefore deals only with the saint of 19 November, the one whom the calendar of the day and the tradition of Finistère recognise under the name of Tanguy of Locmazhé.

A family of Breton tradition

According to the legend collected by Nominis and taken up by local tradition, Tanguy was the son of a lord of Trémazan ; his sister was Saint Haude of Trémazan, whose feast falls on 18 November, the day before his own.^[17][18] The cephalophore tale is well known : Tanguy kills by mistake, the victim takes up her head and carries it to the place of her burial.^[19] This type of tale belongs to the Breton hagiographic genre, not to history in the modern sense.

After this tragedy, tradition places Tanguy under the guidance of Saint Pol of Léon, bishop, with whom he trained in the monastic life before founding his own abbey.^[20] Nominis names Paul Aurelian here as spiritual father ; French Wikipedia confirms it, and links the secondary feast of 12 March to this bond.^[21][22]

A legend reworked late

Several signs indicate that the file is not old in its present state. Saint Tanguy's name does not appear in the old Breton litanies of the 10th and 11th centuries ; a Life of Saint Tanguy was composed by Albert Le Grand in 1637, in his Lives of the Saints of Armorican Brittany.^[23] According to some sources, the story of Tanguy and Haude was written, or rewritten, in the 15th century by the lords of the du Chastel family, founders of Trémazan Castle, to embellish their lineage.^[24]

In other words : the devotion is ancient and certain ; the detailed narrative is late, and probably arranged. The article says so once and for all, without detracting from its spiritual value in the eyes of local piety.

Locmazhé, in Breton, denotes Pointe Saint-Mathieu, at the far west of Finistère, in the commune of Plougonvelin. The place gave its name to the saint, and the saint to the place. Since the Middle Ages the tomb of the founding abbot has been shown there, and the memory has remained alive : Nominis speaks of a very ancient popular veneration at Saint-Matthieu Abbey.^[25][26]

Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre Abbey (or Saint-Mahé de Fine-Terre, Loc Mazé Pen-ar-Bed or Fin ar Bed, “at the end of the world”) is the work attributed to him.^[27] It has left impressive listed ruins on the cliff, and it remains one of the most visible memorial sites of ancient Breton Christianity. Nominis explicitly notes it as the place of Tanguy's veneration.^[28]

The cult also spread beyond Finistère. The chapel of Kersaint, at Landunvez, houses a statue of Saint Tanguy listed as a Monument historique (Palissy database, PM29004786) : it testifies to local devotion well beyond Pointe Saint-Mathieu itself.^[29] The proverb reported by Nominis, “On Saint Tanguy's day, the wind never idles”, says enough : the feast of 19 November was a landmark of the rural and maritime calendar of Léon.^[30]

The feast is set on 19 November, as a local feast ; 12 March is added to it in memory of Saint Paul Aurelian.^[31][32] Nominis holds it to be the only feast recognised in the calendar of the day, with no mention of a universal liturgical rank.^[33]

What can be affirmed without qualification :

• a popular veneration attested of long standing at Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre ;
• a local feast on 19 November ;
• a link with Saint Haude, sister according to tradition, and with Saint Paul Aurelian, spiritual father ;
• a possible confusion with Saint Tugdual of Tréguier, which must always be set aside.

What remains unverified or legendary, and which this article never presents as established :

• the exact date of birth : Nominis answers “date ?” ;
• the exact date of death : 592 (Wikipedia infobox) or 12 March 594 (body of the same article), unresolved internal contradiction ;
• the historicity of the foundation of Saint-Mathieu Abbey by him alone ;
• the cephalophore tale of Tanguy and Haude, and the details of the Trémazan legend ;
• the parentage (son of a lord of Trémazan) and the hagiographic family ties ;
• the ancient redaction of a Life : only that of Albert Le Grand (1637) is certain ; the ancient Latin sources have not been read ;
• the Bollandists and the Acta Sanctorum : no page reached, presence or absence of a notice not established ;
• the Liber Landavensis : no occurrence found in the sources read ;
• the Cartulary of Tréguier : unverified (and with no demonstrated link to this saint) ;
• the attestations of veneration before the 15th century, described as “almost non-existent” by a modern study cited by Wikipedia, not read in the original ;
• any dispersal of relics : unverified for Tanguy ;
• the patronage of Lannion : unverified ;
• the episode known as the “two-year pope” and the tradition of a pontifical election : these are traditions attached to Tugdual, with no established historical value, and no connection with Tanguy of Locmazhé.

The article does not decide between these degrees of certainty : it sets them out.

• Saint Paul Aurelian, bishop of Léon : Tanguy's spiritual father in Breton tradition ; the monastic foundation of Léon, of which he is one of the great figures.
• Saint Haude of Trémazan : his sister according to legend, celebrated on 18 November, herself surrounded by late tales.
• Saint Columban : another great monastic figure of the early Middle Ages, whose documentation is far more solid.