Saint Samson of Dol
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Born	c. 485 South Wales
Died	c. 565 Dol, France
Honored in	Wales, Cornwall, Brittany
Major shrine	Dol; Milton Abbas, Dorset
Feast	28 July

Saint Samson of Dol (born late 5th century) was a Christian religious figure who is counted among the seven founder saints of Brittany. Born in southern Wales, he died in Dol-de-Bretagne, a small town in north Brittany.

Life[link]

Samson was of noble blood, the son of Amon of Demetia, Wales and Anna of Gwent, daughter of Meurig ap Tewdrig, King of Glamorgan and Gwent. His father's brother also married his mother's sister and their son Saint Magloire was therefore his cousin. In view of the prophecy concerning his birth his parents placed him under the care of Saint Illtud, abbot of Llantwit Fawr, where he was raised and educated.

Later, after the death of Saint Pyr, Samson became abbot of Llantwit's daughter house on Caldey Island. He was ordained bishop by Bishop Dubricius on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter (February 22) at the beginning of Lent, which can be calculated to have fallen in the year 521, the only certain date in Samson's life.

If the usual practice was observed and he was 35 years old at the time of his ordination this would mean he was born in 486, though he is recorded as having been in attendance at a church Council in Paris held sometime between 556 and 573 at which time he would have been between 70 and 87 years old.

At first, a cenobitic monk and later, an eremtic monk, he travelled widely. It is known that Samson travelled from Llaniltud Fawr to the island monastery of Caldey off the coast of Dyfed (Pembrokeshire), Wales and then on to Ireland where he is said to have founded or revived a monastery^[1], to Cornwall (where he founded a cenobite, at either South Hill or Golant), the Scilly Isles, Guernsey and Brittany.

While in Brittany, he founded the monastery of Dol. Samson participated in Breton politics, organising the excommunication of King Conomor and successfully petitioning the Merovingian king, Childebert I, on behalf of King Judwal. One of the seven founder saints of Brittany with Pol Aurelian, Tugdual or Tudwal, Brieuc, Malo, Patern (Paternus) and Corentin, he was buried, with his cousin Magloire, in the Cathedral of Dol.

Records[link]

The primary source for his biography is the Vita Sancti Samsonis, written sometime between 610 and 820, but clearly based on earlier materials.^[2] Not only does it preserve such details about Samson such as his abstinence from alcohol - unlike many of his contemporaries, such as the Abbot Pyr who was killed when he fell down a well while drunk - but valuable details about Celtic Christianity in Britain during Samson's time. This document details the contacts churchmen in Britain had with both Ireland and Brittany, describes their belief, and offers facts that have been used to prove both that religious communities were headed by abbots where the bishops served in a subordinate role, and that these communities were actually headed by bishops as was the usual practice in the rest of Europe. This Vita was later used as a model for the writing of other hagiographies in Brittany. There is an English translation of the Vita by Thomas Taylor, published in 1925 by SPCK. A second life of less interest was edited by Dom Plaine in 1887.

For further information, see^[3][4].

Roman Martyrology[link]

In the 2004 edition of the Roman Martyrology, Samson is listed under 28 July with the Latin name Samsónis. He is mentioned as follows: 'At Dol in Brittany (died) Samson, abbot and bishop, who having learned the Gospel and monastic discipline in Wales from Illtud, spread these in Domnonia.'^[5] He does not appear in the current Roman Catholic liturgical calendar of saints celebrated annually in Wales.^[6]

Bibliography[link]

• Doble, G. H. (1970) The Saints of Cornwall: part 5. Truro: Dean and Chapter; pp. 80–103
• Journey to Avalon: The Final Discovery of King Arthur By Chris Barber, David Pykitt pp 119 St Samson
• Jones, Alison (1994) The Wordsworth Dictionary of Saints, p. 202

See also[link]

• Blessed Julian Maunoir, "Apostle of Brittany"
• St. Sampson church, Golant

External links[link]

• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• "St. Sampson, Bishop and Confessor", Butler's Lives of the Saints
• A version of Taylor's English translation of the Vita Sancti Samsonis, with emendations based on a recent edition

