;r
IVES OF THE
W-4
§
^^
RITISH
THE LIVES
OF
THE BRITISH SAINTS
THE SAINTS OF WALES AND CORNWALL AND
SUCH IRISH SAINTS AS HAVE DEDICATIONS
IN BRITAIN
By S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.,
AND
JOHN FISHER, B.D.
IT '
IN FOUR VOLUMES VOL. IV.
LONDON :
The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
New Stone Buildings, 64, Chancery Lane
1913
Publishers' Note
THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF CYMMRODORION, in issuing the fourth and last volume of The Lives of the British Saints, desire to express their thanks to those subscribers who by their contributions enabled the Council to carry the undertaking to a satisfactory conclusion'. Some of the further support hoped for on the production of the first volume, is still required to meet the heavy expense incurred in the publication of the complete work, and the favourable recep- tion accorded to the Lives by the Home and Foreign Press, justifies the further appeal which is now made, for additional subscriptions. To the joint authors, the Society and the subscribers are most deeply indebted for many years of ungrudging and unre- munerated labour. For the Society, E. VINCENT EVANS, Secretary, and Editor of Transactions.
Contents of Volume IV
PAGE
THE LIVES —
S. Nectan— S. Ystyffan ....... i
List of Illustrations ....... iv
APPENDIX
Genealogies of the Welsh Saints< —
(a) Bonhed y Seint ....... 369
(b) Bonhed Seint Kymry . . . . . .371
S. Asaph (Vita Sancti Assaph) . . . . -373
S. Beuno . . . . . . . . . 374
S. Cawrdaf (Cywydd Cawrda Sant) ..... 374
S. Collen (Buchedd Gotten) ...... 375
S. Curig (Appended to Bucked Ciric) . . . . 378
S. Cybi (Vita S. Kebii) . . . ... . .379
,, (Teulu Cybi Sant and Y Saith Gefnder Sant) . . 383
S. Cyndeyrn or Kentigern (Grants by Maelgwn Gwynedd) . 384
S. Cynhafal (Cywydd Cynhafal Sant) . . . . 386
S. Deiniol (The Life of S. Deiniol) ..... 387
,, (Cywydd i Ddeiniel Bangor) .... 393
S. Doged (Owdl S. Doget) . . . . . .393
S. Dwynwen (Cywydd i Ddwynwen) ..... 395
S. Dyfnog (Cywydd i Ddyfnog) ...... 396
S. Gwenfrewi or Winefred (Buchedd Gwenfrewi) . . . 397
S. Gwyndaf Hen (His " Sayings ")..... 424
S. leuan Gwas Padrig (Bitched Jeiian Guas Badric) . . 425
S. Llawddog or Lleuddad (Bitched Leudoc St.) . . . 426
,, ,, (Cywydd i Lowddog) . . . 428
S. Llonio (Owdl Llonio Sant) ...... 429
S. Llwchaiarn (Cywydd Llwchaiarn) . . . . .431
S. Mechell (Malo) (Cywydd i Fechell Sant) . . . 432
S. Mordeyrn (Cywydd i Fordeyrn) ..... 433
S. Mwrog (Cywydd i Fwrrog Sant) ..... 435
The 20,000 Saints of Bardsey (Cywydd i'r Ugain Mil Saint) 436
,, (Cywydd Arall i'r Ugain Mil Saint) . . 437
ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA ........ 439
INDEX ......'...... 445
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS . . . " . . . . . . 475
ill
List of Illustrations
PAGE
S. Noyala. From Statue at Noyal-Pontivy ..... facing 14
Reliquary at Llanidan. Photo by Wm. Marriott Dodson . „ 16
Tomb of S. Non at Dirinon. From " Archceologia Cambrensis " . ,, 22
S. Non's Chapel, (a) S.-W. angle ; (b) Remains of Masonry . „ 24
S. Pabo. From Slab at Llanbabo. Photo by Wm. Marriott Dodson ,, 38
S. Patrick. From Window at S. Neot . . . . ,, 70
S. Paul of Leon. Group of Crosses at Ploudalmezou . . ,, 80
S. Paul of Leon. From Statue at Lampaul-Guimiliau . . ,, 86 S. Petroc. (a) From Statue at S. Petroc Minor; (b) From Rood
Screen at Lew Trenchard . . . . . . ,, 102
S. Pompaea delivered to be educated. From her Shrine at Langoat . ,, 106
S. Pompaea, leaving Britain with S. Tudwal. From her Shrine . ,, 108 S. Rhychwyn. From Sixteenth Century Glass in Llanrhychwyn
Church. Photo by Wm. Marriott Dodson . . . ,, 114
Tomb of S. Ronan at Locronan. ......,, 122
S. Samson, (a) Camp and Cave at Stackpole ; (b) Cave at Stackpole „ 150- S. Samson, (a) Sailing towards Armorica ; (b) Presiding at the
Council of Prelates . . . . . . ,, 160
S. Sidwell. From Statue at S. Sidwell's Church, Exeter . . ,, 174
S. Seiriol. From Fifteenth Century Glass at Penman . . ,, 178 S. Sannan. From Modern Glass in Llansannan Church (from original
drawing by Mr. H. Gustave Hitter) . . . . . ,, 192
S. Teilo. From Fifteenth Century Glass at Plogonnec, Finistere . ,, 240
S Tyrnog. From Modern Glass at Llandyrnog. (Drawing by A.C.R.) ,, 260
S. Thegonnec. From Statue at S. Thegonnec ....,, 262
CapelTrillo, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos. Photo by Wm. Marriott Dodson . „ 264 S. Twrog. From Window at Maentwrog Church. Photo by Wm. Marriott
Dodson . . . . . . . . ,, 280
S. Tyssilio. From Statue at S. Suliac . . . . . ,, 302
S. Ursula, (a) The Inscription of Clematius, Cologne ; (b) The Trea- sury of the bones of S. Ursula and her Companions, Cologne. . ,, 314 S. Winwaloe. From Statue at Kernuz .....,, 362
IV
LIVES OF THE BRITISH SAINTS
Vol. iv.
S. NECTAN, Bishop, Martyr
A REPUTED son of Brychan, according to the lists given by William of Worcester and Leland. His great foundation was at Hartland, Devon ; but he had other churches, at Wei] combe, where is his Holy Well, at Poundstock, where he has been displaced to make room for S. Neot, and at Ashcombe, in Devon. He had a chapel at Trethevy in Tintagel, and another at S. Winnow, which has been restored, and is still in use. Anciently there must have been one at Launceston, for a Nectan fair is there held on his day. There was also one at S. Newlyn.
The account of the Martyrdom oi S. Nectan is in an extract from his Legend at Hartland, made by William of Worcester. He was fallen upon by robbers, at Nova Villa, i.e., New Stoke, where now stands the church ; and his head was struck off. Alter which, he took up his head and carried it for the space of a stadium, a little over 600 feet, to the spring near which he had dwelt in his cabin, and then he placed it on a stone, which long remained dyed with his blood.
Nectan, or Nechtan, is not a Welsh name, nor even, originally, an Irish name, but is Pictish.1 Nectan does not occur among the sons of Brychan given by the Welsh authorities.
The late Rev. R. S. Hawker, of Morwenstow, related, as a legend picked up by him there, that when Morwenna was dying, her brother Nectan came to minister to her, and she bade him bear her to the cliff, and turn her head so that with her dying eyes she might look towards Wales. But Mr. Hawker was a man of lively imagination, and the story may be merely ben trovato.
William of Worcester says that Nectan's day is June 17. This is also Nectan's day in the Exeter Calendar, in the Altemps Martyrology of the thirteenth century, and in a Norwich Martyrology of the fifteenth century (Cotton MS. Julius, B. vii). Curiously enough, the Irish Martyrologies give " The Sons of Nectan " on the same day. They are said to have been of Drumbric, but in what part of Ireland is not
1 In Welsh it assumes the form Neithon, and occurs in Bede as Naiton. ..•.*.
VOL. IV. x B
2 Lives of the British Saints
known, nor are their names recorded. Wilson, in his Martyrology, 1640, gives February 14, and for this he must have had some authority, as on this day a lair is held at S. Nectan's Chapel, in S. Winnow. The feast at Hartland and at S. Winnow is on June 17.
S. Nectan's Well is at Stoke, near Hartland Church.
A tradition exists at S. Winnow that S. Nectan lived at Coombe, a ruined farm near S. Nectan's Chapel, and that he was martyred at Tollgate, some distance off.
S. Nighton's (Nectan's) Keive is a waterfall at Trethevy where was his chapel.
S. Nectan is represented on the tower of Hartland Church, and in the west panel of the Churchyard cross, as a Bishop.
Nicolas Roscarrock says : " The Life of S. Nectane at the end of a booke very auntiently in the library of Martine Collidge in Oxford, which my learned and laborious friend Mr. Camden haveing took a briefe note of which he imparted to me, and when I importuned to gett me a coppie of the life at lardge which by report was not very longe, hee found att the second search that it was imbezled, being cutt out of the booke and carried away. ... I have besides a manuscript that telleth me that the day of his feast is the i8th of May, and that he was a Martyr and buryed att the monastery of Hartland . . . and sonne to S. Brachan or Brechanus a great name of Wales, and this note following which I received off Mr. Cam:'. en my fore-named friehde, and necessary I thinke to bee layde downe." Then come the usual Life names of the children of Brechanus. The MS. was probably the same as that consulted by William of Worcester. Roscarrock adds that a bone of S. Nectan was reserved as a relic in Waltham Abbey.
S. NEFFEI, Confessor
NEFFEI was, according to the late lists, a son of Brychan by his third wife, Proistri, a Spaniard. He and his broth ers-german, Pasgen and Pabiali, are said* to have left this country and gone to Spain, where they became " saints and principals." 1 But the authori- ties are late.
Neffei is, no doubt, a misreading of the Dettu, or Dedyu, of the Cognatio, given as the name of a son of Clydwyn, son of Brychan. In
1 Peniarth MS. 178 (sixteenth century), p. 21 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 428 ; lolo MSS., pp. in, 119, 140.
S. Nefydd
fact, Hugh Thomas (d. 1741), the Breconshire herald, makes him, as Nevith, a son of Gydwyn, and adds that he " was King of Brecknock and had issue a son called Tudor ... he went with Pasgen who was the son of St. Dingad and Pabiel or Pabien to Spain where they were all Saints." l
S. NEFYDD, Confessor
THERE is considerable confusion respecting the Brychan saint of this name. It is given in the lolo documents — our sole authority — as the name of — (i) a son of Brychan ; (2) a son of Rhun Dremrudd ab Brychan ; (3) a son of Nefydd Ail ab Rhun Dremrudd ; and (4) a daughter of Brychan.
As son of Brychan he is said to have founded the church of Llan- nefydd, Denbighshire, and afterwards to have become a bishop in the North, where he was slain by the pagan Saxons and the Picts.2
The Cognatio knows nothing of a Nefydd as related to the Brychan family ; and the lolo notices say nothing of either Nefydd ab Rhun or his son, beyond giving the former a brother, Andras, and the latter a' son, Tewdwr Brycheiniog.3 Nefydd is a well-attested man's name, the best known being Nefydd Hardd, who lived in the twelfth century.
Bishop Forbes identifies him with Neveth, who was killed by the Picts and Scots and is esteemed a martyr. " The ecclesiastical dis- trict of Neuyth (Nevay)-, now united to Essie, near Meigle, lies within the old Pictish territory. Perhaps S. Neveth was buried at Neuyth." 4 Skene also brings Nefydd ab Rhun up North, where he was bishop, and thinks his name is probably preserved in Rosneveth, now Rosneath.5
Llannefydd Church has been dedicated for centuries to the Blessed Virgin, with festival on her Nativity, September 8 (in Lhuyd, " Gwyl Vair Dhiwaetha "). The name is usually spelt in early documents Llan-yfydd, -ufydd, or some similar form, which Leland 6 and others have, properly enough, rendered ." fanum obedientise." Ufydd, or
1 Harleian MS. 4,181, f. 72^. z lolo MSS., pp. in, 119, 120, 140.
3 Pp. 121, 140. 4 Kalendars -of Scottish Saints, 1872, p. 420.
5 Celtic Scotland, 1887, ii, p. 36.
15 Itin., v, p. 62. In Willis- Edwards, S. Asaph, 1801, i, p. 383, the church is given as dedicated to S. Efydd. Edward Lhuyd, in his notes on the parish (1699), says, " There are stones on end, etc., by the churchyard wall, which are called Bedd Frymder, with a circular dike about them. He [Frymder] was a saint according to the inhabitants." Ffrymden's grave is also mentioned in Peniarth MS. 267, and Llanstephan MS. 18.
4 Lives of the British Saints
Ufudd, meaning " obedient, humble," is the present-day local pronun- ciation of the second part of the name, and it may possibly be regarded as a Christian name derived from an adjective, like Afan from Amandus. However, in support of Nefydd it may be mentioned that we find two other supposed sons of Brychan in the neighbourhood, Cynbryd at Llanddulas, and Cynfran at Llysfaen ; and the disappearance of the initial « might well be due to that letter being the final one in Llan and Ffynnon, just as Llanidan, with its Ffynnon Idan, in Anglesey, has resulted in the confusion there of Aidan with Nidan, the proper patron.
Ffynnon Ufydd, a small bath at the bottom of a field below the village, is now in a dilapidated and uncared-for condition. Huw Llifon informs us in a cywydd written in 1604, when the stone-work round the well was reconstructed by the Vicar, Evan Morris, that cures were effected by bathing in it three Fridays in succession.1
For Nefydd as a daughter of Brychan see S. HuNYDD.2 Theophilus Jones,3 and others, make her also patron of Llannefydd.
S. NEFYN, see S. NYFAIN.
S. NEOT, Hermit, Confessor
THE material available for the Life of this saint has been collected by the Rev. G. C. Gorham, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, in his History and Antiquities of Eynesbury and S. Neoi's in Huntingdon- shire, London, 1820, in the Appendix, pp. 249-63.
In Asser's Acts of King Alfred a reference occurs to the " Life of the holy father Neot " (ut in Vita Sci Patris Neoti legitur), showing that there was a contemporary biography of the saint, written between 877 and 893, unless the passage be an interpolation.
This, however, no longer exists, but to this probably reference is made in an Anglo-Saxon Life of the saint, composed in the eleventh century. " He was in youth, thus the Book saith, set to biblical lore," and again, " It is said in writing that this saint went to Glastonbury."
Eight MS. Lives of Neot exist ; but these may be reduced to four ; three being merely abstracts, and one a copy.
1 The poem occurs in a seventeenth century MS. of Welsh Poetry, at f. 1246, at S. Beuno's (Jesuit) College.
2 iii, p. 285. 3 Breconshire, ed. 1898, p. 31.
S. Neot 5
1. The Anglo-Saxon Life, MS. Cotton Vespasian, D. xiv, a tract of twelve pages. The scene is laid in the West of England, and no men- tion is made of the translation of the body into Huntingdonshire. It was probably a Homily for the Church and College of Priests at S. Neot's, Cornwall. It omits all the miracles attributed to the saint in the other Lives, but has in it one legend not in the rest. But it con- tains the strange anachronism, common to the other Lives, which esserts that Neot, who died about 877, was ordained by Elpheg, Bishop of Winchester (936-51). It has been printed by Gorham, pp. 256-61.
2. A second Life in the Bodleian Library, Bodley 535, a MS. ( f the twelfth century. It omits the legendary tales, respecting the saint',; residence in Cornwall. A copy of this Life was seen in 1538 by Leland in the library of S. Neot's Priory,1 and another fell into his hands at Croyland.2 The prologue begins : " Incipit prolcgus de vita Sti Neoti presbyteri et confers Dris " ; and the Life begins : " Scs igitur Neotus fecunde Britanie que nunc Anglia dtr." It has been very inaccurately printed by Whitaker, in his Life oj S. Neot, London, 1809, pp. 339-65 ; and extracts by Gorham, in hh Appendix, pp. 261-3, also an account of the Translation, pp. 266-70.
: In Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. Parker 161, is a thirteenth century abridgment of this Life.
3. A third Life, MS. Cotton Claudius, A. v, written at the close of the thirteenth or early in the fourteenth century. The prologue begins : " Incipit plogus in vitam Sancti Neoti abbatis " ; and the Life begins : " Dns aut. noster jhc. xpc." It is from this Life that the fabulous tales respecting S. Neot's residence in Cornwall are derived. It has been printed by Mabillon, from a MS. formerly at Bee, in Ada SS. o. s. B. saec. iv, 2, pp. 324-36 ; and by the Bollandists, Ada SS. Jul. vii, pp. 319-29.
From this Life, John of Tynemouth composed his biography, which is printed in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglite.
4. A metrical Life, Magdalen College, Oxford, MS. 53, a composition of the fourteenth century, based on the third Life. It has been very incorrectly published by Whitaker in his Li/e of S. Neot, pp. 317-38.
Considerable obscurity hangs over tne birth-place and parentage of S. Neot. His biographers make contradictory statements upon these points. The father of Neot is variously stated to have been King of the East Angles,3 King of the West Angles (West Saxons?) and of Kent,4 and Tetrarch of Kent;5 but they agree in the name of the father,
1 Leland, De Script., C. cxiii. z Leland, Itin., iv, app. pp. 1-2.
3 MS. Bodley 535. * MS. Cotton Claudius, A.v and John of Tynemouth.
5 Mabillon and A eta SS.
6 Lives of the British Saints
though giving it in various forms as Fidulf, Eldulf, Eduiph and Adulph, which are all variations of Ethelwulf, who was the father of King Athelstan (illegitimate, d. 854), and of King Ethelbald (858- 60), Ethelbert (860-6), Ethelred (866-71), and Alfred (871-901).
We may suspect that he was an illegitimate son of Ethelwulf.1 In early life he had some inducements to enter the army, but he was a little man, far below the average height, and that probably weighed on him in his abandonment of a military profession, in which he would incur ridicule, and his adoption of the religious life.2 He retired to Glastonbury, where he assumed the monastic habit.
There he became eminent for his literary attainments, as well as for his piety and modesty of demeanour ; and he delighted in spending the night in prayer in the church.
Having been admitted to Holy Orders he was made sacristan of the abbey ; but at last, yearning for the solitary life, he abandoned Glas- tonbury, accompanied by an attendant, named Bari, and sought refuge in Cornwall. He probably went first to S. German's, where he may have rested awhile and instituted inquiries as to where he could find a suitable retreat. Thence he would take the road to Liskeard, and perhaps he made his first lodgment at Menhenniot (Maen-hen-Neot), the Old Stone of Neot. This, however, can only be matter of conjec- ture. From thence by a very ancient road leading from Liskeard to Bodmin and Wadebridge, along which at intervals are prehistoric camps, he travelled till he dropped down on an exquisitely beautiful valley, through which dances a crystal stream that flows out of Dozmare Pool on the great moors to the North. Behind rose furzy downs to the height of nine hundred feet, crowned by an earthwork, and before was Goonzion, over which climbed the ancient track, past a quadrangular camp, probably of Roman construction.
The valley was dense with wood, " a very fair place," says the author of the Anglo-Saxon Life, a sweet sunny valley, sheltered from cold blasts, and there, on the steep slope of granite and turf and moss, bask- ing in the full sun, Neot planted himself for the rest of his days. The Saxon name for the place was Hamstoke, the pasture under the stockade on the heights above, where English soldiery had been kept to overawe the Britons of West Wrales.
Hard by in a dell, where was level lush sward, a clear spring gushed
1 " Non de matrimonio natus," Roger of Wendover, Flares Historiar., and Matt. Westmonast., ad an. 837.
2 To this day, at S. Neot's, Cornwall, the people speak of him as " our little S. Neot," and show a stone on which he had to mount to throw the key into the lock so as to open the church door. " Aspectu angelicus, sed corpcn's brevitato alter Zacheus." John of Tynemouth.
S. Neot j
forth irom under the oak-clothed hill, and here Neot constructed his fish-pond. Upon the rock v/here was his oratory, there he set up a cross as his preaching station. A tall shaft, covered with Celtic inter- laced work, remains in the churchyard, and can hardly be later than the time of the saint.
Here Neot remained for seven years, and then departed on pilgrim- age to Rome to obtain the Pope's blessing and counsel respecting some scruples that had arisen in his mind as to the expediency of changing hi; eremitical life. The Pope dissuaded him from solitary devotion, and exhorted him to return to Cornwall, and to " scatter the Word of God among the people." *
In compliance with this paternal advice, Neot again sought his Corn- ish valley, and founded there a College of Clergy, gathered about him some religious brethren, and became their Abbot.
It can hardly be supposed that, when he arrived at Hamstoke, Neot can have been able to speak or understand the British tongue, and he must have confined his ministrations to the handful of English soldiers in the fort. But he had found on the spot a British hermit named Guerir, and though Guerir retired and left the place clear for the Saxon eremite, it is possible enough that this did not take place till Neot had resolved on turning his hermitage into a monastery. The seven years may have sufficed to enable Neot to acquire the tongue of the natives, perhaps assisted by Guerir, and now he energetically set to work to declare the whole covenant of God to the natives in their own tongue. Local tradition, fondly clung to still, tells how they one and all made excuse, alleging that the crows came down in such flights on their fields as to destroy the prospect of crops, and that accordingly they could not spare the time from watching their fields to attendance on his discourses.
Then Neot summoned the crows to him and empounded them in the old Roman camp on Goonzion Down, and bade them remain there during the time of Divine worship and instruction. And they obeyed.2 Perhaps it was at the period when Alfred was at Exeter that he found time to visit his half-brother. The Danes had possession of Exeter, but when the winter of 876-7 was over, Alfred collected forces and hastened into Devonshire and besieged the city, and sent his fleet to watch the mouth of the Exe to prevent transports laden with troops and provisions entering the river and relieving the garrison.
1 MS. Bodl. 535 ; MS. Cott. Claudius, A. v.
2 The entrenchment is now called " Crow Pound." The woman at S. Neot who told the story to the writer said : " Some people doubt that this was so. But S. Neot was a very holy man. There is Crow Pound, and there on the opposite side of the valley is the Rookery."
8 Lives of the British Saints
The Danes in Exeter were reduced to the greatest extremity ; and as no help appeared, they were obliged to sue for permission to make a conditional retreat. They gave him hostages, and swore many oaths beside. Early in August, 877, they left Exeter, and retreated northward. It was probably now that Alfred found opportunity to pay a hasty visit to Neot. He had been to the place before according to Asser, who relates how that Alfred had been afflicted by a very troublesome malady since his childhood, " but once . . . when he was on a visit to Cornwall for the sake of hunting, and had turned out of the road to pray in a certain chapel, in which rests the body of S. Guerir, and now also S. Neot rests there," he prayed to be delivered cf this infirmity, and his petition was soon after granted.
But now that he came to see Neot, the latter took occasion to rebuke him. " When he was a youth," says Asser, " influenced by youthful feelings, he would not listen to the petitions which his subjects made to him for help in their necessities, or for relief from oppressors ; but repulsed them and paid no heed to their requests. This gave much annoyance to the holy man Neot, who was his relative, and who often foretold to him that he would suffer great adversity on this account ; but Alfred neither attended to the reproof of the man of God, nor gave heed to his prediction."
When Alfred visited Neot, the latter renewed his reproofs, and a long lecture is supplied out of the imagination of the late Latin biographer, and of the earlier Anglo-Saxon writer.
Probably, owing to the difficulties and distresses of the times, it had been quite out of Alfred's power to relieve those who had appealed to him. Neot must have known that, and have only exhcrted him to refuse the petitions in a more gentle and courteous manner.
The well-known story of Alfred and the cakes was taken into Alfred's] Lije by Asser, who was a contemporary ; he quotes from the Vita Sti Neoti, already written. Asser's Life reaches only to 887, before the death of Alfred, but it is not possible to admit that this story stood in the original of Asser's Lije. It was ingrafted into it at a later period.
According to the advice of Neot, Alfred is said to have sent contribu- tions to restore the English school at Rome, which had been founded by Ina, King of the West Saxons.
