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Iwig

Breton saint

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ4023320
Source-derived summary

Iwig (alternatively Iwi, Iwigius, or Ywi of Lindisfarne) was a saint venerated in Wiltshire, England in the Middle Ages. He was reputedly a Northumbrian monk, said to have died and to have been buried in Brittany. Historian David Dumville called him "the other principal saint of Wilton", in reference to Saint Eadgyth. He was supposedly a follower (alumnus) of Saint Cuthbert.

He is listed in two 11th-century litanies. A narrative of that century claimed that his relics had been brought to Wilton Abbey by Breton monks in the 10th century, and left for safe-keeping at the altar of Saint Eadgyth. The narrative claims that the relics subsequently became immovable [through the wish of the saint to reside there], though historian John Blair suspected that this story may have been invented to justify Wilton's theft of the relics.

His feast day was celebrated on 8 October. The Priory of Ivychurch in Wiltshire is thought to have been named after him.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Iwig” is breton saint. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Iwig, Breton and saint, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 159-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 0655. For this dossier, Iwig, Breton and saint is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “breton saint” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4023320. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Iwig”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Iwig primary sources, Iwig archive and Iwig research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Iwig” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.