Saint Afan
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Saint Afan
Afan of Builth (; ) was an early 6th-century Welsh bishop, martyr, and saint. His feast day is generally placed on 17 November, although the Demetian Calendar formerly used in southern Wales placed it on the 16th; it is no longer observed by either the Anglican or Catholic church in Wales. Name Afan as a man's name in Wales is probably a loan from the Latin ''Amandus''. In Welsh, he is sometimes known as ' ("Bishop Afan") from his title and as ' or ' from his diocese around Builth in Brycheiniog. Life Afan was the son of Cedig ap Ceredig, son of Cunedda Wledig, king of Gwynedd. Through this line, he was a cousin of David, patron saint of Wales. Afan's mother is variously given as Dwywai, Degfed ("Tenth"), Tegfedd, or Tegwedd, all said to have been daughters of Tegid the Bald, a lord of Penllyn in Meirionnydd who was the husband of the sorceress Ceridwen in Welsh legend. Afan was the founder of a Llanafan in Ceredigion and two others (Llanafan Fawr and Llanafan Fechan) in ...
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Saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denomination. In Anglican Communion, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, and Lutheranism, Lutheran doctrine, all of their faithful deceased in Heaven are considered to be saints, but a selected few are considered worthy of greater honor or emulation. Official Ecclesiastical polity, ecclesiastical recognition, and veneration, is conferred on some denominational saints through the process of canonization in the Catholic Church or glorification in the Eastern Orthodox Church after their approval. In many Protestant denominations, and following from Pauline usage, ''saint'' refers broadly to any holy Christian, without special recognition or selection. While the English word ''saint'' ...
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Brycheiniog
Brycheiniog was an independent kingdom in South Wales in the Early Middle Ages. It often acted as a buffer state between England to the east and the south Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth to the west. It was conquered and pacified by the Normans between 1088 and 1095, though it remained Welsh in character. It was transformed into the Lordship of Brecknock and later formed the southern and larger part of the historic county of Brecknockshire. To its south was the Kingdom of Morgannwg. The main legacy of the kingdom of Brycheiniog is etymological and geographical. It is used in ''Bannau Brycheiniog'', the Welsh name for the Brecon Beacons range and, since 2023, in name used for the range's national park. Its name is also the origin to the anglicised names ''Brecknockshire'' (retained in Welsh as , ), and '' Brecon'' (otherwise known as in Welsh). History Origins The kingdom of Brycheiniog was probably founded by Irish raiders in the late fifth century, very likely the U ...
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Brecknockshire
Brecknockshire ( or ), also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon, was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was created in 1536 under the Laws in Wales Act 1535, and from 1889 it was an History of local government in Wales, administrative county with a county council; the administrative county was abolished in 1974. The county was named after the medieval Welsh territory of Brycheiniog, which was Anglicisation of names, anglicised to "Brecknock" and also gave its name to the county town of Brecon. The former county's area is mountainous and primarily rural. Geography Brecknockshire was bounded to the north by Radnorshire, to the east by Herefordshire and Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire, to the south by Monmouthshire and Glamorgan, and to the west by Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, Cardiganshire. The county is predominantly rural and mountainous. The B ...
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Llanfechan
Llanfechan is a small church settlement in the community of Treflys, consisting of a church and a farm, and the surrounding area, it is beside the A483 on the north side of the Irfon Valley near Cilmeri, about west of Builth Wells, Powys, Wales. Name The community was originally known as Llanafan Fechan ( Welsh for the "Lesser" ''fechan'' "Parish" '' llan'' of Saint Afan) to distinguish it from the larger one nearby, Llanafan Fawr. The settlement was referred to as ''Llanavon vechan'' in 1543. A third Llanafan also exists in Ceredigion, near the Trawsgoed Estate. The settlement The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–72) describes the settlement as follows: LLANAFAN-FECHAN, or LLANFECHAN, a parish in Builth district, Brecon; on the river Irvon ... Acres, 2,783. Real property, £927. Pop lation 163. Houses, 25. The surface is hilly, and the rocks include slate. Gwarafog, an ancient mansion, is now a farm-house. The living is a p rpetualcuracy, annexed to the vicara ...
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Ceredigion
Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Aberystwyth is the largest settlement and, together with Aberaeron, is an administrative centre of Ceredigion County Council. The county is the second most sparsely populated in Wales, with an area of and a population of 71,500; the latter is a decline of 4,492 since the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census. After Aberystwyth (15,935), the largest towns are Cardigan, Ceredigion, Cardigan (4,184) and Lampeter (2,970). Ceredigion is considered a centre of Culture of Wales, Welsh culture and 45.3% of the population could speak the Welsh language at the 2021 census. To the west, Ceredigion has of coastline on Cardigan Bay, which is traversed by the Ceredigion Coast Path. Its hinterland is hilly ...
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Welsh Mythology
Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celtic mythology and history were recorded orally by specialists such as druids (). This oral record has been lost or altered as a result of outside contact and invasion over the years. Much of this altered mythology and history is preserved in Medieval Welsh literature, medieval Welsh manuscripts, which include the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. Other works connected to Welsh mythology include the ninth-century Latin historical compilation ''Historia Brittonum'' ("History of the Britons") and Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelfth-century Latin chronicle ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("History of the Kings of Britain"), as well as later Welsh folklore, ...
