Derfel, known as Derfel Gadarn ('' darn'': "mighty, valiant, strong"), was a 6th-century

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

regarded as a

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 ...

. Local legend holds that he was a warrior of

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

Family

Medieval Welsh tradition held that he was related to

Hywel Hywel (), sometimes anglicised as Howel or Howell, is a Welsh masculine given name. It may refer to: Monarchs * Hywel the Great, late fifth- and early sixth-century noble in Brittany, saint and king of Brittany in the Arthurian legend. *Hywel ap R ...

, a legendary

Brython The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, ...

ic king of

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. He is said to be one of Hywel's sons in a late version of the genealogical tract '' Bonedd y Saint''. Welsh tradition also makes him a brother of Sts.

Tudwal Saint Tudwal (died c. 564), also known as Tual, Tudgual, Tugdual, Tugual, Pabu, Papu, or Tugdualus (Latin), was a Breton monk, considered to be one of the seven founder saints of Brittany. Life Tudwal was said to be the son of Hoel Mawr (H ...

and Arthfael (also reputed sons of Hywel), and a cousin to

Saint Cadfan Cadfan (), was the 6th century founder-abbot of Tywyn (whose church is dedicated to him) and Bardsey, both in Gwynedd, Wales. He was said to have received the island of Bardsey from Einion Frenin, king of Llŷn, around 516 and to have serv ...

Life

Reputedly born around 466, Derfel is said to be one of seven warriors of Arthur who survived the Battle of Camlan."Welsh History Month: St Derfel and the Stag - icon or idol?", WalesOnline, May 2, 2013
/ref> Three of the six other survivors were also said to have become saints. While others survived through good fortune, Derfel survived "by his strength alone". Derfel is said to have been a noted warrior in medieval Welsh poetry. Tudur Penllyn wrote: :''Derfel mewn rhyfel, gwnai'i wayw'n rhyfedd, Darrisg dur yw'r wisg, dewr yw'r osgedd.'' :("Derfel in war, he would work his spear wondrously, steel covering is the garment, brave is the appearance.") According to Lewys Glyn Cothi: :"When there were at Camlan men and fighting and a host being slain, Derfel with his arms was dividing steel there in two". After Camlan, Derfel is unanimously held in Welsh tradition to have entered the religious life. After a possible stint as a wandering

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

, he is said to have entered the monastery of Llantwit. He was also associated with

Llandderfel Llandderfel is a village and a sparsely populated community in Gwynedd, Wales, near Bala, formerly served by the Llandderfel railway station. The community also includes the settlements of Glan-yr-afon, Llanfor, Cefnddwysarn and Frongoch. ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, named after and said to have founded by him. He is also said to have served as the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Ynys Enlli,

Bardsey Island Bardsey Island (), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Wales, Welsh county of Gwynedd. The Welsh language, Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", while its English name refers to t ...

, succeeding his cousin St. Cadfan. He is said to have died of natural causes on 6 April 560.

Veneration

Derfel's feast day is 5 April. For centuries Derfel was venerated at the churches of Llanfihangel Llantarnam, which claimed a relic of him, and at St Derfel's Church, Llandderfel, which featured a wooden image of him; he was an object of pilgrimage at these sites. Derfel was depicted as a warrior in full armour riding a horse rather than as an ecclesiastic. The Llandderfel image was removed and dismantled by order of

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...

during the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

and used to burn a Catholic priest,

John Forest John Forest (1471 – 22 May 1538) was an English Franciscan friar and martyr. Confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon, Forest was burned to death at Smithfield for "heresy", in that he refused to acknowledge the King as head of the church. L ...

, at Smithfield in London in 1536. This was held to be a fulfilment of a prophecy that the image would burn down a forest. Part of the image, a wooden statue of Derfel's horse, survives to the present day at Llandderfel.

In fiction

A fictionalized Derfel Cadarn is the main character in

Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his long-running series of novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also writ ...

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

historical fantasy Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic (fantasy), magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those c ...

novel trilogy '' The Warlord Chronicles'', retelling the story of King Arthur in Dark Age Britain.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Derfel Gadarn 6th-century Christian saints Welsh Roman Catholic saints Medieval Welsh saints Arthurian characters 566 births 660 deaths