The death of Neot must have taken place before 878, and the victory of Ethandune, for, the night previous to the battle, Alfred dreamt that Neot appeared to him in shining apparel and promised him victory, and that during the battle, he encouraged his men by assuring them that the little man was actually engaged fighting for them.
S. Neot 9
S. Neot was buried in the church that bears his name in Cornwall, but the body was stolen.
About the year 974, Earl Alric, a powerful noble in Huntingdon- shire, and his Countess Ethelfleda, founded a priory at Eynesbury subordinate to Ely. But a patron saint was wanting to give popularity and to bring money to the new foundation. What made the Earl and his Countess think of Neot we do not know, but it was resolved to obtain possession of his body. The management of the theft was com- mitted to the guardian of the shrine, who was heavily bribed to decamp with the sacred deposit trusted to him. He absconded from Hamstoke on S. Andrew's Day, November 30, and he reached Eynes- bury on December 7.
When the inhabitants of Hamstoke, or Neotstoke as it was now called, found that the body of their saint had been carried off, their rage was excessive. But the sanction to the theft had been previously obtained from Brithriod, Abbot of Ely, Ethelwold, Bishop of Win- chester, and King Edgar, so that the poor Cornish men had no chance. They sent an armed band into Huntingdonshire to forcibly bring back their treasure, but Edgar despatched troops " to drive the Cornish men out of the village, and to put them to the sword in case of resistance."
A more scandalous story of robbery can hardly be found, only to be exceeded in shamelessness by some of the " Inventions " of sacred relics.
It remains to add some of the legends that have attached themselves to the story of S. Neot.
He is said to have been so diminutive in stature that to say Mass he was constrained to stand on an iron stool at the altar, and this stool was long preserved at Glastonbury.
As he was too small a man to be able to reach the lock of the Abbey, the lock complacently descended to a position suitable to his conveni- ence. As Mr. Whitaker remarks, " In the soberer style of truth, the lock was lowered in consequence of S. Neot's distress. . . . Thus, what was left, as a consequence of a little alteration made, and a memorial of a little event in the life oi the saint, was shaped by the plastic imagination of devotees into the memorial of a miracle that had never been wrought."
His pond was stocked with fish as food for the saint, but on condition that he took only one for his daily meal. The stock consisted of but two for ever, like a guinea in a fairy purse. It happened, however, that Neot fell ill, and his servant Bari, in his eagerness to please his master, cooked the two, boiling one and frying the other. Great was the consternation of the saint, and he ordered the fish to be thrown
i o Lives of the British Saints
back into the tank. When this was done, the boiled and grilled fish revived and sported unconcernedly in the water, and when the proper meal was prepared, the saint on tasting it was immediately restored to health. The story is common to several Celtic saints.
At another time S. Neot was praying at his well, when a hunted deer sought protection at his side. On the arrival of the hounds the saint reproved them, and none dare approach, and the huntsman, affected by the miracle, renounced the world, and hung up his bugle in the monastery church of Bodmin.
Again, oxen belonging to the saint had been stolen, and wild deer came of their own accord to replace them. When the thieves beheld S. Neot ploughing with his stags, they were conscience-stricken, and returned the cattle they had carried off.
There is a well-preserved window of the fifteenth century in the Church that contains the legend of S. Neot in a series of subjects, and a tablet with the story of S. Neot in rhyming couplets of the seventeenth century. The Holy Well has been restored.
His festival is on July 31, but curiously enough W7hytford gives July 8. At S. Neot's the feast is kept on the last Sunday in July.
S. NEWLYNA, Virgin, Martyr
THE Church of Newlyn, in Cornwall, is described in the Exeter Episcopal Registers as that Stae Neuline (Bronescombe, 1263). Bishop Bronescombe dedicated it, on reconstruction, on September 28, 1259, as Ecclesia Stae Niwelinae. It is similarly described by Bishop Quivil, 1283; Bishop Bytton, 1309; Bishop Grandisson, 1332, 1349, etc.,' and by Bishop Stafford, 1400.
Newlyn is the same as the Breton Noualen, Latinized into Noyala. Unhappily, there is extant no Life of this saint. This is greatly to b? deplored, as it would perhaps throw a flood of light on early Cornish history, if the conjecture we offer, and which shall be mentioned pre- sently, be accepted.
All known of S. Newlyna is from tradition, which asserts that she was a virgin from Cornwall, who crossed into Armorica, along with her nurse or foster-mother, and arrived at Bignan, in Morbihan, where she was put to death by a local chieftain named Nizam, who cut off her head. She is, in fact, a Breton replica of S. Winefred. When she wa beheaded, she rose, took up her head in her hands and carried it as far
S. Newlyna 1 1
as Noyal-Pontivy, full thirty miles. As shall be shown presently, this fable springs from a very simple source.
Pontivy possesses a chapel dedicated to the saint, and the local story there is that she was beheaded on a stone which is shown near it. In this chapel there was a jube, or rood-screen, on which her legend was depicted. This was wantonly destroyed in 1684, by order of the Vicar- General of Vannes, because it obstructed a full view of a gaudy reredos, in the debased style of the period. This tasteless construction has been swept away, and the paintings that formerly decorated the screen have been reproduced in stained glass in the parish church, and on the wall-; of the chapel. In the chapel is the Holy Well.
The inscriptions that were under the paintings on the jube were, happily, copied by the cure into the parish register at the time of the destruction. They are as follows : —
1. Comment Sent Noial en son commencement hantait 1'eglise et donnant lomone aulx pauvres pour 1'amour de Dieu.
2. Comment Sant Noyale et sa nourice passa la mer sur une feille, et vindrent en Bretagne.
3. Comment un tirant nonime Nezin par auctorite cuida tant faire a Saincte Noyale renonce a la loy de TJieu at estre son epouse.
4. Le dit Nezin cruel et plespute que la Ste vierge a luy ne s'etait accorde en lieu qu'on appelle le Bezen la fit decoller et autres de sa compagnie.
5. Du dit Bezen Sainte Noyale porta sa teste, vint a Ncyal, 1'ange de Dieu si la conduit avesque sa nourice.
6. Sainte Noyale et sa nourice se reposa a la fontaine et picqua son bordon d'ont sortit une f resne. Dessus sur une pierre faict sa prieres la merche y est encore entiers.
7. Sainte Noyale en ce mesme lieu si trepassa et alia a Dieu, auquel lieu s'entens estait desert pour le temps.
The parish church, which has an early tower and spire, was mainly built in 1420, and was well restored in 1888, when the stained glass win- dow was erected, which not only gives the subjects from the destroyed screen, but fills out the story from current tradition. This is the serie?.
1. S. Noalhuen distributes her patrimony among the poor in Britain, before crossing the sea.
2. The saint traverses the channel on a branch of a tree. (The ancient representation made her cross like S. Bega and S. Hia on a leaf.)
3. S. Noalhuen is solicited in marriage by the chieftain, Nezin, but refuses him, saying --that she had dedicated her virginity to Christ.
1 2 Lives of the British Saints
4. S. Noalhuen and her nurse kneel. in prayer on a rock, and pray to be granted the grace of perseverance.
5. The tyrant in a rage has Noalhuen decapitated. Local tradition has it that the saint occupied a desolate spot in the parish that now bears her name, but vexed by the pursuit of Nezin, she withdrew to Brignan, seven leagues distant, and to a place called Le Bezon in that parish. Nezin, hearing of her flight, pursued her, renewed his solicita- tions, was again repulsed, and decapitated her there.
6. S. Noalhuen rose up, took her head in her hands and returned to her old haunt, attended by her nurse.
7. Arrived there, she and her nurse knelt on a stone, still pointed out, as bearing the impress of her elbows and knees. She planted her staff, and it became a tree.
8. Whilst on her way back, she heard a girl address her mother rudely ; this so shocked her that she resolved on departing to a more solitary spot.
9. She accordingly pursued her course, till she came to the edge of a vast forest, near a stream, and there she died.
10. Above her tomb a chapel was erected. Nizan or Nezin, full of wrath, resolved on its destruction, by damming up the stream. But the dyke burst, swept him away, and he was drowned.
It will be seen how that, by misplacing one picture, the story of her wanderings with her head in her hands may have originated. -She fled from her pursuer, and the flight has been transferred to the period subsequent to her decapitation. To the present day a strong feeling exists at Noyal against a girl of that parish seeking a husband in Nezin, where the tyrant and murderer is said to have lived.
A cantique in Bretcn is sung at the Pardon at Noyal- Pontivy to a popular melody. It contains the legend run into verse.
The explanation of the story suggested is this. But it must be taken as a mere conjecture.
Noyal-Pontivy is a very large parish, in fact, before 1790 it was the largest in the diocese of Vannes, comprising, around Noyala, five trejs, or villages, each with its church. But at S. Geran (Geraint) was the minihi, or Sanctuary, whereby the tribe was recruited, and this indi- cates that the original centre of the district was not at Noyala but at S. Geran.
We know, from the Life of S. Leonore, that the British colonists who came over regarded themselves at first as still under the rule of their native princes in Britain. Now Geraint, prince of Domnonia, has left his traces here, at S. Geran, and at Le Palais in Belle He. This prob- ably means that when the colonists from Domnonia settled on theBlavet
S. Newlyna I 3
and about the Morbihan, they set apart a certain portion of the land as dominium, demesne for their native prince. Such a demesne, may- be, was Noyala-Pontivy, with its ecclesiastical centre and minihi at S. Geran. The whole of this district bears to this day traces of having been visited, and settled by the Domnonian royal family. At Guemene is the martyrium of Selyf or Solomon, son of Geraint ; Gildas, Geraint's grandson, is represented all along the Blavet and at Cleguerec. Cen- nydd, the son of Gildas, is also much to the fore there.
After the death of Geraint, and his son Selyf, who occupied the domain at Noyala ? We do not know.
Now from the Acts of S. Cybi, son of Selyf, we know that an attempt was made to raise him to the throne, but it failed. Constantine, whom Gildas attacked with such malignant hate, established himself as King of Cornwall, and Cybi was obliged to fly.
If Newlyna were sister to Cybi, the same cause may have induced her to depart as well. It is significant that her foundation in Cornwall adjoins that presumedly of Cybi, at Cubert (later dedicated to S. Cuthbert), and that of his friend Elian, whom we may with some confidence equate with S. Allen. She could not go wdth Cybi to Ireland on a visit to S. Enda at Aran, and she resolved to take refuge on the royal dominium in Letavia. Possibly enough, she carried off with her two princes of the royal blood to save them from the fate that had befallen two of the same family whom Constantine had murdered.
Having reached the royal demesne, Noyala attempted to establish herself there. But a steward, Nizan, either acting in his own interest, or that of Constantine, murdered her and the two princes.
These latter are called in Breton the Dredenau, and their chapel is close to the river. According to the local legend, their bodies were thrown into a marsh, and found by a pig, which was mauling them, when they were recovered and given decent burial.1
Such is a suggested explanation of the story. Documentary evi- dence is wanting, as the Acts of S. Noyala, or Noualen, are lost. The Welsh have not preserved the Pedigree of the descendants of Selyf because they had no territorial or clan rights in Wales, and all Cornish records are lost.
Nicolas Roscarrock has a different version of the story. He says : — " S. Nuline or Newline (April 27) virgin martyr of Cornwall, was daugh- ter of a King who in contempt of Christian religion martyred her with' his own hands."
1 See on the SS. Dredenau, vol. ii, pp. 357-8.
14 Lives of the British Saints
S. Newlyn is patroness of the parish of Xewlyn East, and probably had at one time a chapel at Newlyn West, by Penzance, where, it may be, she took ship for Armorica.
In the diocese of Vannes she is patroness of two parishes. Her martyrdom caused the centre of the parish of Geraint to be transferred from S. Geran, which sank to be a mere trej, to where is now the parish church, where her b dy was preserved. And the erection of a castle at Pontivy, in the eleventh century, caused the population to gravitate about that, and to form there a town. It is now supposed that Pontivy takes its name fro n Ivy, a monk cf Lindisfarne ; but it is far more likely that it had there a chapel of S. Divy or David who was — if the suggestion put forward above be allowed — the first cousin of S. Noyala. She is also patroness of two parishes in the diocese of Rennes, and of one in that of S. Brieuc.
The Feast at Xewlyn is on Xovember 8. The Pardon of Xoyala in Brittany is on July 6. In the Church of Noyal-Pontivy she is repre- sented as a maiden holding her head in her hands. She appears in the Missal of Vannes of 1457, and the Breviary of Vannes of 1660, on July 6.
Xicolas Roscarrock, as we have seen, gives as her day April 27. He gives the following curious note : "In Xewlin is a chapel of S. Xectan and yard belonging to it, and four stones on a mount or hill at the north-west corner where the crosses and reliques of S. Peran, S. Crantocke, S. Cuthbert and S. Xewlan were wont to be placed in Roga- tion Week at which time they used to mee te ther, and had a sermond made to the people, and the last was preached by the person Grand in Oueen Marie's tyme, as I have been creditably informed by a priest who had been an eye witness. The one of these four stones ben taken from thence and turned into a cheese presse about the year 1580 by a gentlewoman named Mistress Burlace, was in the night tyme carryed back by one, willed so by after her death or by some thing assuming her personage, and remaineth on thike hill \vher it ded."
S. NIDAN, Priest, Confessor
XIDAN, the son of Gwrfyw ab Pasgen ab Urien Rheged, was Peri- glawr or Confessor to the monastery of Penmon.1 He was the founder of the church of Llanidan, in Anglesey.
1 Peniarth MS. 45 ; Hafod MS. 16 ; Cardiff MS. 5 (as Idan) ; Myv. Arch., pp. 416, 428 ; Cambro-Brit. Saints, p. 268 ; lolo MSS., pp. 106, 127. For the dropping of the initial n, cf. Isan and Nissien.
S. NOYALA.
From Statue at Noyal-Pontivy.
Nidan 1 5
The old church, one of the largest in the Island, which consisted of nave and side aisle and chancel, has long since been abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin, and a new church erected in a more conveni- ent spot, near Bryn Siencyn. But two bays of the West end retain their roof, and are kept in repair, as well as the North and South porches. The latter has a stoup for holy water that remains perpetu- ally replenished in a manner that is not easily explained. All the church and churchyard is dry, yet there must be a spring beneath the south porch from which the water rises through capillary attraction to the stoup. The latter may be emptied, but speedily fills again. The level of the water in it is not always the same, at times drops fall from it ; and the entire porch is covered with an overgrowth of ivy and moss and weed. The churchyard around is still in use, and the roofed portion of the church serves as a mortuary chapel.
In the roofed part is preserved a curious stone reliquary, resembling a small stone coffin, with a coved lid of the same stone, which is placed on an oak buffet against one of the walls. It is of a fine grained sand- stone, and measures 26 inches long, 14 inches broad, and about 18 inches high. The front is open, to enable the relics to be seen. It was discovered, containing some pieces of bone, about the year 1700, under the altar, some two feet down, where probably it had been concealed at the Reformation. It is probably of the fourteenth century, and is apparently unique in Britain, as is also the phenomenon of the ever- filling stoup.1
Nidan is known in Scotland, whither he is said to have gone with S. Kentigern, as one of the 665 monks who accompanied him from Llan- -elwy, and he made a foundation at Midmar. "The neighbouring parish to his in Anglesey is Llanfinen ; and it is curious that not far from Midmar is Lumphanan, afterwards said to be dedicated to S. Vincent, but primarily to S. Finan, for the name is only a corrupted form of Llanfinan, while Midmar is not far from Glengarden, which is dedicated to S. Mungo (Kentigern), so that we have here a group of Celtic dedica- tions in the heart of Aberdeenshire." 2 Nidan, it should be mentioned, was related to S. Kentigern, his father, Gwrfyw, being that : aint's first cousin.
S. Nidan is entered in the Martyrology of Aberdeen on November 3,
1 It is described and illustrated in Arch. Camb., 1870, pp. 129-34 '• c^- ibid., 1863, P- 260.
2 Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish SS., 1872, p. 420 ; Skene, Celtic Scotland, 1887, ii, p. 193. Llanidan and Llanffinan are not adjoining parishes, though not far apart. Owing to their propinquity some have supposed the former church to be dedicated to S. Aidan of Lindisfarne. But Aidan's festival falls on August 31. See further, iii, p. 19.
Lives of the British Saints
but on September 30 in the Welsh calendars in Peniarth MSS. 186, 187, and 219, the lolo MSS., Additional MS. 14, 882, and Prymers of 1618 and 1633.
The Saint is locally supposed to have lived at Cadair Idan in the parish. Hendre Idan is also in the parish. His holy well, Ffynnon Idan, is at Plas Llanidan, about 200 yards from the old church. It is built over, and has steps to go down into it.
S. NINNOCHA, Virgin, Abbess.
THE authority for the Life of this ; aint is a Vita in the Cartulary of Quimperle, edited by P. cle Berthou, Paris, 1896, from the original MS. in the possession of Lord Beaumont, at Carlton Towers.
This Life was recomposed from an original written in rude style, " Yitam Sanctae Ninnocse in quodam libello rustico stilo digestam reperientes, maluimus potius incomposite materiei rectam simpli- citatam in scribendo servare quam plus justo minus earn emendando seriem narrationis depravare."
This Life had already been printed in the Ada SS. Boll. Jun. i, pp. 407-1 1. It had, moreover, been used by the author of the Chronicle of S. Brieuc, and by Albert le Grand, and by Lobineau.1
The Vita is of little historical value, as it abounds in anachronism ;, some of which, however, may be only apparent, and due to our ignor- ance of the history of the times.
Xinnoc was a daughter of Brychan of Brycheiniog, and akin to Gur- thiern,! nown also as Gunthiern, and i$ possibly the same as Gwynllyw. Jf a daughter of Brychan she was his sister-in-law.2
Brychan married a wife Meneduc, " ex genere Scotorum, filiam Constantini regis, ex stripe Juliani Csesaris."
This is certainly an astounding statement. The writer lived so late that he means Scots by Scoti and not Irish ; for the Scots had Kings- of the name of Constantine, but never the Irish. As to the stock of Julian Caesar, the writer would make Julian precede Constantine, if he does not intend, what is more probable, Julius Caesar.
But may not this be an amplification by the redactor, and the Con-
1 Le Grand, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, ed. 1901, pp. 270—3 ; Lobineau, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, ed. 1836, i, pp. 55—60.
2 " Quidam vir nobilis fuit in Combronensia regione, Brochan nomine, ex genere Gurthierni, rex honorabilis valde in totam Britanniam."
I-J-I ^^
1 1
o .1 Q I
o "'.
5^
H •=•
S. Ninnocha 1 7
stantine, who was the father of Meneduc, may have been Constantine (Cystennin) Gorneu ? S. Cybi's age can be fixed with some degree of nearness, as dying c. 554 ; he was grandson of Geraint, who was grand- son of Cystennin Gorneu. ' Allowing thirty-three years for a generation, that would be about right for the period of Brychan and Ninnoc. That Brychan ever had a wife of the name of Meneduc we do not know.
According to the author of the Vita, Brychan had fourteen sons. This statement shows an acquaintance with the Welsh traditions, which indeed, by counting in his grandsons, give him considerably more. The sons of Brychan, our author goes on to relate, " dispersi sunt per regiones multas in exilium." Of course, he adds that this dispersion was due to their desire to preach the Gospel everywhere, and does not allude to a compulsory expulsion, due to the Brychan family, as Irish, being driven" out of Brycheiniog.
Brychan and his wife were very angry at losing all their sons, and he vowed to give tithes if another child were granted him. But tithes did not come into consideration until later. Brychan, moreover, went into a mountain and built an altar there, and fasted forty days and as many nights during Lent, and then returned to his wife, and procreated Ninnoc.
When the child was born, one Columcille happened to be at the court of Brecknock and baptized the child. This is, of course, absurd. Columcille never did visit Wales, and he lived over a century later. What the redactor found in the original text was that an Irish Abbot (Scottorum abbas) of the name of Colum was there and baptized the babe, and he jumped to the conclusion that this was the renowned Columcille. There are some twenty saints of this name, beside Colum- cille, commemorated in the Irish Martyrologies. Ninnoc was held at the font by a kinsman of Brychan, named Gurgentelu Ilfin, and by his wife Gwennargant, and the child was given as a baptismal name that of Gwengustle.
The Welsh know of no G\\ engustle as daughter of Brychan ; but there was a daughter Gwen, of Talgarth, and a daughter Tudhistil, of whose name there are various corruptions, Tangwystl among others. But the relationship to Brychan must not be pressed too closely, as all that is meant by " children of Brychan " is that they were of his blood, and inherited tribal rights in Brycheiniog.
Gwengustle was fostered by Gurgentelu and his wife, till such time as she reached a marriageable age, when her father designed to dispose of her to a son of a King of the Scots.
Now, it fell out that at this time Germanus had arrived in Bry-
VOL. iv. c
1 8 Lives of the British Saints
cheiniog, sent thither by S. Patrick. This has shocked the Bollandists and other critics who have assumed that Germanus of Auxerre is meant. But this was Germanus, the disciple, perhaps the nephew, of Patrick, who later became Bishop of Man.
Moved by his exhortations, Gwengustle resolved on leading a virginal life, and as she remained constant in her determination, Brychan con- sented to let her depart for Llydaw. She departed in seven vessels, taking with her her foster-parents and two bishops, Morhedrus and Gurgallonus, and two others unnamed, together with " Magna turba tarn presbyterorum quam diaconorum, necnon et sanctimonialium virginum atque utriusque sexus hominum."
Now this migration to Brittany, and not to Cornwall, whither most of the Brychan family had gone, is significant. If we are right in our surmise, Germanus came from Western Brittany, and if he moved Gwengustle to migrate, it is not at all improbable that he recommended her to go to his native country. Moreover, Gunthiern, if the same as Gwynllyw, which is doubtful, was there already, perhaps ; and he was her brother-in-law. Moreover, \\here she came ashore was in the district where Gunthiern had settled.
The boats arrived at Poull Ilfin in Broweroc. At this time Weroc was Count of the British in those parts, the present department of Morbihan (500-50). She at once sent a deputation to ask his permission to settle, and he granted them Ploemeur, near Lorient, where they formed a plebs, and Gwengustle a monastery for her women, and the men who were ecclesiastics, one also for themselves.
Three years later, Weroc was hunting in this district, when a stag he was chasing fled jfor refuge to the church, and sank there exhausted at the feet of the saint. When Weroc arrived, the Bishops — all four — and the clergy and nuns were singing lustily the Psalter, and in the midst lay the fatigued and frightened stag. Weroc spared the beast, and made a handsome donation to the saint.
Then follows an episode that is a fraudulent interpolation. The redactor makes Weroc summon a council under S. Turiaf, Archbishop of Dol, and in this council signs, seals and delivers a deed of donation of land to S. Ninnoc. There was no archbishopric of Dol till the ninth century, and S. Turiaf lived in the eighth century. Moreover, Weroc called Judual, Count of Rennes, to witness it, and Judual was not restored till after Weroc was dead, and this precious deed of donation was drawn up, says the redactor, in the year 458 ! Judual was not restored till 555.
The Life ends abruptly with this forged donation. There is no ac- count of any further events in the life of the saint, and not a word about
Ninnocha 1 9
her death. This is pretty clear proof that the editor had an incom- plete MS. Vita before him, which he manipulated in his own way. Where it abruptly concluded there he tacked on the spurious title- deed ; but he did not venture to complete the story of her life.
The name by which she is generally known, Ninnoc or Ninnocha, is not a Christian name ; it means Little Nun. The termination oc is in Irish applied to men, and ait or at to women. But her true name was Gwengustle.1 She was probably called Ninnat, incorrectly changed when the name Latinized to Ninnoca. Apparently she is known at Scaer as S. Candida or S. Gwen, though there is no record of a grant of land being made to her there. In the parish of Tourch, near Scaer, is a chapel to S. Candida, in the hamlet of Locundu, formerly Locunguff. In 1619 the dedication is given to Sainte Vengu. Vengu is an inter- mediate form of Guenguff, white and gentle.2 Gwengustle became Guengu, then Vengu, and this name was replaced by a later partial equivalent, Candida, after 1619. At Scaer is her fountain, a large brimming well that pours forth abundance of water, and which supplies the town by a conduit. It is built up on one side, and carved stones lie scattered about where an overplus supplies a tank in which the women do their household washing.
