St Saeran's Church lies in the village of

Llanynys Llanynys () is a hamlet and community (Llanynys and Rhewl Community Council) in Denbighshire, north-east Wales; (OS grid reference: SJ1062). It lies in the Vale of Clwyd, a few miles north of Ruthin, and includes the village of Rhewl. The comm ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It was listed by

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

on 19 July 1966 (Cadw Building ID: 808). Between 2013 and 2015 £2.5 million was spent preserving the church, which has one of the finest medieval paintings in

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

. The church's former importance is today evidenced in the sheer size of the interior which is large and spacious; it had close links with the

Bishops of Bangor A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

, who were its "rectors" or owners. Like many Denbighshire churches it is double-naved and has a fine pair of the characteristically local late-medieval

hammerbeam roof A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams proj ...

s. The fluted timber pillars between the naves are more unusual, and much later, dating from a restoration in 1768. The church was founded in the 6th century, but the site may be of

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 ...

origin, and was home to a clas or religious community; it was the mother church of southern

Dyffryn Clwyd Dyffryn Clwyd was a cantref of Medieval Wales and from 1282 a marcher lordship. In 1536, it became part of the new county of Denbighshire. The name means Vale of Clwyd in English and is still the name for that region of north Wales in modern Wel ...

(the Vale of Clwyd). Unusually, it was dedicated to Saint Saeran, a Celtic bishop-saint who also gave his name to Ffynnon Sara.www.medieval-wales.com
accessed 19 July 2015

Saint Saeran

Little is known of Saeran. He is first mentioned in MSE (appendix) of 'Bonedd y Saint', which exists handwritten by

Guto'r Glyn Guto'r Glyn (c. 1412 – c. 1493) was a Welsh language poet and soldier of the era of the ''Beirdd yr Uchelwyr'' ("Poets of the Nobility") or ''Cywyddwyr'' ("cywydd-men"), the itinerant professional poets of the later Middle Ages. He is consid ...

in 1455. He was the son of Geraint Saer of Ireland. ''Saer'' is the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

for "wright" or "carpenter" and the ending "-an" is a diminutive: "Saer the Younger". The battered tomb effigy of a priest may be Bishop ap Richard of Bangor (who died here in 1267) while the figure of a mitred bishop on the hexagonal stone may represent Saint Saeran himself. Crozier in hand, the little figure is apparently standing on a muzzled bear, and on the stone's reverse is a crucifixion scene. It stood until recently in the churchyard, and perhaps marked the saint's tomb or shrine: said to be of the 14th century, it could be much older.

The wall painting

Directly opposite the door is the most significant work in St Saeran's, a huge 15th-century mural of

Saint Christopher Saint Christopher (, , ; ) is venerated by several Christian denominations. According to these traditions, he was a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Decius (), or alternatively under the emperor Maximin ...

. The painting was rediscovered under plaster in 1967; this rare survival is much the finest medieval wall painting in North Wales. The saint – according to legend a giant who served as a ferryman – is shown carrying the infant Christ across a river, with a flowering staff in his hand and a shoal of fish round his feet. The patron saint of travellers, Christopher ("Christ-bearer") was often painted opposite church doorways, where wayfarers could easily glimpse his image and thus (it was believed) be preserved from "fainting or falling" all that day. The belief lives on in the Saint Christophers of modern key-rings and car dashboards. Other similar paintings include: File:Piddington StNicholas StChristopher.JPG, St Nicholas, Piddington, Oxfordshire ThorpeM StJohnB StChristopherDetail.jpg, St John the Baptist, Thorpe Mandeville, Northamptonshire

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Saeran's church, Llanynys 6th-century churches Llanynys, St Saeran Scheduled monuments in Wales