Samson and Delilah, Lucas Cranach the Elder

Samson, Shimshon (Hebrew: שמשון, Modern Shimshon Tiberian Šimšôn, meaning "man of the sun"^[1]); Shamshoun (Arabic: شمشون‎) or Sampson (Greek: Σαμψών) is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) (Book of Judges chapters 13 to 16).^[2][3][4]

Samson was granted supernatural strength by God in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats^[5] such as wrestling a lion,^[4][6][7][8] slaying an entire army with only the jawbone of an ass,^{[3][4][7][8][9]} and destroying a pagan temple.^[2][4][8] Samson is believed to have been buried in Tel Tzora in Israel overlooking the Sorek valley. There reside two large gravestones of Samson and his father Manoah. Nearby stands Manoah’s altar (Judges 13:19-24).^[10] It is located between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol.^[11]

Biblical narrative[link]

Samson's activity takes place during a time when God was punishing the Israelites, by giving them "into the hand of the Philistines".^[12] The Angel of the Lord appears to Manoah, an Israelite from the tribe of Dan, in the city of Zorah, and to his wife, who had been unable to conceive.^[3][6][13] The Angel of the Lord proclaims that the couple will soon have a son who will begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines.^[6] The wife believed the Angel of the Lord, but her husband wasn't present, at first, and wanted the heavenly messenger to return, asking that he himself could also receive instruction about the child that was going to be born.

Requirements were set up by the Angel of the Lord that Manoah's wife (as well as the child) were to abstain from all alcoholic beverages, and her promised child was not to shave or cut his hair. He was to be a "Nazirite" from birth. In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for a while could take a nazarite vow, which included things like the aforementioned as well as other stipulations.^[3][6][13] After the Angel of the Lord returned, Manoah soon prepared a sacrifice, but the Angel of the Lord would only allow it to be for God, touching his staff to it, miraculously engulfing it in flames. The Angel of the Lord then ascended up into the sky in the fire revealing that it had been God in angelic form, as the Angel of the Lord and "an" angel are two different things. This was such dramatic evidence as to the nature of the Messenger, that Manoah feared for his life, as it has been said that no-one can live after seeing God; however, his wife soon convinced him that if God planned to slay them, he would never have revealed such things to them to begin with. In due time the son, Samson, is born; he is reared according to these provisions.^[6][13]

Rembrandt's painting of Samson and Delilah

When he becomes a young adult, Samson leaves the hills of his people to see the cities of the Philistines. While there, Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman from Timnah whom he decides to marry, overcoming the objections of his parents who do not know that "it is of the Lord".^[6][13][14] The intended marriage is actually part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines.^[6] On the way to ask for the woman's hand in marriage, Samson is attacked by an Asiatic Lion and simply grabs it and rips it apart, as the spirit of God moves upon him, divinely empowering him. This so profoundly affects Samson that he just keeps it to himself as a secret.^[6][7] He continues on to the Philistine's house, winning her hand in marriage. On his way to the wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and have made honey.^[6][7] He eats a handful of the honey and gives some to his parents.^[6] At the wedding-feast, Samson proposes that he tell a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines); if they can solve it, he will give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments.^[6][13] The riddle ("Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet") is a veiled account of his second encounter with the lion (at which only he was present).^[6][7] The Philistines are infuriated by the riddle.^[6] The thirty groomsmen tell Samson's new wife that they will burn her and her father's household if she does not discover the answer to the riddle and tell it to them.^[6][7] At the urgent and tearful imploring of his bride, Samson tells her the solution, and she tells it to the thirty groomsmen.^[6][13]

Before sunset on the seventh day they said to him,

"What is sweeter than honey?

and what is stronger than a lion?"

Samson said to them,

"If you had not plowed with my heifer,

you would not have solved my riddle."^[9][14]

Samson in the Treadmill, by Carl Heinrich Bloch.

