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werk: The name of it formerly was, The dry vale, but after her death to this day it is called Saint Winefrids Well. The Stones likewise, both where the spring gushes forth, and beneath in the Current, having been sprinkled with her blood; retain the rednes to these times: which colour neither the length of so many ages, nor the continuall sliding of the water over them, have been able to wash away, and moreover a certain Mosse which sticks to the said stones, renders a fragrant odour, like Incense."*-The Legend proceeds to relate her interviews with Diheufyr, Sadwrn, and Eleri; and to say that she became abbess of a convent at "Witheriacus" (Gwytherin in the county of Denbigh,) where she died and was buried near the graves of the saints Cybi and Sannan. The eldest authority for this nonsensical fable is Robert, Prior of Shrewsbury, who says that the body of "Wenefreda" was translated from Gwytherin to the church of St. Ægidius at Shrewsbury in the reign of King Stephen.+ But it is remarkable that in the survey of Domesday Book, which includes the county of Flint, neither church, chapel, nor well of St. Winefred are mentioned, affording a presumption that the story and celebrity of the saint are of a later date than the Norman Conquest. Festival, Nov. 3.

Enghenel, grandson of Brochwel Ysgythrog; a saint to whom Llanenghenel under Llanfachraith, Anglesey, is dedicated.

Usteg, the son of Geraint ab Carannog, of the line of Cadell Deyrnllug, is said to have "officiated as dean of the college of Garmon.."§

* Cressy.

+ Leland, Vol. IV. Appendix.

This argument, the want of ancient testimony, did not shake the faith of Cressy, who says "It ought not to be esteemd a preiudice or ground of suspicion of the Truth of these Gests of Saint Winefride, that Saint Beda and some other of our ancient Saxon Historians have not mentioned her among the other Saints of this age;"-for no intercourse passed between the Britons and Saxons who were continually at war.

§ Cambrian Biography.

Eldad, a brother of Usteg, was a saint of the society of Illtyd, and afterwards bishop of Gloucester, where he was slain by the Saxons.

Another Eldad, the son of Arth ab Arthog Frych, and a descendant of Cynan Meiriadog, was a member of the college of Illtyd about the same time.

Egwad, a son of Cynddilig ab Cennydd ab Gildas; he was the founder of Llanegwad and Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire.

Edeyrn, the son of Nudd ab Beli ab Rhun ab Maelgwn Gwynedd, was a bard, who embraced a life of sanctity, and the chapel of Bodedeyrn under Holyhead is dedicated to him. Some pedigrees say that the father of Edeyrn was Beli, omitting Nudd. Festival, Jan. 6.

Padrig, the son of Alfryd ab Goronwy ab Gwdion ab Don; a saint of the monastery of Cybi at Holyhead, and the founder of Llanbadrig in Anglesey.

Idloes, the son of Gwyddnabi ab Llawfrodedd Farfog Coch; the founder of Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire.

Sadwrn, who is mentioned in the Legend of St. Winefred, is considered to be the patron saint of Henllan in the county of Denbigh, but his genealogy is not known.

Helig Foel, the son of Glanog ab Gwgan Gleddyf Rhudd ab Caradog Fraichfras, was the chieftain of a tract of low land on the coast of Carnarvonshire, called Tyno Helig; where a calamity similar to the reported submersion of Cantref y Gwaelod is said to have happened, and the lands overflowed form the present Lafan Sands in Beaumaris Bay. After the loss of his property Helig embraced a religious life, and has in consequence been classed among the saints, but no churches are dedicated to him. His grandfather was engaged in the in the battle of Bangor Iscoed, A. D. 607.

* Page 234.

SECTION XIV.

The Welsh Saints from the Death of Cadwallon A. D. 634 to the Death of Cadwaladr A. D. 664.

CADWALADR, whose reign is commensurate with this interval, was the son of Cadwallon, and was the last of the Welsh nation who assumed the title of chief sovereign of Britain.* His power, however, was narrowly circumscribed, and in the early part of his reign he must have held the situation of a dependent prince; for Oswald the Bernician, upon the conquest and death of Cadwallon, is said to have extended his government over all the Britons as well as the Saxons.† After a few years Penda the Mercian revolted, and Oswald was slain in battle; upon which occasion it would appear the Welsh recovered their independence, as it is not recorded that Oswy, who succeeded Oswald as Bretwalda or chief sovereign of the Saxons, exercised the same authority over the Britons. It is generally agreed that Cadwaladr was of a peaceable diposition; his life passed without any remarkable events; and the venerable historian of the Anglo-Saxons, who lived in the next generation, does not mention his name. In the year 664 a plague broke out, which spread desolation over Britain and Ireland, and in the latter country, where it lasted three years, is swept away two thirds of the inhabitants. In Britain its continuance was much shorter, but great numbers perished,|| and Cadwaladr was one of its victims.§

* "A Phrydein dan un paladyr

Goreu mab Kymro Katwalatyr."

