Yann-Ber Kallocʼh was born on the island of
Groix (), near
Lorient (), on July 24, 1888. He was the son of a fisherman (who was lost at sea in October 1902) and his wife. He describes his childhood in the autobiographical poem ''
Me 'zo Ganet kreiz ar e mor (I was born in the middle of the sea''), which also praised his native island. Kallocʼh at first wanted to become a
Roman Catholic priest and entered the
minor seminary of
Sainte Anne d'Auray () in 1900, then the
major seminary at
Vannes () in October 1905. He was forced to renounce his vocation after his two sisters and his younger brother revealed signs of
mental illness, since
canon law forbade the priesthood to those who had relatives suffering from such diseases. Yann-Ber had dreamed of being a
missionary and his exclusion from the priesthood brought him great distress. He became a tutor in various cities including Paris. During his compulsory military service, Yann-Ber made a point of teaching fellow Bretons to read and write in their own language. His earliest writings were in
French, but from 1905 on, he wrote in the
Breton language. Taking the
bardic name of
Bard Bleimor (lit. "Sea Wolf", or
Sea Bass), Kallocʼh wrote for
cultural nationalist, pro-Catholic, and pro-
devolved government newspapers. He often used to say, "I am not in the least bit
French." Beginning in 1912, Kallocʼh joined fellow Breton intellectuals
Iwan en Diberder and
Meven Mordiern in coediting the
literary journal Brittia, which was intended, "to help incite in the cultivated classes of Brittany an intellectual movement of the first order, authentically indigenous and to make it take shape in the Breton language", as well as, "to contribute to reshaping Brittany into a nation, a Celtic nation."
Brittia accordingly published Diberder's
literary translations of stories from
Irish mythology, including the legend of the
star-crossed lovers Deirdre and
Naoise from the
Ulster Cycle and
The Voyage of Máel Dúin, into the Vannes dialect of the Breton language, but despite his role in founding the magazine, Kallocʼh felt unable to continue his involvement after Diberder began publishing attacks against the Roman Catholic clergy. At the same time, however, Kallocʼh was one of the ten Breton intellectuals who signed the May 1913 manifesto
Aveit Breiz-Vihan / Pour la Bretagne ("For Brittany"). While expressing their fear of an impending European war, the signatories expressed their intention to be loyal to the
Third French Republic, while also calling for both a Breton
language revival and
cultural nationalism. They also called upon their fellow intellectuals from both Lower and Upper Brittany to commit
nonviolent resistance to the Republic's continuing ban on
Breton medium education and to both study and use Breton as a national language. According to Ian Higgins, "When the war came, Calloc'h, like so many others, saw it as a defense of civilization and
Christianity, and immediately volunteered for the front. Only
Ireland and
Brittany, he writes in one poem, still help
Christ carry the cross: in the fight to reinvigorate Christianity, the Celtic peoples are in the van. In addition, now readily fighting for France, he saw the war as the great chance to affirm the national identity of Brittany and resurrect its language and culture." While serving as a
poilu, Yann-Ber Kallocʼh was reportedly a terrible foe to face in the
trench warfare of the
Western Front, as he wielded a sailor's axe formerly used in the
French Navy for boarding enemy ships in hand-to-hand combat. His motto was "For God and Brittany". He was
killed in action when a German shell landed near his dugout near
Urvillers/
Cerizy (
Aisne) on April 10, 1917. His body was returned to his native Groix for burial. ==Legacy==