Mary in Monmouth

BRYNGWYN, An ancient Church on a White Hill and Cistercian Grange

2012-01-17T04:44:00.000-08:00

< St Peter as Pope in Bryngwyn Church

Ancient Welsh Studies.co.uk points to two men of Gwent, the first born c. 1045 and the father of Sir Gwyn, and secondly, the father of Aeddan who was born around 1135 and AEDDAN ap Gwaethfod a King of Gwaethfod . These Gwaethfods lived originally in Tegeingl and identify the earliest Gwaethfoed of Gwent as "ap Gwyn ap Glyddien (Cloddien) ap Gwybedydd ap Gwrydr Hir ap Caradog ap Lles Llyddog “ and believe he (or an intermediate ancestor) took up residence on the family's paternal lands in south Powys when other branches of the family remained in Tegeingl. This is not quite the story given by Sir Joseph Bradney,of a marauding Cardiganshire raider but fits in better with the family history.

They give the possibility that when his lands were overrun by Normans and incorporated into Shropshire, That KingGwaethfoed moved south looking for new lands.He appealed, the Ancient Welsh Studies site say, on entering the north of Upper Gwent , to King Ynyr ap Cadwgan, and was given Merwydd ferch Ynyr as wife and lands where White Castle was later built.

It is even possible Gwaethfoed came to Gwent as an invader/squatter and avoided armed conflict with its king by agreeing to marry Ynyr's daughter. Ynyr is dated to c. 1030 and Merwydd to c. 1060 .The Theory that Merwydd married a Gwaithfoed of Gwent seems more reasonable, both as to geography and chronology. His only known son is called Sir Gwyn, born c. 1075, builder of Gwyn's Castle now known as ‘White Castle’ (white also being the translation of ‘Gwyn’. )

So much for the genealogy of Gwyn. About the year 1100, Sir Drew de Baladon (or Balun) invaded upper Gwent as a retainer of the Marcher Lord Roger fitz William fitz Osbern. Ynyr and Gwaithfoed,confronted them but it apppears bloodshed was averted by both Welshmen for their sons to marry de Baladon's daughters. Sir Gwyn ap Gwaithfoed married Emma de Baladon. Sir Dryw ap Gwaithfoed was probably his son, who was father to Aeddan, born around 1165.

Aeddan , seemingly by now seems to be living at Grysmwnt or Grosmont, grew up a pious and faithful youth. He is mentioned in the Journey through Wales by Gerald the Welshman. I have already blogged about the route that (Catholic) Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury took through Gwent from Llanthony, Patrishow (St Issui’s Shrine)Monmouth, Abergavenny, Usk, Newport etc. This Aeddan took the cross from Baldwin, becoming a Crusader knight. The ceremony was performed as Baldwin, accompanied by Gerald the Welshman, Archdeacon of St David’s was proceeding from Abergavenny to Usk.

.........a certain nobleman of those parts named Arthenus came to the Archbishop ,who was proceeding towards the castle of Usk and humbly begged pardon for having neglected to meet him sooner. Being questioned as to whether he would take the cross, he replied ‘That could not be done without the advice of his friends’, The Archbishop then asked him, ‘are you not going to consult your wife?’ He modestly answered, with a downcast look. ‘When the work of a man is to be undertaken, the counsel of a woman ought not to be asked’ and instantly received the cross from the Archbishop’.....(The itinery of Archbishop Baldwin(Third Crusade 1188)

It is recorded, that soon after this, fired by his commitment, Aeddan and his sons founded three new chapels (which may have been founded on more ancient sites)Aeddan’s Chapel in Clytha, Bettws Newydd Chapel (Bettws Fovour Aeddan)(Bettws is a corruption of Bet-Haus-ancient for House of Prayer) and Bryngwyn Chapel, which he dedicated to St Peter.) (Cambria Triomphans by Percy Enderby 1661 p 250)He held the manor of Clytha by payment of a sparrow hawk and granted out his lands to his relatives to hold by suit of court and a red rose (which was his badge)The Papal charters were given for this by Pope Honorius II and given to Aeddan by Teilo.The family supported the church and its Holy Well (St Peter’s Well-300 yards SE from the Church)and the church and manor were administered by the abbot and Community of Llantarnam. The church was likely to have been served with priests from Llantarnam also.

Some of the possessions of the Abbey of Llantarnam in Bryngwyn descended to the co-heirs of the manor of Wentesland and Bryngwyn . Lower Ty Mynach House in 1845.The small farm called Brynhyfryd was part of Lower Ty mynach.(Monks' House) The house was built on the site of two original cottages.The Chapel Farm, so called because of the association with the monastery, descended with the manor.It is likely they appointed local men as parish priest.

Following the collapse of the rural economy with the Black Death, and depletion of priests and monks and finally the Reformation, Clytha, seems to have collapsed, and the other churches taken over by Henry VIII’s new church. The tithes were formerly paid to the priory at Abergavenny but now paid directly to the Crown’s commissioners.

The visit was taken at Christmas, and I did not get to see the well, which was hard to locate, but I am going back there later on a warmer brighter day. From the pictures you can see we church was visited at Christmastide. It was charmingly warm and inviting, with a definite sense there is a real community at the Church. At the altar is a lovely reredos carved in wood, and pride of place given to a beautifully carved crucifix next to a carving commemorating The other carvings are equally remarkable, and most wonderful was, that the church was actually open! These were carved in memory of a beloved Rector, William Crawley a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. This Anglican rector died at the age of 94, arranged for the building of a North aisle and a new chancel arch and in 1872 built the first parish school and the first bell of this school displayed in the church.The other figures on the reredos carvings are St Peter, the disciple, Our Lady, John the Beloved Disciple and Peter shown as Pope. The carvings are of a beautiful quality.

The last three priests of the Catholic Church recorded who said Mass here were

Father ADAM ap LLEWELLYN

Father GREGORY DE TREGRUG Both these priests are mentioned at the same year 1352. Possibly these were the first non monks to become rectors following the plague, monks at Llantarnam having been reduced to a small number.

Priest's door into the Sanctuary

Fr Gregory seems to have survived as priest until 1399 when FATHER JOHN AP GRUFFYDD became the new priest. After that the records seem not to give subsequent names, but we must assume the Lord of Bergavenny appointed future priests. They seem to have all been Welshmen, because until Henry VIII ‘annexed and extirped Wales’ and the Welsh language .

this area still spoke Welsh (and possibly English as well!) the Language of the church always was Latin, as it had been from the beginning in Wales.

The church has a long nave and simple chancel, which would have originally housed the sanctuary. The tower was probably added by Aeddan’s family in the thirteenth century. The Sanctuary (Chancel) was added in the fourteenth century.The Old West gallery had been removed before 1850.No tombstones in the graveyard are existant from before the 19^thcentury. The church has been lovingly cared for by the Crawley family in recent centuriesand their crest is at the side of the reredos.

The original bell (Tenor) cast in Bristol about 1480 is inscribed AVE MARIA GRATIAE PLENA (Hail Mary, full of Grace) the second, commissioned in Anglican times was cast in Gloucester by John Palmer (Feare God, Honor the King-SOLI DEO DETUR GLORIA)1632 and the third bell cast in Chepstow by William Evans ‘ WM Henry Churchwarden ‘ is written on this 1766 bell. The writer of the Handbook of the Church, Mr C W Crawley also records that ropes were frequently purchased, so the bells were fully used at a time when parishioners did not have watches.

The church also possesses a silver chalice and patencover of the early Stuart Period.

< The Font

I plan to return to Bryngwyn to find the well and publish more informationon that, although I understand it is in much need of restoration.

Heartwarming and Uplifting Epiphany Meditation at Belmont Abbey and a poem

2012-01-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

Epiphany Meditation Such a great afternoon yesterday, when I drove up through a balmy and sunny Monmouthshire landscape into the ancient Welsh Kingdom of Ergyng where Belmont Abbey is in modern Herefordshire. Belmont, I understand was originally built as the Cathedral for Newport. We had already been to a lovely Mass at Abergavenny but after the frenetic rushing around before and after Christmas, the Meditation at Belmont, which included two Spanish carols, which were movingly sung by Father Abbot and one of the brothers from Peru who was spending Christmas and Epiphany at the Abbey.

Una estrella que llama en la noche and De Luz nueva se viste la terra.

The parish choir sang some lovely things, the Epiphany Hymn, 'How Brightly Shines the Morning Star' and a 'Untous a child is born' not the usual 'puer nobis nascitur from 'Piae Cantiones' but a more unusual version, with a rrefrain for the congregation. There were some beautiful prayers from ancient liturgies of Our Lady.These meditations, were of extraordinary beauty and insight, and were interspersed with the carols you might expect, 'Bethlehem of Noblest Cities', 'As with gladness men of Old', 'We three Kings', 'O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness', and the 'First Nowell'. The organist delighted with the testing chorale Prelude:' Wie Schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern' (How brightly shines the Morning Star' by Bach played I believe by Mr Tom Hempson. Amongst the shimmering candles and rich decorations, the relaxed and quiet mood made this an inspirational hour, quite different from Christmas excitement, and getting to the heart of the miracle of Christ coming to the gentiles, drawing the Whole world to theFather. The liturgical chants were especially moving in this setting. Ecce advenit , Vidimus stellam eius (We have seen his Star) rang around the Abbey, as it has been sung over the centuries by our Benedictine Monks.It occurred to me that the highlight of the BBC's surprisingly (on the whole) faithful 'Nativity' TV series last year curiously finished with the Wise Men, (they were not neccessarily kings, nor three,) bowing before the Infant God-Man , Christ the Child. The line in one of the Belmont hymns, 'Bow down before Him, His Glory proclaim' seemed apposite and moving. We were able to reflect, the Lamb was born in a cave, associated with Shepherds. He was born in Bethlehem, which means THE TOWN OF BREAD and placed within a MANGER (an eating place for the animals) Both heavily pointing to the Eucharist. The quiet atmosphere allowed these insights and all was beautifully done.Remembering the birth of my own son, I thought of Mary, poor girl, nine months pregnant having to ride all those miles on a donkey and give birth in a lowley animal shed.

Afterwards people took the trouble to walk around the wonderful displays, especially the crib above and take photographs, as well as to pray prayers of thanks for the grace of such a wonderful meditation in beautiful surroundings. The faith and love of the monks, is shown in the tremendous care they take in carefully preparing the whole church for the feast, slightly after the Twelfth Night, and yet still in Christmastide, which the church will continue to celebrate until Candlemas on February 2nd. Refreshments, pies, biscuits and drinks of various kinds were available for the considerable congregation afterwards. I walked out past the crib the monks had built outside the Abbey, the beautiful words and sounds ringing in my head and felt greatly blessed!

Abbot Paul was kind enough to send me his sermon of the morning, in which he offered some reflections on the Epiphany, which I will lay down for you here so you can share them, and I am looking into a podcast of this lovely event.

From the End of the Nave to the High Altar

The poem below is one of my favourite Epiphany poems, along with 'The Burning Babe' and 'The Journey of the Magi' by T S Eliot.

BC:AD by U.A. Fanthorpe

This was the Moment, When Before turned to After

And Time's unelected Timekeepers presented Arms.

This was the Moment, when Nothing Happened

Only dull peace sprawled boringly over the earth.

This was the Moment, when even energetic Romans

Could think of nothing better to do

Than counting heads in remote provinces.

And this was the Moment, when a few farm workers

And three Members of an obscure Persian sect

Walked haphazard, by Starlight

Straight into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Christmas Display under the stained glass window of Benedictine Abbot , Blessed Richard Whiting of Glastonbury, who was hung drawn and quartered on the orders of Henry VIII.

The traditional Announcement of Easter in the Roman Missal reminds us of the centrality of the Feast of the Epiphany to the Christian faith and the liturgical year. This proclamation is made not on the First Sunday of Advent nor on Christmas Day but on the Epiphany, the great feast of Light, Easter in winter. “Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord has risen upon you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.”

Although the Epiphany recalls and celebrates the triple manifestation or revealing of the Son of God as recorded in the New Testament: the Star and the Magi, his Baptism in the Jordan and the miracle at the Wedding Feast of Cana, today’s Gospel concentrates on the first of those events. Yesterday we heard how Jesus transformed water into wine at the behest of his Mother, the first miracle or sign, which would ultimately lead to his Death and Resurrection and the Eucharist in which wine becomes the Blood that was shed on the Cross. Tomorrow we will hear the testimony of St John the Baptist, a vision of the Trinity in which the Father’s voice is heard, the Spirit is seen descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove and his identity is revealed, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”

Today’s Gospel story is sheer magic. From its first appearance 2,000 years’ ago to the present day it has blown the minds and fired the imagination of countless writers and poets, artists and musicians, and of entire nations and cultures.

It can only have been the Protestant Reformation and the Puritan abolition of all popular religious customs in this country that has denuded Great Britain of the many wonderful traditions we meet all over Europe and the Middle East, not to mention those countries on other continents where Catholic, Orthodox and other ancient Christian Churches have taken root. For them all the Epiphany far outweighs Christmas in importance and tradition. We also recall that in the early Church it was only at Epiphany and Easter that people, young and old, were baptised and made members of God’s family.

Outdoor Crib-Belmont Abbey

We all know that much Old Testament imagery lies behind the story of the Magi and the Star. In Matthew’s mind it becomes an anticipation of the fate of the good news of salvation, a fate that he knew so well in the light of the Resurrection

By the time he writes his gospel the Church has become predominantly Gentile, so the believers attracted to the good news of God incarnate are Gentiles just like the Magi. It is through nature that God reveals himself to the Gentiles, and to the Magi through astrology, but it is an imperfect revelation.

Without the help of the Jewish scriptures they are unable to interpret the revelation, hence the need to ask, “ Where is the infant King of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.” Ironically it is King Herod who provides the answer after consulting the chief priests and scribes. He sends them on to Bethlehem with the treacherous promise. “Go and find out all about the child and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.” The Gentiles come to worship the Saviour of the world, but they must learn from the Jews the history of salvation.

Here Matthew highlights the paradox: those who have the Scriptures, and can understand what the prophets have said, are not willing to worship the newborn king. They reject the Messiah and seek his death. Here we see the essential gospel story in miniature. God has made himself present to us in his Son, Emmanuel, yet this revelation, this Epiphany, was considered an offence and contradiction to many.

On the other hand it was recognised as salvation by those who had eyes to see and hearts to believe. Of these the Magi are the first, the anticipation of all those who would come to worship the risen Christ proclaimed by the apostles.

In the Star of the King of the Jews at its rising, they see in prophecy, hence the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the One whose kingship would not be fully visible until he had hung from the Cross, beneath the title “The King of the Jews”, and been raised to God’s right hand through the Resurrection

The question for us and for all Christians today is simply this: which road do I follow: that of King Herod and those who reject the truth of the Gospel, the light of faith, or that of the Magi and those who gradually make sense of divine revelation and can grasp what it means to be saved? In other words, what does the Epiphany mean to me?
by Abbot Paul Stoneham.

Our Lady of Belmont, Pray for us
                                                                      Our Lady of Tintern, Pray for us
                                                                      St David....                  Pray for us
                                                                      St Winifride...             Pray for us

A WELSH CHOIR FROM CWMBRAN CELEBRATES THE HOLY NIGHT

2011-12-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

This may interest some of you, the Nidus Choirs, Children and Adults singing O Holy Night. The song is available on iTunes. I am singing the solo, just out of interest. The blog will be returning shortly. We have had to take my mother, who has Alzheimers on a Christmas Trip to Germany, her homeland where she has not been for ten years and prior to that the time has been taken up by trips down to Wales to promote and sell the CD 'Christmas in Wales'. The Album is available via download from iTunes or you can buy it at
http://www.niduschildrenschoir.co.uk and it is all badly needed funds for their forthcoming competitions, which always cost a lot of money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oeLa_8r2ZF4

Enchanting Shrine in Paradise, a holy and courageous Maiden, a Hare and -PENNANT MELANGELL

2011-11-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

Recently on travelling to a meeting at Holywell, I took a detour to Cwm Pennant, a landscape carved out of the last ice age and one of the truly breathtaking landscapes of North Wales-where there are plenty of them! Pennant means 'the top of the stream' and there is also a Holy well there, but higher up the mountain, where I did not have time to go. It is a remote place and the trees already brushed with autumn colours.In the sixth century this would have been a big and disparate parish, where mmost of the people lived and worked on the land. As we have learned, however, since then, the plague, movement to towns, reformation (which removed the running of the agriculture from monks and to friends of Henry VIII who subsequently turned people off the land and later enclosed it altogether, the people disappeared and the village became much smaller. Around the church are only a couple of houses and there are no inns.A stone preaching cross stood near what is now a car park and unfortunately there also seems to have been a cockpit there at one time. This was called 'Y Rheol' and the locals would gather there on a Sunday afternoon and watch small plays or Eisteddfods in the summer.

The first thing you notice about the church is the circular churchyard, with its familar form of desert island monastic outlay. Then there are the sacred circle of yews all around the church. If you remember from previous blog posts, the early monastics were in communion with Rome,and followed the lead of the desert fathers. The boundaries marking the delineation of God and Heaven, where people were buried. At the heart of the enclosure was the Church, and at the heart of the Church in the sanctuary, the sanctuary lamp rreminded people of the live throbbing heart of Christ in the Eucharist, which stood at the heart of every church for the first 1,530 years approximately since the earthly death of Our Lord. This was indeed a light brought to the gentiles. The language of the liturgia of the Welsh church was Latin and the monks would chant their offices, often to the sound of the harp. these ecclesiastical enclosures often schooled boys and chieftains of the secular llans often nearby. Yet the village of a religious llan was a small community, where lay people also lived to sserve the monastic community. Some priests were married, and others were not. Bishops could not be.