The Church of Scaer, a modern vulgar imitation Norman erection, contains a statue of the saint as an abbess holding a book in her left hand.
At Ploemeur, in the chapel of the Priory of S. Ninnoc, is a statue of her as an abbess, in long floating robes, and with a stag at her feet. She is invoked by mothers in maladies of children.
Albert le Grand gives as her day June 4, as also Lobineau. At Scaer the Patronal Feast is held on the first Sunday in August. The Pardon at Ploemeur is on the second Sunday in May.
It is remarkable that in Ireland S. Ninne, a virgin, receives a cult on June 3, the day before Ninnoc. Of her no record remains.
A Ninoch is invoked in the Dunkeld Litany among the virgins and widows.
1 There is a virgin whose name ends in oc in the Irish Martyrologies, Sporoc or Sproc, daughter of Colum, venerated on June 30 ; and in the Book of Leinster, fol. 35oa, " Coemgen m3 Comloga Coemoc soror."
2 Bulletin de laSoc. archeol. de Finist$re,T. xx, 1893 — Article by the Vicomte de Villiers du Terrage on the Parish of Tourch. Hugh Thomas, the Breconshire herald, who gives some particulars respecting her in Harleian MS. 4,181, fol. ~ja, from Albert le Grand, mentions her as Nenoc.
20 Lives of the British Saints
S. NISSIEN, see S. ISAN
S. NOE, Confessor
A SAINT of this name (also as Nwy) had a chapel formerly in the parish of Skenfrith, in Monmouthshire. It formed, with the small manor of Blackbrook, in which it was situated, part of the possessions of Dore Abbey, and was served by the monks of that Abbey. The chapel has long been a ruin, but the site can te traced a few hundred yards to the east of Blackbrook (house).1
The chapel and bridge of S. Xoe occur on a seventeenth century map of Skenfrith parish ; and there was also a well there under his invocation.
Noe or Noy as a man's name is not altogether rare. It is best known in the name of Noe ab Arthur, the eighth century King of Dyfed ; and it also occurs as Nougoy, Xougui, Xogui, etc., in pedigrees and charters. These latter forms stand for what would now be written Nywy ; and the e of Xoe is, no doubt, a survival of the Old-Celtic long e, now wy.2
It may be mentioned that in the Skenlrith Xoe or Noy there is just a possibility that we may have S. Tenoi's name, with the familiar to- or ty- dropped, as in Llansoy and Foy.
S. NOETHON, Confessor
XOETHOX, Xoethan, or Xwython, was a son of Gildas.3 In the late documents printed in the lolo MSS. he is said to have been a " saint," i.e. monk, of Llantwit, and also, apparently, of Llancarfan ; and in one document therein he is the father of Cynddilig, Teilo Fyrwallt,
1 Col. Bradney, History of Monmouthshire, 1907, i, pp. 63-4. Sir Richard Morgan, the Judge, in his will of 1546, left 55. for the repair of S. Noe's Chapel. It is called Llannoyth in Speed's map, 1610.
2 Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, pp. ^246— 7 ; ii, pp. 201-2.
3 Peniarth MS. 45 ; Hafod MS. 16 ; Cardiff MS. 5 (1527) ; Cambro-British Saints, p. 268 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 416, 426, 428; IoloMSS.,pp. 102, 117, 137. The Welsh saintly pedigrees favour the form Noethon or Noethan. The name is the same as that borne by a Pictish King, who began to reign in 706, under the Gaelic form Nechtan, becoming Neithon or Nwython in Welsh, and is given as Naiton by Bede, Hist. Eccles., v, 21. Though Nectan and Noethan represent the same name, their pedigrees and festivals prevent our identifying the two saints noticed in this volume.
S. Noethon 2 i
and Rhun. He is usually coupled with his brother, S. Gwynog. There were formerly chapels of Gwynog and Noethon near the church of Llangwm Dinmael, in Denbighshire, but they have long since been converted into a mill and a kiln respectively. This appears to have been his only dedication, at any rate in Wales.
The festival of SS. Gwynog and Noethon is given on October 22 in the Calendars in Peniarth MSS. 27, 186, 187, 219, Jesus College MS. 141, Mostyn MS. 88, Llanstephan MS. 117, Additional MS. 14, 882, and the Prymer of 1546 ; on the 23rd in those in the lolo MSS., and the Prymers of 1618 and 1633 ; and on the 24th in that in Peniarth MS. 172.
Noethon is identified by Bishop Forbes with Nethan, who was venerated at Cambusnethan. " This district was a Welsh or Cymric colony, the neighbouring parish of Cambuslang being dedicated to S. Cadoc." l Cadoc was certainly in this district, where he is said to have restored Caw to life, which may mean no more than that the old chief was baptized, when at an advanced age, and so entered on a regenerate life.
The day of S. Nethan in the Aberdeen Martyrology is given on Octo- ber 26. Nicolas Roscarrock says, " Saint Naithan whom I finde in a British Calendar placed on the 23 of October." He also conjec- tures that the S. Neightan or Negton who received a certain amount of veneration in Cornwall was this Naithan, but it seems more probable that Neightan is only another form for Nectan of Hartland, a reputed son of Brychan.
Noethon does not appear to have gone to his father Gildas in Brit- tany ; at least, he has left no trace of his presence there.
In the story of Culhwch and Olwen a Nwython is given as father of Run, Llwydeu, and Kyledyr Wyllt, and is said to have been killed by Gwyn ab Nudd, and to have had his heart taken out and forced to be eaten by his last named son.2 His sons Run and Kyndelic are men- tioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth as having been among the men of rank that were summoned by King Arthur to his coronation at Caer- leon.3
A chieftain or warrior named Nwython (once with his son Neim) is mentioned in the Books oj Aneirin and Taliessin.4 It would not be possible to identify either of these with the son of Gildas.
1 Kalendars of Scottish Saints, 1872, p. 420.
2 Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, pp. 109, 134, 141.
3 Bruts, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 200.
4 Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, pp. 86, 91, 103, 193.
2 2 Lives of the British Saints
S. NON, Widow
NON, sometimes styled Bendigaid, or the Blessed, was the daughter of Cynyr of Caer Gawch, in Menevia, by Anna, the daughter of Gwrthe- fyr Fendigaid.1 Cynyr is said to have been regulus of a district which afterwards became called Pebydiog, or Dewisland. He was father also of SS. Gwen, Banhadlen, and Gwestlan or Guistlianus, bishop of Old Menevia.
What is known of S. Non is to be found, almost entirely, in the Life of S. David by Rhygyfarch, and in the Lives based upon it. Her legend is said to have existed in 1281 in the service book of her church at Altarnon, but nothing is now known of it. There is a mystery written in Breton, Buhez Sanies Nonn, which was for many years acted on her festival at Dirinon. A MS. of it, of about 1400, was found there and published at Paris in 1837 by the Abbe Sionnet. An account and abstract of it was published in the Archceologia Cambrensis for 1857-8 ; and it was re-edited, with a French translation, by E. Ernault in the Revue Celtique for 1887. 2 It consists of three parts — the Life of S. Xon ; the miracles wrought at her tomb ; and the life and death of S. David. It is taken from Rhygyfarch's Life, with some additions from Geoffrey of Mon mouth.
The legend which relates the circumstances attending S. David's birth has been already told,3 and need not be repeated here. It is quite possible that the story of her seduction by Sant is founded on a misapprehension. The mediaeval biographer, finding that she was called Non, assumed that she was a nun, and he presents the outrage accordingly as being doubly cdious. Rhygyfarch says that she was of
1 Peniarth MSS. 12, 16, 45 ; Hafod MS. 16 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 415, 423, 428 ; Cambro-British Saints, p. 265 ; lolo MSS., passim. She is sometimes called Nun ; in the Latin Lives of S. David, Nonna and Nonnita. The latter form occurs, as the Goidelic genitive of a man's name, on an inscribed stone in Tregoney church- wall, Cornwall, and in the name Eglwys Nynyd, Nonnita's or the Nuns' Church (or Convent), now a farm-house, about a mile from Margam Abbey. With the last-named may be compared Llanlleianau, in Llanbadrig, Anglesey. Nonna was a name borne by several women, notably, the mother of S. Gregory Nazian- zen. Nonnitus was a man's name, and there was a sixth century Irish bishop, Ninnidh or Nennidius. Evidently the names Capel (Maes) Nonni, Maes Nonni,. and Castell Nonni, in Llanllwni parish, do not involve a saint's name. Accord- ing to Breton tradition Non's true name was Melaria, in which we detect the Welsh Meleri, which the Cognatio gives as the name of S. David's paternal grandmother.
2 viii, pp. 230-301, 405-91.
3 ii, pp. 288-92. There is a persistent tradition at Llannon, Cardiganshire, that S. David was born there. The church of Caermorfa, in which Gildas endea- voured to preach before the pregnant Non (ii, p. 290), is claimed to have been located there, on Morfa Esgob ; and David, it is said, in after years, apportioned the Morfa among the poor fishermen of the place. Moreover, as a child, he used to walk to school every day to Hen Fynyw, a distance of about five miles.
-w
H
to
S
E
izf O g
5
S. Non 2 3
singular innocence of soul, and that she had no other children.1 But Irish authorities represent her as mother as well of Magna, mother of S. Setna,2 and of Mor, mother of S. Eltin.3 It is accordingly quite prob- able that she was the wife of Sant, and that it was not till after her husband's death that she retired from the world.
Non's sister, S. Gwen (Wenn), was wife of Selyf, Duke of Cornwall, who lived at Gallewick, " between the Tamar and the Lynher." 4
It was, apparently, due to this relationship, that Non was induced to settle in Cornwall. There her principal foundation was at Altarnon, an important parish, covering over 11,200 acres, with Church, Holy Well and Sanctuary. The Holy Well supplied a tank, into which persons who were insane were precipitated, with the idea that this would cure them. Drainage has drawn the water away, and all traces of the spring have disappeared, and the tank hr.s been filled in. Another church bearing her name is Bradstone, in Devon, by the Tamar. Another is Pelynt, where is her Holy Well. Boyton Church is supposed to be dedicated to the Holy Name (Nomeri), but more probably had an earlier dedication to Non. The Holy Name is a comparatively modern intro- duction into the Calendar. The festival was not brought in till between 1420 and 1500. In 1530 Pope Clement VII conceded to the Franciscan Order the use of an office for the Holy Name, but it was not till 1721 that Innocent XIII extended the observance to the whole Latin Church.
Boyton had a church long before the introduction of the Holy Name into England as a festival. It is marked in the Taxation of Nicolas IV (1288-91). The village Feast is in the second week in August, and the Day of the Holy Name is August 7 in the Salisbury and York Calendars.
The day, however, appointed for commemoration by the Franciscans was January 14.
At Grampound is a chapel of S. Non, also a Holy Well ; and a Holy Well bearing her name at Portscatho in S. Gerrans.
William of Worcester, copying from the Calendar of S. Michael's Mount, says, " S. Nonnita, mother of S. David, lies in the church of Altarnon, where S. David was born." Dewi certainly was not born there, and her body reposes at Dirinon, near Brest, in Finistere, where is a chapel that contains her tomb, with a recumbent figure on it, and where also is her Holy Well. Her tomb is one of the most beautiful,
1 Cambro-British Saints, p. ng.
2 Colgan, Acta SS. Hibern., Vita 2da Sti Senani, p. 540, recte 536 ; De Sedonio Episcopo, pp. 572-3.
3 Shearman, Loca Patriciana, Tab. vi. Ogygia, p. 330. * Vita S. Kebii in Cambro-British Saints, p. 183.
24 Lives of the British Saints
as well as remarkable, sepulchral monuments in Lower Brittany.1 At Dirinon is shown the rock on which she was wont to kneel in prayer, till she had left therein the impress of her knees. In Brittany she appears to have been held in greater veneration than her son.
The dedications to S. Non in Wales are Llanerchaeron and Llannon (a chapel under Llansantffraid, replacing an earlier one in ruins), in Cardi- ganshire ; and Llannon, in Carmarthenshire. There were chapels, now extinct, called Llannon, under Llanbadarn y Garreg (Cregrina), in Radnorshire, and listen in Glamorganshire. There is also a ruined chapel of hers, a little to the south of S. David's, on the edge of the cliffs.2 Near it is her Holy Well, of which Fenton wrote : " The fame this consecrated spring had obtained is incredible, and still is resorted to for many complaints. In my infancy, as was the general usage with respect to children at that time, I was olten dipped in it, and offerings, however trifling, even of a farthing or a pin, were made after each ablution, and the bottom of the well shone with votive brass. The spring, like most others in this district, is of a most excellent quality, i; reported to ebb and flow, and to be of wondrous efficacy in com- plaints of the eye." 3
The Non dedications in Wales, as elsewhere, are generally in the immediate neighbourhood of David churches.
The following tercet occurs among the " Sayings of the Wise " 4 : —
Hast them heard the saying uttered by Non ? The mother of Dewi Sant was she — " There is no madness like contention " (Nid ynfyd ond ymryson).
Dafydd ab Gwilym, in the fourteenth century, and other mediaeval Welsh bards, frequently allude to her personal beauty ; 5 and Lewis Glyn Cothi notes her posthumous miracles.6
1 For a description and illustration see Arch. Camb., 1857, pp. 249-50. In Brittany her name occurs in Lennon, a parish of Finistere, in Lannon (Bannalec), and in Crec'h Nonn (Begard). Nonn is a stream-name in Cart, de Redon ; so also in Abernon, near S. David's.
2 See ii, pp. 291-2, and Arch. Camb., 1898, pp. 345-8.
3 Pembrokeshire, ed. 1811, p. 112; ed. 1903, p. 63. Browne Willis, in his Survey of S. David's, 1717, p. 53, says, " Some old simple People go still to ... offer Pins, Pebbles, etc., at this Well." One of the streets of S. David's is called Nun Street. There is a Ffynnon Non near Llannon Chapel, Cardiganshire
4 lolo MSS., p. 258.
* Barddoniaeth, ed. 1789, pp. 15, 17, 515. Sion Phylip (d. 1620), in a " Cvwydd a ferch," says,
" Dy lun irfryd len eurfron, Dy liw un wedd a delw Non."
* Poetical Works, 1837, p. 320.
S. NON'S CHAPEL, S. DAVID'S.
South-west angle.
S. NON'S CHAPEL, S. DAVID'S.
Remains of rude stone masonry.
Nuvien
2 5
In Brittany another Non is Venerated, an Irish bishop, at Penmarc'h ; but she is patroness of Lagona-Laoulas in the diocese of Quimper.
In Wales S. Non was venerated on March 3, against which day her name is entered in a number of the early Welsh Calendars. Her festival used to be observed with great solemnity at S. David's.1 The Feast at Altarnon is on June 25, as also at Pelynt. But according to Wil- liam of Worcester her day was observed at Launceston on July 3. In the Tavistock Calendar, according to William of Worcester, there was an entry on June 15, " Sanctus Nin, Martyr." One suspects a threefold blunder, either of William, or of his editor Nasmith, Sanctus for Sancta, Martyr for Matrona, and Jun. xv for Jun. xxv.
S. NUDD
THE lolo MSS. documents include two men of this name among the Welsh saints ; but they are the sole authority, and, as often, quite untrustworthy.
I. Nudd, son of Ceidio ab Athrwys, of the line of Coel, and brother •of Gwenddoleu and Cof, who, with him, were " saints " of Llantwit.2 Of Nudd we know nothing, but Gwenddoleu was a chieftain who fell at the battle of Arderydd, in 573.
II. Nudd Hael, son-of Senyllt ab Cedig ab Dyfnwal Hen,3 celebrated in the Triads as one of " the Three Bounteous Ones of the Isle of Bri- tain." He was one of the Men of the North, with whom he invaded Arfon to avenge the death of Elidyr Mwynfawr.4
A stone discovered near Yarrow Kirk, in Selkirkshire, which cer- tainly commemorates members of the families of persons (perhaps one person) called Nudus and Liberalis, and seems as old as the sixth century, has reasonably been supposed to be his family monument. 5
" Nudd, a saint of Cor Illtyd, and a King," is credited with having founded the church of Llysfronydd, or Lisworney, subject to Llantwit, now usually given as dedicated to S. Tydfil. Several persons of the name, including a bishop, occur in the Book oj Llan Ddv.
.., J \s> ly^~ /-v«~'
S. NUVIEN, Confessor
IN the Book of Llan Ddv mention is made of " villam Sancti Nuvien cum ecclesia," 6 and, further on, " Ecclesia Mamouric id est Lann
1 Willis, 5. David's, p. 36. 2 Pp. 106, 128. 3 Pp. 113, 138-9.
4 Laws of Hywel Dda, ed. Aneurin Owen, fol., p. 50.
5 Mr. Egerton Phillimore in Bye-Gones, 1889-90, p. 483 ; Sir J. Rhys, Origin of the Englyn, 1905, pp. 10-11. " Pp. 31, 43, 90.
*v£~ Y «^->
CT> l J
26 'Lives of the British Saints
Uvien." l We believe that we are perfectly justified in identifying Lann Uvien with the Ecclesia Sancti Xuvien. Lann Uvien has been queried to be Llangoven,2 in Monmouthshire, but for no reason, we believe, than merely the similarity in name. We have no doubt what- ever that it was the chapel at Crick, some nine miles to the south of Llangoven. Mamouric means Meurig's Place, the Meurig in question being, in all probability, the Morganwg King of the name, whose father, King Tewdrig, was buried at Mathern, in the immediate neighbour- hood of Crick ; and among the places mentioned in the boundary of Mathern are " Aper Pull Muric " and " Aper Pull Neuynn " ; 3 but the latter need not necessarily be translated " the mouth of the Hunger Pill," as it has been.4
The remains of the old chapel of S. Nuvien, Nyveyn, or Nyfain, are still to be seen, converted into a barn, in the yard of the old manor- house of Crick, an old house which is to-day almost in its original state.5 At the east end of the chapel are two square windows, with a good rose window between. It appears to have been at one time attached to Caerwent, for in an inspeximus of 1336, recording the grant of the advowson of Caerwent, we read, " cum Capellis de Lannayre, Dynan, et Sancti Xyveyn (al. Niveyn), eidem Ecclesie annexis." 6 In the Valor of 1535, 7 however, the church of Mathern is described as " The Parish Church of Matherne, Trikke and Rulston." Rulston is Runston, and Trikke must be a mispelling of Crick, which is situated just within the border of the old parish of Runston.
S. NWYTHON, see S. NOETHON
S. NYFAIN, Matron
THIS saint, whose name is spelt Xyuein and Nyuen in the two versions of the Cognatio, Drynwin in Jesus College MS. 20, and Nefyn in the later genealogies,8 was a daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog, and the wife of Cynfarch Gul ab Meirchion, by whom she became the mother of
1 P. 206. There are other instances of the disappearance of initial n due to Llan coming before the name.
2 Ibid., p. 375. 3 Ibid., pp. 142-3. 4 Ibid t p 369
5 Arch. Camb., 1909, pp. 113-4. e Willis, Llandaff, 1719, pp. 163-7.
7 iv, P- 373-
8 Peniarth MS. 74, p. 86 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 428 ; lolo MSS., pp. in 120 40.
S. Onbrit 2 7
Urien Rheged, Efrddyl (wife of Elidyr Gosgorddfawr), and Lleuddun Luyddog. Urien and Efrddyl were twins, according to a Triad, wherein they are called one of the " Tri Aur (Gwyn) Dorllwyth " of the Isle of Britain.1
The church of Nefyn, or Nevin, in Carnarvonshire, has been sup posed, but wrongly we believe, to be dedicated to her. The Church was anciently called Llanfair yn Nefyn, with its festival on August 15,* and fairs were held, Old Style, on March 24 and August 14, the eves of two festivals of the B.V.M. No churches are known to us as having been dedicated to her, nor is her festival day entered in any of the Welsh Calendars.
She is not to be confounded with the Monmouthshire male saint, Nuvien, or Nyveyn.
S. NYNNIAW, Bishop, Confessor
THE authority for Nynniaw as a Welsh Saint is a solitary entry in the lolo MSS.3, where he is stated to have been a saint and bishop, and King of Gwent and Garthmathrin, whose church is in the North.
By Nynniaw, saint and bishop, who founded a church in the North, is clearly intended the great S. Ninian, who is incidentally mentioned, as Nynias, by Bede 4 as having been instrumental in converting the Southern Picts, between the Grampians and the Forth. He was a Brython of royal blood, born somewhere on the Solway Firth. The church he founded was Candida Casa, or Whithern, in Wigtonshire, which, on hearing of the death, about the year 400, of S. Martin of Tours, he dedicated to that saint, of whom he was a great admirer. Ninian is popularly known in Scotland as Ringan, and in Ireland as Monenn, with the endearing prefix. He is commemorated on Septem- ber 16. There is nothing to show that he ever was in Wales.
S. ONBRIT
IN two bulls of Pope Honorius II to Bishop Urban of Llandaff is mentioned Merthir Onbrit as among the possessions of the Church of
1 Cardiff MS. 6 ; Myv. Arch., p. 392.
* Willis, Bangor, p. 275 ; Cambrian Register, iii (1818), p. 225.
3 P. 136. . « Hist. EccL, iii, 4.
2 8 Lives of the British Saints
Llandaff.1 Nothing seems to be now known of Onbrit, but it is clear that a saint is intended, as Merthyr would only be used in that colloca- tion. Petra Onnbrit is named in the boundary of the grant of Tull (Toll) Coit by Elfin, son of Guidgen, to Bishop Berthguin,2 in the time of King Ithel ab Morgan. Twll Coed was also called Bella Aqua, i.e. Fairwater, Llandaff ; and, no doubt, Merthir Onbrit was in the immediate neighbourhood.
S. OSWAEL
IN a list of the sons of Cunedda Wledig that has unaccountably been incorporated into one Achau'r Saint document printed in the lolo MSS,3 is found his son Oswael, whom, it is to be presumed, we are to reckon among the Welsh saints ; but there is no reason whatever to justify us in so doing. His name occurs earliest as Osmail, later Ismael (in the Vita S. Carantoci) and Oswael, but more regularly Ysfael.
There is no church found dedicated to him ; but he has left his name to Mais Osmeliaun, in Anglesey, now probably represented by Llan- faes. Later antiquaries have mixed him up with . S. Oswald, and wrongly made Osweilion to be the district round Croes Oswallt, or Oswestry . 4
Curiously enough, S. Oswald is patron of a church, Lantec in ancient Goelo, now in Cotes du Xord. He is represented in the church as a chubby boy crowned and sceptred. He has replaced some Celtic saint of a similar name, but hardly Oswael, son of Cunedda, as this latter belongs to an earlier age than the British saints of Armorica. Most probably he takes the place of Usyllt, the father of S. Teilo.
S. OUDOCEUS, Bishop, Confessor
THE only authority for the Life of this saint is a Vita in the Book oj Llan Ddv that was written or recomposed in or about 1150, but the Life was probably based on pre-existing material used as lections on
1 Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 32, 43.
z£lbid., p. 189. One of the laity signing the grant was named Aironbrit. 3 P. 122. For early lists of Cunedda's sons see Y Cymmrodor, ix, p. 183, and Cambro-British Saints, pp. 100-1. 4 See Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, p. 296.
S. Oudoceus 2 9
the feast of the saint. It is printed in the Liber Landavensis, edited by W. J. Rees, Llandovery, 1840, pp. 123-32 ; more correctly in the Book of Llan Ddv, ed. Evans and Rhys, Oxford, 1893, pp. 130-9. An epi- tome, very meagre, in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglice. Also in Ada SS. Boll., 2 Julii, i, p. 320, from Capgrave.
