ИСТИНА

Buchedd Beuno is one of the few surviving Lives of medieval Welsh saints written in Welsh. It is believed to be a translation from a lost Latin original dating from around the 12th century. There are four medieval copies of the Buchedd Beuno: Oxford Jesus College MS 119 (“Book of the Anchorite of Llanddewi Brefi”), NLW Peniarth MS 15, NLW Llanstephan MS 27, and NLW Llanstephan MS 4. All of them were created between the mid-14th and early 15th centuries and took the origin from South Wales. The report will also provide some insight into the possible connection of the earliest copy, the “Book of Anchorite”, to the Cistercian Abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion. In all manuscripts Buchedd Beuno is adjacent to the Welsh Life of St. David - Buchedd Dewi. The Life of St. Beuno is associated with three historical realities: the era of the clashes between the Welsh and the Anglo-Saxons (according to legend, St. Beuno lived in the 7th century), the era of the struggle against the Norman conquerors, when they had not yet consolidated themselves on the island, and the end of the Middle Ages, when the rule of the Norman dynasty had already become a given. In addition to the usual goals of creating hagiographic literature, Buchedd Beuno was intended to confirm the saint's rights to certain land holdings. But not only to individual churches and parishes, which were mentioned in the text of the Life, but also to the lands of Wales as a whole. This opposition of primordial Welsh and alien power (depending on the era - Anglo-Saxon or Norman) makes Buchedd Beuno related to Buchedd Dewi. Based on this, the circumstances of the creation and transfer of manuscripts containing a copy of the Life of St. Beuno seem to be extremely interesting.