When Gregory the Great sent his priests on Missions to Britain, he told them not to destroy ancient sites of worship, but to Christianise them and there seems to be some evidence that St Melangell's church(the original mud and wattle church) was built over the site of a Bronze age Barrow, or funeral chamber.The five sacred yew trees around the church are at least 2,000 years old! Around the lych gate (Lych=Saxon-German-Leiche -body or Welsh Llwybr y Corph) are two standing stones brought from early days and fragments of the original shrine of St Melangell are built into the lych gate itself, when the shrine was restored.the preaching cross has been removed from the car park area to the churchyard . Very high status people seem to have been buried here Guto'r Glyn writes of Einion ap Gruffud of Llechwedd Ystrad, a great Welsh poet, who had his Requiem Mass celebrated here and was then buried here, after a life coming to the church on pilgrimage.

A Phennant i gorff Einiawn
Oedd wyddfa Iwys, deddfol iawn

It was Pennant for Einion's body,was a fitting resting place,and very holy.

Saints Festivals and Vigils
Before the Reformation Holy days were celebrated in the church and churchyard. Rustic games prevailed. One such rite was on the vigil (night before the saint's day) young people would do a circular dance around the churchyard and then go into church and confess their sins! But games were also played in celebration of the saints life and witness to the faith. The Communion of Saints, those on earth and those , unknown and known in heaven was a strong part of the faith and the church on earth and in heaven not divided by death.So all rejoiced and celebrated. Masses too on a Sunday began in the Churchyard. It was the day of the Lord's Resurrection and hymns on feast days began outside and there were also prayers prior to going in for the Mass in a joyous procession. Henry VIII ended all this.

Eighteenth Century
By the eighteenth century, the Church was in poor repair and we have to thank Edward Madocks and David Thomas for this restoration. Other people in the parish contributed individual repairs to proches, gates and windows. While much was restored in a more modern style the Romanesque 12 century arches can still be seen inside. It seems the church was similar in shape to the original. The restorers had replaced the small 18th century 'cell y bedd' end of the church, with an apse, in a similar shape to the twelfth century apse.This blends perfectly with the mediaeval building which has kept its original shape and is quite a large church too for this part of Wales. What is beautiful is that the Rood loft has not disappeared. The carvings have lost their colour and their gold and Our Lady and St John have disappeared, along with the painting of the Doom, but the plain oak screen survives with a more modern crucifix above, not displaying the wounds.This seems to be a repair of the original rood screen which will have been torn down by Elizabeths bailiffs, but most old churches are completely lacking it.This screen was dismantled and returned to its original position with a new loft in panelled oak. The figure of Our Lord is in Bronze and sculpted by Kathleen Fuller. The tracery is carved from a solid piece of oak with cusping and foliation features and with panels of the orignal brought back from the back of the church, tracery heads show wgere thhe eleven apostles would have been shown, and there are decorations of oak leaves, acorns, vine leaves, roses, a hand (maybe a symbol from the 5 Wounds devotion) a mythical bird and a 'green man'. The rarest thing is the legend of St Melangell after whome the church was named.

The Vita of St Melangell
It was one of the biggest teaching of the early Catholic church, that women had the right to consecrate themselves to the Lord, and had the right not to be forcibly married. Forced marriages were crimes and some holy women, including St Tekla (st Paul's diciple) were tortured for not capitulating to her fammily's demands. St Winifred too paid the price for her virtue, and St Melangell was no exception in displaying an almost foolhardy courage. In the Vita (Life) of St Melangell (Called Sancta Monacella in Latin) The local bards in Wales took great care to commit such stories to memory and pass them on to their sons. Druidism had gone underground, and yet their ability to remember the ancient accounts meant, that as those powerful Welsh nationalists, the Cistercians arrived and the learned Benedictines, they were able to write them down, where they would be read by posterity. We have a great deal to thank them for. Before being sceptical of their truth, we ought to remember that a Church and llan would not be named after a female saint unless she was very special, and very holy.

Waldo Williams 1904-1971
In complete harmony with the teaching of the Communion of Saints, peace and reconciliation, the great Welsh poet took this as one of his major themes. He was a great ecumanist , brought up as a Baptist, became a Quaker but under the influence of the Russian Orthodox Philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev. One of his finest poems is addressed to the Catholic Martyrs of Wales at the Reformation, whose story had been forgotten , but whom he now celebrates in 'After the Silent Centuries'. He wrote about St Tyssilio of Meifod-a peacemaker, a warrior who renounced violence, like St Derfel. He also writes of Brynach an Irish priest who served at Brychan's court in Talgarth and later at Nevern. Of Brynach we are told, he talked with angels on the hill behind his home.A.M Alchin writes in his excellent account of the pilgrimage site :It is not difficult to think of St melangell talking with angels in this beautiful valley'. In his poem in honour of St Brynach Waldo addresses God as the 'Lord and Shepherd of All ages' who gathers together past and present in one, This is a very beautiful poem, and as we have seen in Llanthony in South Wales, even in Celtic times , where nature all around is living, the veil between heaven and earth is very thin, and was torn down by Christ.

Awakener of the grey mornings in our land
Dawn is not only clear and shining
You have given us on the moorland of time
The light of an unfading hour.
You have reawakened our spirits
The Old Kinship of Earth and Heaven.

In the same poem, Alchin writes,' Waldo sees the saints of Wales standing as guardians around the ;and, by their example giving us new courage, and strengthening us when we feel fearful or sad.He evokes the Holy Wells of Wales as sources of living strength for us now....

Brynach, Irishman, pray for us
May your prayers flow together with ours'.

Waldo wrote of the world in faith and experience, to which the saints belong, the early Celtic experience merging with today's future and even earlier saints where the centuries are distilled into one of the angels and archangels and all the saints company of earth and heaven, known and unknown

St Melangell's Vita

The Historia Diviae Monacellae tells how in the year 604 AD Prince Brochwell Ysgrithog was hunting in Pennant when his dogs chased a hare into a large thicket of brambles. Inside this thicket was a beautiful and holy woman who was at her prayers in her own retreat. The hare went for safety under her robe and cloak. After glaring at her, the dogs fled howling, unable to enter. The Prince discovered she was Melangell, of Moncella, an Irish King's daughter who had come to Wales fifteen years before to escape a forced marriage. She was leading a hermit's life of rest and contemplation. Brochwel was so moved by her quiet courage, reverence and piety, he gave her the valley as her place of sanctuary. Acclaimed a saint by local people after her death, St Melangell had founded a female monastic house here and she lived here for many years in friendship with the animals.Another detail was added from local sources as late as the eighteenth century, that Thomas Pennant , a visitor was told that the prince's huntsman had tried to sound the horn to make his hounds go into the thicket, but the horn stuck to his lips! Whether this was a case of later embroideryh we will never know.The figures of the foliage in the frieze on the rood screen tall the same story.

The Shrine of St Melangell
Unusually, the shrine in the chancel dominates the church. It was constructed ca 1160-70 AD to hold the relics (bones and possessions) of the saint. The saint was revered and honoured here for centuries and when Henry VIII robbed such shrines, £2.14.6d were taken by his men in 1535, being the offerings of pilgrims for the upkeep of the shrine.In John Hainsworth's excellent guide to the church, he recalls in recent memory a building called 'The Herberage' where people rested on their pilgrimage.1561 Elkizabeth I gave the order to destroy it, and pieces of it were built into various bits of the wall and buildings, but were identified in 1894 and put together again and brought back into the church. They were rescued in 1958 and pieced together and reerected in the building which had replaced the apse, During 1989, the shrine was rebuilt in the chancel .Traces of colour have been found and the restorer Robert Heaton , used concrete to show the new work,It is made of yellow sandstone and has Celtic and Romanesque elements. There is a votive stand-.The effect must have been rich and emotional. This reconsituted shrine is unique in Britain. It is thought that originally there was a lower level into which the shrine was built.

One more unique element-Survival of Relics?

During the excavarions of 1958, the skeletal remains of a 5 feet woman and these bones were kept in the Anglican Rectory for some years. It is likely the Elizabethans would have though it sacrilege to destroy her remains and may have secretly and reverently buried her. Further fragments were found in 1989. There is always going to be an element of risk as to whether thesse were the bones of St Melangell, however, had they identified such remains, they would have almost certainly been destroyed in the hateful time of iconoclasm, both then and under Cromwell.
The Powis Family
Were a local and loyal Catholic family of means, who are said to have taken some of the bones for safety to St Omer in Northern France, where many of the priests of the 'English' mission were trained. The bones of a great saint are considered a powerful prayer aid, linking the saint's intercession with your own. These priests returned as single men to minister the original Christian faith to their flock and were often killed if found and sometimes hung drawn and quartered. There is interestingly a cult of St Melangell at St Omer .It seems the Powis Family may have brought it, to focus the minds of the priests returning to Wales to venerate and ask St

Requests for the saint's intercession

Melangell for her prayers in the fight to reclaim the right to worship according to the Old Faith. Indeed the Apse in the church may have been the original resting place of the shrine.It is interesting that the original church still in 1875 had its priest's door and porch. This is an ancient and truly beautiful place to visit.

St Melangell's is now part of the Anglican Church in Wales structure and it appoints a Guardian of the Shrine and a Vicar in Charge of the shrine. Pilgrimages are held here and many people come to visit.

‘The Book of Saints’ Compiled by the Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Ramsgate (sixth edition 1989/94) ISBN 0304343579 notes that her feast is May 27th and that she died c590. Others date her death to c607, c641 or even early 8th Century.

Directions: Satnav:SY10 OHQ near OSWESTRY in Shropshire. Get off the M5/6 at Birmingham on M54 to Shrewsbury and then follow signs to Oswestry.

Languerntuiauc or Gwernesney in the leafy alder grove

2011-10-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

Gwernesney Lan-guern-tuiauc is the name suggested for Gwernesney in the 12th Century Book of Llandaff. The dedication is unknown, although no doubt monks from the local 6th century monasteries (there were several locally, from Michaelston le Fedw in Glamorgan, from a very early time, to the work of St Brynach at the court of Brychan Brycheiniog in Talgarth (Garth Madrun) and of course St Tathw's monastery at Caerwent, where St Tathw (Meuthi later the hermit who taught St Cadoc) who also sent out monks as well as the prolific St Dyfrig, from his

                                                                                     monasteries in Hentland and Moccas in Ergyng.
                                                                                    There were also the famed monastery of Illtyd, at
                                                                                     based at Llantwit Major and St Cadoc's at
                                                                                     Llan carfan, both in earlier M & M posts.

A family member of Brychan's house is most likely,but looking at Tiuauc and( Tydiwg) we do have a Gwent saint, supposedly a brother of St Carannog of Llangrannog, St Tysoi of nearby Llansoy. He was meant to be the son of Ceredig an Cunedda . This is mentioned in Progenies Keredic at the end of the Cognatio de Brychan in the Cotton MS Vesp A xiv. Henlann (old llan ) Tituic is the place named at Dixton on the Wye. Nevertheless, this is not difinitive, just based on a possibility.

The fact was that at this time of the early foundations of these foundations of 'deserts' shielding people from the outside world, and making a heavenly circle was part of the process of emulating the desert monks. After all this was post Roman Wales, under attack by Angles, Saxons, Irish and other Welsh tribes, and they were well aware of the world wide church and used Latin in their Masses. In fact such large numbers of people fleeing from the English pagans, made it imperative to encourage large numbers of celibate monks, as the land was unable to sustain such large numbers otherwise.

Llans were devised under a local founder who had received his training at one of the great learned centres. There was also one at Llanfeuno. Some local saint, or holy priest, trained at a centre obviously set up his Llan here in the alders. They would usually make a circle, build a church and burial area, but would be granted land from the local chieftain. It would usually be near a well or a stream, which would serve for Baptisms and holy water, blessed by the saint-founder. The church would be the centre of the llan's life and inside the church, the Sanctuary, the beating heart, in which the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord would be revered and adored on the altar, surrounded by light. Not all Llans were religious, some were those settlements built by
chieftains, but ecclesiastical llans were useful. They provided schools, farmed land,and looked after the sick. When the Normans came, and the churches came into the Diocese of Llandaff, Morgan Hen, the chieftain gave this little church to Gwrgan, Bishop of Llandaff. What are now two parishes sustained the church, and used to be called the 'Slough'.(Yelwch) and these used to be separate lands.
P Edward Gostwyck mentions Gwernesney as part of the

lands of Usk Priory. It would have been served by one of its priests, the tithes given to the nuns there for the upkeep of the priory. In fact it was a larger version of what happened before A holy life was truly revered and de Clare clearly had an eye to his eternal Salvation when he founded the place .Dame Elen Williams, a local lady was the last Abbess, and when priests were outlawed, after Henry founded his new church, Griffith ap Howell was the last Catholic priest in 1535, bringing to an end the Catholic occupancy which had been since the sixth century. In 1560 there was a 'parson' called Walter David and 1621 we learn even the parson Edward Williams was deprived of the church for being drunk and swearing and reading the 'Book of Common Prayer' !He lived to be restored, but died in 1664. All in all, it was a colourful period.

The Scudamore Family were from the parish, and in 1697 John Scudamore was responsible for the arrest and tragic death of the Beloved Father of the Poor, Tad y Tlodion, St David Lewis.

When the church closed as a Catholic church,the surrounding lands were being farmed by a local tenant farmer,Philip Williams, known as 'Gwyn' who was inhabiting 'Gwern Stockhouse' next to the church and also rented another group of property from the nuns and clearly Richard Ryche and others who signed the supression faces.
The 'meadows' were bringing in 7 shillings a year-which was a good rent. The Church was clearly an unophisticated and simple, Living so closely to the land, a simple priest priest would hav survived.

An interesting Church with a beautiful set of Stations of the Cross.

The Miracle of Mamhilad.

2011-09-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Life of St Illtud, now in the British Museum in the Cott Manuscript mentions he was Breton and a great nephew of the holy Saint Germanus of Auxerre. (Vespasiab A XIV) \He was known to be very warlike and physical and heard a lot about Britain from his British mother. He resolved to go there and to join a war band, possibly of his kinsman Athrwys,He was given an excellent education in all seven sciences , was baptised and catechised and studied elementary science , but then he decided to go to war and break of his studies, appearing in Britain at the court of the chieftain Paulinus Paelin, and his war leader, Arthrwys.They treated him well, as he was a good companion , learned and a good governor. He was one of the most intelligent of all the solders and became a leader in King Paulinus' household.

One day King Paulinus took the royal household to hunt over the land belonging to St Cadoc, and he was rude enough to send a message to the Holy Abbot Cadoc, that if he did not provide them all with dinner, he would take it by force. Cadoc was surprised at the tone of the request, but nevertheless sent them all dinner. The household sat down to dine, but because of the sacrilege of their request, they were all taken ill and left but Illtyd escaped . He was far away with a hawk and knew nothing of it. Seeing the effect of the Kings disappearing household, Illtyd went to Cadoc to ask what had happened. St Cadoc told him to take of his secular dress and but on a clerical habit, and required that he serve the Creator God all his life so he could do penance for the misdeeds of his household, do God would deal leniently with him at the Judgement. Illtyd returned to King Paulinus and withdrew himself from secular services after that. He left the area and came to the River Daw in Glamorgan and left his wife after an angel commanded him to serve the King of kings, and he realised that he had to devote himself to God and gave up his wife in atonement for all those he had killed as a soldier.

He retired to the Hodnant valley. which was either at Llantwit on the sSevern or at Llanthony, named after the Hodnant in the Welsh.He became a great saint, and ended his days in Llantwit Major (Llanilltyd Fawr) This is a very interesting Church to visit, showing much early history.There is a project afoot to restore the Galilee Chapel from a ruin, to which it was reduced under Henry VIII. The land St Cadoc owned and had founded was based on his teacher , Tatheus (Meuthi-the Hermit) as Tre-feuthin-the Homestead of the Hermit.

Some time after the death of St Cadoc, he was returned to his principal monastery of Llancarfan, where his relics were revered and honoured by his sorrowing brothers.There were thirty six canons at llancarfan, like Llantwit Major a huge monastery and there were vast numbers of gardeners and also other lay brothers and sisters in his llan.

Llifris writes:
No one can relate the miracles performed by St Cadoc
It is because he is not here with his mode of speaking
Christ the Creator of the World will grant pardon
To him who write a Life with faults, named Llifris.

A powerful Saxon leader came from England, with a large body of men, intent on despoiling and pillaging in Wales . He arrived at the coast in a ship, but the clergy of Llancarfan, fled the monastery taking their treasure with them and fled from there with the reliquary of the Holy Man, and other relics , which they prayed would protect them from their pursuers and they hid themselves in a llan of St Illtyd, which readily gave protection and shelter to the followers of this holy saint. The name of the llan was St Illtyd's , in a place which became known as Mamhilad trans:The Place where the Coffin was Brought)When they had been there a short time, the Saxon raiders were also joined by Danes who had heard there were rich pickings in store.

When they saw the coffin with the Holy Saint in it at Mamhilad, they tried to lift it, first four men, then in the end many many men tried to lift it, but it would not budge, They were not able to move it at all. Then they became angry and one, more enraged than all the others, ran forward quickly and struck the coffin hard, and on being struck, it produced a loud bellowing noise like a bull, and greatly frightened the whol.e army and there was a great earthquake at Mam hilad. The coffin was deserted, the enraged soldier, induced by greediness cut of a gold pinnacle from the coffin of the Holy Man, which fell into his lap and immediately he felt as if fire was buirning his chest. Stupified and excited by the pain of the heat, he put the pinnacle back, and it firmy affixed to where it had been cut off, as if it had been soldered on safely. When he had done this the unhappy violator of the coffin died in front of the coffin, seemingly melting into the ground and the foreigners fled, and cceased to worry them.

The brothers decided to take Cadoc over the mountain to his old llan at Tre-Feuthin and here ie was safe from the maraudoing Saxons.Cadoc was lad to rest with great honour at the early site. Later many people were trained at his monastary.

