The Saint who went too far

Graham Loveluck-Edwards

As we hurtle towards 1st March, I am sure everyone is full of anticipation for the feast day of our nation’s patron saint; St David.

The day is usually marked by little girls going to school dressed in pinafores and pointy hats and boys scratching their heads due to the lack of credible male alternatives. When I was little, you either dressed as a coal miner or a rugby player. These days neither of those things seem quite as relevant as they used to be. Still, let’s not bang on about that.

Those who follow my work will know that with all due respect to St David, he is not the kind of Welsh saint that gets me chomping at the bit. Altogether too wholesome and saintly.

No, the ones that get my pulses racing are more dodgy, dubious and lesser known, and one of those, also has his feast day on 1st March so is actually topical.

His name is St Justinian and I think it’s only fair to clarify that by saying “No! Not that one.”

There was a Roman Emperor called Justinian, who ruled from 527 to 565 who was also canonised as St Justinian. He lived until he was 83 years-old you know?

Very unusual for this period of history. But sadly, for him, it is very unlikely he ever came to Wales.

No, the one I am talking about here also lived in the 6th Century so was no doubt named after the great, Macedonian born emperor.

But this St Justinian did come to Wales and as you would expect from this era, he came with a spectacularly mad back story.

This St Justinian was the son of a noble from Brittany. He had heard of St David and “his great and holy works”, so he wanted to travel to Wales to serve him. When he got to Pembrokeshire, he was very disappointed that St David was not as pious as he had hoped for. Justinian, as far as we can make out was an absolute fun sponge.

David decided there was only one job a man this strict was fit for, so he appointed him as his confessor. Probably not the busiest job in the world. Listening to St David tell you what sins he had committed.

End result; Justinian had some spare time on his hands. So, he established his own monastery.

He thought that the life led by the monks serving St David was a bit frivolous and overindulgent. They got to eat honey and drink milk and stuff. In fact, St David had his own appointed bee-keeper who was canonised for his love of bees and became St Dyfnog.

This wasn’t for Justinian. He wanted an altogether harsher regime, so he decided to establish his own, hyper-strict alternative on the nearby island of Ramsey.

The monks who followed him to Ramsey were worked to the bone. Day and night. They were expected to survive purely on water (although as an aside, if you have ever tasted the water on Ramsey Island it is beautiful).

They were also not allowed to speak or communicate in any way with each other than in prayer and confession.

One day a monk in his order displeased Justinian by being idle. To be fair, he was probably weak from malnutrition and exhaustion.

Justinian ordered that he be rowed out to a rock in a cave under the north side the island which floods twice a day with the tide. He told the monk that God would choose his punishment.

The following morning, once the tide had receded, the other monks in Justinian’s order rowed back out to the rock to see if he had survived. But he was nowhere to be seen. Undoubtedly drowned.

When they got back to the monastery, they were so furious with Justinian, they cut his head off. And supposedly, he picked his head up and carried it across the waters of Ramsey Sound before collapsing at a site on the mainland still to this day called St Justinian’s.

As I said from the start, St Justinian was always a dubious choice for sainthood.

Since the start of 2026 I have been touring venues across Wales, telling the stories of some of the most dubious characters from Welsh history. And what do you know, it turns out there are loads of us interested in these dodgy characters. Many of whom have managed to float under the radar for all this time.

In January and February, I was lucky enough to bring this talk to sold out venues across south Wales.

The tour is now coming to the land associated with St Justinian and St David as I bring it to west Wales, as well as mid Wales and the borders for dates through March and April..

So if you live in those area and you share my thirst for those entertaining, questionable characters from our history like St Justinian, visit www.grahamloveluckedwards.com for dates and venues.

Tickets are currently on sale now for Carmarthen, Aberystwyth, Rhayader, Knighton, Abergavenny, Havefordwest, Cardigan, Llanelli and Blackwood. The tour will then head to north Wales in September.