Oudoceus l was the son of Budic, a refugee prince of Armorican Cornugallia, but born after his return to Brittany. The early history of Armorican Cornugallia is most obscure. We know that this por- tion of the Western peninsula had been colonized from Britain, at an early period. We hear of a king, Grallo, who ruled there about 470 to 505. Then there would appear to have ensued a fresh inroad of im- migrants from Britain, under a chief called Jan or John Reith, which is translated as Lex.2 It would seem that these new colonists set up their own prince and expelled the family of Grallo.
The Cartulary of Landevennec 3 gives the order differently. After Grallo it inserts Daniel Dremrud " Alammanis rex fuit." Then comes Budic with his brother Maxenri, then Jan Reith. " Hue rediens Marchel interfecit et paternum consulatum recuperavit." Then Daniel Unna, followed by Gradlon Flam and Concar Cheroenoc, and then Budic Mur. The Cartulary of Quimper 4 follows this with only a verbal addition to the effect. " Budic et Maxentii duo fratres ; horum primus rediens ab Alamannia, interfecit Marcell et paternum con- sulatum recuperavit." In the Cartulary of Ouimperle is also a reproduction of the same list.5
Out of these contradictions it is not possible to arrive at any conclu-
1 Oudoceus is Oudoce (with old e = modern Welsh wy) with a Latin termina- tion. In the Cartulary appended to the Vita S. Cadoci, § 61, he occurs under a later form, Eudoce Episcopus. The name appears in Welsh as Oudocui, later Euddogwy, as in Lann Oudocui, later becoming Llan Euddogwy, which is now cut down to Llan-dogo (on the Wye) . fu. 0 ^n^ <. O*.
2 "Quidam nobilis apud transmarinos (Britannos) exstitit, cui cognomen erat Lex vel Regula ; vir quidam genere regius, terra, familiis, opibusque admodum opulentus. Qui quoniam juxta divinum praceptum leges utrique sexui con- venienter aptabat, Lex vel Regula nominabatur. Is post desolationem Frixionum et^prsoldi ducis, nostram adiens desertam Cornugalliam (parata) classe mare cum maximo apparatu transmisit, regnum accepit, habitavit, excoluit. Post ejus decessum Daniel films ejus regnum tenuit ; cui successit filius Budic." Vita S. Melons, Analecta Boll., T. v, 1886, p. 166. In another Life : " Multi autem credentes, secularibus negociis abrenunciantes . . . et Deo adherentes . . . virtutum effulsereovantes. De quorum collegio quondam, antiqua ut didicimus relatione, fuit vir Christianissimus Johannes nomine, nobilis, ortus Britannorum genere, quem Dominus de ultra marinis partibus ductu angelico in Cornubiam disposuit transmeare. ... Et expletis annis vitse suae, regnavit filius ejus Daniel pro eo." Lect. of Brev. Maclov., 1537, f. 277.
3 Ed. De la Borderie, Rennes, 1888, p. 172.
* Printed in Bulletin de la Commission diocesaine, Quimper, 1901, p. 35. 5 Ed. L. Maitre et Berthou, Paris, 1896, p. 51.
30 Lives of the British Saints
sion with an approach to confidence. We may perhaps accept M. de la Borderie's opinion as we lack sufficient evidence to form any other, but it is a conjecture, and nothing more. He supposes that Grallo left no direct heir, and that Jan Reith came over and seized on the princi- pality and transmitted it to his son Budic. Budic left two sons, Meliau and Rivold. Meliau was murdered by his brother, who also dispatched his nephew Melor.
On the death of Rivold, ambassadors from Cornubia or Cornugallia went to South Wales, where was living Budic, of the house of Grallo, who had been driven from Cornubia by the invaders.
The Life of S. Oudoceus informs us that Budic was the son of a cer- tain Cybrdan, who had been expelled from his principality of Cornu- gallia, and he " came with his fleet to the region of Demetia (Dyfed) in the time of Aircol Lawhir, who was King thereof." 1 Budic, who must have been young when he fled to Dyfed, married there Anauved, daughter of Ensic,2 and sister of S. Teilo, and by her had two sons, Ismael and Tyfai, who both entered religion. Ismael became a disciple of S. David, and Tyfai, having been accidentally killed, is esteemed a martyr. Whilst Budic resided in Dyfed, deputies from Cornubia arrived to announce to him that the usurping king was dead and that the people were ready to welcome him.3 Budic collected vessels and embarked, with his family of retainers and doubtless a number of Welsh adventurers who hoped to get something in the new. land. Where Budic landed we do not know. The date of his arrival was about the year 545. Soon after Anauved became a mother again, of a son who was named Oudoceus.
Now some time previously, before Budic had heard of the change of aspect of affairs in Brittany, his brother-in-law, Teilo, had exacted from him a solemn promise, that, if he became again a father, he would give this child to the Church. As De la Borderie says, " L'eveque semble avoir voulu confisquer a son profit toute la lignee de sa sceur Anaumed." 4
1 Aircol Lawhir, according to the Book of LI an Ddv, was son of Tryfun, and was King of Dyfed. The early pedigrees (circa tenth century) in Harleian MS. 3,859 give him as a son of Triphun map Clotri, of the line of Constantius and Helen, and as father of Guortepir, who was the father of Cincar, etc. Y Cymmrodor, ix, p. 171.
2 In the original, " Anauued, daughter of Ensic, whose mother was Guenhaf, daughter of Liu onui, from which Anaumed" (sic), etc. The correcter form of Ensic's name is Usyllt.
3 " Missis legatis ad eum de nativa sua regione Cornugallia ut sine mora cum tota sua familia et auxilio Brittannorum ad recipiendum regnum Armoricag gentis veniret, defuncto rege eorum ilium volebant recipere natum de regali progenie." Book of Llan Ddv, p. 130. 4 Hist, de Bretagne, i, p. 435.
S. Oudoceus 3 i
Possibly Budic might have found it convenient to forget his promise, but Teilo came to his territories, met him and insisted on his observance of the vow.
About a couple of years after Budic had gone to Cornubia the terrible Yellow Plague broke out in Wales, 547 ; and Teilo, who thought that the better part of valour was discretion, fled to Armorica, and remained there nearly eight years. Budic's hesitation about surrendering his son was overcome when his wife presented him with a fourth, Tewdrig. Then, knowing what was certain to ensue after his death, if he left two brothers to contend for the sovereignty, he readily enough allowed Telio to remove Oudoceus from the land, and thus secure him from being murdered, as had been Meliau by his brother Rivold.
Before proceeding to the further life of Oudoceus, it may be as well to relate what followed in Brittany.
Budic can hardly have lived beyond 570, and Tewdrig was born about 550. Budic was concerned about the future of his son, and he accordingly entered into an arrangement with Macliau, Bishop of Vannes, and Count of Broweroc, by which each engaged to defend and protect the other's children, in the event of one of them dying, and this alliance was sealed by an oath.
No sooner, however, was Budic dead, than Macliau entered Cornubia and expelled Tewdrjg, who remained for long a wanderer. However, he did not lose courage, and in 577, having collected a body of followers, he swooped down on the Bishop, killed him and his son James, and recovered possession of Cornubia.1
Oudoceus was born about 545 or 546, when his father Budic returned to Cornugallia or Cornubia in Brittany, and in 556, when Teilo with his refugees from the Yellow Plague went back to Wales, Oudoceus accompanied him.
We do not know the date of the death of Teilo ; accordingly not that of Oudoceus's succession to the abbacy and bishopric ; but he can hardly have been under thirty-five when elected into the room of his uncle. That would be in 580.
He does not seem to have revisited Brittany. His brother Tewdrig was prince then in Cornubia, and Oudoceus may have thought it inadvisable to appear in his territories, lest Tewdrig, who was his junior by a few years, should misunderstand his purpose in returning, and have his throat cut. But doubtless he sent some of Teilo's disciples to the foundations made by that saint in Armorica, to see to their wel- fare and maintenance in good discipline. He had, moreover, plenty to
1 Greg. Turon., Hist. Franc., iv, c. 16.
s\ *~a>
0 f J
3 2 Lives of the British Saints
occupy him in Wales. He was particularly interested in assuring his hold over Penally and Llandeilo Fawr. We are informed that he visited them and met with an unpleasant experience on his way back. He had gone there relic-hunting. Returning from a visit to S. David's, with some relics, he went to Llandeilo Fawr, where he collected " relics, of the disciples of S. Teilo his maternal uncle, and these he placed in a suitable coffer." 1 From Llandeilo Fawr he went on to Penallt in Cydweli, his " family bearing the relics reverently, the holy cross going before, and singing psalms." Then certain men rushed down on them from the rocks shouting, " Shall these clerics get away, laden with gold and silver, and, with so to speak, the treasure of Saints Dewi and Teilo ? Let us catch them, and enrich ourselves with the great store of gold arid silver metal." 2
The legend as a matter of course makes the men become rigid and blind, till restored by the prayer of S. Oudoceus. What really took place was probably this. Oudoceus had nothing to do with S. David, and never went to his shrine at all, but he did desire to get hold of the body of his uncle that was preserved at Llandeilo Fawr ; and, at the same' time, he carried off all the gold and revenue he could collect in that place and Penallt. The men of Penallt, and probably those also of Llan- deilo Fawr, did not relish this ; the prosperity of their churches de- pended on the possession of relics of their founder ; as little were they pleased to be despoiled of the treasure in metal, and to have to pay dues, and probably arrears, to the representatives of Teilo. A disturbance- ensued, but a compromise was effected.
Another story told of S. Oudoceus is, that, when he was thirsty one day, passing some women who were washing butter, he asked for a draught of water. They answered, laughing, that they had no vessel, from which he could drink. , Then he took a pat of butter, moulded it into the shape of a bell, filled it at the spring, and drank out of it. And, lo ! it was converted into a golden bell ; and so it remained in the Church of Llandaff till it was melted up by the Commissioners of Henry VIII.
Einion, King of Glywysing (roughly, modern Glamorganshire) , was hunting one day, and the stag took refuge under the cloak of S. Oudo- ceus. The saint seized the occasion to beg the prince to make him a
1 " Quod sibi placuit de sacris reliquiis sumpsit . . . et secum attulit, et de loco suo proprio Lan Teliau maur sumpsit secum de reliquiis discipulorum Sancti Teliaui matruelis^sui." Book of LI an Ddv, p. 135.
2 " Nunquid clerici isti onerati auro et argehto et ut sic dicamus thesauro sanctorum Deui et Teliaui de manibus nostris evadant ? Immo capientur, et ablatis illis omnibus rebus suis ditemur multo pondere metalli auri et argenti." Ibid.
S. Oudoceus 3 3
grant of that bit of land, on the Wye, now represented by the parish of Llandogo, which the stag had encompassed in the day's hunt. The possessions of the abbey of Teilo beyond the Towy created friction. Cadwgan, the king, determined to drive Oudoceus out of them, and Oudoceus, unable to resist by force of arms, cursed his territory, and from that time forth the jurisdiction over Penally, Llandeilo Fawr, and Llanddowror seems to have ceased,1 though the biographer pre- tends that Cadwgan was brought to his knees and obliged to make restitution.
In the time of Oudoceus began the ravages of the Saxons in Gwent. In 577 the fatal battle of Deorham had cut off the Britons of Wales from those in Devon and Cornwall, and it had left the Severn Valley and those of the Wye and Usk open to be entered and ravaged at any time. The Hxviccas had settled in the rich land of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, and as they stretched their limbs, they laid hold of ever more and more soil and wrenched it from the Britons. They crossed the Wye, laid Ewyas waste, and devastated the valleys of the Dore and of the Worm.2 A slice of what is now Herefordshire was lost to the British.
One day, when Oudoceus was wrapt in devotion, sobbing and crying, a monk ran to him with the announcement that some beams that had been cut for his buildings, and had been left where hewn, in the wood, were being carried off. Oudoceus jumped up, seized a hatchet, and ran off to the banks of the Wye to see after his beams, and found that the depredator was none other than Gildas the historian, who was just then spending some time in retreat on the Isle of Echni (the Flat Holm) in the Bristol Channel, and who wanted timber for his own buildings.
Oudoceus shouted to him, as he rowed away with the beams, to come back and restore or apologize, but GUdas turned a deaf ear to entreaty and objurgation, and Oudoceus in a rage brought down his axe on a mass of stone hard by with such force as to split it, and the split re- mained as witness to the same till the time when the biographer wrote.
Unhappily for him, the story is chronologically impossible. Gildas
1 " Volens (rex) sanctum virum cum sua familia expellere de patria sua ultra Tyui, et sanctus Oudoceus reliquit patriam illius sub maledictione, et ab illo tempore remansit parrochia dividente Tyui duos episcopatus sicut dividebat duo regna." Book of Llan Ddv, p. 133.
2 " In tempore suo venerunt tribulationes et vastationes Saxonum in dextra- lem Britanniam, et maxime in confinium episcopatus sui, in tantum quod vi supervenientis gentis Saxonicae parrochiam suam a Mochros supra ripam Guy ex ilia parte usque ad rivulum Dor, ex ista parte et usque ad Gurmuy [the Worm], et ad ostium Taratyr [the stream by Dindor] in Guy flumine. Et factis his vastationibus ex utraque parte super parrochiam episcopatus." Ibid., pp. I33~4-
VOL. IV. D
34 Lives of the British Saints
died in 570, and Oudoceus was not bishop till 580. All we can conclude from the story is, that the remembrance of Gildas as a masterful and unscrupulous man lingered on. The story may be true so far that it belonged to an earlier period, and to Teilo, and later on attached itself to Oudoceus.
Meurig, the King of Morganwg, had committed murder. The case was gross, for he and Cynuetu, whom he slew, had come before Oudo- ceus and had sworn over relics to keep peace and friendship together. Very soon after, Meurig killed Cynuetu. Thereupon, Oudoceus called together the three abbots of most consequence in the district, Concen, Abbot of Llancarfan, Catgen, Abbot of Llantwit, and Sulgen, Abbot of Llandough, and hurled a curse upon the King and all his family, and cut off his land by interdict from Baptism and Communion, for the space of two years and more.1
The statement is open to grave objection. It is the earliest known incidence of an interdict on a land and its innocent people. No such a far-reaching interdict was known in the Western Church till the eleventh century at the earliest. Excommunications there were, and censures, but the monstrous iniquity of a general interdict was re- served for popes to commit. Almost, if not the first instance is that of Hadrian IV, in 1155, who put Rome under an interdict because a Cardinal had been mortally wounded in a popular tumult ; but Louis VI had been threatened with one earlier in the same century, for laying his hands on Church property. Alexander III, in 1180, placed Scotland under an interdict. It is true that in the Life of S. Eligius, d.c. 659, written at the close of the seventh century, that saint is said to have interdicted the celebration of Divine Service in a cer- tain church, because the priest thereof had refused obedience to his commands ; but that was a different thing to an interdict on a whole people.
The Celtic abbots and bishops were free enough with their curses, but they never sank quite to such a depth as to involve the innocent with the guilty in excommunication.
Meurig was brought to penance and to pay for remission by making over four " villas " to the see of Llandaff.
Morgan, another King of Morganwg, had appeared at Llandaff, with his uncle Frioc, to take oath that they would live together in amity. Nevertheless, Morgan treacherously slew his uncle. Another synod was called, and he was put to penance, and obliged to release the mon- asteries of Llancarfan, Llantwit and Llandough from all royal services before he could obtain absolution.2
1 Book of Llan Ddv, p. 147. 2 Ibid., pp. 152-4.
S. Oudoceus 3 5
Guidnerth of Gwent had basely murdered his brother. This was a practice so common, and recognized as a matter of course, that he was surprised to find that Oudoceus regarded it in a serious light. Oudoceus excommunicated him for three years, and afterwards bade him leave Britain, and remain for a year in exile in Armorica.1
The Book oj Llan Ddv bears abundant testimony to the brutal savagery and the unbridled lust that prevailed in the sixth century. If Teilo and Oudoceus and his successors made the princes and other delinquents pay heavily for absolution, it was because through their pockets their consciences could be reached, and the truth impressed upon them that murder and adultery were sins against God as well as man. There can be very little doubt that Oudoceus was a strong man, and that his politic act in bringing the three great abbots of the three monasteries of Morganwg to act with him, paved the way to the supre- macy of the abbey of Llandaff, and the formation of the episcopal, diocese with episcopal rule over Morganwg. Oudoceus died on July 2, at Llandogo, which he had chosen as his retreat, near the close of his life.
The year in which he died is not known ; it seventy years old, then the date was about 615.
Into the Life of Oudoceus was thrust a statement, absolutely desti- tute of foundation, that he had gone to Canterbury and had tendered his submission to S. Augustine, and had received consecration from his hands.2 As Rees well says, " The legend, for it deserves no better name, is so contrary to authentic history, and inconsistent with the state of the Welsh Church for two centuries after the time of Oudoceus, that it does not require a serious refutation." 3
Oudoceus managed to extend the patrimony of the Church of S. Teilo into Brecknock, and to extend it in Monmouthshire. The grants recorded in the Book oj Llan Ddv as made to him must not be accepted without caution. In one it is said that he had lost Lann Cyngualan, in Gower, from the time of the Yellow Plague till that of Athrwys, son of Meurig.4 Oudoceus did not come to Wales till the plague was over. But perhaps we may read this as a loss of this estate to the i Church of Llandaff from 547, not to Oudoceus personally.
S. Oudoceus has found his way into many English Calendars. He is in that of the Sarum Missal, that of York, and that of Hereford. He is
1 Book of Llan Ddv, pp. 180-1.
2 "Missus est sanctus 'Oudoceus cum clericis suis predict!* Merchui et Elguoret et Gunnbiu, cum legatis trium abbatum et regis et principum ad Doro- ,borensem civitatem ad beatum Archiepiscopum ubi sacratus est." Ibid., p. 132,
3 Rees, Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 274. 4 Book of Llan Ddv, p. 144.
36 Lives of the British Saints
in the Oxford Calendar ; in that of Canterbury Cathedral, circa 1050 ; in the Exeter Calendar of the end of the twelfth century, Harl. MS. 863 ; in the S. Alban's Calendar of the twelfth century, MS. Reg. 2 A. x ; in that of Hyde, of the middle of the eleventh century ; in an Ely Calendar of the thirteenth century, Harl. MS. 547 ; in the Tewkesbury Abbey Calendar, circa 1250, MS. Reg. 8. C. vii ; in the Reading Abbey Calendar, 1220-46, Cotton MS. Vesp. E. v ; and many others. This liberal admission into the English Calendars is entirely due to the fable of his having submitted to be consecrated at Canterbury. The one Welsh Calendar in which he is inserted is that in Allwydd Paraduys, 1670.
The only church that regards S. Oudoceus as patron, beside the Cathedral Church of Llandaff, where he shares the honour with SS. Dyfrig and Teilo and SS. Peter and Paul, is Llaneuddogwy, now Llan- dogo, in Monmouthshire.1 It is on the Wye, a little below Monmouth; and was the place granted to him by King Einion, after whom it was occasionally called Llaneinion.
He was succeeded as Bishop of Llandaff by Berth wyn.
The shrine of S. Oudoceus at Llandaff, as also those of SS. Dyfrig and Teilo, were stripped about the year 1540. The mitred head and an arm of each of the saints' statues, all of silver, got into the possession of one of the canons, but he had to surrender them (about 1557). 2
S. OWAIN
THE various documents printed in the lolo MSS. are alone respon- sible for saints of this name. They mention three.
(i) Owain, sometimes called Owain Finddu, or the Black-lipped, the son of Macsen Wledig (the Emperor Maximus) by Elen Luyddog, of Carnarvon.3 He had as brothers, Ednyfed, Peblig, and Cystenniri, and is said to have been the father of S. Madog. No churches are mentioned as being dedicated to him.
Triads of the Third (or latest) Series assert that, after the departure
1 Willis, Llandaff, 1719, append., p. 9, wrongly gives it as dedicated to " S. Dochoe, Nov. 25." " Fontem Sancti Eudaci " is mentioned in a document circa
j , 1190 as being in the parish of Dixton, by Monmouth, and falling into the Wye at Hadnock.
2 Arch. Camb., 1887, pp. 226, 229, 233 ; Cardiff Records, 1898, i, p. 376. Leland, Collect., 1774, i, p. 104, says, " Cranium S. Odothei apud LLandaf."
3 lolo MSS., pp. 113, 138. The pedigrees in Jesus College MS. 20 make him father of Nor, and son of Maximianus, i.e. Maximus.
S. Pabai 3 7
of the Romans, he was elected by national convention to be supreme ruler of Britain. Under him, it is said, Britain was restored to a state of independence, and the annual tribute, which had been paid to the Romans since the days of Julius Caesar, was discontinued.1
He is buried at Dinas Ffaraon, now known as Dinas Emrys, near Beddgelert, having been slain by a Goidelic giant named Eurnach or Urnach, on whom Owain at the same time inflicted a deadly wound.2
(2) Owain, son of Urien Rheged, who is said to have been the founder of the church and castle of Aberllychwr, or Loughor, in Glamorgan- shire ; but he was a distinguished warrior and hero of Romance rather than a saint.
According to the " Stanzas of the Warriors' Graves " he was buried at Llanmorfael, i.e. Loughor, a church said to have been originally founded by the mythical Bran Fendigaid.3 He was the father of S. Kentigern.
(3) Owain, son of the tenth century Glamorgan King, Morgan Hen, who " built the church and castle at Ystrad Owen (in Glamorgan), where he and his wife were buried." 4 The church is regarded as being dedicated to a S. Owain ; and Browne Willis gives August 14 as the parish feast.5
Not one of the three has any title to be included among the Welsh Saints.
It may be well to mention that there is no relationship whatever between the Welsh name Owain or Owen and that of S. Ouen or Owen (fromAudoenus), the seventh century bishop and patron of Rouen, who has several dedications in England, and is commemorated on August 24. No doubt Willis meant him, but made a mistake in the date.
S. PABAI, Confessor
THIS saint was a son of Brychan. In the two Cognatio versions his
name is spelt Papay, and in Jesus College MS. 20, Papai, but in the
-j later lists, Pabal, Pabiali, and Ffabiali. He, and his two brothers,
Neffei and Pasgen, were sons of Brychan by his Spanish wife Proistri.
1 Myv. Arch., pp. 402-4.
2 lolo MSS., p. 81 ; Greal, 1805, p. 18 ; Sir J. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, pp, 564-5.
3 lolo MSS., p. 38. * Ibid., pp. 14, 221.
5 Llandaff, 1719, append., p. i ; Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p. 178.
•J ' I i^LX. ~ /J^ L&r'St*
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38 Lives of the British Saints
The three went to Spain, where they became " Saints and principals "
S. PABO, King, Confessor
PABO was the son of Arthwys ab Mar ab Ceneu ab Coel, and one of the Men of the North.2 He is usually called Pabo Post Prydain (Pry- dyn), i.e. Pabo the Pillar or Bulwark of Pictland, which implies that he was a great war " prop " to his countrymen in North Britain.3 In the Old-Welsh genealogies in Harleian MS. 3,859 his pedigree is given in an incorrect form, Pappo Post Priten map Ceneu map Coylhen.4 He was brother to Eliffer Gosgorddfawr, Ceidio, and Cynfelyn, and father of Dunawd, Cerwydd, Sawyl Benisel (also Benuchel), and Ard- dun Benasgell.
" He was a King in the North, and was driven from his country by the Gwyddyl Ffichti (Pictish Goidels) and came to Wales, where he received lands (in Powys) from Cyngen Deyrnllwg, the son of Cadell Deyrnllwg, and his son Brochwel Ysgythrog." 5 Topographically, however, he is entirely associated with Gwynedd. He founded the Church of Llanbabo, subject to Llanddeusant, in Anglesey, and there is a Llanbabo near Llyn Padarn, in Carnarvonshire, and near Conway, in the parish of Llangystenin, are Pabo hamlet, Hill, and Station.