St Illtyd and St David, appear in Stained glass in this ancient church.

The sanctuary area as seen from the nave. Originally the screen would have been erected over the arch, the rood (Crucifix would have been up there, with Blessed Mary and St John, and parishioners would have said their confessions before Easter under the rood.

Priest's entrance into the former Sanctuary at St Illtyd's Church at Mamhilad/

Entrance to porch at Mamhilad Church

The ancient font at St Illtyd's

The nave and Sanctuary at St Cadocs

Ancient print of St Illtyd's

The Ancient and beautiful rood loft, which was saved from Cromwell and the Tudor wreckers. Such screens were very expensive and usually donated by a wealthy parishioner. The screen has been put at the rear of the church

St Cadoc, ddoth. Born at Newport and trained and educated at Caerwent with St Tatheus, who retired to a hermits life at Tre-feuthin. St Cadoc was the son of King Gwynlliw and Queen Gwladys, daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog. Both his parents took Holy Orders in Old Age. Cadoc's white martyrdom took him all over Britain, even to Scotland and to Southern England and South Wales,and he even went to France during the plague known as the Yellow Fever. St Cadoc is well known in France, where an island is named after him.

Return from Germany and Saint Mary at Bethen in Cloppenburg

2011-08-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.stmarien-bethen.de/

If you would like to know more and use google translator

I spent the last ten days in Oldenburg, where I was born. My Mum was German and my father from South Wales. Notwithstanding my Mother being a German Lutheran, not in communion with the Catholic faith, I decided I would attend the church of Pilgrims in Cloppenburg, South of Oldenburg, which I found was buzzing with excitement because of the imminent visit of the Holy Father. At a time of such large scale apostasy in Europe, the visit of the successor of Peter was a sign of hope. The weather was terrible, but apparently on the major days of remembrance for Mary, many people walk from Cloppenburg to this site-also from Oldenburg I understand to thank her for co-operating with God to give our Saviour a human body. I was moved to wonder, whether Jesus looked like her.

Last Sunday was the Feast of the Assumption. Along with Enoch and Elijah, from the very earliest years of the Church was the tradition, that Mary, the Woman of Revelations 12 was taken body and soul into heaven to be with her Son, who loved her as we all love our Mothers. This Mother, who could have been stoned to death for agreeing to bear the Saviour whilst unmarried was the most Perfect Christian, giving God a body, then giving his Mother to be the Mother and Ikon of all His People. The Assumption was only made an official Dogma, after people started chipping away at this age old dogma.

On this day , there was a pilgrimage with all the people bringing herbs and wild flowers to the shrine. In German the words 'Heilkraut' are healing herbs, which the ladies brought there to give to Mary, to thank her for her role in giving birth to our Lord 'Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, Be it done to me according to Thy Word'. The priest told us, that Mary reminds us that we are flesh and blood humans, just as she was, and yet God can wreak enormous Love and Sacrifice from us too, and a call to Divinity, when we have Faith in and trust the Saviour and keep his Commandments in our struggle to be Holy and Members of His Body on Earth. It was also mentioned that Our Saviour loved us so much that he took on the frailty of our mortal bodies, nut he overcame it all to conquer death.

The Ark of the Covenant contained

The Torah-the Word of God
The Rod of Aaron-the symbol of the High Priest of God
The Manna -the physical food given to the Israelites in Canaan, when they were starving on the Way to the Promised Land.

Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant contained in our Blessed Saviour:

Jesus, the Word of God, in tradition of the early Apostles (St John tells us not all was written down about Jesus)

Jesus, the High Priest, King of all us Christians, called to be priests and evangelists of His Word.

Jesus, the Eucharist , who feeds us with his Body and Blood, when we are starving in the Wilderness of a world , living among some sinful and wicked people, who have turned away from Him and His teaching, and have renounced him and been led away from Truth.

Little Holy Mary, pray for us Sinners, that we may be made worthy of the Promises of Christ.Little, holy Mary may we all appreciate your tremendous act of Faith, and give us courage to carry on in our day to day lives, getting closer and closer to Jesus.
Podcast from St Maria Bethen Shortly.

MARY ON HOLIDAY--THE HIDDEN CISTERCIAN GEM OF NETLEY ABBEY

2011-08-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

As a guest on a yachting holiday to Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, we stayed at a village called Netley Abbey. Actually finding it was tricky but we managed with the help of a satnav! The whole village once belonged to the Abbey and indeed Netley Abbey is the most complete, surviving Cistercian monastic ruin in England, and an unexpected hidden gem in the middle of a small village and estate.The ruins show the remains of 800 years of change, from a Cistercian house to a mansion for one of Henry VIII's henchmen and finally it was sold for masonry and became a Romantic ruin. The Cistercians must have enjoyed a wonderful life of prayer in this setting overlooking the Solent!Now there is a hedge and it is protected by English Heritage.

The Abbey was founded by monks from nearby Beaulieu Abbey by Peter des Roches the powerful Bishop of Winchester in 1238 and there were 15 monks, but 30 lay brothers and other employees, officials and labourers.

In the sad years, when the king wished to marry his mistress, the Abbey was closed and taken by the king and sold at a knockdown price to his supporter in this venture Sir William Paulet. Who built a Tudor Courtyard palace on the site, using the buildings that were there in 1536. By the 18th century, repairs became too costly and by 1704 the house was abandoned to provide stone for building but painters, poets and writers arrived there, taking inspiration from the spiritual nature of the building.The Abbey was only saved, when work demolishing the Abbey was stopped, when a worker was killed.

Horace Walpole, Jane Austen and many others visited the Abbey, inspired by its grandeur-even as a shell. Northanger Abbey may have been inspired here, so close to the coast.It was a popular place for people from the nearby area to come and have ginger beer and a party, but by the twentieth century, antiquarian interest stopped such things and admiration for the gothic masonry of the abbey, made them remove all the vestiges of the Tudor mansion, which had decayed and restored it. It is now cared for by English Heritage, and a hidden gem in the rural landscape.All was still there, the book room, the kitchen, the enormous church.

For its short tenure by Sir William Paulet,from 1536 to 1704 , the death of the demolition worker and the giving up of the house for masonry, you have to ask whether the theft of the monastery was worth it, even for the vanity of one of the people charged with closing these houses of prayer-which often incorporated hospitals.... A sad chapter in our history.

If you are around Southampton, visit Netley, and see the hidden gem!

Beautiful Tridentine Mass for martyred Welsh saints at Abergavenny.

2011-07-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

This was a beautiful Tridentine Mass for the Martyred saints of Monmouthshire last week. St John Roberts, St David Lewis and St Philip Evans, administered to the Church for over thirty years in the Monmouthshire area. Fr David was arrested in Llantarnam and executed at Usk. Fr Philip Evans and Fr John Roberts were painfully hung drawn and quartered at the Gallowfields in Cardiff, where they had been working and going about their priests business. This was all as a result of the Titus Oates plot

The Choir excelled singing the ancient Gregorian chant, which would have been known to the three martyred saints. Father Tom Regan sang the Mass and Abbot Paul from Belmont was in attendance from Belmont Abbey to read the special prayer for the saints,also invoking St David and St Winifride, the two patron saints of Wales to pray for the mission in Wales

With Mary at Abergavenny! Mary's Festival May 2011

2011-07-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

The annual Festival of Mary and thanksgving for her obedience and role at OL and St Michaels Benedictine Priory in Abergavenny-really beautiful Celebration amid beautiful music!

Some Enchanting Welsh Holy Wells around Brecon, Cantref, Maen Ddu, Priory Well

2011-06-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

The Holy Well at Cantref Church, dedicated to St Brynach . Going into the church, turn right around the tower and walk down the small path to the well. Not an easy walk !

St Brynach was Brychan Brycheiniog's (King of Brecon's) priest. This well had healing properties and is maintained.

St Brynach's Well, Cantref

Maen Ddu well in Brecon is maintained by CADW and lies in a beautiful little fairy like dell, at the centre of a former llan, it has a round circular shape and there is an imprint of a round possible bathing pool further down .

The Water in Maen ddu-(Black Rock) the stones and sticks in here were disappointing.

The well in the picturesque glade. The footpath from the small car park is maintained by CADW and also and easy walk.

The Priory Well in Brecon is damaged and overgrown and its remains lie next to the main road on the opposite side to the former Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, now Brecon Anglican Cathedral..

A weekend in Brecon was a very interesting time, reasearching King Brychan, visiting Talgarth (Garth Madrun) reputed lands of Joseph of Arimathea and visiting these wells, some of which were spectaular and some were disappointing, such as the Priory Well. I will post on the places we viited seperately as we visited St Brynach's own Llan at Llanfrynach as well! The weather was challenging, and I have already posted bout the Cathedral, but also have information about St Mary's Brecon, which now boasts a state of the art restaurant!!!!

HOLY St Mabenna or Mabyn ,daughter of Brychan in Cornwall.

2011-05-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

We drove to this windswept village in the height of the heatwave at Easter, after attending Mass at Bodmin . We drove from Launceston down through Bodmin Moor, but I wanted to see this Welsh saint's llan and we were not disappointed. The Norman church building is still at the centre of the village and also next to it is the Inn with the image of St Mabyn called the St Mabyn Inn, who were offering delicious lunches.

Baring Gould and Fisher affirm Mabenna as one of the holy daughters or granddaughters of Brychan Brycheiniog who made her home in Cornwall after esccaping from Talgarth, which was invaded by the Picts of the North. She is not named in the Welsh Bonedd y Saint yet she is mentioned in Leland;s Itinery and by William of Worcester.(i p 319).

This is the only dedication to the saint, and her image in the 15th century stained glass window was being sold on small pilgrim's cards, bookmarks and various other merchandise to raise money for this amazingly large and beautiful church.Peculiarly, apart from the children's work above there was no icon or picture or statue in the church of St Mabenna.the church is on a windswept hill , but there are pleasant wooded valleys around it in the folds of upland country, with the tower serving as a landmark.

The scholars believe that she did not plant herself on the top of this hill., but made her cell on the top of the combes that dip to the Alaw Stream or the River Camel or even Treveglos (Tref-eglwys)-the house of the church.There is also a holy well, a quarter of a mile north of the village. We are told this area is now called 'Paul's Ground' from a local family of someone called Paul. There were formerly chapels locally Colquite,Helligan, and Trevesquite.

FEAST DAY IS NOVEMBER 18th

Nicholas Roscarrick , the Catholic priest gives her feast day as the above and says 'There used to be a hymn sung of her that she had twenty brothers and sisters, whereof St Endelienta (Endellion) and St Miniver (St Minver) were two.(The Age of the Saints 1893 p 149)

The parish fair happens on February 15th.

Representation of the Statue or Icon

St Mabella is represented crowned (princess)bearing a palm in her hand (signifying martyrdom)and a book in the other in the Wives Window at St Neot, which makes her identity female.(15th century glass)

If anyone has a copy of the ancient hymn to St Mabyn or the tune please contact me on
maryinmonmouth@googlemail.co.uk

There was no time to look for the well, that will be for another time, yet if you are in the Bodmin area-the church is open daily and worth a visit!

RETURN TO THE FORMER BENEDICTINE PRIORY OF MALPAS, NEWPORT

2011-02-14T02:46:00.000-08:00

I am sorry I can post no more photos on the blog as we are now being charged for uploading photos, but I am making enquiries.

http://maryinmonmouth.blogspot.com/2009/06/malpas-priory-newport-dedicated-to.html

In 2009, I wrote a post in the series of Benedictine Priories in Gwent and wrote about the later history of St Triac (Brioc's) Clunaic (Strict Benedictine) Priories. More interesting still is the fact that it was a house of the Abbey of Monte Acuta (now 'Montacute House') and appeared in various records.

In 1132 Charter of Robert, earl of Gloucester, confirming the gift of Malpas Village etc to Montacute Priory. It also refers to Novo Burgo (Newport) (-one of the earliest references to the existence of the town as a "New Borough") See: Robert B. Patterson 'Earldom of Gloucester Charters' 1973. No.156 page 146.

1239 MALPAS there was an agreement between the abbot and convent of Gloucester and the Prior and convent of Montacute and the Prior of Malpas....the abbbot and convent of St Peter's Gloucester or their assigns, should receive, peacably and fully, all the tithes of Mendelgif and of all things of old belonging to the church of Newport, without hindrance or annoyance

Translated by James Conway Davies Episcopal Acts Relating to Welsh Dioceses 1066-1272 1948. Vol.II page 715.

Published in Latin by W.H. Hart Historia et Cartilarium Monasterii S. Petri Gloucestriæ 1863. Vol. II. No. DXXVII, pages 62-63.

So it seems from this time, that St Peter's Abbey Gloucester was entitled to oversight of all the tithes belonging to St Triac's Priory.I am grateful to Bob Trett who has researched this information, as it enhances the former post, although it seems by the time the Priory was seized, it was at least still collecting the tithes of Mendelgieff, and the cattle.as it is mentioned in the accounts,

Saint Triac

St Triac was originally St Brioc or St Briavel or St Brieux in Brittany. Triac was born in Ceredigion around 440AD
St Germain of Auxerre leaves Ireland ti establish schools for the irish missions and is given Triac to train.450AD, so only ten years old.
454AD St German re-founds Caer-wogorn and then departs with his pupils to Paris.
465 AD Returns to Ireland Brioc receives priests apostolic ordination and returns to Wales.
470AD Triac (aka Brioc) returns to Ceredigion, founds churches and assists St Germain, wherever he is, including the Western Isles.
475AD St Germain dies.
480AD troubles in Ceredigion because the sons of Cunedda invade and the Irish are expelled.
520AD Triac was compelled to leave -goes to Cornwall and then to Brittany.
526AD Returns to Wales. The fact he is mentioned at St Briavels (Briomagl) shows he had been there and also that he had founded the llan at Malpas. (Llanfriog) which can be observed from the large circular 'llan' outline of the churchyard wall.
On returning to his monastery at Saint Brieux he finds his nephew Tudwal in possession and unwilling to receive him (ingratitude!) He goes on to the land of Rouvre.
530AD He is recorded to have visited the court of King Childebert and has the grants made by Rhigual confirmed. He returned to Britanny and then died. The Body of St Triac was translated on July 23 1166 in the presence of Henry II of England and William, Bishop of Angers, where it had been taken in the tenth century, on account of the attacks of Vikings in the North of Brittany.
The only other surviving monasteries of St Triac (aka Brioc) are at Llandyfriog in Ceredigion (Rees gives Tyfriog (House of Brioc/Triac) ap Dingad-indicating that St Dingat was the father of Triacus (the Latin form of Brioc)Approximate date of the death of St Illtyd was 537AD.
There is also a Church dedicated to him in Cornwall-St Brioc near Wadebridge (I have posted on this church also)

In iconography, he is seen an an abbbot's robes, sometimes with a wolf at his feet.

SUNRISE CANDLEMAS IN GWENT and ERGYNG February 2nd 2011 8pm

2011-02-10T01:03:00.000-08:00

I left home at 6pm in complete darkness to attend this wonderful ceremony at Belmont Abbey.........

One of the most beautiful of the Christian Masses celebrating the Presentation of the Lord, a Light to Lighten the Gentiles. There is an ommission in the 'Nunc Dimittis at the end,of the word 'Salvation'-a rather important word, but it takes a long time to upload a video so my apologies.

This is a ceremony from a wonderful

and reverent Benedictine House, which does so much to support the Faithful in Monmouthshire.In spite of the 8am start, I was privileged to be present.

GARWAY PICTURES AND TEMPLAR CARVINGS

2011-02-03T00:46:00.000-08:00

Templar Church of St Michael, Garway. Travel Directions are given in the last post.

Holy well, before restoration

Altar incisions from the date of the earliest stone church (Saxon or earlier)

Stoup, where the Templars and others rememmbered their baptism and ritually invoked the Father Son and Holy Spirit when entering and leaving church, exactly as today.

Altar Incision, from consecration of altar in Catholic times.

A 'Green Man' Carving, for Christians denoting new life in Christ.

Cross inside the Garway Church

Norman arch in Garway Church

Carving outside the walls

Templar Carving outside the church on the Walls

Another Carving Knights Templar

Fish -one of the earliest Christian signs, which Evelyn Lord, an acknowledged expert on the Templars, believes to have belonged to an earlier Church, the successor to St Dyfrig's (Dubricius) church which was laid waste by Vikings.

Blessed Sacrament above the piscina

A little unclear, but you can see the door into a previous ROUND nave, which can be traced outside into an ambulatory which seems to have gone around the outside-although I think I can see a much smaller, earlier Saxon church traced in the wall.

Outside the Nave

Beautiful Carving showing a Knight spurred on by angels.

This looks like a niche for a statue-possibly of the 'Blessed' Mother. (words of Angel Gabriel)

Earlier carving in the church, but I am not sure, what it is!

The Lost Templars of Monmouthshire and the Marches - Ancient Traces III LLANGERWY-GARWAY

2011-01-31T02:19:00.000-08:00

Garway is well known as a templar preceptory and there is excellent information from Bob Simmonds site which you can c+ p or visit here:
http://www.thetemplebooklet.co.uk/Bobs%20Garway.htm
I am just putting forward my own photos here and giving basic information about the site, which is absolutely fascinating if you are a Templar fan.

Bruce Coplestone-Crow has suggested, not unreasonably, that the name mutated into Lagademar* ("Lagad-emar"), which is is recorded in the Domesday book as in Archenfield, TRE* (that is, tempora regis Eduardis - in the time of Edward the Confessor). Lagademar is then annotated "Garwi" in the "Herefordshire Domesday" book* (a 1160's copy of the Domesday with annotations and updates: Info), indicating they are the same location or one is in the other.

