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
Mont.
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
Mer.
, 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
(q.v.)
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.
Bibliography:
-
The Lives of the British Saints
, ii, 1-9;
-
A History of Wales
, 490;
-
An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in
Wales and Monmouthshire. VI—County of Merioneth
. The
Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments, 1921
, 170-4;
-
Llsgr. Hendreg.Llawysgrif Hendregadredd (N.L.W. MS. 6680). Writers
refer to page numers in the manuscript itself and not to the
edition printed in 1933 by the University of Wales Press
Board. See also ,
1933
, 42-8.
Author:
Sir John Edward Lloyd, D.Litt., F.B.A., F.S.A. (1861-1947), Bangor