He has been supposed to be " the oldest of the saints of Anglesey," e where he is traditionally called " King Pabo." He is buried there at
1 Peniarth MS. 178 (sixteenth century), p. 21. ; lolo MSS., pp. in, 119, 140 ; Myv. Arch., pp. 419, 425, 428 ; Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations of Wales, ii,
P, J4-
2 Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd ; Myv. Arch., p. 428 ; lolo MSS., p. 105. On p. 125 of the last named work, Gwenasedd, mother of S. Asaph, is wrongly stated to have been his wife instead of his son Sawyl's. Pabo is a rare name ; it occurs also in the pedigree of the mythical Beli Mawr as given in Peniarth MS. 131, p. 77. Sir J . Rhys, Arthurian Legend, p. 298, derives, palaeographically, the name Palomydes from Pabo. Pabu enters into several Breton place-names, such as Lan-babu, Tre- babu, etc. It is a name given by the Bretons to S. Tudwal. The parishioners of Llanbabo were formerly generally called " Gwyr Pabo."
3 The epithet " Post Prydein " is given also by Llywarch Hen to Urien Rheged (Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, p. 268 ; Myv. Arch., p. 85), and by Llygad Gwr to Gruffydd ab Madog (Myv . Arch., p. 238). For references to the similar epithet, " Post Cad Ynys Prydain," see ii, p. 383.
* Y Cymmrodor, ix, pp. 174, 179.
8 lolo MSS., pp. 126-7. He is said to have been granted the site of Llanbabo by Cadwallon La whir. 6 Myv. Arch*, p. 428.
S. PABO.
From slab at (Photo by Wm. Marriott Dodsm.)
S. Padarn 3 g
Llanbabo, where is a large sculptured slab, with his figure and the leg- end, in Lombardic capitals, " HIC IACET PABO POST PRVD . . ." l The church is an unpretending little structure, of the fourteenth century, situated on a lonely ridge. Lewis Morris wrote, " There is a tradition at Llanbabo that Pabo and a son and daughter of his were buried in that churchyard, over against certain faces cut in stones to be seen to this day in the south wall of that church, and against one of these faces Pabo's tombstone was by accident discovered in Charles II's time, as I was informed in 1730, or thereabouts." 2 It was found by the sexton, about six feet down, in digging a grave. The slab is now set upright against the south wall inside the church, by the font. The effigy is of about the middle of the fourteenth century, when the church was rebuilt. The head is crowned with a simple circlet and three fleurs-de-lis, and in the right hand is a sceptre. The sculptor who designedand executed it appears to have also sculptured S. lestyn in Llaniestyn church, in the same island. Pabo himself lived during parts of the fifth and sixth centuries, for his son Dunawd, according to the Annales Cambrics, died in 595.
A tradition states, in the following lines, that he and his queen were buried at Llanerchymedd, which is not far distant from Llanbabo —
Yn Llanerch'medd ym Hondo Y claddwyd Brenin Pabo, A'r frenhines deg ei gwedd, Yn Llanerch'medd mae hono.3
Pabo's festival is November 9, which occurs in the calendars in the lolo MSS., the Welsh Prymers of 1618 and 1633, Allwydd Paradwys (1670), and in a number of Welsh almanacks of the eighteenth century.
S. PADARN, Abbot, Bishop, Confessor
THE main authority for the Life of S. Paternus or Padarn is a Vita in the Cotton MS. Vespasian A. xiv (early thirteenth century), pub- lished by Rees in the Cambro-British Saints, pp. 188-97. This had
1 Arch. Camb., 1861, pp. 299-300 ; 1874, pp. 110-2; 1908, pp. 95-8 ; West- wood, Lapidarium Wattice, 1876-9, p. 193 ; where there are illustrations of the slab.
2 Celtic Remains, pp. 339-41 ; Angharad Llwyd, Hist, of Anglesey, 1833, p. 216. The effigy is also referred to in the Morris Letters, ed. J. H. Davies, 1907-9, i, p. 286 ; ii, pp. 91, 93, 101—2.
3 The last part of the first line is sometimes given as " ym Mon, do," ; and for the last line is substituted, " Ym mynwent Eglwys Ceidio," a chapel subject to Llanerchymedd .
40 Lives of the British Saints
been seen by John of Tynemouth, who condensed it (Cotton MS. Tiberius E. i), and his version was printed in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglice (ed. 1901, ii, pp. 274-9), and republished by the Bollandists, Acta SS., April 15, ii, pp. 379-82. Fragments more or less extended of this Life passed into the Breviaries of Treguier, S. Malo, etc. There is also a Life in the Breviary of Leon, 1516, but it is late, and confounds Paternus of Vannes with his namesake of Avranches.
M. de la Borderie in his Saint Paterne, sa legende et son histoire, Vannes, 1892, made an attempt to analyse the Life, with partial suc- cess. Mgr. L. Duchesne's Saint Paterne, eveque de Vannes, in the Revue Celtique, 1893, is a further contribution.
The Vita was originally composed in Wales, and contains a good amount of genuine historical tradition ; but this fell into the hands of an ecclesiastic of Vannes, who altered and adapted it for polemical purposes. In many an instance a knowledge of the localities where a saint passed his life is the best possible commentary on the documentary record. We trust by this means to clear up one of the main difficulties encountered by students of the Life of S. Padarn.
It will be well, first of all, to give a summary of his legend before proceeding to its critical examination.
Padarn was born in Armorica, and was the son of Petran and Guean, and was of noble race. Petran abandoned his wife and child that he might go to Britain to embrace the religious life. But from Britain he went on to Ireland, there to complete his monastic training. Padarn remained with his mother.
One day, she had laid in the window the cloth intended as a garment for her boy, when an eagle swooped down, carried it off, and lined his nest with it. At the end of a twelvemonth, the cloth was recovered uninjured, and was put to the use for which it was originally intended. Years passed, and then Padarn resolved on going in quest of his father. He departed to Britain with a large company of monks. The names of three other leaders of companies, who were his cousins, were Hetinlau, Catman, and Titechon. In the Breviary of S. Malo they are given as Tinlatu, Cathinam, and Techo. In the Legendarium of Treguier they are Cuilan, Cathinan, and Techocho.
The companies reached Britain, and Padarn settled with his party in Mauritana, where he became the head of a monastery containing 847 monks. After having organized it, he departed for Ireland, where he found his father, but was quite unable to induce him to return to his wife and domestic duties.
In Ireland two Kings were at this time engaged in warfare — quite an ordinary condition of affairs — and Padarn succeeded in reconciling
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them. That accomplished, Padarn returned to his monastery in Britain, which he found in a flourishing condition, and augmented by the arrival of a monk named Nimannauc, who had crossed over from Letavia on a floating rock.
Padarn now founded a number of churches in Ceretica, and confided them to his disciples Samson, Guinnius, Guipper and Nimannauc. The peace of his community was speedily disturbed by Maelgwn Gwyhedd, who made war on Deheubarth, and arrived with a large army at the mouth of the Clarach. To find an excuse for pillaging the property of Padarn, Maelgwn left with him a number of hampers, which, he said, contained his treasure. On his return he demanded them back, when they were found to be filled with moss and gravel only. Padarn vowed that he had not meddled with the contents, and demanded of Maelgwn that he and his two stewards, who had placed the hampers in his custody, should undergo the ordeal of plunging their hands in boiling water. The stewards scalded their hands and arms, but those of Padarn were unhurt. Maelgwn was struck with blind- ness, and only recovered his sight at the intercession of the Saint. He then made a grant of land to Padarn between the rivers Retiaul (Rheidol) and Clarach.
Soon after, an angel bade S. David take with him Padarn and Teilo and go to Jerusalem. The three accordingly visited the holy city, where they were consecrated by the Archbishop ; and Padarn received from him a present of a choral cope and a staff. On their return the three divided Britain into three dioceses between them.
The tunic was the occasion of a dispute with " a certain tyrannus, named Arthur," who demanded that it should be given to him. As this was refused he stormed and threatened, when the earth swallowed him up to the chin. Only on his making humble apology was he released from his unpleasant and humiliating situation.1
Caradog Freichfras, in those days, extended his kingdom beyond Britain into Letavia. Then the Armoricans came to him, beseeching him to induce Padarn to return to them. On his visiting Britain, Caradog accordingly went to Padarn, and requested him to accompany him to Letavia, and become there the religious instructor of the people.
Now Padarn had spent twenty-one years in Wales, and had ruled over three churches. The first had formerly been called the Plain of Heli, but after he had settled there it became the metropolis of Padarn ; the second, further inland, was called Agam's Cross,2 where he had
1 The story was probably associated with the place-name Llys Arthur, in the parish of Llanbadarn.
2 This has been identified with Llangorwcn. Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, p. 449.
3 5 ft -
4-2 Lives of the British Saints
overcome Maelgwn's stewards,1 Graban and Terillan ; and the third where was his place of solitary retreat. He had spent seven years in each. Caradog induced Padarn to accompany him, and this with the undertaking that, whilst he was absent, none should interfere with his foundations in Wales. Padarn then bade farewell to his monks, and accompanied Caradog into Letavia, " ubi multa a falsis fratribus pertulit."
Now at this time Samson exercised metropolitan authority over all the churches of Armorica, and received a tribute from them all. As he was going round his vast diocese, he came near to Guenet, where Padarn had built a monastery. Then one of Samson's monks malici- ously advised him to order Padarn to come to him, in token of sub- mission to his authority. This he did, and the message reached Padarn as he was dressing, and forthwith, half clothed, with one boot and stock- ing on, he ran to meet Samson. The metropolitan was so pleased with this token of obedience that he ordained " that although all the dio- ceses throughout Letavia should pay tribute to him, the diocese of S. Padarn should be free from this charge."
" And the city of Guenet is the episcopal seat of S. Padarn, in which is a church of S. Peter the Apostle." This Caradog appointed, retain- ing therein for himself only one hall. " After these things the Saints appointed seven dioceses throughout Letavia, and that they should assemble on a mountain, and confirm their union to remain for ever. In which synod Padarn suffered much from envious and false brethren, and he confirmed his union with the six principal Saints, he the seventh." However, fearing lest through their intolerance some occasion of quarrel should arise, he left Letavia, and went among the Franks where he died on the I7th of the Kalends of May (April 15).
" And the Armoricans celebrate those three solemnities, that is to say, the Kalends of November when he formed perpetual union with the principal Saints of Letavia, and the day of his decease, and the day on which he received episcopal ordination, namely, the I2th of the Kalends of July " (June 20).
After the death of Padarn Letavia was afflicted with famine, and considering that this was due to the loss of the relics of S. Padarn, driven out of the country " by false and injurious brethren," the people of Armorica sent into the land of the Franks, and brought back his body, and laid it in the city of Guenet.
The narrative concludes with an epilogue.
Whilst Padarn was at Jerusalem, in the presence of the Patriarch, the three southern kingdoms were placed under the ecclesiastical juris- 1 In the MS. pretores, not precones, as printed.
S. Padarn 4 3
diction of the three Saints. S. Padarn obtained episcopal rule over the kingdom of Seisil ; S. David over that of Rein, and S. Teilo over that of Morgant.
Now, on a certain day, one of his servants, who had gone into the woods, fell among thieves and was murdered. On inquiry it turned out that the murderers were the servants of the governor, Eithir.1 And as blood-fine, Eithir was compelled to grant land to Padarn from the ditch of Liuluuin between two rivers, the Retiaul (Rheidol) and the Peit (Paith), to the sea coast. And Padarn informed Eithir, son of Arthat, that he should be honourably buried in the cemetery of his church, where his solemnity would be celebrated ever afterwards by the religious community there.
Such is the Legend, which we shall now proceed to dissect.
There were three Saints of the name of Paternus, or Padarn.
(1) Paternus, first Bishop of Vannes, appointed to .that See in a Council held at Vannes in 465, or within a year or two of that date. Of him nothing authentic is known beyond this solitary fact.
(2) Paternus, Bishop of Avranches, 552-65, whose Life was written by Venantius Fortunatus, and is published in Mabillon, Acta SS. 0. S. B., ssec. i, pp. 152-3, ed. 1668 ; better and fuller, ssec. ii, append., pp. 1,100-1,104; and in Acta SS. Boll., April 16, ii, pp. 427-50. See also Surius, April 16, ii, p. 180. He was born at Poitiers, and brought up by his mother Julitta, a widow for nearly sixty years. He was sent to the monastery of Enesio or Ansion, now Saint Jouin ; then embraced a solitary life, at Sesci, now Saint Pjir, near Granville, about 510 ; was chosen Bishop of Avranches in or about 552 ; subscribed the decrees of the Council of Paris in 555 or 557 ; and died at Saint Pair about 565.
He was accordingly contemporary with the third Paternus, and in his youth was in somewhat similar circumstances. He was brought up by a'widowed mother, Julitta, and the third Paternus by the grass- widow, Guean. This has led to a confounding of Guean with Julitta. In the Leon Breviary of 1516 the mother of Paternus of Vannes is given as Julitta, and the lections are taken textually from the Life of Paternus of Avranches by Fortunatus, only in place of Paternus (of Avranches) going to Neustria and becoming Bishop of Avranches, he is made to go to Vannes and become bishop there.
(3) Paternus, Bishop of Llanbadarn Fawr, was called Padarn in Wales, and the Welsh genealogies give as the name of his father
1 Thesatrapa's name is, no doubt, preserved in Lan Eithyr, on the Mynach, above Devil's Bridge. The Paith joins the Ystwyth at Rhyd y Felin, a little way from Aberystwyth.
44 Lives of the British Saints
Pedrwn,1 which is the Petran of the Vita. Pedrwn was brother of Amwn Ddu and of Umbrafel and of Gwen Teirbron, mother of S. Cadfan.
The migration to Britain was not so voluntary and inspired by so austere a motive as is represented in the Legend. All the brothers had been constrained to fly, probably from the ambition of one of them, tbat may have been the father of Weroc, who established himself as Count of Vannes.
The grandfather of Padarn was Emyr Llydaw, and he was of Broweroc, which is the present department of Morbihan, and which obtained its name from Weroc who obtained the mastery over the whole of it. Amwn, Umbrafel, and Gwyndaf Hen, brothers of Pedrwn, took refuge in Morganwg, and married three sisters, daughters of Meurig ab Tewdrig, the King. But as Pedrwn had been married in Armorica, before the exodus, it is probable that he was older than the others.
When Padarn came to Wales he settled where is now Llanbadarn Fawr, on Cardigan Bay, by Aberystwyth, which the author of his Life calls Mauritana, " maritima ecclesia," and " ecclesia in maritima." The place had formerly been called Campus (in Welsh, Maes) Heli, from heli, " brine," which was translated " maritima," of which, in all probability, Mauritana is a corruption. The parish of Llanbadarn is a very extensive one still, but anciently it embraced an area of about 125,000 acres.2
Of the companions of Padarn, his cousins (consobrini), Titechon, Techocho, or Techo, can be identified as Tydecho, son of Amwn Ddu, who we must suppose had come over to Llydaw, to see how matters stood, and whether there was any chance of recovering the rights of the family in Broweroc. Catman or Cathinan is Cadfan, who is said to have crossed with Padarn and Tydecho. Hetinlau (for which we should possibly read Ketinlau), Tinlatu, or Cuilan is not so easily identified, but it is not improbable that Cynllo is meant.3
Others named by the Welsh authorities as having come over are Cynon, Trunio, Dochdwy, Mael, Sulien, Tanwg, Eithras, Sadwrn, Lleuddad, Tecwyn, Maelrys, and Henwyn. Trunio was first cousin of Padarn, son of Dyfwng. Sadwrn was son of Bicanys of Armorica, and nephew of Emyr Llydaw. Lleuddad was son of Alan ab Emyr Llydaw, and Maelrys son of Gwyddno ab Emyr, and accordingly both
1 Peniarth MSS. 12, 16, 45 ; Hafod MS. 16 ; Myv. Arch., p. 428, etc. In the lolo MSS. Pedrwn is called, on p. 105, Pcdredin, and on p. 133, Pedryn.
2 Bevan, S. David's, S.P.C.K., 1888, p. 103
3 Owen's Pembroksshire, ii, p. 454. But Cynllo could be " cousin" only in a remote degree. He has dedications in South Cardiganshire.
^JU/f~~~ A ^ Lfc,/. J
S. Padarn jr 5
his cousins ; so was also Henwyn, son of Gwyndaf. It would seem then that this was a second family migration, caused perhaps by Weroc, who would not parcel up the authority he exercised among these claimants to family rights and territories.
The reason assigned for the grant of land made by Maelgwn Gwynecld to Padarn is that he was defeated in a fraudulent attempt to obtain an excuse for pillaging Llanbadarn. But the trial by ordeal of boiling water is a mediaeval importation into the story.
Maelgwn was struck by blindness. This unfortunate and much abused King is said also to have been blinded by S. Kentigern, for invasion of privilege, and-to have been restored at the prayers of the Saint. He was also surrounded by thick darkness, so that he could not see, by S. Cadoc, and similarly relieved ; then for a second offence again blinded, and again restored. He must have become quite accus- tomed to these alternating deprivations of sight and recovery.
The disciples of Padam are said to have been his first cousin, Samson, Guinnius, Guipper, and Nimannauc. Guinnius may be the saint who has given his name to Llanwynio, in Carmarthenshire, or to Llanwnws, in Cardiganshire. That Samson was with Padarn is not stated in the Life of S. Samson, but it is very probable that he visited and stayed with his cousin for a while. Near the entrance to Llanbadarn Church is an ancient stone called Carreg Samson, and there is another with the same name on the mountain near Llanddevvi Brefi.
The story of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the ordination by the Patriarch, and the division of South Wales into three dioceses made before him, was a deliberate fabrication of the Welsh ecclesiastics in the twelfth century, when they were struggling to maintain their inde- pendence, and that of their churches, from subjection to Canterbury. This can hardly have been invented before uoo. The story was adopted into the Lives of S. David and S. Teilo, with notable dif- ferences. The biographer of each of these latter Saints strove to accommodate the incident to the exaltation of the See of Menevia or of Llandaff respectively.
There is in the Legend of S. Padarn no indication of the See of Llan- badarn having been merged in that of Menevia, which took place after 720. It is therefore probable that there was extant some very early Life of the Saint, certainly of Welsh origin, which was embroidered on. by a redactor in the twelfth century, and, as we shall see presently, further altered and disfigured by a second redactor in Vannes.
The diocese of Llanbadarn extended over portions of Cardiganshire, Brecknockshire, and Radnorshire, and the stories of the quarrels of Padarn with Maelgwn and with Arthur are introduced for the purpose
46 Lives of the British Saints
of explaining the tenure of lands in these parts by the church of Llanbadarn. Arthur is spoken of as a tyrant, and wholly without heroic qualities, showing that the Life was composed before Geoffrey of Monmouth had thrown a false glamour over this rather disreputable prince, who generally figures in the Legends of the Welsh Saints as an egregious bully, with nothing of the " White Arthur " about him.
The next episode in the Life is that of Caradog Freichfras extending his rule into Vannes, and installing Padarn as Bishop there. This is utterly unhistorical. Weroc was Count still, till about 550, possibly a year or two later, when he died at an advanced age, and was succeeded by his son Canao. Albert le Grand, in a vain attempt to accommodate history to fable, proposed to identify Weroc with Caradog. The Bishop of Vannes at this period was Modestus, who subscribed the decrees of the first Council of Orleans in 511, and he was succeeded by Macliau, son of Weroc, who forced himself into the vacant See shortly after 550, and was killed in 577.
The Church of Vannes, dissatisfied with its late origin, has fabled that it possessed three Bishops of the name of Paternus. Le Mene, in his Histoire du diocese de Vannes, well says, " En resume, pour nous, Saint Paterne I est fabuleux," a supposed Paternus of the period of Conan Meriadoc. " Saint Paterne II (mais qui en realite est bien Saint Paterne I, puisque 1'autre n'a pas existe) est le premier eveque de Vannes," i.e., Paternus, appointed by the Council of Vannes, circa 465. " Saint Paterne III est etranger au diocese," i.e. Padarn of Llanbadarn Fawr.
The confusion arose thus : —
Caradog Freichfras was lord of Celliwig, a principality in Cornwall between the Lynher and Tamar, of which the town of Callington and the Manor of Kelliland are the modern shrunken representatives, but which formerly probably extended over the Bodmin Moors. Caradog has given his name to Caradon, the dome-like height that dominates Callington. In this region are to be found the Petherwyns, North and South, dedicated to S. Paternus. The two parishes, together with their daughter churches of Trewen and Werrington, stretch over 18,400 acres. Caradog, as prince of Celliwig, very probably did invite Padarn there, and made over to him the district of Pethenvyn. A Breton ecclesiastic of Vannes, reading the Legend of S. Padarn, at once sup- posed that the name contained, in its suffix, the name of his own Guened, and he was the more satisfied that it did in that his Church venerated a S. Paternus as its bishop. He had at hand no means of Verifying dates, and so he concluded that the Paternus of Pethenvyn
was the Bishop of Vannes.
-VV^T TC^I —
S. Padarn 4 7
Very probably, in the Welsh Life, he read of Samson having visited Padarn. In fact, when Samson was on his way to Armorica, he landed at Padstow, where he encountered Winiau, who may be the Guinnius of the Life of S. Padarn, and who was the founder of Lewannick, in proximity to Petherwyn.
S. Samson then travelled along the old Roman road to Camelford, and thence turned south, along what is now the road to Launceston. That he visited his first cousin in Petherwyn, hard by,is more than prob- able. He could hardly pass him by. He went on thence to Southill. The incident of Padarn running to welcome his cousin, when he heard that he was approaching, half shod as he was,1 existed in the original story. It is just one of those little touches of nature likely to be true, and very unlikely to form a part of the laboured inventions of pro- fessional hagiographers. But when this story came into the hands of the Vannes redactor, he saw his opportunity for making polemical use of it.
Not till 848 was it that Dol was erected into a metropolitan See, and that by Nominee. The editor of the Life was so ignorant that he was unaware of this, and committed the gross anachronism of making Samson metropolitan of Brittany in the middle of the sixth century, just three centuries too early. Nominoe constituted seven dioceses, Dol, S. Malo, S. Brieuc, Treguier, S. Pol de Leon, Vannes, and Quimper, and elevated Dol to be an archbishopric with jurisdiction over the other six. Some of these had not been bishoprics before, only abbeys.
Vannes and Quimper writhed under the new arrangement, and sought release, and subjection to the distant Tours, which had laid claim to metropolitan rights over all Brittany, a right not readily acknowledged by the British colonists.
To obtain an excuse for release a Quimper hagiographer fabricated a Life of S. Corentine, which, regardless of chronology, made that Saint seek consecration from S. Martin of Tours ; and so the redactor of the Life of S. Padarn used his opportunity of adapting the story of the Saint who bore the same name as the first bishop of Vannes to make him shake himself free from the jurisdiction of Dol. The gathering of the seven Saints on a mountain is another introduction by the editor. Shortly alter 550, a gathering of Saints took place on the Menez Bre to curse Conmore, Regent of Domnonia. All we really know about it is due to the Life of S. Huerve that was recomposed in the thirteenth century, and in it, it is represented as a " conventus praesulum et popu-
1 Similarly, S. David ran, half shod, to save the life of S. Aidan, when informed that there was a project for murdering him. Cambro-British Saints, p. 236.
48 Lives of the British Saints
lorum, ut excommunicarent praefectum regis, Conomemm." l The redactor knew of this gathering, and, indeed, it was commemorated in the Calendars, and he employed it to suit his purpose. He says nothing about Conmore, but makes it a synod of the seven bishops,- who met to confirm their unity and delimit their dioceses. Again he exposes his ignorance in making seven bishoprics in Brittany in the sixth century.
The biographer goes on to relate how that Paternus abandoned his See of Vannes, and departed to the country of the Franks, where he died. " Letaviam deserens, Francos adivit, ibique in Domino obdormi- vit." The reason of his inserting this was that he had heard of a Pater- nus of Avranches, who had died there, and he supposed that he must have been the same as his Paternus, whose body in his time reposed at Vannes. So he made the people of Vannes send into the land of the Franks and fetch it thence.
From Welsh sources we derive but little information about S. Padarn. If we may trtist the lolo MSS.,2 he for awhile placed himself under instruction by S. Illtyd. After that he established a community of 120 members in Cardiganshire at Llanbadarn Fawr. The Vita, however, gives the number as 847. From the Latin hexameters of John,3 son of Bishop Sulien of S. David's, and brother of Rhygyfarch, who wrote at the close of the eleventh century, we learn that he was traditionally believed to have remained at the head of Llanbadarn for twenty-one years, and this is confirmed by the Latin Life. In the Life of Elgar the Hermit it is stated that he was buried in Bardsey.4
We now come to the chronology of his Life. This is not easy to determine with any approach to exactitude.
