Portrait of Gildas

Gildas

6th-century British monk, writer and saint

Lived
500–570
Country
Kingdom of Strathclyde

Updated September 2026

Free to read

All free classics

About Gildas

Gildas – also known as Gildas Badonicus, Gildas fab Caw and Gildas Sapiens – was a 6th-century British monk best known for his religious polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, which recounts the history of the Britons before and during the coming of the Saxons. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during the sub-Roman period, and was renowned for his Biblical knowledge and literary style. In his later life, he emigrated to Brittany, where he founded a monastery known as Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys.

Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Authors like Gildas

Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers, free texts from Project Gutenberg. Last updated September 2026.