As secondary evidence* the Domesday Book notes the current holder of the land as Herman* (de Dreux*). In 1189, Richard I entitled to the 'Knights Templar' the area of Langarewi (i.e. Llan Garewi; Llan Garway) including with it castellario quod frit Hermanii*. Coplestone-Crow has suggested the castle was at Welsh Newton, where Pembridge Castle stood - this would (apparently) have been within the manor of Garway* (Castlefield Farm, just south of Garway Hill, stretches towards Grosmont Castle on the first Ordnance Survey maps, while the castle north at Orcop isn't mentioned in the Domesday book and is therefore thought to be later - neither are therefore likely to be associated with Herman's castle).

White has suggested the name "Garway" alternatively derives from Gaergwy ("fort above the river")*, while Mathews* suggests it may also derive from a discription of the river Garron as garw wy "the rough stream(?)". This seems to suggest an early British 'llan' and there is even there is another Welsh name for Garway of Llanwrfwy*. ( from an earlier spelling ((G)uorvei. The original church was in wood or mud and wattles and situated above the present Church.

LOCATION
St. Michaels Church via the M.5 motorway. Leave the M.5 at junction 8 and move on to the M50, up to Ross-on-Wye. At the end of the M.50, travel a short distance on the A.40 to Bridstow and then turn on to the A.49. In about four miles turn left on to the B.4521. Travel along this for about eight miles, crossing the A.4137 (Whitchurch) and the A.465 (Monmouth) roads. In the Broad Oak make a right turn for the village of Garway.

The church is at the far end of the village, down a hill and turn left down the little road at the bottom - the church is signposted. The church can be seen on the left and Church Farm with its Templar dovecote is just beyond it.

The church was one of only be seen in six Templar churches in the whole of England and Wales (previously Welsh Marches) The church tower was used as a Keep or a refuge and only joined to the church in the fifteenth century.

The former Templar Preceptory, once located on what is now Church Farm, was of strategic importance overlooking the Monnow valley and the Welsh border and the headquarters of all the Templar Commanderies

Newport /Pencarn (on coastal road from Newport to Cardiff)
Llanmadoc
Kemys Commander and the Pembridge Castle Bridge
Bonvillston

Connection with ST DYFRIG/DUBRICIUS This was an early foundation of the Saint.The land

was granted by the King to St. Dyfrig in the sixth century with 108 acres for the church.

In the 1180s, The Knights Templar were granted all the land in Llangarewi by Henry II and this was confirmed to the Knights in 1199 by King John. They used the land to pay for the upkeep of the Templar organisation and for corridies for old, disabled and wounded Templars. As monk-warriors, many had no families to return to, and wished to remain within the order.

Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the British Templars.later was horribly martyred by the ironically named French King, Philip the Fair, visited Garway in 1294. The lands of Garway are now called Church Farm.Parts of the Preceptory could still be seen in 1844 but that stone was used to build the farm.

Philip the 'Fair' greedy and evil king of France

Philip the Fair's greed and false assertations of Templar 'abuses' led to his imprisonment and horrible killling of the movement. this was entirely a political affair. The Pope's investigation ground slowly and eventually turned up a few cases of abuse, but 'pushed' nby Philip the Fair, the Pope decided to shut down the order and give the Templar assets to the Hospitallers.Most countries, turned a blind eye to Templars themselves and many kings had their eyes on the Templar gold themselves and the Hopitallers had a job to succeed to their lands, and I believe there were court cases to retrieve lands from greedy landowners, wealth being the main motive behind their compliance with the Templar supression. However, there is one entry in the Prisoners of the Tower of London, which indicate that most escaped with their lives.The Hospitallers also wrangled with the government around 1308 as they argued they were outside the tax system like the Templars.They have kept three successive Bishops of Hereford out of Garway out of Garway Church,

because he desired to tax them.

The entry in the list of prisoners of the Tower was as follows:

1307 KNIGHTS TEMPLAR Robbery, murder and "shocking habits". Order dissolved. Goods assigned to Knights of St John of Jerusalem. All members sent to other monasteries. List of Prisoners of the Tower of London.

Knights Hospitallers

The Hospitallers changed the circular nave to a rectangular shape sometime in the 15th century. The guidebook tells us that the circular nave could have become unstable due to landslip or subsidence. Also worth lookin at is the very fine Chancel roof which the Hospitallers built around 1400, which the guidebook says is one of the finest examples of the Herefordshire style of medieval roofing. The Hospitallers owned the Manor of Garway including the church until the dissolution of the monasteries in around 1540.

A Loyal Catholic Village in Penal times 1536-ca 1830

Following the dissolution of the monasteries, St Michael's became a simple village Church, which it has remained to this day. However the period of 200 years after the dissolution of the monasteries was a time of religious turmoil in Garway because most villagers remained Roman Catholic and, as a consequence, they were continually fined and their property confiscated. So a place to visit for pilgrimage in thanksgiving.

You can still see many Templar Carvvings and signs around the Church, a fine Norman arch and fine templar coffin lids used as steps etc in the Church.

The Churrch contains 17th century Pews (after the Reformation) It underwent a Victorian restoration in 1836, and it probably literally stopped the church from going into ruin.

The Holy Well is situated at the church wall and in the past year alone there has been: a historical pageant about the history of Garway and Archenfield, a May Day celebration, and a 'well-dressing' and at the reopening of an ancient holy well.

Evelyn Lord in her excellent book about the Templars in Britain wites that some of the marks in the south

chapel, representing the holy chalice, a holy wafer, a fish and a serpent, might be from the earlier church at Llangerwy, might have been from an earlier church on the premises. These are often considered part of the Templars' 'mystic rituals' but may not be of their time. The Circular Keep or tower of the church was also apparently, apart from a store house and place of defence, a place where people could be incarcerated, in other words a prison. Evelyn Lord refers to the Reverend E.F.Powys in a lecture to the Cambrian Archeological Association also suggested that the windows in the east and west windows of the church were so high , in order that people ccooould not look in on the 'secret rites' of the templars. He claimed that a prredecessor had found an old chestt under the floor of the chancel that had contained deeds and other documents belonging to the order, which had long since 'disappeared'. It seems in 1308, the year it was turned over to the Hospitallers, Garway had a manor, a water mill and a chapel, which may have been the south chapel in the church. There were 200 acres in desmesne in open fields.Evelyn Lord tells us there was a baker and a cook and other servants, in addition to three elderly corrodians who had donated their money and lands to the order in exchange for being looked after in old age. Evelyn Lord also says that it was perhaps the closeness to Wales (formerly of course was Wales) that the Templars at Garway were younger than everywhere else when they were arrested in 1308. Philip de Mewes (preceptor) had been in the Order only five years and William de Pocklington for three! Perhaps the fact the order contained knightly class people from the country is also shown in the fact there were no Welsh names in the Templars arrested in 1308.

Sanctuary

Garway, like the church at Llanthony Abbey, had the right of Sanctuary as can be seen in the picture above left. Poaching and other crimes carried the sentence of death from civil authorities, but if a criminal (and remember the crimes were often quite slight, like poaching) entered such a church clung to the altar and called for sanctuary , he had forty days to consider his options. After that, he had to give himself up or abjure the realm, be escorted to a port and take passage on a ship, or could be killed on sight. trials by ordeal were civil practices and officially not allowed by the church, but this was often ignored, as the very livelihoods of many places relied on the co-operation of such civil authorities.

Jerusalem the Centre of the Order

We learn that the Welsh Templar properties lay at the end of a chain of authority which started in Jerusalem and was overseen from provincial government and Garway was the last management post. When the Hospitallers took it over, they immediately let out the lands , realising that the Welsh estates were difficult to manage. Evelyn Lord says there is evidence in Aragon, that the Templar land in Bonvillston, Glamorgan that this villiage and Templeton were to be leased into the Lordship of Narberth but points out that they always received the same rents and were not able to capitalise when food prices were high.
More pictures from Garway NEXT!!

Another trace of Templar Connections can be found in the font at Llanrothal. Was the local Lord of the Manor a Templar, or did the Templars donate the font to the Church. Llanrothal is near Monmouth.
Here is a link to my blog on Llanrothal
http://maryinmonmouth.blogspot.com/2010/01/dreamy-llanrothal-templar-connections.html

The Lost Templars of Monmouthshire and the Marches - Ancient Traces II Stephen de Hastings and the Hastings Family

2011-01-27T02:22:00.000-08:00

The Hastings Family had many connections with the Templar Order, Stephen de Hastings of Abergavenny being one of them. this is a monument of William de Hastings here, which is in the Mediaeval monuments Chapel, formerly the Ladye Chapel of Abergavenny Priory, a Benedictine Priory (now St Mary's Parish church in Abergavenny).Stephen had been reputedly been a Grand Master, but this has been refuted by Evelyn Lord, the authority of the Templars in England. The date given is 1348, and so by this time the Templar Order

had already been suppressed, and the Hospitallers given their land.

Abergavenny Benedictine Priory,
now St Mary's Church and right next to the town's car park!

Another member of the dynasty of the de Hastings. The beautiful alabaster work has been attacked with hammers during the time of Cromwell whose soldiers knocked out all the stained glass in the church, stabled horses in there and used it as a latrine.

It was spared earlier attacks as the local nobility of Abergavnny was closely connected with the House of Tudor and these were their tombs.

Here are all the members of William's family. All the Knights have their shields beneath them and arre praying for the soul of William de Hastings. In the middle is the blessed Mary and angels.

Temple Grafton. Further afield is Temple Grafton near Stratford upon Afon.Not only was this another templar preceptory, but is reputedly the place where Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.

The priest at Temple Grafton was a priest who was unsympathetic to the new church of Henry VIII, still secretly said Mass and married and gave the sacraments at the churrch, while conforming outwardly. He was eventually found out and relieved of his post. Joseph Pierce charts Shakespeare's life and career through this turbulent time, and his secret

Catholicism. Certainly this was the reason for marrying so far from Stratford, and the actual reason for his friendship with other former clergy and recusants, such as the Earl of Southampton.Secrrecy was of the essence.Many people had to outwardly conform at this time.

This is a plan of the Victorian restoration of the Church

The Lost Templars of Monmouthshire and the Marches - Ancient Traces I

2011-01-25T08:21:00.000-08:00

The Knights Templars were the earliest founders of the military orders, and are the type on which the others are modelled. They are marked in history by their humble beginning, their marvellous growth, and by their tragic end.

Knight of the Holy Sepulchre,Monument at St Woolos Cathedral (St Gundleius Abbey) The other knights are to be seen in the fragment above, praying for his soul.
Sir John Morgan 1493 .See below)

‘Poor Knights of Christ’, protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land from Muslim invaders.
Immediately after the deliverance of Jerusalem, the Crusaders, considering their vow fulfilled, returned in a body to their homes. The defense of this precarious conquest, surrounded as it was by Mohammedan neighbours, remained. In 1118, during the reign of Baldwin II, Hugues de Payens, a knight of Champagne, and eight companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom. Baldwin accepted their services and assigned them a portion of his palace, adjoining the temple of the city; hence their title "pauvres chevaliers du temple" (Poor Knights of the Temple ). Poor indeed they were, being reduced to living on alms, and, so long as they were only nine, they were hardly prepared to render important services, unless it were as escorts to the pilgrims on their way from Jerusalem to the banks of the Jordan, then frequented as a place of devotion.

The Templars had at this stage no distinctive habit nor rule. Hugues de Payens journeyed to the West to seek the approval of the Church and to obtain recruits. At the Council of Troyes (1128), at which he assisted and at which St. Bernard of Citeaux was the leading spirit, the Knights Templars adopted the Rule of St. Benedict, as recently reformed by the Cistercians. They accepted not only the three perpetual vows, besides the crusader's vow, but also the austere rules concerning the chapel, the refectory, and the dormitory. They also adopted the white habit of the Cistercians, adding to it a red cross.

Notwithstanding the austerity of the monastic rule, recruits flocked to the new order, as we have described last week, with Bishop Baldwin and Gerald of Wales going all around Monmouthshire recruiting.There were comprise four ranks of brethren:
• the knights , equipped the heavy cavalry of the Middle Ages ;
• the serjeants , who formed the light cavalry;
and two ranks of non-fighting men:
• the farmers , entrusted with the administration of temporal (physical needs-food etc)
• and the chaplains , who alone were vested with sacerdotal orders , to minister to the spiritual needs of the order.

From then on, the Templars heroically protected the Christian pilgrims, who were armed and encouraged to go on such a pilgrimage to the Holy Places, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. They became rich and powerful and successfully in the main managed to reclaim some lands from the conquering Moslems.In the end however, the Richard I, the Lion Heart treated with Salahaddin. He was poised to take back Jerusalem but realised that the Moslems had conquered all the surrounding lands,with the sword and forced conversions to that faith, which was on a mission to take over all the middle east and Europe. It would clearly need huge resources to hold the city in the future. A treaty was made with Salahaddin to allow Christian pilgrimage and the Templars returned home.

The tragic conclusion of these brave knights was a complete muddle of an evil king wishing to rob the Templars of their wealth and a weak pope, unable to stop him. There was a Commission of Philip the Fair, where various allegations were made against the templars and ennabled him to have them arrested and executed and fill his coffers. Some 'confessed to guilt' which was not there and many of these brave and valiant knights went to their death on cooked up trials after suffering terrible torture by Philip’s men, to extract bogus confessions.
By the time of the papal inquiry, they found that many of the accusations had been made up, although some abuses had occurred because of the secrecy with which the order conducted itself, some abuses had crept in, including some unsavoury ones, including murder and devil worship and sodomy in a sacred place, but these really were very much in the minority and truly unequal to the task, the pope decided to disband the Order and give their lands to the Hospitallers, another order of military Knights, but sadly he acted so slowly that some knights still met their terrible ends after giving their lives to protect pilgrims and Christian lands in the Holy Land.
In England,the following is recorded in the Book of Prisoners in the Tower of London
1307 KNIGHTS TEMPLAR Robbery, murder and "shocking habits". Order dissolved. Goods assigned to Knights of St John of Jerusalem. All members sent to other monasteries.

Left:

These fragments of alabaster are the only remainsof a mmonument, which once stood in the body of the Church,erected as the arms denote, to the memory of Sir John Morgan of Tredegar +++Knight of the Holy Sepulchre+++who died 1493 andhis wife, daughter and heiress of David Matthew of Llandaf

There is scant evidence of this Templar involvement, but there are some sacred places. Such as St Brides Netherwent-Sant y Brid. It seems the Lord had Templar connections, for there is in that beautiful little church (Ave Maria bell of 1295) a templar tombstone brought in from the churchyard, or more probably kept as a monument of the church. Nothing seems to be known about the person commemorated now as desecrations subsequent to the Reformation or Cromwell have removed the identity, but the person it did commemorate was a Poor Knight of Christ. .

Templar Tombstone at St Brides, Netherwent an abandoned Mediaeval village.

What is sad about it, is that this was a living , breathing human being who went all the way to the Holy Land to protect pilgrims and defend the Holy Places and, grateful it was preserved, who was he? Was he a de Huntley of the local manor. Probably as such a stone looks like worldly status.

St Bride's Netherwent
Sant y Brid

On a Llan site, next to a redundant Mediaeval village.Has a thirteenth century 'AVE MARIA' bell.

Church at Moccas

Looking at this church, with its great apse, immediately struck me as a Templar Church and I was not disappointed. I had become interested in this church because it was an ancient Christian llan or monastic settlement of the great St Dyfrig when Ergyng and Gwent were neighbouring kingdoms and this area still part of Wales. I was not disappointed when I entered the church, which you have to approach through private land, though a right of way is afforded at normal times.

The Knight Templar is

believed to be Richard de Fresne, with his legs crossed to show he has been on Crusade lies facing the altar of his Lord. The Apse has been rebuilt in Victorian times, but in a similar style and there are interesting stained glass windows of Victorian age. The Choir stalls are unusually constructed in a kind of box formation in the chancel around the 'sleeping' crusader.

Apse
The apse at the end, which has been rebuilt gives a Templar feel to the whole setting of the monument of Richard de Fesne and box pews are all around in a square, facing it. The Altar is in the apse.

All Saints Kemys Commmander, a Commandery or Perceptory of the Templars. a nearby cottage is still called 'Templar Cottage'.I visited in 2009.

In the Report of Prior Philippe de Thame to the Grand Master Elyan de Villanova for AD 1338, not so long after the take over from the Templars, it seems to have been just land and a church-and village.
The Report and account on Kemys Commander is:

Est ibidem unum mesagium quod valet
ijsItem CXX acre terre, pretium acr
ijjd Summa xxxs (30 shillings

Et ecclesia ibidem in proprios usus valet per annum 1 s (shilling)

So the villagers' tithes were not worth as much as the fields being farmed.

An early window in the church, which originally would not have had much natural light and been lit by candles.

Interestingly, Garway is included as the head quarters of the Welsh Templars in the Hospitallers' Report.

Simple Church with a barrel roof, sanctuary and chancel and nave. Most of the furnishings in the church are modern.

Piscina, where the remains of the precious Blood and any crumbs from the Sacrament are sent back to the earth. These were often blocked up by Protestants, although Anglo Catholic churches often kept them.

Tried to upload a link to google maps, but for some reason was unsuccessful-however here is a small detail of the location of Kemys Commander.

Llanmadoc Church near Swansea (dedicated to St Madoc) was the other Templar /Hospitaller Preceptory or Commandery in Wales.

The present churrch of St Madoc in Llanmadoc, (LB 11532 II) dates to the twelfth century. When the Saxons and Normans conquered the area, the church was given to the Knights Templar in 1156 by Margaret, Countess of Warwick and, after the suppression of the order imposed by Pope Clement V in 1309, to the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem. In turn the church was seized from the Church by the officers of Henry VIII so he could benefit from the proceeds during the Dissolution of the Monastery. The Church building was renovated by Revd J D Davies, a local historian, who spent £500 on the restoration of the building which was finished in 1866, and the nave, tower and chancel were partially rebuilt. All the windows were restored. The eastern window to the south of the chancel may be the original medieval east window relocated.