Kyvoesi Myrdin: Myv. Arch. Vol. I. page 140.

Annals of Ulster.

+ Bede II. 5, and III. 6.

§ Nennius apud Gale.

|| Bede, III. 27.

The chronicles of Walter and Geoffrey terminate with the death of this prince and the appointment of his successor, but they terminate in a way worthy of their previous character; for having begun and continued a course of fable, which has too long usurped the place of history, they end in a blunder. According to them the plague lasted eleven years, and misplacing the age of Cadwaladr they assert that to avoid its ravages he retired to the court of Alan, the king of Armorica. He was hospitably received, and after a while was preparing to return, when an angel appeared, commanding him to relinquish his purpose and undertake a pilgrimage to Rome. Resigning his kingdom, therefore, in favour of Ifor, his son, he proceeded to Rome, where having been admitted among the saints by Pope Sergius, he died on the twelfth of May, 688.* Persons acquainted with the history of the AngloSaxons will immediately perceive that Walter and Geoffrey have confounded their hero with Ceadwalla the king of Wessex, who resigned his kingdom, and making a pilgrimage to Rome was baptized there by Pope Sergius, where he died on the twelfth of the calends of May, 688.+-The story is true as regards Ceadwalla, for it is related by Bede, who was his contemporary and who could not have mistaken a circumstance affecting the government of one of the most powerful of the Saxon states. Walter and Geoffrey were deceived by the sound of the name; and three other chroniclers in the Myvyrian Archaiology have followed in the wake of the error, by assigning the true history of Ina, the king of Wessex and successor of Ceadwalla, to Ifor, the supposed successor of Cadwaladr. A notion prevailed in the beginning of the tweleh

*Myv. Archaiology, Vol. II. page 388.

+ So in the Saxon Chronicle. Bede is more precise, and though he admits that Ceadwalla resigned his kingdom in 688, he says he did not reach Rome till the year following, when, after receiving baptism, he died on the day of the month above stated.

Vol. II. p. 470.

*

century, and is embodied in certain fictitious prophecies of Myrddin, that Cadwaladr should re-appear and expel the Saxons from the island, restoring the Cymry to their ancient possessions; but nothing is said of his visit to Rome or even to Armorica, and if the words of Nennius,† the oldest authority by whom he is noticed, be rightly interpreted, he must have died of the plague in his own country. He has had the credit of sanctity, an honour apparently of modern growth, and the epithet of "Bendigaid" or "Blessed" is frequently attached to his name. In the Triads he is called one of the three canonized kings of Britain. According to tradition he rebuilt the church of Eglwys Ael in Anglesey, where his grandfather, Cadfan, had been buried, and which after its restoration obtained the name of Llangadwaladr. He is deemed the patron saint of Llangadwaladr alias Bishopston, Monmouthshire, and of Llangadwaladr under Llanrhaiadr in Mochnant, Denbighshire, and his festival occurs on the ninth of October.

The inundation which formed the Lafan Sands, already alluded to,|| appears to have occurred in this generation, while Helig was still living; his sons, upon the loss of their patrimony, embraced a monastic life in the colleges of Bangor Deiniols and Bangor Enlli ;* their names were:

* Myvyrian Archaiology, Vol. I. p. 145.

"Verba ejus hæc sunt:-'Osquid (Oswy) filius Eldfrid (Ethelfrith) regnavit XXVIII annis et VI mensibus; dum ipse regnabat, venit mortalitas hominum, Catgualat (al. Catgualiter) regnante apud Britones post patrem suum, et in eâ periit.'-Si autem hæc verba in eâ periit,'-ad Cadwaladrum referenda sunt, omnia plana erunt. Oswius enim vixit

annius V (rectius VI) post A. D. DCLXV (rectius DCLXIV) in quo mortalitas illa accidit."-Æræ Cambrobritannica, accurante Mose Gulielmo, published at the end of Humphrey Llwyd's Britannica Descriptionis Commentariolum. London, 1731.

Alphabetical Calendar in Sir II. Nicolas's Chronology of History. | Page 298.

§ Bangor in Carnarvonshire. *The Monastery of Bardsey.

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