It is not possible to determine precisely when took place the migra* tion of the " Chorus ecclesiasticus monachorum " from Armorica, but it was early in the sixth century, probably within the first twenty years of that century.
S. Illtyd founded Llantwit about 476.
If we allow that the meeting between Samson and Padarn took place in Cornwall, that must have been between 525 and 545, if our scheme of chronology of Samson's Life be accepted. It is probable that the Cornish monastic foundation preceded that of Llanbadarn. Padarn was for twenty-one years at this latter centre. During this
1 De la Borderie, Saint Hervi, Rennes, 1892, p. 269. 2 Pp. 105, 132. :
3 At the end of C.C.C. Camb. MS. 199, a MS. probably written at Llanbadarn. It contains an invocation to S. Paternus. The hexameters are printed in Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., i, pp. 663-7. See also the Collected Papers of Henry Bradshaw, 1889, p. 465. 4 Book of Llan Ddv, p. 3.
S. Pa darn 4.9
period he had skirmishes with Arthur, who fell, according to the Annalcs Cambrics, in 537, and with Maelgwn, who died in 547.
We have no fixed daturri for determining any event in the life of the Saint, and all that we can say relative to his death is that it took place about the middle of the sixth century.
Granting that Llanbadarn was a diocese, and not an archmonastery, with its subordinate settlements or churches, its extent as well as its duration are uncertain. It included, at any rate, the northern half of Cardiganshire, with Breconshire north of the Irfon (which latter seems to have formed the short-lived See of Llanafan, so called), and the western portion of Radnorshire, as defined by the presence of churches dedicated to S. Padarn.1 Padarn seems to have been suc- ceeded by Cynog, who died in 606 (Annales Cambriee), after having become successor to S. David at S. David's. The last notice of it as a See is in the year 720, when it is recorded that many of the churches of Llandaff, Menevia, and Llanbadarn, meaning the three dioceses of South Wales, were ravaged by the Saxons.2 Its sup- pression is said to have been effected in consequence of the murder of their bishop by the people of Llanbadarn.3 It was merged, probably soon after 720, in the See of S. David's as Llanbadarn had previously absorbed that of Llanafan.
Some trace of the connexion of Llanbadarn Fawr with, and its sub- ordination to, S. David's, lingers in the local tradition that the clergy of Llanbadarn came anciently at stated times with offerings to the clergy of S. David's, and that the canons and clerks of the latter church met them in procession at a place called Pont-halog, and conducted them along a road, now bearing the name of Meidr-y-Saint.4
The churches dedicated to S. Padarn in Wales are Llanbadarn Fawr,5
1 It is worthy of note that there are two Afan churches in Breconshire, and one in Cardiganshire, situated in the neighbourhood of Padarn ones. There is a Ffynnon Ddewi also in Llanbadarn Fynydd.
2 Brut y Tywysogion (Gwentian) , p. 5, supplement to Arch. Camb. for 1864. The church of Llanbadarn has been pillaged, devastated, or burnt down many times — in 720, 987, 1037, 1106, and 1257. The Bishop of Llanbadarn is men- tioned, lolo MSS., p. 147, as having been one of the seven Welsh bishops who " disputed " with S.Augustine. S. Cynydyn ab Bleiddud was a perigiawr or confessor in Cor Padarn, ibid., p. 125.
3 Giraldus Cambrensis, Itin. Camb., ii, c. 4. His name is not known. It is a mistake to suppose that he was the Idnerth of the Llanddewi Brefi inscription; see Sir J. Rhys, Origin of the Englyn, Y Cymmrodor, Vol. xxviii., pp. 43-6.
4 Jones and Freeman, Hist, of S. David's, 1856, p. 47.
5 The Radnor church of the name is sometimes given the appendage "ym Maelienydd " (Peniarth MS. 147). What is now Aberystwyth was anciently known as Llanbadarn Gaerog (the Fortified). A pool, called Pwll Padarn, can be seen at low ebb between the College rocks and the Castle: It was formerly much used as a bathing place (Wales, 1896, iii, p. 64).
VOL. IV. E
50 Lives of the British Saints
Llanbadarn Trefeglwys (or Fach), under Cilcennin, and, Llanbadarn Odwyn, under Llanddewi Brefi, in Cardiganshire ; and Llanbadarn Fawr, Llanbadarn Fynydd, and Llanbadarn y Garreg, under Cregrina, in Radnorshire. There is a Ffynnon Badarn near Aberllwyfeni, in the parish of Talyllyn, Merionethshire ; and a Sarn Badarn (his Causeway) in Llanerfyl, Montgomeryshire, as well as another, still to be seen, on the coast between Prestatyn and Gronant, in Flintshire.1 At Llan- beris, in Carnarvonshire, Padarn has his Nant, Llyn, and Dol. About two centuries ago the remains of a Capel Padarn were visible there at Llwyn Padarn in Dol Badarn, on the lake-side. But these may very well have derived their name from some other Padarn. One of the modern churches of Llanberis is dedicated to S. Padarn. One of the " Sayings of the Wise " tercets runs - :—
Hast thou heard the saying of Padarn, The correct, powerful preacher ? " What a man does God will judge " (A wnelo dyn Duw a'i barn).
Padarn was " an excellent singer," and, in recognition of his talent, received when he \vas at Jerusalem a staff, or baton, and a silk choral cope.3
In the Triads, Dewi, Padarn, and Teilo are distinguished as the " Three Blessed Visitors of the Isle of Britain." 4
The foundations of the Saint in Devon and Cornwall are North and South Petherwyn. Werrington was another, according to the bull of Celestine III to the Abbey of Tavistock, which speaks of Werrington (Wulrington) as a church of S. Paternus. On the reconstruction of the church it was rededicated to SS. Martin and Giles.
We need not concern ourselves with Breton churches of S. Paternus as they refer to Paternus, Bishop of Vannes, and not at all to this S. Padarn, who never was a Bishop or settler in Armorica.
An early thirteenth century Welsh Calendar, Cotton MS. Vesp. A. xiv, gives as his day April 15, the day on which he died. It also gives on September 23, " Su Paterni Ep. Ordinatio." A pre-Norman Calen-
1 Ashton (Wm.), Battle of Land and Sea, 1909, p. 164.
2 lolo MSS., p. 255 ; also in "Verses of the Hearing," Myv. Arch., p. 128.
3 " Paterno baculus et choralis cappa pretiosissimo serico contexta, eo quod ilium egregium cantorem videbant." Book of LI an Ddv, p. 106. His staff was called Cirguen (not Cerirgiten as in the printed Vita), whatever may be its mean- ing. It is given as Cyrguenn in the Old-Welsh quatrain in the C.C.C. Camb. MS. already mentioned, printed in Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 340. Is it possible that Llan- gorwen took its name from the staff ? " Cwlwm yr hen Badarn " and " Caniad Gwyddor o waith Pencerdd Padarn " are the names of two old Welsh airs-; Ceiriog, Y Bardd a'r Cerddor, pp. 47-8.
Myv. Arch., pp. 391,
(. *>
S. Padog 51
dar at Evesham (added to later), Cotton MS. Vitell. A. xviii, gives only September 23. The Gloucester Calendars of the thirteenth century (Bodleian MS. Ra\vlin-on Litt. f. i), and that in Jesus Coll. OxjordMS. ex., and one of the fifteenth century (Additional MS. 30,506) give April 15. So does Allwydd Paradwys, 1670. Whytford, in his Addicyons to the Martiloge, also gives April 15. He says, " The feest of saynt Paterne, y* with saynt Dauid went vnto lerusale, where he receyued sodeynly ye grace of togues to speke in euery laguage, and was there made bysshop by ye handes of ye patriarke, and after came in to eng- lond where he had the reuelacyon of augels, and reysed two persones to lyf, w* many other grete myracles." He makes no mention of the fable of his having been Bishop of Vannes.
In Brittany the following give April 16 — MS. Missal of Treguier, of fifteenth century ; Missal of Vannes, 1530, Breviary of Vannes, 1589, Proper of Vannes, 1660 and 1757, and subsequent Propria. Also the Breviary of Quimper, 1642, 1701, and 1835, and the Breviary of Leon, 1516 and 1736. The thirteenth century Breviary of S. Yves and Albert le Grand give the same day, as do also the Welsh Calendars in Peniarth MS. 191, the lolo MSS., Additional MS. 14,912, and the Prymer of 1633.
May 21, the Ordination of S. Paternus, is entered in the Vannes Missal, 1530, and in the Breviary of 1586 ; but in that of 1660 it is altered to " Translatio Stl Paterni."
September 23 is given in the S. Malo Missal of 1609, and in the Bre- viary of 1537, and in that of Dol of 1519 ; but the 24th in the MS. Missal of S. Malo of the fifteenth century. June 20 and Novem- ber i, mentioned in the Vita, do not have him entered in any calendar.
November 12 occurs as a festival of S. Padarn in the Welsh Calendars in Peniarth MSS. 187, 219, the lolo MSS., and the Prymers of 1618 and 1633, but it is the festival of Paternus, Priest, Martyr, at Sens, circa 726.
S. PADOG.
LLANBADOCK, the name of a church and parish a little to the south of the town of Usk, in Monmouthshire, postulates either a saint Padog, Or (but much less likely) a brook of the name. Nothing is known of a S. Padog. The church, however, is usually said to be dedicated to S.
52 Lives of the British Saints
Madog ; x but the church-name itself undoubtedly points to P as the initial letter. Among the earlier spellings are, Lampadok, in the Tax- atio of 1291 ; 2 Lanpadoc, 1306-7 ; 3 and Lampaddoc, in the fourteenth century appendix to the Book oj Llan Ddv*
S. PADRIG AB ALFRYD, Confessor
PADRIG, son of Alfryd ab Goronwy, of Gwaredog in Arfon, lived in the time of S. Elfod, bishop of Caergybi (Holyhead), and was a saint of S. Cybi's Cor there, and also of that of S. Beuno at Clynnog. In the late documents he is given for brothers, SS. Meigan, Cyffyllog, and Garmon.5
Padrig founded Llanbadrig on the northern coast of Anglesey, on the margin of the cliffs above the sea. The parish is a long, narrow strip of land stretching inland, for about six miles, to Pen Padrig, near Llanbabo. According to one account it was the Apostle of Ireland that founded the church before embarking for Ireland, having been detained some time in Anglesey through stress of weather. The parish wake was held on March 17. 6
There is, however, another version of the story, which is to this effect, that the saint was wrecked on the Middle Mouse, or Ynys Badrig. a little isle about a mile off the coast, on his way to Wales, from visiting lona. He succeeded in crossing to the mainland, and built the church on the cliff in memory of his escape. It contains a very early Chi-Rho cross. This could be no other than Padrig ab Alfryd, as lona was not founded till 565. Ffynnon Badrig, the Saint's Holy Well, is reached
1 Browne Willis, Paroch. Anglic., 1733, p 206, the Llandaff Diocesan Calendar, etc.
z P. 278. In the Taxatio of 1254 the church is called " Eccl. de Lanmadok."
3 G. T. Clark, Cartes, iv, p. 36.
* P. 321. In the Valor of 1535, iv, pp. 365, 369, it is Lanbadoke, and Llan Baddocke.
5 Peniarth MSS. 16 and 45 ; Hafod MS. 16 ; Myv. Arch., p. 428 ; Cardiff MS. 25 (p. 116) ; Cambro-British Saints, p. 267 ; lolo MSS., pp. 104, 143—4, 153. Peniarth MS. 12 (fourteenth century) gives his father's name by mistake as Morudd. Padrig is a somewhat late Welsh form ; if early it would have been Pedrig. Albryt, Alvryt, and Alfryd occur as the Welsh form for the English name Alfred in the Bruts and elsewhere. Gwaredog is mentioned in the Welsh Life of S. Beuno. Padrig ab Alfryd is continually confounded with the Apostle of Ireland; even in one Welsh version of "S. Patrick's Purgatory" (e.g. that in Hafod MS. 23, p. 262) Padrig ab Alfryd is substituted. There is a Hell's Mouth on the coast of Llanbadrig, which may well have suggested it.
6 Willis, Bangor, p. 280 ; Angharad Lhvyd, Hist, of Anglesey, p, 217.
S. Pasgen 5 3
by a goat-path that descends the cliff ; and the Saint's Foot-prints (Ol Traed Sant Padrig), when coming up the rock past it, are said to be still visible. On the south side of the altar in the church is a niche, and this shows that in the fifteenth century, when it was sculptured, the saint had been identified with the Apostle, for the bracket that sustained his statue is ornamented with writhing serpents. The niche is now occupied by a Pastor Bonus.
Several place-names here perpetuate the remembrance of Padrig, as Dinas Badrig (his Fortress), Pen Padrig (his Headland), Porth Badrig (his Port), Rhos Badrig (his Moor), and the island already mentioned. Ffynnon Badrig is now neglected, the bare spring alone remaining. It was formerly much resorted to, and celebrated for its cures, especially in the case of children.
There is a strange story in the Icelandic Landndma Boc of a certain Orlygr Hrappsson, who " had been fostered under Patrick the Bishop and the Saint in the Sudereys. He desired to go to Iceland, and he begged Patrick the Bishop to go with him. The Bishop gave him timber for building a church, which he was to take with him ; also a plenarium, an iron bell, and a gold penny ; also consecrated earth to be laid under the main posts of the church, and to consider this as consecration, and he should dedicate it to S. Columcille." l
Orlygr first reached a bay which he named after his foster-father, Patrechsf jord, and finally settled near the IT outh of the Faxa river. As this took place between 860 and 870, it is very obvious that the Patrick referred to was not the Apostle of Ireland ; and as Padrig ab Alfryd belonged to the latter half of the sixth century, the foster-father of Orlygr cannot have been he. The Catalogue of the early bishops of Sodor and Man is very incomplete ; it contains no Patrick among them in the ninth century ; but it does not follow that there may not have been one then, unknown to fame.
S. PASGEN, Bishop, Confessor
PASGEN was, according to the Vespasian version of the Cognatio de Brychan, a son of Brychan, but according to the Domitian version and the Brychan list in Jesus College MS. 20, a son of Dingad, of Llan- dovery, who was son of Brychan. The late Brychan lists make him
1 Landndma B6c in Islendinga Sogur, Copenhagen, 1829, pp. 12-13 '• e pp. 42-3. The word helga, saint, as prefixed to Patrick, is a later addition.
54 Lives of the British Saints
son of that great father of saints.1 He, Xeffei, and Pabiali, are said to have been his sons by Proistri, his Spanish wife. The three went to Spain, where they entered religion, and Pasgen there became a bishop.2 There existed formerly a stone, inscribed with simply the name " Pascent," in the churchj^ard of Towyn, Merionethshire, which has been supposed to be his monument, inasmuch as he had sisters (or aunts), Cerdych, and Gwenddydd or Gwawrddydd, connected with the place.3 Pasgen, however, is a fairly common name in early Welsh history. It is the Welsh form of the Latin Pascentius.
S. PATERNUS, see S. PADARN
S. PATRICK, Apostle of the Irish
OF S. Patrick we do not propose to give a Life. To do this would be a most difficult undertaking, owing to the confusion that reigns in the several versions of his history. Alclyde, WTales, Brittany, even Glastonbury lay claims severally to him as a native. What we propose to do is to show that five Patricks have been fused into one.
i. Palladius, sent by Pope Celestine.
2.. Patrick, whom we will call Magonius or Mawon, born in Wales.
3. Patrick MacCalpurn, the author of the Confession.
4. Patrick, nephew of the former, son of Sannan, the Deacon.
5. Patrick ab Alfryd, of Anglesey.
Palladius may have been with Germanus of Auxerre. So also may have been Patrick Magonius.
Patrick MacSannan was with Germanus, Bishop of Man.
Previous writers have accepted the Confession as the basis of all that is authentic relative to the great Apostle of the Irish. Dr. Todd treats in his masterly work of Patrick MacCalpurn, and asserts and proves that into the legendary Lives has been grafted much from a lost Vita of Palladius. 4 Dr. Todd supposed that the place of his birth, Banna- venta, was Dumbarton ; Professor Bury that it was some place "'in
1 Myv. Arch., p. 419 ; lolo MSS., pp. in, 140.
2 Peniarth MS. 178 ; Myv. Arch., p. 428 ; lolo MSS., p. 119.
3 Hugh Thomas, the Breconshire herald, Harleian MS. 4,181, f. 276, says, " It seemes he was buried by one of his Aunts in Towin Churchyard in Merionithshire by a Tombstone there Jnscribed thus PASCHNT to this S1." For the stone see Camden's Britannia, ed. 1789, ii, 541.
« Todd, S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, Dublin, 1864.
S. Patrick 55
South-western Britain, perhaps in the regions of the lower Severn."1 Most probably it was Daventry. The place is thrice indicated in the Itinerary of Antoninus as Bannaventa (with variations). Daventry is on an old Roman road, near the point where cross the roads which, coming from north and east, run towards London. The determinative Berniae is found only in the Confession.
Dr. Lanigan,2 anxious to save his being sent on the Mission by Pope Celestine, makes but one Patrick, and puts his death at 465, the date, as we shall see in the sequel, of the death of Sen Patrick, or Patrick Magonius. Mr. Newell 3 admits the interpolation of the lost Acts of Palladius into the Life of Patrick, and puts his decease as occurring in 492 or 493. Dr. Stokes 4 gives 445 as the date of the founding of Armagh, but does not enter into the question of the date of his death ; he would, however, seem to accept the earlier date. Mr. Shearman 5 allows that there were three Patricks, i.e. Palladius, who died in 432 ; Sen Patrick, who died in 461 ; and Patrick MacCalpurn, whom he sets down as dying in 493.
Professor Bury places the birth of Patrick MacCalpurn as occurring about the year 389, and his death in 461.
Dr. Zimmer has attempted to reduce all Patricks to one, i.e. to Palladius, and to show that the Patrick of legend was nonexistent. s He has, however, been completely refuted by Professor Hugh Williams. 7
We will take the mission by Celestine first of all. This need not be a matter of party feeling. It is one of fact, and that is all. If the evidence be satisfactory, no Protestant need object to it.
That Palladius, who was also called Patrick, was consecrated and sent to Ireland " to the Scots believing in Christ " admits of no doubt. It is possible that he may have been a deacon of Germanus, but of this there is no certainty. Prosper of Aquitaine, in his Chronicle, says — " Agricola, a Pelagian, son of Severianus, a Pelagian bishop, corrupted the churches of Britannia by insinuation of his doctrine ; but, by the instrumentality of the deacon Palladius (ad actionem Palladii diaconi} , Pope Celestine sends Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, in his stead (vice sua) to displace the heretics and direct the Britons to the Catholic Faith." This implies neither that Palladius was deacon of Germanus
1 Bury (J. B.), Life of S. Patrick, London, 1905.
2 Lanigan, Eccl. History of Ireland, Dublin, 1829.
3 Newell (E. J.), S. Patrick, S.P.C.K., 1890.
* Stokes (G. T.), Ireland and the Celtic Churchf London, 1892.
5 Shearman (J. F.), Loca Patriciana, Dublin, 1882.
6 Zimmer, The Celtic Church in Britain and Irelandf trans. Meyer^ London, 1902.
7 In Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologief iv, 1903.
56 Lives oj~ the British Sa^?^ts
nor of Celestine. And, in 431, he says, " Palladius was consecrated by Pope Celestinus, and sent adScotos in Christum credentes," as their first bishop. That he was the only one so commissioned by Celestine is shown by Prosper under date 437, where, in praising Celestine, he says, " Et ordinato Scottis episcopo dum Romanam insulam studet servare Catholicam fecit etiam barbaram Christianam."
Dr. Todd says, " We infer that the whole story of Patrick's con- nexion with S. Germain and Mission from Celestine should be regarded as a fragment of the lost history of Palladius, transferred to the second and more celebrated Patrick, by those who undertook to interpolate the authentic records of his Life. The object of these interpolaters was evidently to exalt their hero. They could not rest satisfied with the simple and humble position in which his own writings, his Confession and his Letter to Coroticus had placed him. They could not concede to Palladius the honour of a direct mission from Rome, without claiming for Patrick a similar honour ; they could not be content that their own Patrick should be represented as one unlearned, a rude and uneducated man, even though he had so described himself. The biography of Palladius ' alio nomine Patricius,' supplied them with the means of effecting their object, and gave to the interpolated story the appearance of antient support." *
Tirechan, in his Notes or Collections illustrative of the Life of Patrick, says, "Palladius episcopus primo mittitur, qui Patricius alio. nomine appellabatur . . . deinde Patricius secundus ab anguelo Dei, Victor nomine, et a Celestino papa mittitur cui tola Hibernia credidit, qui earn pene totam baptizavit. " 2
That Patrick MacCalpurn was ever with S. Germanus of Auxerre, though accepted by Professor Bury, rests on no good ground. Patrick is not mentioned as a disciple of Germanus in the Life of that Saint by •Constantius. Nor does Patrick in his Confession, which is a defence of himself and of his rrission against detractors, make any reference to Germanus, or to a mission from Celestine. He bases his defence on other grounds. It is to us inconceivable that when Patrick found that his right to act as an apostle to the Irish was disputed, he should not at once have appealed to the fact of his commission from the occupant of the Chair of S. Peter, had such a fact occurred.
There can be no reason to doubt that Patrick, son of Calpurnius, born at Bannaventa, son of a deacon and decurion, grandson of Potitus the priest, is the great Saint whom all Ireland honours. When aged six- teen, he was carried away by Irish pirates, and sold into captivity in
1 Todd, dp. cit., pp. 320-1.
2 Tripartite Life, ed. W. Stokes, ii, p. 332.
S. Patrick 5 7
Ireland to Milchu in Dalaradia. After six years of slavery he escaped, -and crossed the sea, whither to is not stated in his Conjession. But he went to his family in " the Britains," and whilst with them the inner voice came to him summoning him to go back to Ireland and carry the Gospel to the warm-hearted, generous people he had got to know there. Following the call he went — whither he does not tell us, possibly to Lerins, but he does not say so, and our authority for this is late and untrustworthy — but he was certainly in Gaul, and Lerins was hardly in that, it was in the Provincia. At any rate', he knew and expresses affection for the Saints of Gaul. He was consecrated at the age of forty-five, and then at once proceeded on his mission. God abund- antly blessed his work, and as the old Irish saying has it, " Not to Palladius, but to Patrick, God granted the conversion of Ireland."
The date of his death next demands consideration. Professor Bury, to save the commission from Celestine, wholly unproved, places Patrick's decease in 461. The best authorities give 493. Tighernach gives the date of the death of Patrick MacCalpurn —
From Christ's Nativity, by a joyful step,
Four hundred upon dear ninety,
Three noble years after that,
To the death of Patrick the Chief Apostle.1
Accordingly 493.
The Chronological Tract in the Lebar Brecc says — " Patrick com- pleted his victorious course ... in the twenty-seventh year (of the solar cycle), the Calends of January (falling) on a Friday, and the first year after the Bissextile ; the sixteenth, moreover, of the Calends of April, of that year was on a Wednesday, and the thirteenth (of a lunar month) was thereon. When came to pass the obit of Patrick, son of Alpurn, namely, in the tenth year of the reign of Lugaid, son of Laoghaire."
This is so precise that there is no escaping from the conclusion that it was a recorded date before the Tract was drawn up. According to Sir W. R. Hamilton, all these astronomical definitions agree with the year 493, except 27 for the solar cycle, which to agree with the Calends of January on Friday, should be 26. 2
Again, Lugaidh Mac Laoghaire came to the throne of all Ireland in 483, according to the best authorities ; ten years after that gives 493.