St Wulfstans Hospital (near Worceter)

This was founded by a Templar known only as Walter, who began the hospital on his return from the Holy Land. It is now open to the public as a museum with Mediaeval exhibits and others. It was a wonderful hospital supported by the Knights Templar and subsequently by the Hospitallers, although the Bishop had to step in at times, as it became financially profitable too, and he needed to make sure the money ended up with the poor and sick. Henry VIII closed the hospital and turned out these people.

Tomorrow I will look at Temple Grafton and at Garway, the largest and most influential of all the Templar properties.

ST CURUG’S CHAPEL, CATSASH AND PRIEST HOLES!

2011-01-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

A Roman Villa, ancient Church and Mass Centre West of Christchurch on Roman Road on way to Llanbedr.

The church and later in were raised at the junction of two ancient roads, both used by the Romans. The Ridgeway came from Trellech heights through Wentwood , while the Chepstow Road came via Penhow and Llanbedr. Part of the original road, The Ridgeway can still be seen leading of the road to Abernant, a short distance from the junction. There are no existant records of this Inn as an inn, but there is strong folk memory of this inn and another at Goldcliff, a Benedictine Priory who owned and served Eglwys y Drindod at Christchurch.

Every so often I become really enchanted, when Monmouthshire throws up an unexpected gem. The thought that so many saints are standing all around us, urging us on, in a county that has traditionally been so faithful is quite fascinating and encouraging. However, a ‘tip off’ from a friend led me last Friday to a wonderfully interesting place. This was Catsash on the ancient Roman road-villa Julia, which comes out at Christchurch. The interesting mediaeval window had caught a friends eye and he was anxious I should investigate. I decided to find it for myself and I found a mediaeval chapel, where Henry II, after having St Thomas Becket murdered had made a pilgrimage to St Davids, and reputedly stopped a while here in Monmouthshire at the small Capel Curig next to the original Roman road and prayed, reflecting his crime. Both the church and the inn, however, were to yield many more secrets, than even I dreamed, thrilled to discover another gem of a chapel, where it seems wartime dances were held, and the only place large enough to house activities for the hamlet.In fact it is possible the whole farm and original inn was built on the foundations of the original villa,

The church and later in were raised at the junction of two ancient roads, both used by the Romans. The Ridgeway came from Trellech heights through Wentwood , while the Chepstow Road came via Penhow and Llanbedr. Part of the original road, The Ridgeway can still be seen leading of the road to Abernant, a short distance from the junction. There are no existant records of this Inn as an inn, but there is strong folk memory of this inn and the one at Christchurch, where the monks from the Benedictine Priory at Goldcliffe (who owned and served Eglwys y Drindod (Church of the Holy Trinity) stayed when they said Mass there. These monks were originally from the Abbey of Bec in Normandy.

Saint Curig’s Church in a Roman Villa possibly renamed for St Cyricus by Normans

On the face of it, St Curig is a strange saint for Gwent. St Curig, Curig the Blessed was a sixth century Bishop of Llanbadarn-very close to Aberystwyth in Dyfed. Capel Curig also houses a church dedicated to him, possibly because he was born in the area and is commemorated there, and it is possible a small mud and wattles church was erected and dedicated to him. There often seems to be a ‘mirror effect’ with a church dedicated to a saint in North Wales practically ‘twinned’ with one in South Wales as happens with so many. However Wales was part of the one world wide universal church and by 1066, the Normans took advantage ,perhaps of the similarity of their names to change Curig for Saint Cyricus. His mother was JULITTA (and there is a church near Boscastle dedicated to her)In the 4th century ,the Diocletian persecution was raging. Julitta was sidowed with a three year old son. Her life was too dangerous and she decided to leave with her son from Iconium in central Turkey. Entrance to Priest Hole

So she fled to Saleucia and she found that the governor there, too was persecuting Christians. The four runaways travelled on to Tarsus but they were recognised and arrested. Julitta was tried with her young son and refused to say anything about her life,e xcept she was a Christian. They decided to put her on the rack and beaten. The guards leading her away frightened the child separated from his mother and Alexander in order to pacify him to ok him on to his knee but the child kicked and scratched him and the governor, furious hurled the toddler to the ground killing him with a fractured skull.Julitta did not weep, instead she tahanked God and went cheerfully to torture and death. Her son was martyred. This made the governor angier and he decided Julitta should be disembowelled and then beheaded.Julitta and cyricus were flung outside the city on a heap of criminal corpses but maids rescued the corpses and buried them in a field nearby.

So runs the Life of St Julitta and St Cyricus, martyrs and if the original chapel was dedicated to St Curig, it is possible during the Norman re-organisation that the saint being commemorated was St Cyricus, someone they knew something about and could pass off as similar to the Welsh saint and bishop.The Normans were not unsympathetic to the Welsh church, but could not speak Welsh, nor pronounce the names of he ancient saints, many of whom were retained in the place names if not in the dedication of the church. This was policy of the conquerors, not of the church as an organisation.

The Chapel of St Curig, Bishop of Llanbadarn, or St Cyricus of Iconium.

This Chapel , at the side of the Roman road, Via Julia was once a Roman Villa and mentioned in the Book of Llandaff as the Villa Cathouen. In the time of Trychan, bishop of Llandaff in the fifth century, it was given to the See by someone called Erbig and described as the Villa of Carhouen, the son of Hundu (hindee) and built along site of the Dowlais brook. It means, (in common withMichaelstone-le-Fedw, St Medwyn’s church west of Newport), it was possibly originally church on an old Roman site, and possible even a Roman ‘house’ church, so common in early British Christianity. Of course, when Romans left, local British owners either lived in them or had no use for them and in this case, the building was handed over to Llandaff shortly after they left . It also may mean that the original church was actually a Roman villa, dedicated to a Welsh saint and in Norman times given the dedication of St Cyricus. In fact there was widespread devotion to both him and Julitta, with churches dedicated to her in Cornwall, but Staircase leading to the loft of the church and blocked the original dedication likely to have been Welsh.
Decorated window, in what is now a wood store.

Outside of the baking oven Elizabethan doorways

Add caption

Extra window added to North aisle of church, next to a secret spiral staircase.
The decorated window, which had first attracted attention in the Eastern wall of the church was dated to the fourteenth century, so it seems, it was rebuilt in Norman times, when it probably gained its new dedicated. Above the window are the coping stones which indicate the original roof lines of an even earlier building. By the thirteenth century, from Erbig’s ‘Villa Calhouen’ it had become Cattisaisshe by 1536, the year of the dissolution of many of the monasteries, a fascinating document had been drawn up (quoted by Sir Joseph Bradney). This was where William Morgan of Pencoed let to Morgan ap Einion for 99 years ‘the old chapel at Caiche Ashe’ in which’ prayers were to be said for his soul by the parson of Langstone’. He left one shilling yearly for four masses ‘for the fowles of his auncestrices, his fowle and his wiff fowle and all that cu’mys of his body’ and £5 for ‘repairs to the walls, windows and roof of the chapel’. Indeed this was the only church between Christchurch and Llanbedr, as I wrote before, many travellers will have stopped here for rest and recuperation, as well as , it seems Henry II on his pilgrimage to St Davids (Tydewi)

The Church and the Inn
Interestingly the Inn at St Curigs was joined to the church, probably at some point after ther Reformation. The church was probably sold off to a publican at some stage, and by 1604 a John Thomas had built a fine Inn next door .There is a shield over the door ,bearing what looks like and alpha and omega mark with John Thom written over it. At the rear of the house are barns , which used to be stables where the horses were kept when it was an inn, and it seems there was also a sign on the house where there was once a sign with a cat sitting in an ash tree.
The chapel is approximately 34 feet by 17 feet with a blocked in window of which the coigns remain. Mr and Mrs Rosser, the charming owners of the property were so kind to show me round and the floor of the chapel is used to store wood .It seems an upper floor has been built, with a staircase at the altar end (sanctuary-where the Blessed Sacrament would have been kept).

A Recusant Hideaway (‘secret Catholics’)

Upstairs , however, there was something which spoke of the history of this interesting chapel. In the wall of the chapel was a small door, wide enough for a slim person to get through, this was leading into the space upstairs. I was told, there was a ‘secret room’in there about 4 feet by 4 feet. Also the windows were of more recent date on the north side, giving a good vantage point. It seems, we had a priest hole, which means, almost certainly the secret masses were said at St Curig’s even after the ‘ Reformation’. Mr Rosser told me there was another priest hole in the house and all the house’s original features were still there, albeit enclosed .

When the middle aged Henry VIII had ‘divorced’ his wife of 35 years Blessed Catherine of England in order to marry the ambitious Anne Boleyn, faithful Catholics were forced to attend Henry’s Church on pain of heavy fines. Going without their sacraments grieved them and many would meet quietly in remote chapels, farmhouses and inns, posting ‘lookouts’ for soldiers and ‘priest hunters’ out to catch priests. These priests were often sons and daughters of devout people of the areas, who trained in Northern France, or even Rome or Spain to be priests, and then put their lives on the line to return to Monmouthshire to serve their flocks. The break with Apostolic succession meant they did not acknowledge the new church, but while outwardly conforming and attending services in what were now parish churches of the new faith, they continued to attend Mass, where priests could be found. The whole business of sending out priests initially was masterminded from Raglan Castle, where the Earls of Pembroke were devout Catholics, and received and sent out priests. When the castle fell to Fairfax following the stay of King Charles I and its subsequent support for the royalist cause, the priests founded their own college at the Cwm farmhouse another remote place near Monmouth, who were led by the blessed saint David Lewis, the ‘Father of the Poor’ a fluent Welsh speaker and son of the headmaster of Abergavenny School.
Other Centres of Catholic Recusancy in Monmouthshire
These heroic priests had a hard life travelling from one place to another, often at night, sleeping in hedgerows and barns for safety . The interesting thing about Monmouthshire was its faithfulness. The nobility of Monmouthshire, with two notable exceptions, stayed true to the old faith, especially the heroic Herbert family, descendants of the Earls of Pembroke.The nobility and others had houses built all over the country which contained places priests could be hidden, should soldiers come. Also inns and farmhouses contained such hiding places and remote churches and chapels. Generally they are in North Monmouthshire, notable examples being at Abergavenny, in the Gunter House, Blackbrook House near Skenfrith, Llanrothal, Bettws Newydd , a priest hole at the old Benedictine Priory Church at Llanciwa Inow Llangua) priest holes at Treowen ,the Joneses being another offshoot of the Herbert family. If priests were kept there, there were often marks around the door, which told other faithful Catholics that it was a Catholic household. These were often the ‘tools of the crucifixion’ nails, hammer etc. and the origin of the phrase ‘five for the symbols at your door’ in the ‘secret catechism’ Green grow the Rushes –O.’

Survival of the Old Faith in spite of the ‘Gunpowder Plot’of 1605

Catholicism managed to survive in North Monmouthshire because of the Welsh language and what is interesting is that in the English –speaking south of the county there were fewer such places , notable examples being the large ‘hen house’ at Llanarth Court near Usk, which kept a priest and a chapel disguised as a hen house throughout the ‘penal times’ , and one at Cafn Mabley between Newport and Cardiff. Since there were so few, it was exciting to find another at Capel Curig here at Catsash, near Christchurch, where our brothers and sisters worshipped at great danger to themselves and where William Thomas himself may have been a faithful Catholic, as such secret passages and priestholes would have had to have been built into that original Inn in 1604, during the reign of James I. Interestingly too this was the year before the Herford rebellion of Catholics in Hereford, over a Catholic woman being refused burial in the local churchyard, when a whole Herefordshire villiage rebelled and fled into Monmouthshire and the summary death of poor, frail father Ainsworth of Skenfrith who was unable to escape. It was also a year before the ‘Gunpowder plot’ where a group of desperate young Catholics tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. This ‘plot’ never had any chance of succeeding, being managed from the first by the government. James I in deference to his mother was determined to be tolerant of both Catholics and Puritans forced to flee England (as Wales had by now , according to Henry VIII ceased to exist (1536) and the wealthy men in government, grown rich on the lands and the monasteries, which they had made into nice homes for themselves, were determined the Church should not be tolerated and worked hard at ‘spin’ against Catholics which was highly effective , and still exists to this day in some quarters.
Life at Capel Curig during Recusant times
In fact only the government had gunpowder and so Lord Burleigh knew about it all along and encouraged the ‘rebels’ knowing such a plot would alarm Londoners so that they would know that Catholics were evil and traitors and procured horrible lingering deaths for all these men, who would not have been driven to this extreme except for the raft of about twenty eight laws passed against people of the original faith of these islands. In spite of this, the county remained faithful, because of the support of the local aristocracy who protected their priests and people as far as they could, and sought for the welfare of the faithful, even though they had to attend the parish church on Sundays to escape punitive fines, some families fleeing to France for a hundred years and returning when the persecution ended. Yet the county remained staunch in its support for the Old Faith, and whilst it was disappointing all these secret places at Capel Curig were boarded up, it was warming to know that here was a place where John Thomas had kept a priest pr at least maintained one and masses were said, people were buried, others were christened and married and where the faithful gathered on dark nights secretly and the old Bishop Curig of Llanbadarn had nodded in approval. Lookouts would warn of soldiers and the priest pushed into his hole and hidden, whilst worshippers pretended to be patrons at the pub. Another such inn in South Monmouthshire is the White Hart at Llangibby (Llancybi) where a priest hole can still be seen displayed behind a fireplace. After the death of the beloved Father Lewis (now ‘Saint David Lewis’ of Usk, though he and his priests served the whole of the county,the community lost heart, but within a short time, Franciscans and other priests returned to take over where they had left off, proving that as Christ had promised Peter, the ‘gates of hell would never prevail against the Church’-the mission would go on.
Original Features Enclosed
A big bake oven from the original inn was still there at the extreme south of the inn and the large inglenook fireplace in the centre of the inn, was also enclosed. I saw large spacious rooms and some Elizabethan black oak doorways and passageways. Then Mr Rosser told me too, that there was a second priest hole in the house, leading from another enclosed spiral staircase. There are heavy oak ceiling beams. Fred Hando, writing in 1957 said he had heard of a secret staircase at Catsash Inn and Mrs Rosser produced a note written by Lady Watson, wife of Sir Thomas Watson, who owned the house. He said the letter contained the following words:

Catsashe secret stairs starts from passage going in cellar in the body of a wall-spiral stone staircase goes up two floors-small place about 4 feet square in wall of the bedroom, oiver th dining room facing the lawn on the first floor Told to Sir Thomas Watson by Parfitt(builder)14 May 1900.

One one of the photos, the ‘bulge’ with the staircase may be seen. These ‘bulges’ were not afterthoughts but considered planning for a staircase or fireplace built to give more room in the house. I was also shown part of the garden he had grassed over, originally a churchyard, which he reverently pointed out,

Mr Rosser is one of those unsung heroes who has maintained and repointed the chapel to preserve it at his own expense without any help from grants from anyone, simply to preserve our heritage, which is what all loyal men of Monmouthshire do.He loves the old chapel and its heritage and it has remained a place of worship and Mass centre for much longer than the age of the church. I would like to thank him and his wife for his kindness to me and the enthusiasm with which I was shown around.The stables were still there where the Ostlers would change horses and were Catholics would ride in for Mass and a jar afterwards! This is very much a listed private property and I am very grateful for seeing.it

EPIPHANY AT TEWKESBURY ABBEY-Festival of 1000 Lights!

2011-01-20T01:50:00.000-08:00

On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, an Epiphany Carol Service (complete with mulled wine and mince pies was held at beautiful Tewkesbury Abbey) This former (now Anglican)Benedictine Abbey has a very close connection with Gwent, as its monks once inhabited Goldcliff Abbey and served it, as the monks of Gloucester were granted St Gwynlliw's (Woolos') monastery in Newport and administered it. This included Marshfield church near Peterstone and various other churches including Bassaleg. The singing of Lullay mine lyking by Holst and many other wonderful carols in the spaces around the abbey church was stunning and a worthy tribute to Carlton Etherington, Choirmaster and Benjamin Nicholas the superb organist. Choirs from all over the Anglican spectrum in the area joined together to promote an audio visual feast. The singing of Bethlehem of Noblest Cities and The First Noel, complete with choir kings and full organ was very inspiring as was the work of hundreds of volunteers, providing all the candle displays and mince pies. It was very happy and ecumenical occasion, as many Catholics attended, complete with Christians of all Protestant denominations! At the end chalk was blessed and each Christian given a piece of chalk to draw over the lintel of their house , proclaiming it to be Christian.A wonderful evening enjoyed by many, and much credit must be given to Rev Paul Williams the vicar and all his team for organising it for the whole community!

PREACHING THE CRUSADES IN GWENT!-Part TWO-PATRISHOW, USK, CAERLEON, NEWPORT

2011-01-05T03:05:00.000-08:00

PATRISHOW

After leaving Llanthony, Archbishop Baldwin and Prior Gerald made their way, along with their recruits to the next port of call. This was the highly popular pilgrimage site and healing well at Patrishow. Here St Issui the Martyr had met his end tending to a homeless stranger. You can search this blog to find the rest of the story. The bridge over the stream still is said to contain a small cross incised by the visitors of 1188

St Issui (Welsh for Esau) off the family of Brychan, rapidly gained a growing entourage of pilgrims visiting the Martyr's grave. By Norman times, a stone building had been erected, and in addition the martyr's hovel transformed into a room adjoining, and other buildings. The Bishop of Hereford had declared Issui a saint, so it became popular. Here , under the powerful lantern cross Baldwin preached the sermon.

