Guerir, mysterious saint known only through a reference in Asser's Life of Alfred to a visit by Alfred to Cornwall, during which he turns aside to pray in the church where ‘St. Guerir lies buried’. A later scribe added: ‘and where St. Neot now rests.’ Guerir may be a misreading for Gwinear or a corruption of Goran, a saint who left Bodmin at Petroc's arrival. Egbert, king of Wessex, had subdued at least part of Cornwall, allowing some Saxon penetration there, and Cornish estates were among those given by Alfred to Asser. But Guerir's identity remains a mystery.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- Asser's Life of King Alfred (ed. W. H. Stevenson) (1959), c. 74; D. Whitelock, The Genuine Asser (1968)
