Melangell

Saint Melangell: The Guardian of Hares

Melangell (Welsh: Me`laŋeɬ, Latin: Monacella, meaning “little nun”) was a Welsh hermit and abbess, believed to have lived in the 7th or 8th century—though her exact dates remain uncertain.

According to legend, Melangell was an Irish princess who fled an arranged marriage, choosing instead a life of solitude and devotion in the wilderness of Powys. Her most famous tale tells of a hare seeking refuge beneath her robe, pursued by the hunting dogs of Prince Brochwel Ysgithrog. As the prince urged his hounds forward, they mysteriously refused to attack and instead fled in fear. Recognizing Melangell’s holiness, Brochwel granted her the land to establish a sanctuary and convent, offering perpetual protection to both people and animals.

Melangell spent 37 years leading a community of nuns, and it is said that wild hares and other animals behaved as though tamed in her presence. After her passing, she was venerated as the patron saint of hares, and for centuries, the people of Pennant Melangell refused to hunt hares within her sacred lands.

Her shrine, built in the 12th century, remains a place of pilgrimage at St. Melangell’s Church, where the Romanesque shrine was painstakingly reconstructed after being dismantled during the Reformation. Legends of miracles and divine protection surround her legacy, and those who sought to harm her sanctuary—like a man named Elise, who attempted an attack—were said to have met a sudden and terrible fate.