My classmates and I spent a cool Welsh summer afternoon at the shrine of a local saint. St. Melangell was an Irish princess who, over 1,400 years ago, decided to give herself to prayer. She sailed to Wales with her entourage, and made her way to a remote valley just east of the mountains of Snowdonia. One day a prince came hunting. He startled a hare and with his hounds gave chase. He came to a thicket of brambles and thorns and therein found the beautiful Melangell in divine contemplation, with the hare lying boldly under the hem of her garments. He was so impressed with her devotion and piety that he built for her a sanctuary, a "perpetual asylum and refuge."
Today the place is both a Church of Wales parish for the valley and a healing center that offers counselling, prayer and retreat. The welcome booklet notes that St. Melangell's story "speaks to us about the clash between a violent and aggressive world and a way of life that puts all its trust in God. It is a way of life which is...full of compassionate care for all things. It makes vivid something of early Celtic Christianity which greatly fascinates people today living in a world which is very different yet strangely similar."
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