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Ceridwen
Ceridwen or Cerridwen ( ''Ke-RID-wen'') was an enchantress in Welsh medieval legend. She was the mother of a hideous son, Morfran, and a beautiful daughter, Creirwy. Her husband was Tegid Foel and they lived near Bala Lake () in north Wales. Medieval Welsh poetry refers to her as possessing the cauldron of poetic inspiration (Awen) and the Tale of Taliesin recounts her swallowing her servant Gwion Bach who is then reborn through her as the poet Taliesin. Ceridwen is regarded by many modern pagans as the Celtic goddess of rebirth, transformation, and inspiration. Etymology Marged Haycock catalogues various forms of the name in the early texts, and in less detail in her edition of the Taliesin poems. These mainly occur in manuscripts which have been dated to the 13th century, though they may, of course, be using earlier forms or 13th century adaptations of earlier forms. ''The Black Book of Carmarthen'' gives ‘’. ''Peniarth 3'' gives ‘’, ''The Book of Taliesin'' va ...
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Meirionnydd
is a coastal and mountainous region of Wales. It has been a kingdom, a , a district and, as Merionethshire, a county. It is currently a committee area within the county Gwynedd. Kingdom (Meirion, with as a Welsh suffix of land, literally 'Land adjoined to Meirion') was a sub-kingdom of Gwynedd, founded according to legend by Meirion (derived from the Latin name ), a grandson of Cunedda, a warrior-prince who brought his family to Wales from the (the 'Old North', northern England and southern Scotland today), probably in the early 5th century. His dynasty seems to have ruled there for the next four hundred years. The kingdom lay between the River Mawddach and the River Dovey, spreading in a north-easterly direction. Cantref The ancient name of the was (or 'the of the Ordovices'). The familiar name coming from Meirion's kingdom. The of held the presumed boundaries of the previous kingdom but now as a fief of the Kingdom of Gwynedd where it continued to enjoy long spell ...
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Penllyn (cantref)
Penllyn (head of the lake i.e. Bala Lake or ) was a medieval cantref originally in the Kingdom of Powys but annexed to the Kingdom of Gwynedd. It consisted of the commotes () of Edeyrnion, Dinmael, and ( signifying 'below' and 'above' the River Tryweryn). On the north and west it bordered Gwynedd (the cantrefi of Tegeingl, Rhufoniog, Dunoding and Meirionydd); it bordered the Powys cantrefi of Maelor, Mochnant and Cyfeiliog on the east and south. After the death of Madog ap Maredudd, the last Prince of the whole of Powys, and his eldest son and heir in 1160, the kingdom was divided between his surviving sons Gruffydd Maelor, Owain Fychan and Owain Brogyntyn, his nephew Owain Cyfeiliog and his half-brother Iorwerth Goch. Penllyn was inherited by Owain Brogyntyn; Edeyrnion had been the home of his mother (who was not married to his father) and he may also have been raised there. The military skill and strength of Madog had prevented Gwynedd from asserting hegemony over ...
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Tegid Foel
Tegid Foel is the husband of Ceridwen in Welsh mythology. His name rendered into English would be "Tacitus the Bald". In folklore, Tegid Foel is associated with Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid) in Gwynedd and may have been the tutelary deity of that lake. Tegid Foel is known chiefly from the story of Taliesin's birth, first recorded in full in the 16th century but dating to a much earlier period. According to the story, he lived by Bala Lake in the region of Penllyn with his wife, the sorceress Ceridwen. Together they had two children, a beautiful daughter named Creirwy and a son Morfran, called Afagddu ("utter darkness") because of his dark skin and hideous looks. Tegid's name is mentioned several times in Welsh literature in the patronymic of his more famous son Mofran; it appears in the ''Mabinogion'' tales ''Culhwch and Olwen'' and ''The Dream of Rhonabwy'', and in Welsh Triads 24 and 41. Apart from Creirwy and Morfran the Welsh genealogies also name other children of Tegid. The ''Vita ...
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Patron Saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person. The term may be applied to individuals to whom similar roles are ascribed in other religions. In Christianity Saints often become the patrons of places where they were born or had been active. However, there were cases in medieval Europe where a city which grew to prominence obtained for its cathedral the remains or some relics of a famous saint who had lived and was buried elsewhere, thus making them the city's patron saint – such a practice conferred considerable prestige on the city concerned. In Latin America and the Philippines, Spanish and Portuguese explorers often named a location for the saint on whose feast or commemoration day they first visited the place, with that saint naturally becoming the area's patron ...
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Saint David
David (; ; ) was a Welsh Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Mynyw during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and tradition has preserved a relatively large amount of detail about his life. His birth date, however, is uncertain: suggestions range from 462 to 512. He is traditionally believed to be the son of Non and the grandson of Ceredig ap Cunedda, king of Ceredigion. The Welsh annals placed his death 569 years after the birth of Christ, but Phillimore's dating revised this to 601. Hagiography Many of the traditional tales about David are found in the ''Buchedd Dewi'' ("Life of David"), a hagiography written by Rhygyfarch around 1090. Rhygyfarch claimed it was based on documents found in the cathedral archives. Modern historians are sceptical of some of its claims: one of Rhygyfarch's aims was to establish some independence for the Welsh church, which had refused the Roman rite until the 8th century and now sought a ...
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