People with an interest in Welsh history and culture can focus on many aspects, but for some, the various Welsh saints hold a particular fascination. St David is unique among British saints in actually being native to the nation he is patron of, while St Dwynwen holds an equivalent status to St Valentine elsewhere.
With September almost upon us, there is another name one might want to have engraved on a Welsh love spoon: Cadoc, the patron saint of those suffering from famine. His saint’s day falls on September 25th.
As Orthochristian notes, there are differing accounts of Cadoc’s life and some of them are known to be rather more accurate than others. But what is known for sure is that he was an abbott based in present-day Glamorgan who lived from around 497 to 580. He founded the Monastery of Llancarfan in around 518.
The monastery is said to have had as many as 1,000 monks living in it at a time and it became a great area of learning, turning a previously uninhabited landscape into a thriving, affluent part of Wales.
This was part of a ministry that saw Cadoc act as a prolific planter of churches in Wales and beyond. There are 15 bearing his name in Wales as well as a chapel in Cornwall, while another monastery was founded in Llantwit Major. There is also a St Cadoc’s Hospital in Caerleon near Newport.
Cadoc is also said to have studied in Ireland and Brittany and made a pilgrimage to Rome. The nature of his death is disputed, however; some said he died a natural death in Wales, others that he went to England to support persecuted Christians at a time of frequent pagan invasions and was martyred by one of them in what is now Northamptonshire.
Among the churches that bear St Cadoc’s name is the one at Llancarfan on the old monastery site, where a notable find of medieval paintings was found during renovations in 2010. They had been concealed under 21 layers of limewash since the reformation.
By learning about saints like Cadoc, it is possible to similarly uncover some lesser-known but significant parts of Welsh history.
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