Beautiful Mediaeval Rood Screen still there

Asking the saint for his intercession in order for the local people to find the bravery to come forward, incense wafting around the Archbishop, people began to come forward, embracing the Cross held by Gerald. An indulgence was attached to the pilgrimage. All those who were without sin, had attended confession and Mass on that day were entitled to a full uindulgence of all their mortal sins if they went on the Pilgrimage. In addition, perhaps, villeins, who would be only to happy to take the chance of a new life away from the drudgery they endured working on the farm.

Pilgrims in the Church at Patrishow

Gerald and Baldwin preached at the foot of this cross

ABERGAVENNY

Preaching Cross near Priory, Abergavenny

We are told the meeting was held at the castle, but the Square was not far away and probably orginally held the old Preaching cross before its destruction by the Protestant authorities.

USK/ Wsg

From Abergavenny, Archbishop Baldwin and his retinue passed by on his way to Newport by way of Usk and Caerleon.’ At the castle at Usk , a multitude of people , influenced by the archbishop ‘s sermons and by the good and worth Bishop of Llandaff were signed with the cross. It is remarkable’ Gerald continues that ‘many of the most notorious murderers, thieves and robbers of the neighbourhood were here converted, to the astonishment of the spectators!’.

CAERLEON
Archbishop Baldwin at Caerleon

At Caerleon, we may have expected the Crusade preachers would have met with a tremendous reception. Gerald however, seems to have forgotten their mission in his eagerness to describe the ancient city.His comments can be seen in Chapter One. ‘Caerleon Means The City Of Legions, Caer, In The British Language, Signifying A City Or Camp, For There The Roman Legions, Sent Into This Island, Were Accustomed To Winter, And From This Circumstance It was styled The City Of Legions

This city was of undoubted antiquity, and handsomely built of masonry, with courses of bricks, by the Romans.

Many vestiges of its former splendour may yet be seen; immense palaces, formerly ornamented with gilded roofs, in imitation of Roman magnificence, inasmuch as they were first raised by the Roman princes, and embellished with splendid buildings; a tower of prodigious size, remarkable hot baths, relics of temples, and theatres, all inclosed within fine walls, parts of which remain standing. You will find on all sides, both within and without the circuit of the walls, subterraneous buildings, aqueducts, underground passages; and what I think worthy of notice, stoves contrived with wonderful art, to transmit the heat insensibly through narrow tubes passing up the side walls.

Julius and Aaron, after suffering martyrdom, were buried in this city, and had each a church dedicated to him. After Albanus and Amphibalus, they were esteemed the chief protomartyrs of Britannia Major. In ancient times there were three fine churches in this city: one dedicated to Julius the martyr, graced with a choir of nuns; another to Aaron, his associate, and ennobled with an order of canons; and the third distinguished as the metropolitan of Wales. Amphibalus, the instructor of Albanus in the true faith, was born in this place. This city is well situated on the River Usk, navigable to the sea, and adorned with woods and meadows.

The Roman ambassadors here received their audience at the court of the great king Arthur; and here also, the archbishop Dubricius (Dyfrig) ceded his honours to David of Menevia, the metropolitan see being translated from this place to Menevia, according to the prophecy of Merlin Ambrosius.

"Menevia pallio urbis Legionum induetur." "Menevia shall be invested with the pall of the city of Legions."

Not far hence is a rocky eminence, impending over the Severn, called by the English Gouldcliffe or golden rock, because from the reflections of the sun's rays it assumes a bright golden colour:

"Nec mihi de facili fieri persuasio posset, Quod frustra tantum dederit natura nito rem Saxis, quodque suo fuerit flos hic sine fructu."

NOVUS BURGO-(NEWPORT) (Newboth/Casnewydd)

Leaving Caerleon, the party passed on to Newport where they spent the night. The enthusiasm for the Crusade was aroused by their indignation at the peril of the Church in the Holy Land. The archbishop arrived in Newport followed by all the recruits from Usk and Caerleon, many of whom were known personally to the Newport people. So the crowd were very excited. At the ale houses, the castle entrance of the Motte and Bailey Castle and anywhere where people could gather together interested men discussed the topic of the day. Among those converts, whose enthusiasm for the cause had brought them into town, a crowd of anxious listeners assembled, eager to obtain any information which they could give. Silently they listened to the accounts given by the archbishop of the witnesses to the sack of Jerusalem and the Archbishop’s dignified bearing and authority.

The following morning there was a scene of extraordinary commotion at an early hour. People from the outlying districts made their way into town, and an immense crowd gathered around the castle ,long before the Archbishop was expected to address the assembly. This is not the present castle.

At last the procession came forth . The Archbishop was attended by William de Salso Marisco , Bishop of Llandaff, Alexander, Archdeacon of Bangor, the learned Gerald and many of the clergy of the neighbourhood. The Chief Normans of the district held places of importance, side by side with many of the native nobility. Behind the archbishop the soldiers of the party were drawn up.

Gerald does not tell us, whether the archbishop preached to the assembly from the castle green, from the churchyard or from the cross, the remains of which can be seen built into the wall at the corner of Havelock Street and Stow Hill. However the exact spot where the sermon was preached is not important .The eloquence of the archbishops preaching roused a great enthusiasm in the listeners and many Newport men enrolled in the Crusades to make the holy places accessible to pilgrims again.
Cardiff
The party then passed out of Gwent to Cardiff, where they spent the night at the Castle before continuing on their journey.

Gerald’s View of the Quality of the Welsh men as fighters and bowmen.
Gerald gives a full account of the Welsh and their habits. They were, he said, light and active, hardy rather than strong and entirely bred up in the use of arms.
They lived on the herbs and the product of their hunting and paid no attention to commerce, shipping or manufactures. Their love of hunting was so great that in times of peace, the young men went out early and did not return until late. Going into the deep forests of Wentwood for example, they learned to endure fatigue and acquired the act of fighting by accustoming themselves to the use of weapons.

Their chief activity was the defence of their country and their liberty, for which they fought, underwent hardships and willingly sacrificed their lives. When the trumpet sounded the alarm, or the warning beacon burst into flames, the husbandman rushed eagerly from his plough as the courtier from the court. Though unarmed they dared to attack an armed foe; through on foot, they defied cavalry and by their activity and courage generally proved victorious.

The men of Gwent were more accustomed to war, more famous for valour, and more expert in archery than those of any other parts of Wales. Their bows were not made of horn or yew, but fashioned from elm , unpolished and rude, but stout’ Giraldus Cambrensis/Gerald the Welshman 1188.

1. Many thanks to the Library Museum and Art Gallery, Newport for getting out the head of the original preaching cross . Gerald and Baldwin would have preached beneath this very cross.

2. Newport have included a new Replica of the original cross for the High Street.

3. The base of the Original Cross is in St Woolos (Gwynlliw's) Churchyard, and its original stite was half way up Stow Hill.

4. The Chapel that Gwynlliw built or Our Lady is still part of the St Woolos(now) Anglican Cathedral.

PREACHING THE CRUSADES IN GWENT!-Part ONE-LLANTHONY

2011-01-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

Gerald of Wales and Archbishop Baldwin arrive in Llanthony

Many people use the term ‘Crusades’ to beat the Catholic Church with the broom of intolerance and bigotry. Sadly these people either completely ignore the facts or have their own agenda, because no historian ,who is an expert on these times agrees with the idea that Christians made war on peaceful Muslim people.The Media in general is also unschooled and ignorant of the facts. Dr Thomas Madden, Professional Historian and Professor of History and Media Studies at the Centre for Renaissance and MMediaeval Christianity of St Louis University, USA has written several books ‘The Fourth Crusade, the Fall of Constantinople’ and ‘A Concise History of the Crusades’. He is Editor of The Crusades magazine . In fact ,Professor Madden says that no serious solid scholarship supports this comonly held but skewed view. Even non Christian scholars say such a view is nonsense. The 'Crusades' were no act of barbarism among peaceful Muslims but a response to the aggression of the Selkjuk Turks who swept across Asia Minor, taking the whole of Turkey from the Christians, and either forcing conversion or killing or making life very difficult or those who would not become Muslims. Even Arabs of other faiths received this treatment.

THE CRUSADERS AND CHURCH DID NOT USE THE WORD 'CRUSADE'. It was a Pilgrimage to defend and relieve their Christian brothers and sisters.They called themselves 'Pilgrims'.‘Crusader’ is a modern term.Sadly at times, groups of pilgrims did break off the main pilgrimages on the way to the Holy Land and become bandits. In the Rhineland, many Jews fled to the Bishops' palaces as men set about robbing Jews. Mankind is sinful and these bandits were no exception. The act, in some cases, they even attacked Bishops protecting the Jews, speaks volumes as to their true intent. Some people will always use popular causes to line their pockets.

Pilgrims 1095-Council of Clarimont.

Knight Pilgrims liberate Christians

After more attacks by Muslims, the Emperor of Contantinople sent an urgent request for help to Rome. The lands which had been brutally conquered were the very ones evangelised by St Paul’ . The Emperor pleaded with the Western Church to come as an act of Brotherly love and solidarity with Christians there to defend them from Muslims and expel them from his lands.. The Muslims waged ‘Jihad’-(holy war) against Christians to force conversions.The crusaders could not travel by sea because they did not own the ports in the Middle East. The journey took them from France, through Italy, through Eastern Europe and down through what is now Turkey. The journey was long, and deadly. Factors such as weather, disease, and supplies slowed down the crusader’s journey. Many crusaders died before ever reaching Jerusalem. Those that reached Jerusalem were so greatly weakened that they did not have much strength left. By 1097, 10,000 men had gathered to fight. There was no commander of the crusades. Bishop Adbeaner was appointed leader, but he preferred to let others lead. The first target for the crusaders was Nicea. Then they went after Antioch, which took seven months to defeat. Then the crusaders targeted Jerusalem. The first initial attack of Jerusalem failed because of lack of supplies. From eyewitness reports (a monk named Fulcher), we know that once the crusaders got over the Jerusalem wall the Muslim defenders ran

In 1076, Muslims took Jerusalem and there was nothing left of Eastern Christian Church,evangelised by St Paul Pilgrims were killed. Turks tore down churches and robbed and killed Christians. All this built up to calling of the Great Pilgrimage, NOWADAYS called First Crusade.Pope Urban and the saintly Bernard of Clairvaux called an armed pilgrimage to help them. Armed pilgrimages were not unknown in the Middle ages.

The first pilgrimage was an act of Penance.Sin had
to be forgiven. On their clothing the pilgrims wore a

Third Crusade -The Crusade of Kings

On their clothing, they wore the sign of the cross the Christus stigmatus. Thus they were visibly a pilgrim .They would, as such receive hospitality along the way. This was always going to be military. They expected trouble and the pope forbade women, children or non combatants. This was only a defence of the lands overrun from Christians by Muslims. In fact in the Thirteenth Century, this was codified in Canon Law-such an armed pilgrimage could ONLY happen in response to aggression and as an act of defence.

Liting of Siege of Antioch

2nd Crusade was a reponse to Attack on the Christian City of Odessa in 1144

3rd Crusade: Conquest of Jewish/Christian City of Jerusalem 1187AD.
4th Crusade: Unhappy ‘Childrens’ Crusade with disastrous consequences.

There were conventionally five crusades but it is-just a convention. There were many of them and they went on for centuries. St Francis of Assissi participated in 5th Crusade. He was not a kind of mediaeval hippy. In Egypt, he tried to convert the Muslims to Christianity then there would be no more bloodshed as lands would be returned to Christians. Francis was a pacifist. He tried to convince everyone to stop fighting. He felt the Christian cause was just in protecting Christian and the Churches St Paul had evangelised.There were certainly no critics of Crusades in the Middle Ages. The Poor Knights of Christ and the Pilgrims were clearly doing God’s work. The Sultan made an offer to Crusaders so they would to leave Egypt. St Francis was allowed into the Sultan’s tent to plead for peace but was not killed so that the negotiations would be harmed.

The rest of the ‘Crusades’ were to defend Europe itself from Muslim ‘Jihad’. This culminated in the threat from a Muslim fleet on Rome at Lepanto, where Don John of Austria with a much smaller fleet of hastily gathered boats, sailing under the Ensign of the Virgin Mary , and the Entire Western church praying the Rosary that Day , conquered and dispersed a much larger Muslim fleet.

Also the Second Siege of Vienna 1683

The Vast Muslim army returned again to lay siege to Vienna. The city had refused the Muslim army entrance and before the battle King Jan of Poland had placed his army under thepersonal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A Polish army and other Christian armies arrived to put the Muslims to flight. They had delayed their attack on the suffering city, where many were dying of hunger, and not expected a combined Christian fight back.The feast of the Holy Name of Mary is celebrated on 12 September on the liturgical calendar of the Church in commemoration of the victory in this battle of Christian Europe over the Muslim forces of the Ottoman Empire. After the battle Pope Innocent XI, wishing to honor Mary, extended the feast to the entire Church. This battle ended the hopes of the Ottomans to make Europe a Muslim country.
Such then is the actual history of the situation regarding ‘Crusades’ until the seventeenth century, recently it seems, and sadly revived
In Monmouthshire Archbishop Baldwin and Gerlad of Wales 'preach' the Great Pilgrimage.

In spite of the efforts of the ‘Poor Knights of Christ’, a religious military order set up to defend pilgrims, by 1187 news had reached Gwent that the Turkish leader Salah’ddin had attacked and captured Jerusalem, with its treasures and relics ,the Temple of Jerusalem and attacked Christian pilgrims trying to reach the Holy Places. The people of Christian Europe were outraged by this, as the conquerors refused to allow Christian pilgrims access to the temple, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, as well as all the other places where Jesus walked.

Preparations were made to defend the faith and restore the take holy places. Henry II proclaimed the Third Pilgrimage Crusade, and sent Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury to preach it in Wales for recruits to protect and save the Holy Places. Geraldus Cambrensis (Gerald the Welshman ) was born in Manorbier near Tenby schooled at St Peter’s Abbey at Gloucester, which long had an association with educating Welsh nobles, studied theology in Parisand throughout his life fought strenuously for he Welsh Church and at St David’s. The Welsh King Llewellyn gave him great praise for all his efforts:

Many and great wars have we Welshmen waged with England

But none so fierce and great as his who fought the king and the Archbishops

And withstood the might and the whole clergy and people of England

For the honour of Wales!

Gerald fought hard to make St David’s an archbishopric, free from the influence of the English Church and the control of Canterbury. He was also frustrated in his attempt to become Bishop himself. The King probably chose Gerald to go on the Great Pilgrimage preaching because he was known as a defender of the Welsh Church and spoke Welsh, which everyone did.This would have removed any prejudice against an English archbishop. Gerald wrote an account of the journey around Wales which gives a great deal of information to us of these colourful times.

Loft walls of Llanthony Priory

Llanthony Priory was repeatedly attacked by the Welsh

Llanthony Priory the first Stop to Recruit for the Third Crusade-that of the Lionheart.
Baldwin and Gerald and his party entered Wales near Hereford and then went on to Brecon. Passing through the wild pass of Coed Grono , they reached Abergavenny. Near at hand in a narrow valley stood the monastery of Llanthony.He wrote:

The beautiful columns o Llanthony Priory

In the deep vale of Ewyas, which is about an arrow-shot broad, encircled on all sides by lofty mountains, stands the church of Saint John the Baptist, covered with lead,and built of wrought stone; and, considering the nature of the place, not unhandsomely constructed, on the very spot where the humble chapel of Dewi, the bishop, had formerly stood decorated only with moss and ivy. A situation truly calculated for religion, and more adapted to canonical discipline, than all the monasteries of the British isles.(Capel Dewi is part of St David's Church opposite the Abbey ruins and may be visited)
It was founded by two hermits, in honour of the retired life, far removed from the bustle of mankind, in a solitary vale watered by the river Hodeni.(Welsh Honddu) From Hodeni it was called Lanhodeni, for ‘Lan’ signifies an ecclesiastical place. This derivation may appear far-fetched, for the name of the place, in Welsh, is Nanthodeni. Nant signifies a running stream, from whence this place is still called by the inhabitants Landewi Nanthodeni, {59} or the church of Saint Dewi upon the river Hodeni. The English therefore corruptly call it Lanthoni, whereas it should either be called Nanthodeni, that is, the brook of the Hodeni, or Lanhodeni, the church upon the Hodeni.
Owing to its mountainous situation, the rains are frequent, the winds boisterous, and the clouds in winter almost continual. The air, though heavy, is healthy; and diseases are so rare, that the brotherhood , when worn out by long toil and affliction during their residence with the daughter, retiring to this asylum, and to their mother's lap, soon regain their long-wished-for health. For as my Topographical History of Ireland testifies, in proportion as we proceed to the eastward, the face of the sky is more pure and subtile, and the air more piercing and inclement; but as we draw nearer to the westward, the air becomes more cloudy, but at the same time is more temperate and healthy.

Underneath the cloister arches....

Here the monks, sitting in their cloisters, enjoying the fresh air, when they happen to look up towards the horizon, behold the tops of the mountains, as it were, touching the heavens, and herds of wild deer feeding on their summits: the body of the sun does not become visible above the heights of the mountains, even in a clear atmosphere, till about the hour of prime , or a little before. A place truly fitted for contemplation, a happy and delightful spot, fully competent, from its first establishment, to supply all its own wants….