Again, in the same treatise it is said that S. Brigid's death took place thirty-three years after the death of Patrick, and as she is set down in the Annals oj Tighernach to have died in 523, this would give 490. But Brigid's death date is not determined for a year or two ; anyhow, it
1 Tirechan's Collections in the Tripartite Life, ii, p. 573. 2 Ibid., ii, p. 333.
58 Lives of the British Saints
could not be made to fit at all with Bury's date of 461. The Annal$ oj the Four Masters give 493 as the year of Patrick's decease. The very early Annals in the Book oj Leinster give Patrick's death as occurring after the succession of Lugaidh to the throne, but how many years after is not stated.
We may therefore conclude that there existed a strong conviction among the Irish Annalists that Patrick son of Calpurnius, author of the Conjession, died in 493.
The Annals of Innisj alien, however, give the date 465. It has been supposed that the date of Patrick's death has been thrust forward to 493 so as to make him equal the years of Moses, i.e. 120. If he did die in 493 he could not well have been commissioned by Celestine, who- died in 432.
We will now look at what can be gathered relative to the Second Patrick, whom the Annalists call Sen Patrick, but whom we will call Patrick Magonius.
That there were more Patricks than one in Ireland may be suspected from the words of Tirechan, who quotes Ultan, who died in 656. Tirechan says : " Invent quatuor nomina in libro (ad}scripta Patricio a pud Ultanum episcopum Conchuburnensium, Sanctus Magonius, qui est clarus ; Succetus, qui esl (deus belli veljortis belli) ; Patricius (qui esl pater civium] ; Cothirthiacus, quia servivit quatuor domibus Magonim." ! So also the scholiast on the Hymn of Secundinus. " Now he had four names — Sucat, that was given to him by his parents ; Cothraigh, his name from Miliuc ; Magonius, from S. Germanus ; Patricius, from Pope Celestine." 2
The same is repeated by other writers.3
It did not occur to Tirechan and the others that possibly enough these, or three of these, names \\ere given to differentiate one Patrick from another, or that Cothraigh was identical with Patricius, being the Irish form assumed by the Latin name, the Irish changing P in C.
Oengus in his Felire says that this earlier Patrick was the tutor of the " Old Patrick of Glastonbury of the Gaels in Saxonland," but also " Old Patrick of Rosdala in Magh-locha." This is Ruisdela or Ros- dalla in West Meath. He was commemorated on August 24, whereas the later Patrick's day was March 17.
Fiacc in his Hymn clearly intimates that there was a Patrick before
1 Tirechan's Collections in the Tripartite Life, ii, p. 302.
2 Liber Hymnorum, ii, p. 7 ; see also p. 3. It is generally agreed that the name Sucat is to be equated with the Welsh hygad, ready for battle, warlike.
3 Tripartite Life, ii, pp. 303, 385, 391, 441, 510 ; also i, p. 17.
S. Patrick 5 9
the great Apostle, and he probably is not in this case referring to, Palladius.
" Patrick's soul from his body after labours was severed. God's angels on the first night (after his death) for him kept wake, When Patrick departed, he visited the other Patrick : Together they ascended to Jesus, Mary's Son." *
The scholiast shows that Sen Patrick is meant, for he says : " This is what Patrick MacCalpurn promised to Sen Patrick, that they should go together to heaven. And this (authors) declare, that Patrick abode from the i6th of March to the end of the first month of Autumn (Aug. 24th) . . . and angels with him, awaiting Sen Patrick. Some say that in Rossdela, in the region of Magh-locha Old Patrick's remains used to be ; but it is more correct to say (that they were) in Glastonbury of the Gael, a town in the south of England."
The Book oj Leinster sets Sen Patrick as the next to succeed to the See of Armagh after Benignus, disciple of S. Patrick, but this is impossible.
In a piece of old Irish verse, quoted by Archbishop Ussher, Sen Patrick is spoken of as head of the ancient Wise Men of Ireland.3
It may fairly be admitted that there existed a tradition in Ireland that there was working there at Rossdela a Patrick, who intervened in time between the departure of Palladius and the coming of Patrick MacCalpurn. And the annalists bear this out. The Annals oj the Four Masters insert at the date 457 the death of Sen Patrick, but place the death of the Great Patrick at 493 ; and the entries of a Patrick in or about this earlier date in the other Annals may apply to this Sen Pat- rick, unless we suppose, with Whitley Stokes and Bury, that the date of the true Patrick was deliberately altered to 493, so as to give him the years of Moses. The Annals oj Ulster give 457 ; those of Innisfallen 465 ; those of Boyle 464. According to Nennius he died in 460. The Annals of the Book oj Leinster give his death before that of Laoghaire in 460.
Now, if there were two Patricks, how is it that the biographers are silent relative to the previous work of him of Rossdela ? How is it that no Life of him remains ?
The explanation would seem to be that the biographers incorpor- ated his Acts, as they did also those of Palladius in the amplified Life of the great Patrick.
1 Liber Hymnorum, ii, p. 35.
? Quoted by Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii, p. 427.
3 Antiq. Eccl. Brit., 1639, ii, p. 895.
60 Lives of the British Saints
Now, the Welsh tradition is that a Patrick was born in Gower, in Glamorganshire, the son of Mawon, Mawan, or Maewon (once given Maenwyn as epithet) — all forms derived from the Latinized Magonius — • and that he was the Apostle of the Irish.1 An apostle he may have been, and he may well have been the Sen Patrick of the Annals. We have, unhappily, but late and bad authority for this Patrick — the
MOMSS. /{/> «^tf:^l^ **- H*f*~i •
Padrig, " Principal of Caerworgorn,"" supreme teacher of the nation of the Welsh," before the destruction of Caerworgorn (afterwards Llant- wit Major), is said to have been carried away to Ireland thence, and not to have returned to Wales.2 " Padrig Maenwyn, of Gowerland, who converted the Irish to the Faith in Christ. His church is that of Aberllychwr " (Loughor).3 Aberllychwr is doubtless the Leucarum of the Romans. The present church is dedicated to S. Michael.
Humphrey Lhuyd, however, in his Commentarioli Britannicce Descriptionis Fragmentum, Cologne, 1572, fol. 636, says, " Hie vero in Rosea voile natus juit magnus ille Patritius qui Iverniam Christiana fidei imbuit ; " and George Owen, in his Description of Penbrokshire,* tells us that he " founded a monastery at St. Dauides out of the wch was aflerwardes founded the Cathedrall Churche there." He further mentions as being in ruins in his time a Capel Padrig, a place of pil- grimage in the parish of Nevern, Pembrokeshire.5 There is clearly confusion here between the Patricks.
It is, of course, possible that at the destruction of Caerworgorn, its superior, Patrick, may have been carried into captivity, but this state- ment looks suspiciously like a transference to Patrick Magonius of the captivity of Patrick MacCalpurn, though the latter was only sixteen years old when made a captive. That any one of the Patricks was born in Menevia cannot be admitted. There is no evidence to support the assertion of Humphrey Lhuyd. But that the great S. Patrick had a hand in the foundation of the monastery there is borne out by what we know from other sources. Patrick did, we judge, establish a school there under Maucan or Ninio for the training of missioners for the Irish Church.
There is a site now, close to Ty Gwyn, where are to be traced the foundations of a chapel of S. Patrick ; and Perth Padrig, the Gate of S. David's, leading to Ty Gwyn and Porth Mawr, bears the name of the
1 lolo MSS., pp. 104, 131, 134, 153. Nennius (ed. San Marte, p. 63) gives his cognomen as Maun (in Modern Welsh, Mawn) ; but the Magonius of the Irish writers is a Latinization of an earlier form still, before the intervocalic g was lost.
2 Ibid., pp. 43, 69, 131, 134.
3 Ibid., p. 104. There is a sandbank near Llanelly called Cefn Padrig.
4 Owen's Pembrokeshire, i, p. 220. 5 Ibid., p. 509.
S. Patrick 6 1
apostle of the Irish. There is besides a rock called Carn Badrig on the moor hard by. Eisteddfa Badrig, his Seat, is mentioned in the Lives of S. David as the spot from whence he beheld in a vision the whole island of which he was to be the apostle.
But we must again distinguish between Padrig Mawon of Gower and Padrig ab Alfryd of Arfon and Anglesey, with whom he has been con- founded. This latter lived in the time of S. Elfod, bishop of Caergybi (Holyhead), and was a saint of S. Cybi's Cor, and also of S. Beuno's at Clynnog.
We must eliminate another Patrick, of whom we know only on late authority, the son of S. Gwyndeg, son of Seithenin, King of Gwyddno's Plain. He was brother of Cynyr of Caergawch, and consequently great- uncle of S. David.1 If he ever had existence, he belongs to an age earlier than that of Padrig ab Alfryd.
Having thus cleared the ground, and put aside Patrick MacCalpurn,. the true Apostle of the Irish, also Patrick, son of Alfryd, and Patrick, son of Gwyndeg, we return to the consideration of Patrick Mawon.
An loloMSS. document says, "The foundation of the Emperor Theo- dosius and Cystennin Llydaw was Bangor Illtyd, which was regulated by Belerus, a man from Rome ; and Padrig, the son of Maewon, was principal of it, before he was carried away captive by the Irish." 2 As we have already seen, there is a confusion here between Patrick Mawon and Patrick MacCalpurn. Moreover, Caerworgorn is meant, which was a college before Illtyd was born to the religious life. Illtyd founded his monastery near the ruins of Caerworgorn, which had been devastated and left without inhabitant.
Theodosius the Younger was Emperor of the East from 408 to 450. But in 423, on the death of Honorius, West and East were united under his sceptre, till 425, when Valentinian became Emperor of the West. Theodosius may have been interested in Britain, where his great-grand- father, Theodosius, had served so brilliantly against the Picts and Scots ; and if he did found Caerworgorn it was between 423 and 425.
The lolo MSS., speaking generally, are an untrustworthy authority, as we cannot tell always whence many of these documents and notices came from originally, or their real date, but they give testimony, at all events, to a rooted tradition in South Wales that a Patrick was there, a native, and a teacher, and it is possible enough that this Padrig ab Mawon was the Patrick Magonius of Ireland, to be identified, we think, with Sen Patrick, who died in 457 or 460.
We come now to the most difficult problem of all. Whether either
1 lolo MSS., p. 141. - Ibid., p. 134.
62 Lives of the British Saints
of the Patricks was with Germanus of Auxerre, and ordained by Celes- tine. Palladius was sent to Ireland by Celestine in 431, and Celestine died in 432. It is incredible that Palladius can have begun his work in Ireland, failed, crossed to Alba and been killed, and that the news should have reached Celestine before his death.
As Mr. Newell observes : " The date 432 was chosen for Patrick's arrival (in Ireland) because in that year Celestine died, and it was therefore the latest year in which he could have given a commission to Patrick. An earlier date would not have suited, because the mis- sion of Palladius took place in 431. The confusion between Patrick and his unsuccessful namesake, which helped the story, accounts for the circumstance that no other pope was selected than Celestine. But, to enable Patrick to reach Ireland the very next year to Palladius, it was necessary to crowd within the narrow compass of one year, or a little more, the landing of Palladius in Ireland, his preaching and rejec- tion by the people, possibly his departure to the country of the Picts in Northern Britain, his death, and the return of some of his disciples with the news to the Continent. It is not probable that in those days of slow transit all these events could have occurred in so small a space of time, especially if, as some legends assert, Palladius stayed in Ireland long enough to found three churches." l It may seem incredible that there should have been several similarly named, working in Ire- land ; but the name Patricias was a title equivalent to " gentleman," and was very extensively adopted. Gibbon says that at this very period, " the meanest subjects of the Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of Patricius." z
In considering the difficult question of discipleship to Germanus, we shall have, in the first place, to give the conflicting accounts of the biographers relating to that association.
A. In the Confession nothing is said of this discipleship.
B. Nor in the Hymn of Secundinus ; but that is laudatory and not biographical.
C. The Hymn of Fiacc is of a different character, but it is not earlier than the eighth century.3 As, however, its claims are to be the earliest record, apart from the Confession, we will take it first.
It is silent as to the Roman mission, but asserts that Patrick was educated by Germanus.
, r Jewell, op. cit., pp. 51-2.
2 Decline and Fall (ed. Milman and Smith), London, 18*8-9, viii, p. }oo.
3 It mentions the desertion of Tara that took place in 560. J t refers to written accounts, and begins, " Patrick was born in Xemthur, as is related in stories."
S. Patrick
'' [The angel] sent him across to Britain . . .
So that he left him with Germanus in the South, in the Southern
of Letha.
In the Isles of the Tyrrhene Sea, he fasted in them, as one estimates. He read the Canon with Germanus, this is what writings narrate."
part
And it says that he was sixty years in Ireland.
There is a vagueness in this, and an appeal to records, which could .not have been the case had the Hymn been composed by Fiacc.
D. Tirechan made a collection of Notes on the Life of the Saint, from the dictation, or copied from a book (ex ore vel libro), of his tutor, Bishop Ultan of Ardbraccan, who died in 657. As he mentions the recent plague of 664-8, it must have been composed after that. He had before him a lost work, entitled Commemoratio Laborum, ascribed to Patrick himself. He gives two versions of the Chronology of Patrick's Life. In the first he says that after his escape from captivity Patrick wandered during seven years, then spent thirty years in one of the islands called Aralensis, and that he died in 436. The Isle Aralensis must be Lerins in the archdiocese of Aries ; or, Aralensis may be a corruption of Lerinsis.
In the second account he says that Patrick, after his escape, studied for thirty years, and taught for seventy-two, and died at the age of a hundred and twenty. He says nothing about study under Germanus, nor of a mission from Celestine till at the end of his account after he has mentioned his death, and to that is tacked on a passage apparently by another hand, in which the mission of Palladius, " also called Patrick," is mentioned, and then is added, " Then is the second Patrick sent by the angel of God, named Victor ; and he is sent by Celestine, the pope."
E. Muirchu Maccu Machtheni wrote Memoirs of S. Patrick in obedi- ence to the command of Bishop Aed of Sletty, who died in 698 or 700. They are contained in the Book oj Armagh, but the first leaf is wanting. Greith spitefully suggested that the leaf had been purposely abstracted by Protestants, because it contained a record of the Roman Mission.1 However, a Brussels transcript has been discovered, and has been printed by the Jesuit Hogan in the Analecta Bollandiana ; - and it contains no mention of the mission from Rome ; but it does assert that Patrick studied with Germanus at Auxerre. " Transnavigato igitnr mari dextro Britannico, accepto itinere per Gallicas Alpes ad extremum, ut corde proposuerat, transcensurus, quendam sanctissimum episcopum
.Alsiodori civitate principem Germanum summum donuminrenit. Aput
1 Greith, Gcschichte der al'irische Kirchc und ihrc Vcrbindung mil Rome, ^Freiburg, 1867. '-' Analecta Boll., i, pp. 549 ct scq.
64 Lives of the British Saints
quern non parvo tempore demoratus." Germanus sends Patrick with Segetius to Rome, and on their way they hear in Ebmoria of the death of Palladius from Augustine and Benedict, who had been his com- panions ; and then " declinaverunt iter ad quendam mirabilem hominum,, summum Episcopum, Amatorege nomine in propinquo loco habitantem , ibique Sanctus Patricius . . . episcopalem gradum ab Amatorege sancto Episcopo accepit. Etiam Auxiliiis Iserninusque et cceteri inferior i& gradus eodem die quo Sanctus Patricius ordinati sunt." Thence with- out going to Rome, Patrick starts for Britain. Amatorege, it may be remarked, is from the Irish Amatorig. Ainmire, as Amator would be rendered in Irish, becomes in Dative and Accusative Ainmirig.
F. To Tirechan's Collection is a sort of Appendix, partly in Latin and partly in Irish, containing notes on the missionary labours of disciples of Patrick. Who wrote these, and when they were written, we do not know. One of these is to this effect : " Patrick and Iser- ninus, that is Bishop Fith, were with Germanus in the city of Olsiodra (Auxerre). But Germanus said to Iserninus that he should go into Ireland to preach. And he was ready to obey to whatever part he should be sent, except to Ireland. Germanus said to Patrick, ' And thou, wilt thou be obedient ? ' Patrick said, ' Be it so if thou wishest.' Germanus said : ' This shall be between you, and Iserninus will not be able to avoid going into Ireland/ '
G. The scholiast on Fiacc's Hymn, who wrote in the eleventh century, says : " When S. Patrick had received the angelic vision calling him to go to Ireland, he applied to Germanus for advice. S. Germanus said to him, ' Go to the successor of S. Peter, namely, Celestine, that he may ordain thee, for this office belongs to him.' Patrick therefore went to him, but Celestine gave him no honour, because he had already sent Palladius to Ireland." After this repulse, Patrick went to the islands of the Tyrrhene Sea, that is to say, to Lerins. Then, after a hiatus in the MS., occur the words " Mount Arnon." Patrick thereupon returned to Germanus, who sent him a second time to the Pope, accompanied by Segetius, a priest. Celestine by this time was made aware of the failure and death of Palladius, and no longer raised difficulties. " Then was Patrick ordained in the presence of Celestine and Theodosius the Younger, King of the World. Amatorix, Bishop of Auxerre, was he who conferred orders on him (i.e. Patrick) ; and Celestine was, they say, only one week alive after ordaining Patrick." *
Here is a jumble of strange anachronisms. Only a year is allowed to elapse between the first visit to Celestine and the second, yet in the meantime Patrick had been to Mount Arnon.
1 Scholiast in Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii, p. 421.
S. Patrick 6 5
Celestine died in July, 432. Abater, Bishop of Auxerre, in 418,, and was succeeded by Germanus. Celestine had not ascended the papal chair before 422. Theodosius never was in Rome, as far as we know, and he certainly was not there in 432. He was only Emperor of the West as well as the East, as we have seen, between 423 and 425.
Next, the scholiast informs us that Patrick received the sanction of Sixtus, and departed with the relics of SS. Peter and Paul. This last paragraph is taken from the story of Palladius.
H . Another version of the story is given in the Vita Tertia l printed by Colgan.
In this we are told that Patrick, after passing four years with S. Martin at Tours, spent nine more in an island called Tamarensis, to which Martin had sent him. Then Patrick went to Rome, being ad- vised thereto by Germanus, who sent with him Segetius as witness to- his good character. On his way to Rome Patrick turned aside, de- clinavit iter, to a certain Bishop Amator, who consecrated him bishop. He was well received by Celestine. Leaving Rome he went to Mount Arnon, a rock in the Tyrrhene Sea, in the city Capua. Whilst there, the news of the death of Palladius arrived, and Patrick received his commission from Celestine.
/. The tale in Colgan 's Vita Quarta is this, which closely resembles lis Vita Secunda : Patrick was with Germanus, who sent him to Rome rith Segetius, but did not obtain consecration because Palladius had been already commissioned. Patrick crossed the Tyrrhene Sea and well received by Celestine, who sent him to Ireland be/ore he had heard of the result of the mission of Palladius. On his way back to Auxerre, Patrick met Augustine and Benedict, in the city Euboria, informed him of the failure of the mission. Then Patrick went to Bishop Amatorex, and from him received consecration.
K. .The amplified Nennius of 858 2 contains insertions from an Irish mrce. Among these is this : " Audita morte Palladii episcopi, alius legatus Patricius . . . a Celestino papa Romano . . . monente et suadente Sancto Germano episcopo, ad Scottos in fidem Christi conver- endos mittitur. Misit Germanus seniorem cum illo ad quemdam homi- nem mirabilem, summum episcopum Amatheum regem in propinquo habitantem. Ibi sanctus . . . episcopalem gradum Amatheo rege ipiscopus sanctus accepit. Et nomen quod est Patricius sumpsit, quia
ius MAUN vocabatur."
L. The Fifth Life given by Colgan is that by Probus, lecturer in the
1 Colgan, Trias Thaumaturga, Louvain, 1647.
2 Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, Berlin, 1893 ; Stokes, Tripartite Lift, i,. . cxvii.
VOL. IV. F
66 Lives of the British Saints
school of Slane, who was, says Colgan, burned in the tower of that place by the Danes in 950. It is addressed to Paulinus, Bishop and Abbot of Indedhnen, near Slane, who died in 920.
According to Probus, after spending four years with S. Martin, Patrick goes to hermits in the desert, and is with them eight years. Then he goes to an island where he remains nine years. After that he visits Senior, a Bishop dwelling on Mount Hermon, on the south side of the Ocean, in a city fortified with seven walls. By him he is ordained priest, and is sent to Rome. On his way thither he visits Germanus, who despatches the priest, Segetius, with him to the pope. But meet- ing with Augustine and Benedict at Euboria, and hearing of the death of Palladius, he goes out of his way to a bishop, Amator, and by him is consecrated Bishop. Then at once Patrick proceeds to Ireland.
This narrative is followed by two conflicting stories. One is that he did not go to Rome at all ; the other is, that he did go, and returned with the Apostolic benediction.
M. Joscelyn, Monk of Furness, wrote a Life of S. Patrick about the year 1185. He was an indefatigable collector of material, which he pieced together as best he might. This is Vita, Sexto, in Colgan. He represents Patrick as placing himself under the tuition of S. Germanus, and after that of S. Martin. But Martin was ordered by an angel to go to the island of Tamarensis, whereupon Patrick returned to Germanus, who sent him to Rome with Segetius. On his way he stopped in an island of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Then he proceeded to Rome, where he was consecrated by Celestine himself, and despatched to Ireland. But, before leaving, he resided for awhile on Mount Morion, near the Tyrrhene Sea, by the city of Capua.
N. The Tripartite Life was written the end of the tenth or early in the eleventh century, after 936 or 945, as it mentions Joseph, Arch- bishop of Armagh, who died on one or other of these dates ; it is uncer- tain which. It is, accordingly, earlier than the Compilation of Joscelyn, but is printed by Colgan as Vita Septima. This has been edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes for the Rolls Series.
According to the Tripartite Lije, Patrick resolves on going to Rome ; he crosses the Iccian Sea (the English Channel), and traverses France (venerit in Franciam) ; crosses the Alps into Italy, where he meets Germanus, and studies with him in Italy. Then he goes to Tours to S. Martin. Then ensues a curious disjointed paragraph : " Auxerre was the name of a city of which Germanus was the illustrious bishop. Aralanensis was the island called, in which S. Patrick studied with him. He was thirty years old when he came to Germanus, and he remained with him thirty years more." After that, he went lo Ireland. " At a
S. Patrick 6 7
certain time when Patrick was in the Tyrrhene Sea, he came to a place where there were three other Patricks."
When aged sixty, Germanus sent Patrick to Rome, with Segetius as his companion. He was well received, and Celestine, having heard of the death of Palladius, consecrated him bishop with his own hands in the presence of Germanus and Amatus, King of the Romans.
One naturally asks why Germanus sent Segetius with Patrick, if he himself was to be in Rome. The blundering compiler, to escape the conclusion that Patrick was ordained by Bishop Amator or Amatorex, converts the latter into Amator Rex Romanorum.
0. In the Betha Patraic, in the Book oj Lismore, an Irish homily on the Life of the Saint, the order is much that of the Tripartite Life, but Patrick has a priest Egidius sent with him, and he is consecrated by Celestine in the presence of Matha, King of the Romans. l The homily in the Lebar Brecc is mainly a summary from the Tripartite Life.
" On comparing these narratives," says Dr. Todd, " no unprejudiced mind can doubt that the writers of these collections allowed themselves the utmost licence in dealing with their authorities." But they had authorities, and the difficulty that was theirs, and which they solved variously, was how to weave into one narratives belonging to three different personages. They were all actuated by one predominant purpose. By hook or by crook Patrick must be made to receive his commission from Rome, and as Palladius, also called Patricius, had done that, the reception of a commission from Celestine was duplicated and made to refer also to Patrick MacCalpurn.
What were the materials that had to be dove-tailed together ?
a. They possessed a lost Life of Palladius, and they made some use
of that.
18. They had the Confession of Patrick MacCalpurn. y. Also a text relative to a Patrick who had been with S. Martin of Tours. Now Martin's death is variously set down as occurring in 397, 402, 403, or 412. The date cannot be accurately determined, but 397 is that which finds most favour. If any Patrick was with Martin, it must have been Patrick Magonius. <5. Also a record of a Patrick who was for a while in Lerins. e. As well a statement that a Patrick was with Germanus ; and Nennius says that the Patrick who was with Germanus was Maun, i.e. Magonius.
