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Saint Twrog - feast day 26 June - was a 6th-century Welsh saint who founded the church at Maentwrog, having come to Wales early in the
Saint Twrog - feast day 26 June - was a 6th-century Welsh saint who founded the church at Maentwrog, having come to Wales early in the Age of the Saints
The Age of the Saints was the period of Christianity in Wales around 500–700 AD.
History
Christianity had entered Wales during Roman times, initially as an urban religion. At first it was banned by the authorities who were suspicious of i ...
.
Early life
It is believed that Twrog was the son of Ithel Hael o Lydaw of Brittany. He was also the brother of Saint Tanwg of Llandanwg, Saint Tecwyn of Llandecwyn, Saint Tegai of Llandegai andSaint Baglan
Saint Baglan was a 6th-century hermit who lived at Baglan in Wales.
Life
Baglan is said, on doubtful evidence, to have been a Breton prince, the son of Ithel Hael. He studied at Saint Illtud's monastic school at Llanilltud Fawr (Llantwit ...
of Llanfaglan and Baglan.
He was a member of the college of Bardsey which was founded as a monastery in 516 AD.
Dedications
There are three other dedications to Saint Twrog: Bodwrog in Anglesey (St Twrog's Church, Bodwrog
St Twrog's Church is a small rural church at Bodwrog in Anglesey, North Wales. Built in the late 15th century in a medieval style, some alterations have been made but much of the original structure still remains. It has two 15th-century doorway ...
), Llandwrog near Caernarfon, and the ruin on Chapel Rock near Beachley
Beachley is a village in Gloucestershire, England, near the border with Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located on a peninsula at the confluence of the rivers Wye and Severn, where the Severn Bridge ends and the smaller secondary bridge over the Ri ...
by the Severn Road Bridge.
Maen Twrog
When Twrog first arrived in the village now called Maentwrog, the valley was very marshy, which provided him with thewattle
Wattle or wattles may refer to:
Plants
*''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australia and South Africa
**''Acacia'', large genus of shrubs and trees, native to Australasia
**Black wattle, c ...
that he would have needed to build his cell. Outside the church near to the belfry door is a large stone known as the Maen Twrog (maen being the Welsh for stone). Twrog is reputed to have thrown the stone from the top of Moelwyn
The Moelwynion (a Welsh plural, sometimes anglicised to Moelwyns) are a group of mountains in central Snowdonia. They extend from the north-east of Porthmadog to Moel Siabod, the highest of the group. The name derives from the names of two of the ...
crushing a pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
altar in the valley below. It is said that his handprints can still be seen in the stone. The parish of Maentwrog gets its name from this stone''The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales, Cornwall and Irish Saints By S. Baring-Gould, John Fisher, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion'' (London, England) Edition: illustrated Published by Kessinger Publishing, 2005, . URL: https://books.google.com/books?id=0jLjYgygkB0C
In the book of Welsh mythology, the Mabinogion
The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...
, a hero Pryderi was killed at the Glaslyn river and is buried in Maentwrog. The boulder supposedly hurled by the saint is the one said to mark Pryderi's grave.
References