It seems worthy of remark, that all the priors who were hostile to this establishment, died by divine visitation. William, who first despoiled the place of its herds and storehouses, being deposed by the fraternity, forfeited his right of sepulture amongst the priors. Clement seemed to like this place of study and prayer, yet, after the example of Heli the priest, as he neither reproved nor restrained his brethren from plunder and other offences, he died by a paralytic stroke. And Roger, who was more an enemy to this place than either of his predecessors, and openly carried away every

thing which they had left behind, wholly robbing the church of its books, ornaments, and privileges, was also struck with a paralytic affection long before his death, resigned his honours, and lingered out the remainder of his days in sickness
Beauty of Llanthony and its holiness

In the reign of King Henry I the fame of such a religion attracted hither Roger, bishop of Salisbury. He loved virtue, even in another man, and a great proof of innate goodness to show a detestation of those vices which hitherto have not been avoided. When he had reflected with admiration on the nature of the place, the solitary life of the fraternity, living in canonical obedience, and serving God without a murmur or complaint, he returned to the king, and related to him what he thought most worthy of remark; and after spending the greater part of the day in the praises of this place, he finished his panegyric with these words: "Why should I say more? the whole treasure of the king and his kingdom would not be sufficient to build such a cloister." Having held the minds of the king and the court for a long time in suspense by this assertion, he at length explained the enigma, by saying that he alluded to the cloister of mountains, by which this church is on every side surrounded.

But William, a knight, who first discovered this place, and his companion Ervistus, a priest, having heard, perhaps, as it is written in the Fathers, according to the opinion of Jerome, "that the church of Christ decreased in virtues as it increased in riches," were accustomed often devoutly to solicit the Lord that this place might never attain great possessions. They were exceedingly concerned when this religious foundation began to be enriched by its first lord and patron, Hugh de Lacy, and by the lands and ecclesiastical benefices conferred upon it by the bounty of others of the faithful: from their predilection to poverty, they rejected many offers of manors and churches; and being situated in a wild spot, they would not suffer the thick and wooded parts of the valley to be cultivated and levelled, lest they should be tempted to recede from their
heremitical mode of life.
His Comparison with Llanthony Secunda ,Gloucester……
But whilst the establishment of the mother church increased daily in riches and endowments, availing herself of the hostile state of the country, a rival daughter sprang up at Gloucester, under the protection of Milo, earl of Hereford; as if by divine providence, and through the merits of the saints and prayers of those holy men

(of whom two lie buried before the high altar), it were destined that the daughter church should be founded in superfluities, whilst the mother continued in that laudable state of mediocrity which she had always affected and coveted. )
Let the active therefore reside there, the contemplative here; there the pursuit of terrestrial riches, here the love of celestial delights; there let them enjoy the concourse of men, here the presence of angels; there let the powerful of this world be entertained, here let the poor of Christ be relieved; there, I say, let human actions and declamations be heard, but here let reading and prayers be heard only in whispers; there let opulence, the parent and nurse of vice, increase with cares, here let the virtuous and golden mean be all-sufficient. In both places the canonical discipline instituted by Augustine, which is now distinguished above all other orders, is observed.....

The mountains are full of herds and horses, the woods well stored with swine and goats, the pastures with sheep, the plains with cattle, the arable fields with ploughs; and although these things in very deed are in great abundance, yet each of them, from the insatiable nature of the mind, seems too narrow and scanty. Therefore lands are seized, landmarks removed, boundaries invaded, and the markets in consequence abound with merchandise, the courts of justice with law-suits, and the senate with complaints. Concerning such things, we read in Isaiah, "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they be placed alone in the midst of the earth."

It is a remarkable circumstance, or rather a miracle, concerning Lanthoni, that, although it is on every side surrounded by lofty mountains, not stony or rocky, but of a soft nature, and covered with grass, Parian stones are frequently found there, and are called free-stones, from the facility with which they admit of being cut and polished; and with these the church is beautifully built. It is also wonderful, that when, after a diligent search, all the stones have been removed from the mountains, and no more can be found, upon another search, a few days afterwards, they reappear in greater quantities to those who seek them. With respect to the two Orders, the Cluniac and the Cistercian, this may be relied upon; although

the latter are possessed of fine buildings, with ample revenues and estates, they will soon be reduced to poverty and destruction. To the former, on the contrary, you would allot a barren desert and a solitary wood; yet in a few years you will find them in possession of sumptuous churches and houses, and encircled with an extensive property. The difference of manners (as it appears to me) causes this contrast.
The first of these Orders, at a time when there was a deficiency in grain, with a laudable charity, not only gave away their flocks and herds, but resigned to the poor one of the two dishes with which they were always contented. But in these our days, in order to remove this stain, it is ordained by the Cistercians, "That in future neither farms nor pastures shall be purchased; and that they shall be satisfied with those alone which have been freely and unconditionally bestowed upon them." This Order, therefore, being satisfied more than any other with humble mediocrity, and, if not wholly, yet in a great degree checking their ambition; and though placed in a worldly situation, yet avoiding, as much as possible, its contagion; neither notorious for gluttony or drunkenness, for luxury or lust; is fearful and ashamed of incurring public scandal, as will be more fully explained in the book we mean (by the grace of God) to write concerning the ecclesiastical Orders.
In these temperate regions I have obtained (according to the usual expression) a place of dignity, but no great omen of future pomp or riches; and possessing a small residence near the castle of Brecheinoc, well adapted to literary pursuits, and to the contemplation of eternity, I envy not the riches of Croesus; happy

and contented with that mediocrity, which I prize far beyond all the perishable and transitory things of this world.’

Gerald the Welshman:A Journey through Wales

Tomorrow-on to Patrishow, Usk and Newport!

REMEMBRANCE DAY

2010-11-11T03:21:00.000-08:00

I vow to thee my country
All earthly things above

Entire and whole and perfect , the service of my love.

The love that asks no questions
The love that stands the test

That lays upon the altar the Dearest and the Best

The Love that never falters
The Love that pays the price

The Love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

2.O Father, bless our dear ones, away across the sea
Across expanse of waters they call and hope inThee
Away from their country, their captains at their head
O comfort those who mourn for the Living and the Dead
O Jesus be their Sacrifice, their hope and refuge be
The Father, Son and Spirit, the Blessed Trinity.

3.So for Peace among the nations, we pray with one accord
That love may over-come all the hatred of the sword.
We pray for Love in action, our inspiration be
O remember those defenders ,who died across the sea
Lead us Father into Freedom , remember those who died
In the faith of our Salvation, of Christ the Crucified.

4. And there's another country, I've heard of long ago
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King
But her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering
And soul by soul and silently, her shining bonds increase
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

Verses 2 and 3 by Eve Nicholson

More from Llanhilleth (Llan-heledd) and a previous post

2010-11-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNFhCMkq81g&feature=player_embedded#!

Brilliant video of historian Frank Olding, heritage officer of Blainau Gwent telling children about St Illtyd's Church at Llanheledd-or Llanhilleth.

Llanfihangel Pontymoile-St Michael in the 'Circle of Heaven' Cilcoegan.

2010-11-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

The Reverend Jennifer Mole showed me round the small but pretty Church of Llanfihangel Pontymoile this week. The second part of its name-the Bridge of Moile is easy to see, a llan is awhat it always was a Cambro- British Monastery and ‘Mihangel’ the name of the beloved and fierce defender of the Lord, St Michael. This was not its original name which was Cilgoegan. So who was this lost saint, who was despatched upon the arrival of the more powerful St Michael, which did not happen until Tudor times, after Henry VIII dispute with Rome and the founding and reorganising of his own church

St Michael was a popular dedication in Monmouthshire and often associated with mountains. J Darrell Evans , who wrote the guide book for the church writes' there were so many dedications for this defender of the heavenly hosts in this unstable borderland, they were each given another name to distinguish them'. The nearest village was Pontymoile, more than a mile away, and this name predominated by the seventeenth century.

It was all part of the manor of Cilgoegan, stretched between Cae Brest, the river and the Clarewaun brook and part of the lordship of Usk.

In the ‘Taxatio’ of Pope Nicholas in 1254 it appeared the church of Kilgoigen in his inventory of the churches in England and Wales. When the churches were taken by the king, in the sixteenth century they referred to Kylegoygane annexed to the parish of Panteg. This always seems to have been a small chapel and quite poor. Both Panteg (originally Llandeverguir? Given in the sixth century to St Cybi by the petty king Edlogan after the famous miracle) and Llanmyhangel are given in the charters as belonging for nearly five hundred years to the Priory of St Mary at Usk. Interestingly, neither church appears as having any assets at all in Henry VIII officials of additions of the land and possessions, including trusts and offerings made by the faithful which he took for himself.

The parish name seems to have appeared as Llanfihangel Pontymoile on the first published map of Monmouthshire by Christopher Saxon in 1577.By this time ‘llan’ had come to mean church, but it was not exactly this, as we know it was an early British monastary, and as its name suggests, this was perhaps originally a hermitage. (‘Cil’ is Welsh for Latin ‘Cella’ or cell-a hermit’s cell)so St Coegen may have originally been a hermit. However, extensive searches have not revealed such a saint, so Coegan may have simply been humble hermit, living in this little chapel in the grove. There is no doubt that the church was rebuilt in stone after the conquest and served the Christians living around it at a time when most people lived on the land and worked it. Yet the plague perhaps (1315-1317) caused many such small agrarian communities to be wiped out, and the churches attached to them never recovered their former numbers. This seems always to have been a small chapel in a grove, and though dedicated to St Michael, it seems likely that the British term CEUGANT suggested the dwelling, the realm of the Druid God, and may have been kept by the Christian hermit living there. Druidic lore was always an oral traditions, whose rites were not even written down until the seventeenth century. In the absence of any important founder, the cell of this hermitage probably existed on the site of an older and deserted Druid grove and the name stuck for some time. In the Priory at Usk ,it was simply called Llanmyhangel-obviously the name it was known by from its take over by the Benedictine nuns.

There is also a possible link to Coygan(!) from ceredigion, who was a leader at a hill fort there and it is always possible that this grove was the place where he spent lent away from the world in penance as so many of the saints of this period did. In the absence of any firm sources, however, this is speculation as I can find no other references and this practice of Lenten retreat was common at the time.

The rood loft was removed from the church after the Reformation, which would have contained a picture of the Doom and the great Crucifix, under which the Faithful would come to confess their sins to the priest sitting there in persona Christi.Nowadays if you approach the pulpit through the Vestry , there is a narrow door through which the person preaching has to approach. This was the door which originally led to the rood loft.

On the south wall of the Church is a very old memorial stone tablet (pictured above) with an inscription in 18th century lettering. ‘Here lieth ye body of Thomas Iones of Glascoed who departed this life in the 14th Day of September. Ano Dom 1713 .Aged 41 years’.

The Wakinshaw Windows are of later date and depict the Holy family in one panel and Christ reading the Scriptures(!) in the other. Walkinshaw funded the Free Press of MMonmouthshire newspaper and the windows are probably to remind people of the fact he was a newspaper man. There is another beautiful window in memory of his son Alexander James, who died at only nine years of age- something beautiful for what must have been a terrible family tragedy.
.
The ceilings show much wear and tear and flaking plaster which is a shame. It is a very small country church with only `11 regular churchgoers who cannot afford the repairs. The church has put out an appeal for help for the £8,000 it will take to deal with the roof and stop it collapsing.

It is a Norman style barrel roof with small; gold rose bosses.the present ceiling comes from the eighteenth century. The whole structure remained intact when in 1924 the church roof slipped off, the crash giving rise to the rumour that an earthquake had happened.

Thefts and an appeal for the twenty first century.

Sadly the church has to be kept locked because of the large number of artefacts which have been stolen. The vicar tells me lead has recently been stolen from the roof of Panteg Church as well and this little church of Heaven, needs £8,000 to repair the ancient roof with only 11 older parishioners. It is a Grade II listed building. There are only 420 people living in the parish.

Prayers please, especially at this time. If this amount can be raised, there is a possibility it can be matched.

The Church in Wales website has details of this little church at Pontymoile which is attached to the Church at Panteg if you can help.

Mountain llan of the Abbot-Saint Isanus,Isan at Llanishen and St Denis of Paris and the Lost Chapel

2010-10-29T02:11:00.000-07:00

Last week, driving up in the Autumn sunshine, on the road to St Arvans to Devauden, I called at Llanishen, where I left the road, drove slightly down the hill and to the church at the side of the road. The autumn leaves fell on each side,but the view was breathtaking, and unchanged from when the blessed Abbot St Isan toiled here for the Kingdom.

Whilst the church building looks a bit unloved, it has been well cared for and immediately you can see the llan area, all around it. The llan for the early British Church was the ‘circle of heaven’, cleared, prayed over, fasted over for forty days and nights and the church built as its beating heart at the centre. The boundary was hedged or built in stone and the abbot (as he was known) and his twelve monks would toil in the fields and attend the Opus Dei and Mass during the day in the Church according to ancient rights. Penitentials were fierce in the monks desire for holiness. The Mass and daily Church devotions were all in Latin and the families of the ecclesial community lived all around. Some llans were ‘con-hospitae’ with both monks and nuns living and taking part in the liturgical life of the community.

So it was for St Isan at Llanishen. . In A.D. 535 two monks set out eastwards from the monastery of Llan-Illtyd Fawr, aiming to establish new settlements, or "llans", in the wild terrain below Caerphilly mountain. One of these monks, Isan, established his "llan" on the present-day site of the Oval Park, an ideal location offering a ready fresh-water supply at a natural spring and the nearby Nant Fawr stream. He seems to have later departed to the ancient church he had heard about in Gwent, near the Severn,dating from Roman times, reputed to have had a relic of the martyred French Saint Denis. Unlike most of the early Cambro-British saints, we cannot trace his parentage as there simply is not enough information.

However we are told he was a Saint or a monk of Bangor Illtyd, or Llan-illtyd Mawr-now Llantwit Major. Baring Gould and Fisher maintain he is mentioned in the Life of St Illtyd, and it appears Abbot Isan was the holy man, who with another abbot visited St Illtyd just before his death.

Llanishen in Glamorgan-was probably his first llan. The Liber Landavensis or ‘Book of Llandaff’ refers to him as ‘Lann Ysan’ and also’ Llan Nissien’. The Normans made of it, the holy martyr of St Denis, patron of Paris, on whose martyred blood the city was grounded. This was from the savage era of persecutions from Rome in which St Maurice also died-also similarly ancient, since they could find no details of St Isan immediately. They rededicated many churches, yet the saintly abbot Isan, was, nevertheless the founder. In the Tintern Charter, to which it later belonged, it was referred to as ‘The Church of Dionyus (Dennis) of Lanissan. The Glamorgan Charter calls it ‘CAPELLA DI SANCTI DIONYSII’ as in the Tewkesbury Charter of 1180 AD. This was sixty years after the canonisation of St David for his defence of Catholic teaching against the Pelagians at Llandewi. It is said there are remains of a still earlier church in the parish called CAPEL DENIS which may even indicate there was a church here (like that at Tredunnock) in Roman times, commemorating a much loved martyr in a time of terrible persecution, which also saw the holy Caerleon Martyrs shedding their blood for the faith. The Feast Day of St Denis (whom I believe is carved in stone above ) is OCTOBER 9th as he is Apostle and Patron of France.

Abbot Isan, who later built his ‘llan’ around this site lived and toiled there. His own Feast Day (although not entered in the Welsh Church Calendar) is December 16th, the day of his death in the sixth or seventh century, which would have made him contemporary with St Derfel.

Inside the church, there were two carved heads at the base of the chancel arch. One appears to be the Blessed Virgin and one that, no doubt of the royal St Denis. There are some wonderful stained glass windows ,one dominating the chancel area, (seen above) with a crucifixion scene in the centre. Saint David is also shown in another window, in bright vivid colours (at Llandewi Brefi with the white dove on his shoulder) The church has been restored in the nineteenth century and a great deal renewed, from Norman times. Again the beauty of the stained glass windows contrasted with the rather dull white and brown interior, with a dark oak pulpit, chairs and crucifix. The rood screen had disappeared.

The font also appeared to be nineteenth century, The seating was pews in dark brown, and in general the interior was very plain but the stained glass window dominated the whole building. There was little left of the pre-Reformation period, but you had to look over the whole valley from this wonderful site and see the face of God’s Creation as it would have appeared to the British Christians to the Early Romano-British saints and also those of Abbot Isan’s time. This truly was an island of heaven.

Beata es Virgo Maria, Dei genitrix.

The nave without the colour of the chancel area looks a bit dark, and sorry about the lack of sharpness, but it was very dark indeed .

Sanctus Dionysius .Ora pro nobis

Sanctus Isanus.Ora pro nobis. Amen

LLAN FEUNO-SAINT BEUNO OF WALES and his MOUNTAIN SCHOOL

2010-10-11T03:33:00.000-07:00

Postcode:of house opposite
HR2 ONQ

The story of Llanveynoe begins in the area of Newport and St Woolos (known to all as St Gwynlliw's).Bugi ap Gwynlliw was the last of the children of St Gwynlliw, the 'pirate' saint of what is now 'Stow Hill' and the Saintly Gwladys, daughter of the great King Brychan Brycheiniog, who had been carried off by Gwynlliw, when he was sick for love of her and had the whole court of Brychan chasing after him. Battle was avoided when Gwynlliw married her,and according to the will of God, her children were like her, great saints of Gwent. The 'Baby' of the family, her youngest and adored son, Bugi, was educated, like his elder brother Cadoc at Caerwent with St Tatheus. Bugi was also, in Welsh known as HYWGI and was one of the four patron saints of the monastery of LLANGWM near Usk, where he may have done his formation as a monk and priest.

When he was old enough to marry, he took for a wife Princess Peren, daughter of the King of Llawden, and then went up to Powys to be nearer to Bugi's grandfather's court.It seems that Peren became a mother to their only son late in life a son, called BEUNO and this son too, was educated at Caerwent with St Tatheus and taught the Christian faith. Since Tatheus was inspirational, particularly to St Cadoc and a father figure to them all
Beuno, like his uncle Cadoc decided

to follow the Mission and spread it into North Wales, which was still steeped in pagan lore, where there had been no missionary zeal as yet to evangelise the Mission (Mass) of Christ, to go out into all the world and preach the gospel and baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. There were some hybrid Druid/Christian communities , which were actually Druid Communities and looked the same in appearance, yet were actually maintaining Druid customs and philosophy and missing the real point of the Christian teaching. This was possible as there were a number of similar points in the philosophy, which had been used to bring Druids to faith.

