CADFAN (fl. 550?), saint

According to tradition he was the son of Eneas the Breton and crossed from Brittany to Wales with a party of other monks, many of them his relatives who were intent upon missionary work. He is the patron of Llangadfan in Montgomeryshire and is credited with the foundation of the monastic settlement on Bardsey island. But his main achievement was the establishment of the 'clas' of Towyn in Meironnydd, which had an abbot as late as 1147 and was served by a group of clerics in 1291. Its wealth and privileges are celebrated about 1240 by Llywelyn Fardd in ' Canu i Gadfan,' and it was the mother church of all Meirionnydd south of the Dysynni.

The much discussed ' Stone of S. Cadfan,' despite its present name, bears no reference to the saint.

Author

• Sir John Edward Lloyd, (1861 - 1947)

Sources

• Baring-Gould and John Fisher, The Lives of the British Saints: the saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish saints as have dedications in Britain, ii, 1-9
• J. E. Lloyd, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (London 1911), 490
• An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire. VI-County of Merioneth (1921), 170-4
• NLW Archives: NLW MS 6680B: Llawysgrif Hendregadredd, 42-8

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: Saint Cadfan

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q581537

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/