The abbey of Landévennec, situated in western Brittany, experienced political and religious change beginning in the ninth century with the advent of the Benedictine Rule, a consequence of the further imposition of Carolingian hegemony. Prior to this, the community had used the Irish rule and tonsure and practised a rigorous ascetic lifestyle. Using the hagiographies of St Guénolé, Landévennec’s founder, and St Idunet, his little-known disciple, this article explores how the community of Landévennec understood and reacted to the transforming climate in Brittany. It reveals that the community of Landévennec chose to remember and record a past in which the community had close ties to Irish saints and Ireland more generally, in order to reflect on the tumultuous present and maintain continuity with their glorious past, now distant.