448 OOENISH DEDICATIONS. 



Amwn recovered, and at the instigation of Samson, both 

 Amwn and his brother, Umbrafel, were tonsured, and their 

 respective wives, Anna and Afrella, received consecration as 

 widows. Samson then dismissed the two latter into different 

 parts to found monasteries and to build churches. 



His mother was especially fervent in accepting his 

 commission. She is reported to have answered: "Not only do 

 I desire, and lovingly embrace the charge laid on me, but I 

 require of Almighty God, to whom you have dedicated me, that 

 you shall consecrate the monasteries and churches you bid me 

 construct." 



To this Samson cheerfully consented. As to his father and 

 uncle, they were a little rough and undisciplined, therefore he 

 took them along with him, so as to superintend their training. 



After some years, when he considered that they were 

 getting forward in the way of perfection, he sent them to 

 Ireland. He had found his uncle the more pliable of the two. 



Having got rid of these incumbrances, Samson determined 

 on seeking "a, vast desert" near the Severn. There he 

 remained awhile, till he was consecrated Bishop, when he 

 resolved on leaving Wales. He took his course round the Bristol 

 Channel "iter suum circa Habrinum mare, invitis omnibus ibi 

 habitantibus direxit," and visited his mother and aunt, and 

 dedicated their churches. He does not seem to have seen Anna 

 again. The opposition he encountered was not due to hostile 

 feeling, but to reluctance felt by the people of Morgan wg to lose 

 him. He crossed the Bristol Channel to a place called Dochor. 

 We may accordingly suppose that his mother and aunt had their 

 churches in Q-lamorganshire ; but no dedications to S. Anne and 

 to S. Afrella can be found there now. 



We know nothing further about her, and she probably 

 ended her days as superior of the religious establishments she 

 had founded. We have no means of ascertaining whether she 

 ever crossed into Cornwall. 



Anna, according to the Glossary of Cormac, King bishop 

 of Cashel (b. 831, d. 903), was, among the Pagan Gadhaels, 

 mater deorum hibernensium, and is described as one who " well 

 nourished the gods : from whose name is said to be derived anae, 