<^. Also that Patrick was ordained bishop by Amator, who preceded Germanus in the See of Auxerre, and died in 418.
1 Stokes, Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore, Oxford, 1890.
68 Lives of the British Saints
>). There was as well some record or legend of Patrick having been in Capua. But what the Mount Arnon there was it is idle to inquire.
One source of error may at once be pointed out. Letha, Letavia, Llydaw was Armorica. The scholiast on the Hymn of Fiacc misunder- stood this and converted Letha into Latium. Now, as we have shown in the article on Germanus, Bishop of Man, that Saint, kinsman of Patrick MacCalpurn, and uncle of Patrick MacSannan, was of Letha ; and the compilers may have confused one Germanus with the other, and Patrick MacSannan, pupil of the Armorican Germanus, with Patrick MacCalpurn, and also with Patrick Magonius.
We judge that the compilers had four documents at least, which they laid under contribution to piece into one. A. A lost Life or Notice of Palladius. B. A lost Life of Patrick Magonius. C. The Writings, notably the Confession of Patrick MacCalpurn. D. Possibly a Life of Patrick MacSannan, disciple of Germanus, Bishop of Man ; the Life of this latter is, in part, preserved in Nennius' History of the Britons. He was confounded with Germanus of Auxerre.
The conclusions we are inclined to draw may be thus summed up :
1. That Palladius alone was commissioned by Celestine in 431, and
that "he failed, and died in 432.
2. That there was a Patrick working in Ireland at some time
between 432 and the arrival of Patrick MacCalpurn, probably in 455-
3. That this is the Sen Patrick of the Irish, and that he was also the
Padrig ab Mawon of the Welsh, bom in~GowefT7
4. That this Patrick Magonius may have been with S. Martin of
Tours before the death of the latter, variously given as 397 or as late as 412.
5. That, quitting Martin, he went to Lerins.
6. That he was consecrated by Amator, predecessor of Germanus
in the See of Auxerre, before 418.
7. That he became first head of the College of Caerworgorn, in or
about 425.
8. On the destruction of Caerworgorn, he went to Gaul, and visited
Auxerre to take counsel with Germanus, whom as a priest he had known, but who was now bishop.
9. That Germanus advised him to go to Ireland, news having arrived
of the failure of Palladius, and that he sent him to Rome with Segetius as witness to his orthodoxy and character. 10. That Patrick Magonius went to Rome, where he received com- mission from Sextus III, who had just mounted the throne of
Patrick 69
S. Peter, July, 432. (See the Scholiast on the Hymn of Fiacc.)
11. That he went thence direct to Ireland, in the same year, and
laboured there.
12. That Patrick MacCalpurn, having arrived in Ireland, about the
year 455, he gave advice to this Patrick. This latter is repre- sented as the daltha or pupil of Sen Patrick.
13. That Patrick Magonius died in 460, or thereabouts.
14. That Patrick MacCalpurn laboured till 493, when he also died.
15. That in attempting to fuse these Lives together, the Compilers
were met with the difficulty of the length of time between the supposed commission by Celestine and the death in 493, and solved it by making Patrick attain to the years of Moses, 120 years.
How much of the story of Patrick MacSannan may have coloured and confused the narrative, it is impossible to say.
It will be advisable to conclude this notice with a few words relative to this Patrick MacSannan.
Our authorities are of no good quality, but they serve to show that a tradition existed relative to such a person.
He is reported to have been a son of the deacon Sannan, a reputed brother of Patrick MacCalpurn. Joscelyn, in speaking of S. Lomman, says : " Sanctus Patricius filiolus ejus, qui post decessum patrui sui Britanniamremeansinjatadecessit ; et inGlasconensiecclesid sepultus est honorifice." l The term filiolus ejus may mean no more than that the younger Patrick was pupil, and spiritual child of Lomman. And Glasconensi ecclesid is a mistake for Glastonbury. Oengus says that it was by some held that Sen Patrick was buried at Glastonbury.
There was a Padenabera, by Glastonbury, named in Domesday, now Pamboro', insula vinifera, and always included in the home possessions of the Church of Glastonbury. No tradition attaches Padarn to that celebrated monastery, but one did hold that a Patrick was there, and the bones of this Patrick were among its most treasured relics.2 This may, however, have been a later Patrick still. An interpolator of Malmesbury's Chronicle relates that he discharged episcopal duties about the year 850 ; and Higden of Chester says that the Abbot Patrick flourished at Glastonbury in the middle of the ninth century. This, more probably, is the Patrick whom the monks of Glastonbury fraudu- lently attempted to pass off as the Apostle of Ireland.
Patrick MacSannan was probably born in Armorica, whither the
1 Colgan, Trias Thaumat., p. 166.
2 Ussher, Antiq. Eccl. Brit., 1639, ii, pp. 893-6.
jo Lives of the British Saints
family of Calpurnius had fled, if any reliance can be placed in the pre- face to the Hymn of Secundinus (B) . But this, according to Dr. Whitley Stokes, is not earlier than the eleventh or twelfth century. " Thus it happened, namely, that the seven sons of Sechtmaide, King of the Britons, were in exile, and they ravaged Armorica. A party of Britons of Ailcluaide chanced to meet them in Armorica. Calpurn, son of Fotaid (Potitus), Patrick's father, was killed there, and then Patrick was captured, and his two sisters there." 1 This was Patrick MacCal- purn, but we cannot admit that he was captured in Letavia. Patrick Junior became the disciple of Germanus the Armorican, his uncle, son of Restitutus of the Hy Baird, and went with him to Paris. When S. Patrick MacCalpurn went to Britain to collect missionaries Germanus probably left Paris, taking with him the younger Patrick, and trans- ferred him to Patrick MacCalpurn, who delivered him to Lomman to be trained.2
In the Vita Tertia, in Joscelyn, and in the copy of the Tripartite Life used by Ussher,3 it is said that Patrick spent some years in the insula Tamarensis. This has been conjectured to be the Island of S. Nicolas off the mouth of the Tamar ; and it is noteworthy that S. German's is on a creek of the same river, near by. The Third Life was derived from a Cornish or British text, probably preserved at Glastonbury. If a Patrick was in this isle of the Tamar it must have been Patrick Mac- Sannan, as there is reason to suppose that the Cornish church of S. German's was founded not by Germanus of Au.xerre, but by Germanus the Armorican. Moreover, there is foisted into the Life of S. Patrick, the strange story of his being in Mount Arnon in Capua, in the South'of Italy. Caprae is probably meant, and the Armorican Germanus was, according to his legend, some time in the South of Italy.
These curious notices of the Isle of Tamara, and of Caprae (Capua) cannot be mere invention. They were found somewhere, in a Life of a Patrick, though not in that of Patrick Magonius, or of Patrick Mac- Calpurn, and we may suspect that they were grafted into the text of the compilations from a Life, now lost, of Patrick MacSannan.
If our suggestion be not accepted, and the earlier date be given to Patrick MacCalpurn, then his chronology, to which we cannot con- sent, is as follows, according to Professor Bury : —
He was born in the year 389, and was taken captive in 405. He escaped from captivity in 411-2, and went to Lerins in 412. In Lerinshe remained t\\o or three years only, to 414 or 415. Then he proceeded
1 Liber- Hymnorum, ii, p. 3.
2 See under S. BRIOC and S. GERMANUS B. of MAN.
3 Ussher, op. cit., ii, p. 83;.
S. PATRICK.
From Stained Glass at S. Neot, Cornwall,
S. Patrick 7 i
to Auxerre in 415 or 416, and was ordained Deacon by Bishop Amator between 416 and 418. Professor Bury thinks that his ordination to deacon's orders has been mistaken by his biographers for his conse- cration to be Bishop many years later. Germanus succeeded Amator in 418, and Patrick remained at Auxerre till 432, when Germanus con- secrated him Bishop. This is against all evidence.
Germanus at once sent him to Ireland. He left Ireland and visited Rome in 441-3, when Leo the Great was Pope. Of this no hint is given by any of his biographers. He returned to Ireland and founded Armagh in 444. He wrote his Letter to Coroticus and his Confession in advanced age, and died in 461.
S. Patrick is found in almost all Western Martyrologies and Calendars on March 17. Sen Patrick, whom we identify with Patrick Magonius, occurs, as already stated, in Irish Martyrologies on August 24, so also is a Patrick ostiarius, who had been abbot of Armagh, and who was laid there " in a stone grave."
The dedications to S. Patrick in Wales have been very few, and con- fined to Pembrokeshire. They were of chapels, which are now extinct. Capel Padrig at S. David's, already mentioned ; Capel Padrig, in Nevern ; and Paterchurch, or Patrickchurch, in Monkton. Pencarreg, in Carmarthenshire, is doubtful, whether to him or to S. Padarn. Sarn Badrig (Patrick's Causeway), off the Merionethshire coast, stretches into the sea for over 20 miles, about nine of which are dry at low tide. It is a natural formation. No legend has been preserved to account for the name. There is a Ffynnon Badrig, as well as a Bron Badrig, in Llan- bedr, below Harlech ; and another Ffynnon Badrig in a field by Govilon Station, near Abergavenny. It is enclosed, and supplies most of the villagers with water.
The references to him in mediaeval Welsh literature are not as numer- ous as might be expected. One sixteenth century poet, Hywel Eur- drem, wrote an awdl to him (e.g., in Additional MS. 14, 971), and another alludes to the Staff of Jesus (Bachall Isu),1 fabled to have been given him by our Lord, or by a certain solitary on an island in the Tyrrhene Sea. Gwas Padrig (Anglicized Cospatrick), his tonsured servant, or devotee, occasionally occurs as a personal name. leuan Gwas Padrig was the original patron of Cerrig y Drudion.
1 " Ffon a ddanfones lesu I Badrig, da fenthyg fu."
72 Lives of the British Saints
S. PAULINUS, or PEULIN, Bishop, Confessor
IT is much to be regretted that no Life of this famous teacher of Saints has come down to us. As it is, there are but few particulars about him on record.
From the Life of S. David we learn that David, after he had received his earlier education at Yr Henllwyn, or the Old Bush, went on to the " Scribe Paulinus, a disciple of S. Germanus, a bishop, and in a certain island led a life agreeable to God, who taught him in three parts of reading, until he was a scribe." David remained with his instructor for a lengthened period, and a pretty story is told of him during those youthful years. His master became blind, and his eyes gave him great pain. He called his disciples to him one by one to look at them and bless them, but he derived no benefit. At last he called to David to come and look at them, but David replied, " Father, don't bid me to look at your eyes, for during the ten years that 1 have been under your instruction, I have not so much as once looked into your face." Paulinus was greatly moved by his modesty, and bade him stretch forth his hand, for then, said he, " I shall be quite well." No sooner had David touched his eyes than his sight was restored, and Paulinus blessed him " with all the blessings that are written in the Old and New Testament." x It is most probable that Paulinus had succeeded Maucan as head of Ty Gwyn.
In the Life of S. Teilo 2 Paulinus is introduced as a great religious teacher, and he had Teilo and David as contemporary disciples, but it is not stated where.
He was alive at the time of the Synod of Brefi, held probably in 545, and he was the aged bishop who advised the assembly to send for his old pupil David.3
Paulinus is the patron of Llangors, in Breconshire. In the Taxatio -of 1291 the Church is given under the translated name Ecclesia de Mara, and in the Cartulary of Brecon Priory as the Church of S. Paulinus de Lancors and of S. Peulinus de Mara.4 In the parish-list in Peniarth MS. 147 (c. 1566) it is Llangors Peylyn Sant.5 There was in the modern parish of Ystradffin (S. Barnabas), formerly a chapelry in Llanfair-ar- y-bryn, Carmarthenshire, a chapel at Rhandirmwyn dedicated to him,
1 Cambro-British Saints, pp. 122-3. In the Welsh Life, ibid., p. 104, Paulinus is said to have been " disciple to a holy bishop in Rome." In Giraldus's Vita, Opera, iii, p. 384, he is " Germani discipulus."
2 Book of Llan Ddv, p. 99, where he is called Poulinus.
3 Cambro-British Saints, pp. no, 137.
4 Arch. Camb., 1883, pp. 44-5, 144-54.
* J. G. Evans, Report on Welsh MSS., i, p. 918.
S. Paulinus
73
known as Capel Peulin,1 and the present chapel-of-ease there is re- dedicated to him. A tablet in the porch states that the chapel was originally founded in 1117, and rebuilt in 1821. It is situated not very far from Llanddewi Brefi.
A stone found long ago in a field called Pant-y-polion, near Maes Llanwrthwl, in the parish of Caio (a little further south again from the scene of the Synod), and now removed for preservation to Dolau Cothi, bears a remarkable epitaph, cut in debased Latin capitals, and couched in two rugged hexameters : —
SERVATVR
PATRIEQUC SEMPER
AMATOR HIC PAVLIN
VS IACIT CVLTOR PIENTI
SIMVS
" Guard of the Faith, and Lover of his Land, Liegeman of Justice, here Paulinus lies." 3
The stone being found not far distant from both Llanddewi Brefi and Capel Peulin, leaves very little doubt that it was intended to com- memorate S. Paulinus, and records his traditional virtues. His festival occurs in the Demetian Calendar (S) only, where, in the copy in Cwrtmawr MS. 44, of the sixteenth century, it is entered on Novem- ber 22, as " Gwyl Polin, Escob."
The sixteenth and seventeenth century Glamorgan antiquaries of the lolo MSS., who next to Geoffrey of Monmouth, have done more than any one to pollute the " well undefiled " of Welsh history, have led modern Welsh writers entirely astray as to Paulinus, whom they •call Pawl.
They say, " Pawl, saint and bishop, of Cor Illtyd, was the son of Meurig ab Tewdrig. He founded a Cor where Ty Gwyn ar Daf is,
1 It is mentioned asCapella S. Paulini in an agreement of 1339 (Harleian MS. 1249) between Bishop Gower of S. David's and the Abbot of Strata Florida, to which abbey the chapel was then attached.
2 For the inscription, with observations thereon, see Sir J. Rhys, Origin of the Englyn, 1905, pp. 2-5 ; also Westwood, Lapidarium W allies, p. 79. The name Paulinus occurs in two other early inscriptions, one at Port Talbot (Arch. Camb., 1899, PP- 145-6), and the other at Llandyssilio, Pemb. (ibid., 1860, p. 54), but there is nothing to lead one to suppose that either refers to this saint. There is a Demetian commote or district called Pelunyawc, no doubt for Peuliniog, " the Land of Paulinus," probably the person commemorated in the Llandyssilio inscription. The district was situated in Cantref Gwarthaf, through which runs the boundary line between the counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen. With the name cf. Rhufon-iog, Anhun-iog, etc.
3 The late Archbishop Benson.
74 Lives of the British Saints
in Dyfed," x that is, the village of Whitland, in Carmarthenshire, but popularly called locally Hendy Gwyn. Again, " Fflewin and Gredifael, sons of Ithel Hael of Llydaw, were saints of Cor y Ty Gwyn ar Daf in Dyfed, where they were with Pawl, a saint of Cor Illtyd, superintending a Bangor," which, it is said further on, was founded by the same trio.2
They fell into error through the fact that the Carmarthenshire Ty Gwyn and Whitland were matched by the Ty Gwyn and (through the mistake of copyists of a couple of centuries earlier) the Whitland that were associated with Paulinus.
Rhygyfarch merely says that the place where David went to Paulinus was " in insula quadam." Giraldus calls it " Vecta Insula," 3 the Isle of Wight ! The Welsh Life mentions no place. That it was Whit- land is based on fourteenth and fifteenth century MSS. of the Life of S. David, which describe Paulinus as residing " in insula Withlandi." 4 These, however, do not state that it was on the Tdf. As a matter of fact there is no proof whatever that there was a monastery of any sort at Whitland prior to the Cistercian abbey founded in the twelfth cen- tury. Ecclesiastically, Whitland is to-day the English alias of Eglwys Fair Glyn Taf.
The first mention that we have of Y Ty Gwyn ar Daf is in the Laws of Hywel Dda ; but the preambles to the Codes are conclusive evidence that there was no religious foundation of the name there in the first half of the tenth century. In the preamble to the Demetian Code it is said that Hywel " ordered that house (' Y Ty Gwynn arTaf yn Dyuet ') to be constructed of white rods, as a lodge for him in hunting, when he came to Dyfed; and on that account it was called Y Ty Gwyn."5 So the name, as well as the monastic foundation there, are later than Paulinus and David by some centuries.
The statement that this Pawl-Paulinus was the son of Meurig ab Tewdrig, King of Glamorgan, is impossible, as that King was contem- porary with S. Oudoceus, by whom he was excommunicated.
Later writers still have identified Paulinus with Pawl Hen of Manaw — no_doubt the Manaw on the Firth of Forth — who was father of the Anglesey saints, Peulan, Gwyngeneu, and Gwenfaen, but he is nowhere entered as a saint in the saintly genealogies. The equation of Pawl Hen with Paulinus is, it need hardly be said to-day, a philological impossi- bility. Paulinus could only yield now Peulin, and the Pevl Hen of the
1 lolo MSS., p. 139. With Pawl or Paul for Paulinus, cf. Sadwrn of Llan- sadwrn (Anglesey) and the Saturninus of the inscribed stone there.
2 Ibid., pp. 112, 114. 3 Opera, iii, p. 384.
4 ii, pp. 293-4. See Mr. Phillimore's note in Owen's Pembrokeshire, ii, pp. 425-6. 5 Ed. Aneurin Owen, folio, p. 164.
S. Paul us Aurelictnus
sixteenth century Peniarth MS. 75 (for Pawl Hen) would appear in present-day Welsh as Paul Hen, that is, Paul the Aged.
In the Achau'r Saint in Cardiff MS. 5 (1527), p. 120, is entered a mysterious " Pawl vab pawlpolinvs." *
S. PAULUS AURELIANUS, Bishop, Confessor
THE Life of S. Paul of Leon by Wormonoc was written in 884. The author was a disciple of Wrdestan, abbot of Landevenec, and he dedi- cated his work to Hinworet, Bishop of Leon. This Life exists in a MS. of the twelfth century in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (MS. Lai. 16942) ; also in a MS. of the same century in the same collection (17004) ; and there are copies of it of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. These have been collated and published by Dom Plaine in Analecta Bollandiana, 1882, i, pp. 208-58.
M. Charles Cuissard has contributed different readings from a Fleury Codex : Revue Celtique, 1883, v, pp. 417-58.
These publications are a great boon, as the Life printed in the Ada SS. Boll., March, ii, pp. 111-20, was unsatisfactory. A Life in Du Bosc, Bibl. Floriac., was a summary from the Life by Wormonoc made by a monk of Fleury in the twelfth century. Bibl. Floriac., Lugdun., 1605, pp. 418-28.
Wormonoc informs us that he based his work upon an earlier Life,2 and what he adds is oratorical flourish, with which we could well^ dis- pense.
Further information relative to S. Paul is obtainable from the Lives of S. Tangu}^ and S. Joevin. But these are late. For S. Tanguy we have only Albert le Grand, and for S. Joevin, the Breviary Lessons for his feast, in the Church of Leon, Acta SS. Boll., March, i, p. 138, and a Life by Albert le Grand.
We have likewise the Life of S. Goulven, written in the thirteenth century, but based on earlier material. It has been published by De la Borderie, Rennes, 1892.
Paul is also mentioned in the Life of Gildas by the Monk of Rhuis. Paulus Aurelianus was born in Penohen (Penychen,a cantref of South-
1 In Cambro-British Saints, p. 270, it is printed " Pawl vab Pawlpolins," and correctly as in the MS. from which the copy is taken.
2 " Cujus gesta, quamvis nostro lucidius quam lit ante primitus veteri con- structione depicta sunt, aucta videantur floruisse labore, hsec tamen quicumque veterum chartis rcscribere velit, prohibere non videbor; " c. 2.
7 6 Lives of the British Saints
east Glamorgan) about the year 480. He was the son of a Romanized Briton of high dignity. * He had eight brothers, of whom two only are named, Notolius and Potolius, and three sisters who are numbered among the Saints. 2 The name of one sister only is given by Wor- monoc. It is Sitovolia, in whom we may be justified in recognizing Sativola, well known in the ancient diocese of Exeter. From the Legend of another sister, Jutwara, we ascertain that the third of the holy sisters was Wulvella. Eadwara is also mentioned, but this name is a reduplication of Jutwara (Aod Wyr, Acd the Virgin). These names have been Anglicized and Latinized almost past recognition in their original form.
The name of the father was Porpius (or Perpius) Aurelianus. He was a count, and, as we learn from the Life of S. Jutwara, was twice mar- ried, the second time to a woman who hated her step-daughters, and worked them much evil.
Wormonoc tells us that the family lived in a district called Brehant in the British tongue, in Latin " Guttur receptaculum pugnse." This is the Welsh .Breuant, " the Windpipe ; " and it is the eighth wonder of Britain mentioned by Nennius — " a cave in the region of Gwent, having wind constantly blowing out of it." 3 Clement of Alexandria had already said something about this cave. " The compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain there is a cave situated under a moun- tain, and a chasm on its summit ; and that, accordingly, when the wind falls into the cave and rushes into the bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals clashing musically. And after, when the wind is in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a sudden gust of wind, a sound is emitted like the song of birds." 4
Giraldus describes a remarkable cave in Barry Island, but in it the clash of the waves rolling in sounds like smiths at work in the bowels of the earth.5
Against his father's wishes, at a very early age, Paul went to S. Illtyd, and was placed by him at Ynys Pyr or Caldey Isle.6 Such voca-
1 " Paulus, cognomento Aurelianus, cujusdam Comitis, nomine Perphii, viri secundum seculi dignitatem excellentissimi films; " c. 4.
2 " Tresque sorores sanctae formam Trinitatis, tria sapientiaj sive divine sive humanae genera regentis assimilantes, legimus habuisse; " c. 4.
3 " In regione quae vocatur Gwent est ibi fovea, a qua ventus inflat per omne tempus sine intermissione, et quando non flat ventus in tempore aestatis, de ilia fovea incessanter flat, ut nemo possit sustinere neque ante foveae profunditatem ; et vocatur nomenej us VithGuint Brittanico sermone, Latine vero Flatio Venti ; " ed. Mommsen, p. 215.
4 Clem. Alex. Stromata, vi, 3. 5 I tin. Camb., i, c. 6.
6 " Erat quaedam insula Pyrus nomine, Demetiarum patriae in finibus sita, in qua et Iltutus; " c. 6.
S. Paulus Aurelianus 77
tions whilst still young were not uncommon. Gregory of Tours tells the story of a boy of twelve who desired to become a recluse, after having been placed in the service of a merchant. He persisted in his resolve, in spite of his master's opposition, and he was at length granted a cell in a vaulted crypt, in which he lived for eight years and then went mad, and broke down the wall that enclosed him. He never recovered his senses.1
In Ynys Pyr Paul,made the acquaintance of Saints David, Samson, and Gildas. He and they were afterwards removed to Llantwit, where they were employed by Illtyd in banking out the Severn, so as to reclaim tracts of rich alluvial soil. They were also set to scare away the birds, when the com was in the ground. The boys amused themselves with netting the wild fowl and turning them into the barn, and then they conducted the abbot into it, to show him the place full of their captures. This is worked up in the story into a miracle, and is attributed alike to Samson, Paul, and Gildas. It was a boyish prank in which all shared.
At the age of sixteen Paul was weary of being set to scare the wild birds, and of toiling at dyke-making, and he with twelve other rebels ran away, and set up wattled cells, and built an oratory on the confines of his father's land.
They were clearly playing at being saints ; but play became serious, at least with Paul, who stuck to his solitude, and remained there a good many years, and in course of time was ordained priest, by whom we are not informed, but it wa . probably by Dubricius. He lived in great sanctity, drinking only water, eating nothing but fish and vege- tables, and clothing himself in skins.
He at last wearied of his life in Gwent, and went off with a number of companions