He flies into a rage and kills thirty Philistines of Ashkelon for their garments, which he gives his thirty groomsmen.^[7][9][13] Still in a rage, he returns to his father's house and found out that his bride was given to another man to be his wife.^[7][9][13] Her father refuses to allow him to see her and wishes to give Samson the younger sister.^[9][13] Samson attaches torches to the tails of three hundred foxes, leaving the panicked beasts to run through the fields of the Philistines, burning all in their wake.^[7][9][13] The Philistines find out why Samson burned their crops and they burn Samson's wife and father-in-law to death.^[8][9][13] In revenge, Samson slaughters many more Philistines, smiting them "hip and thigh".^[9][13]

Samson then takes refuge in a cave in the rock of Etam.^[9][13][15] An army of Philistines went up and demanded from 3000 men of Judah to deliver them Samson.^[13][15] With Samson's consent, they tie him with two new ropes and are about to hand him over to the Philistines when he breaks free.^[8][15] Using the jawbone of an ass, he slays one thousand Philistines.^[4][8][15] At the conclusion of Judges 15 it is said that "Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines".^[15]

Later, Samson goes to Gaza, where he stays at a harlot's house.^[9][16] His enemies wait at the gate of the city to ambush him, but he rips the gate up and carries it to "the hill that is in front of Hebron".^[9][16]

He then falls in love with a woman, Delilah, at the Brook of Sorek.^{[8][9][16][17]} The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her (with 1100 silver coins each) to try to find the secret of Samson's strength.^[9][16] Samson, not wanting to reveal the secret, teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength should he be bound with fresh bowstrings.^[9][16] She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings.^[9][16] She persists, and he tells her he can be bound with new ropes. She ties him up with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too.^[9][16] She asks again, and he says he can be bound if his locks are woven together.^[9][16] She weaves them together, but he undoes them when he wakes.^[9][16] Eventually Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his hair.^{[8][9][16][17]} Delilah calls for a servant to shave Samson's seven locks.^[9][16][17] Since that breaks the Nazirite oath, God leaves him, and Samson is captured by the Philistines,^[4][9][16] who stab out his eyes with their swords. After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain.^[16]

Death[link]

Samson destroys the temple of Dagon via pushing, 1866 Bible illustration.

Samson destroys the temple of Dagon via pulling, 1890 Bible illustration

One day the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon, one of their most important deities, for having delivered Samson into their hands.^[11][16] They summon Samson so that people can gather on the roof to watch.^[11][16][17] Once inside the temple, Samson, his hair having grown long again, asks the servant who is leading him to the temple's central pillars if he may lean against them (referring to the pillars).^[8][11][16]

"Then Samson prayed to God, "remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes" (Judges 16:28)".^[4][11][16] "Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' (Judges 16:30)^[11][18] He pulled the two pillars together (or possibly pushed them apart^[19]), and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.^{[4][8][11][17][18]} Thus he killed many more as he died than while he lived." (Judges 16:30).^[8][18]

After his death, Samson's family recovers his body from the rubble and buries him near the tomb of his father Manoah.^[11]

The fate of Delilah is never mentioned.^[17]

Rabbinic literature[link]

Delilah cuts Samson's hair, by Master E. S., 1460/1465

Rabbinical literature identifies Samson with Bedan;^[13] Bedan was a Judge mentioned by Samuel in his farewell address (1 Samuel 12:11) among the Judges that delivered Israel from their enemies.^[20] However, the name "Bedan" is not found in the Book of Judges.^[20] The name "Samson" is derived from the Hebrew word "shemesh", which means the sun, so that Samson bore the name of God, who is called "a sun and shield" in Psalms 84:11; and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God.^[13] Samson's strength was divinely derived (Talmud, Tractate Sotah 10a).^[13][21]

Jewish legend records that Samson's shoulders were sixty cubits broad.^[13] (Although many talmudic commentaries explain that this is not to be taken literally, for a person that size could not live normally in society. Rather it means he had the ability to carry a burden 60 cubits wide (approximately 30 meters) on his shoulders).^[22] He was lame in both feet,^[23] but when the spirit of God came upon him he could step with one stride from Zorah to Eshtaol, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance.^[13][24] Samson was said to be so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two clods of earth,^[25] yet his superhuman strength, like Goliath's, brought woe upon its possessor.^[13][26]