On leaving Caerwent it seems Beuno decided to found his own Llan not far from that of his parents. He would have had his twelve fellow monks to help and they came to this district of Llanveynoe, which is in one of the most beautiful and remote areas of the Black Mountains and yet the present church , whilst having points of interest from this early period
The land at Ewias was given to him by King Ynyr Gwent King of Gwent (husband of St Materiana of Cornwall who observed Beuno was 'humble, chaste and generous and in every respect keeping the commandments of God.
Beuno was also a kinsman of St Kentigern,(Mungo).It was more likely the land given to him was by Iddon, son of Ynyr, however, as a devastating raid on their camp near Chepstow by Saxons, killed Ynyr, 'torched' the camp and sent his mother (Madryn-St Materiana) and brother St Ceidio to Boscastle in Cornwall on their White Martyrdom.
The other lands were Ewyas Leol, and Ewyas Harold and the llan of St Clydawg was nearby. The pictures nearby testify to the importance of this site.
The County archeologist Dr Keith Ray, has found the remains of the llan below the west wall of the churchyard, which appears to have been conformed in later times to a square wall.The original church was almost certainly on the
circular llan mound, under the present church. No doubt that this was a monastery settlement of this Welsh saint.

The antiquarian founder of 'ley lines' wrote a book 'The Old Standing Crosses of Hereford-shire and it must not be forgotten this was still Wales at this time. This was Alfred Watkins. He describes one of these crosses in Llanveynoe Church as depicting an early type of Crucifixion image (which may be gathered from the scene)The other cross shows the early symbols of Christ XPC (from the Chi Rho image)and the IHC from the Greek words for Christ and Jesus. He thinks the third symbol represents the OMEGA(I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the End-alpha and Omega being the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.)The remainder of the inscription reads: HAES:DUR FECIT CRUCEM ISTAM or HAESTUR MADE THIS CROSS.

George Marshall alerted Alfred Watkins to yet another stone cross lying near the church and in 1929, we are told helped the local Anglican vicar to carry this short arm cross (pictured below left) and erect it in the churchyard. It is so old that its history seems lost, though it iss safe to assume it was present at the time of St Beuno and his commmunity. This brings the number of stone crossses to 5. One was discovered as recently as 2005 hidden on the North wall and another into the south wall. This was therefore a site of considerable historical and religious importance, as it should be, with Beuno being a grandson of the King of Brycheiniog.

Seeing the Church as I did last week (October 2010) it was incredible to think of this area being constantly charged with the singing of psalms, the hundreds of genuflections, readings i holy scripture, daily offering of Mass, as it had in Beuno's day, and where it has been claimed a school may also have been set up to help in Beuno's own mission,, to take the Faith to North Wales and re-energise it for Christ. Kentigern had designated Asaph to follow his missionary work in Merioneth. and so, having established his Llan near his parents and grandparents Beuno moved North to found great and important monasteries there and take the great Mission of the Holy Dewi in South Wales , which had established llans all over, to North Wales, Pistyll, Clynnog(616AD) and other places.-

Berriew and Bettws in Powys Llaynycil ,Gwyddelwern Caruglwch,Penmorva in Gwynedd
Aberffraw and Trefdraeth in Anglesey.

Establishing a Christian llan meant a basis for orthodox Christianity in a whole region, where young monks and priests could sstudy and grow up in the faith,
Whilst at Llanfeuno, Prince Bugi (Hywgi) became terminally ill and sent for his beloved and only son to give him his blessing. Beuno said to his fellow monks Let three of you remain in this place and I will go to my father, who is very ill' and departed. St Beuno commended them to the King and the people of the country. He then went to his parents' llan and Mass was said in Prince Hywgi's sick room and he received his 'Viaticum' (the 'food for the journey')and made his last confession. His end on this earth was deemed to be 'perfect'.
Beuno planted an acorn by his father's grave. It grew into a great tree . One branch curved down to the ground and then rose again "and there was a part of this branch in the soil, as at present; and if an Englishman should pass between this branch and the trunk of the tree, he would immediately die; but should a Welshman go, he would in no way suffer." Thus the saint's involvement with Llanfeuno ended.

The llan continued for some hundreds of years until the area was overrun with Saxons and the Church first sacked and looted was rebuilt in stone and finally in Norman times rebuilt on its old site as a stone church , now to be a daughter house of St Clydawg at nearby Clodock (no doubt its association with a miracle worker being the reason the British name was retained)Llanveynoe (the anglicised place name, still giving the real clue to its original founder) was renamed St Peter, although later St Beuno was reinstated.
The Church itself is unremarkable and simple with its sanctuary now an undivided chancel, Nave and bellcote built of local sandstone. The eastern wall has two windows which appear to be modern, and also the north wall. Between the two windows is a blocked 13th century lancet window. In the south wall are two more mmodern windows and there is a much restored doorway to the vestry and west of that is a modern doorway and porch.In 1675, Jane Gunter, possibly a Catholic of the famous Catholic Abergavenny Gunter family left 5 shillings' for the glazeing of the North Wyndow of the Chapelll of Llanveynoe'.

I am grateful to Priscilla Flowers-Smith of the parish for her guide notes at Llanveynoe Church.

The pictures to the left, show details of thhe crosses of this important monestary and also the land on which the original monastery buildings would have been erected.

In common with the Desert

Fathers, the men at Llanfeuno would have praised God in his creation, looking over the valleys as they went about their work, singing the psalms at sunrise to sunset and through the night, in a fiercely ascetic way, not at all the fuzzy 'Celtic' feel of the 'new age nostalgia'. These were men who stood in freezing water up to their arms in order to atone

for their sins. They were in communion with Rome, even though at that time only Bishops had to be celibate. Of course most people then livved on the land and not in the towns and many villages were depopulated because of the plague and because of landowners being given the church lands and then throwing the people off it.

I drove a little way up the golden valley and looked down over Llanthony and Cwmyoy. These hills were called 'Hatterall' but mean
'At y Heul' Towards the Sun.
It should not be forgotten also that the entire area was not far from Capel Dewi itself, the original cell of St David at Llanthony

The Llan area lies beneath this field, where the monks lived and worked.

Side of the Church(North Wall)

The llan was quite extensive....with the hills behind

The most ancient stone cross found by Alfred Watkins and reerected together with the Anglican Vicar in the nineteenth century.This is believed to date to St Beuno's time, or those of his successors.

Bellcote.

Black Mountains and Hatterall Hills

A farm near Llaveynoe, similar to the occupation of the monks and their families and retainers.

It was Beuno's great missionary zeal- and his greatest work was in North Wales which made him one of the most famous of the early Welsh Saints. Perhaps, however it was his part in the early training of the nun, St Gwenfrewi of Trefynnon (Holywell) which made him best known in our time. He was instrumental after her encounter with the lusty Caradoc in her resuscitation and future life as a nun in Henllan and then in Gwytherin, and then as Patroness of Wales and the most famous of the Welsh Saints today, where her shrine at Holywell is attended by tens of thousands every year.

ST CLYDAWG THE MARTYR AND HIS CHURCH TODAY

2010-10-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

POSTCODE

HR2 ONY

Brychan Brycheiniog, the famous king of Irish ancestry, married into the community of Garth Madrun or Talgarth, where a number of settlers had lived for some centuries, granted land by Cunebelinus. Brychan’s children and grand children were famed saints of Wales and Cornwall, who were of the line of Brychan Brycheiniog, his line being one of the ‘Three Holiest in Wales’.

St Cladawg-eldest son.

St CLYDAWG-FEAST DAY November 3

< This picture of a statue in Cil Pedic's Church (Kilpeck) could be (British tonsure) St Clydawg, except he is not depicted with a crown-but does have a martyr's palm. It may also ,of course be St Pedic.Whether in statues of this period a crown may have been shown is another matter>
ECCLESIA DE SANCTO CLADOCO

(In the Welsh Primers of 1546, 1618, 1633, Cotton Manuscripts , Welsh Almanacks . Alwydd Paradwys gives the date as August 19. Also other sources favour this date.)

The story of St Clydog was first written down from the oral tradition of the Bards in the twelfth century in the Book of Llandaf. His life story is also told by John of Tynemouth in the thirteenth century, which was a transcript of the Liber.

Clydog was the son of Clydwyn, who was a son of Brychan. Clydwyn was himself a saint from the Cognatio de Brychan. It is stated that he ‘invaded the whole of South Wales or ‘conquered Deheubarth,’ and that he was the father of Clydog and Dedyw and both of them ruled here. There was also a daughter ,St Perdita, that has been ascribed to him. It is probably not true that he conquered the whole of South Wales. All the genealogical lists make him son of Brychan, but also that he may have been King of Ceredigion and Dyfed Clydwyn also had a daughter, aside from his two sons, named Gwledyr. He shares a feast day with his father St Clydwyn. A place called ‘Cruc Cletwyn’ (his mound’) is mentioned in the Talley Abbey Charter of 1331.Hid aunt was St Clydai the Virgin. Was married three times to Prawst(1), Ribrawst(2) and Roistri (3) and his other brothers were Arthen,Papay,St Cynon (of Abercynon near Penrhys),Dingat (of Llandingat (Dingestow),Pasgen, St Cynlefr the Martyr,(Merthyr Gynlefr), St Berwen (llan in Cornwall)Cydoc or Iddog (Llan in Britanny-Ton Ridoch)The Sepulchre of Brychan was on the island called Ynys Brychan and is near the Isle of Man. Another source (Cott manuscript) says Brychan had thirteen sons and twenty four daughters!

He was King here in Ewyas (partly in Monmouthshire and partly in Herefordshire-the old Welsh Kingdom of Ergyng) He was one of the king-saints, ruling with justice, peacefully and with holiness.His early formation as a Catholic priest was at Llancarfan under the glorious Saint Cadoc, son of St Woolos(Gwynlliw) of Newport. He and his brother studied theology and philosophy, Latin and Greek there and were ordained. Cadoc himself was a prince. They spent a great deal of time there and worked with him in Cadoc’s own foundations in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan.

On his return to Ewias, acertain woman, the daughter of a nobleman, fell in love with him and would marry no one else. One of Clydog’s nobles, a Saxon, his eye having fallen upon the woman, decided she should be his and no one else’s. The following day whilst the holy and noble King, after having attended the Mass, went out hunting and whilst taking aim at a stag, was shot and killed by his erstwhile friend. The body was placed on a cart and driven towards a river, where there was a ford. This is the bridge area at the stream below the present church, where the water is very shallow. The river Monnow, which also flows through Monmouth, was a barrier and the yoke carrying the cart broke and the oxen would not be driven further. There the great king died and was buried. A great fire was seen to be burning over the grave that night and the Bishop (probably Teilo) ordered that there be built a Martyrum or Martyr’s Chapel over the place of his grave. His sorrowing people, who had loved their wise and saintly king did so. This is Caer Gledog, now in England (Loegr) Probably nearby Longtown was meant by this , where there was an ancient British Camp. (Caer)The Book of Llandaff (Cardiff area) affords proof that Brychan’s rule extended into this area.

There was a further story that two men who had been at loggerheads for a long time vowed upon the tomb of St Clydog to be reconciled. On their way back from the church ,one turned on the other and treacherously murdered him, but immediately afterwards, stricken by a guilty conscience, he fell upon his spear and died miserably.

In Welsh, the scene of St Clydog’s martyrdom, (as a Christian King by an evil traitor) allowed the people to acclaim him a saint, which was granted at Llandaff by the Bishop-possibly St Teilo. )was known as MERTHYR CLYDAWG or Merthyr Clydawg –his Martyrium, a chapel in which the body of a martyred saint is interred by his grieving brother,Dedyw (who ruled after him, and also founded a llan at Llan-detty at Bwlch in Powys. His church is in Ewias where he was killed by pagan Saxons.Following the martyrdom of the Blessed Clydog, the hermits Llibio,(Cleebeeo)Gwrfan (goorvan)and Cynfar (Kunvarr) were the first inhabitants and cultivators of the place after the martyrdom of St Clydawg the Martyr. So famous was he, that a people were named after him, including a eleventh or twelfth century Bishop of Llandaff.

In later times, Clodock was called ‘Hundred’.The notorious Henry VIII extirped Wales in 1535 and so Clodock was forcibly taken into England. The parish remained as part of the new Anglican See of Llandaff until 1858 when it was taken over by Hereford. However, this always was Welsh Wales as everyone spoke Welsh here until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

St Clydawg’s church, emulating the spirit of ‘mercy’ for fugitives contained a sanctuary ring which a ‘criminal’ could grasp to ask for refuge ,so Clodock church was chartered as a 'place of refuge' for those escaping from their enemies.The door itself could also be secured with an oak bar. The criminal could remain for forty days, and would have to be provided with food by the congregation .After that time, he would have had to ‘abjure the realm’, that is walk directly to the coast and take the first available boat abroad and never come back. Alternatively, he could give himself up for trial, and with luck, after forty days, those investigating the crime may have come to a different conclusion.
The Welsh Border runs alongside the mountain and there was much rivalry between the Border people, hence the strong solid door dating from around the l5th century. The church is full of history, with faded wall paintings, coats of arms and a Decalogue. It has a memorial stone which is thought to date from around AD 750-850, 'To the dear wife of Guinndo, a resident of this place. In fact there are more memorials to local people than images of the saints and angels of God.Much would have been lost in the restorations.

Because Saint Clydawg was a Martyr, many came to pray at his tomb, pilgrims arrived at this remote place on his feast day, November 3rd.Masses would be said over the tomb. However, it is possible the feast day changed in Norman times, or even earlier. The pilgrims’ season is normally from May to October, because summer weather brings more pilgrims as winter weather would make these pilgrimages more difficult, as snow and bad weather often make the areas impassable. The upkeep of a church is very expensive and the Bishop may have introduced a proxy date for the saint for the convenience of the common good of the faithful, with a local feast celebrated on the November date, when the elderly and disabled would not be so cold. This would have been the local bishop’s prerogative.

Alwydd Paradwys was a Catholic source, and the date may have come from an later Martyrology in Rome. It was the miracles which drew the pilgrims, asking for the saint’s help with prayers. People always needed miracles and prolific celebrations may have happened on both dates. There seem to have been many miracles at St Clydawg's before the
reformation ceased.
The Englishman Whytford gives on November 3rd however:

‘In England ye feest of saynte Clitauke a martyr, a kynges son of strayte justyce, a lover of peace, and of pure chastite, and of a stryte and perfyte lyfe ye was cruelly slayne by a fals tratour at whose deth were showed many miracles and at his tombe after many moo’
St Clydog should be represented holding a sword in one hand and a lily in the other and crowned as a prince,in Norman times.

The Twelfth century church had the following boundary from the Book of Llandaff:
Merthyr Clitauc-‘Clodock’ Its boundary is the sone in the Waun Fraith on the cecin,North end of Hetterall (at yr Haul-to the sun) Hills, along it to Rhiw Gwrw, to the stone on the Cecin of the allt, along the Cecin on the edge of the Brec. Black mountain upwards as far as the stones opposite to Nant Trinant , the Turnant , along it, downwards as far as into the Olchon , along it, the Olchon, downwards as far as Ynys Alarun at its top end , to the Maen Tyllog to the crug to the Monnow , across the Monnow to Aber Nant Cwm Cinreith, the nant throught its length as far as the Mynys Ferfun (anglicised later to Money farthing-trans ‘Fersun’s Hill’)along the Mynys Ferfun to the Loch of Fer un, along the mountain to the source of the Hilin, along the Hilin as far as the Monnow. Along the Monnow downwards as far as Aber Ffynon Bist, along Ffynon Bist as far as its source, From its source to the Cecin straight upwards making for the Waun Fraith (Wine vryth)on the Cecin on the Mountain, as far as the stone where the boundary began.'

It was served by The Abbey of John the Baptist at Llanthony, who were its patrons. Its dedication was to St Clodock. In Rome, in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas where Clydag is referred to in various Latin forms ST CLEODICUS ST CLYDOG ST CLODOCH ST CLADOCUS( as in evidence of 1517). It was valued in the taxation at the enormous sum of £20, so must have been quite a rich church.It is given as being the Diocese of St David. Since the whole area was overrun by Saxons around 600AD it is likely the Saxons, when they became Christianised, improved the church and it was this church which was rebuilt in Norman times and became attached to the nearby Priory of Augustinian Canons in nearby Llanthony.

This was part of the work of the Norman de Lacey family, who built the castle at Longtown on the rruins of the British Caer (Camp). He appointed a secular priest to serve Longtown in the first instance, but after that the Canons at Llanthony, which he founded with Bishop Ervistus, became responsible for serving the church and village, and there would have been a place of accommodation for visiting priests, possibly even in the Church house adjacent to the church, where a more modern house now stands. There may have been, however more ancient Llan buildings available. The Tithes from the church were, therefore given to Llanthony and the canons or black monks were priests here for two hundred years.

My Visit 5th October 2010

No one could imagine a lovelier setting for the church and it is quite clear this was a wonderful part of Clydawg’s kingdom.The mountains all around looking down on it and a fast flowing stream and holy well on the south bank of the river.A Norman tower looks down and a tri partite structure shows. The chancel area in the front was probably the original Welsh/Saxon site and then the nave and tower added in Norman times. Interestingly there is an arched recess in the chancel.

One splash of colour, a beautiful stained glass window!

When I entered the church, I was, I have to say, that in spite of the awe inspiring scale and height of this church of pilgrimage, it seemed totally devoid of the colour and charm of a Norman Church. Little pictures peeped out like an enchanting cherub over the pulpit and part of an annunciation(oh please let it be restored!), even a coloured fresco of the Blessed Virgin,in the window splay near the pulpit but for me, the building seemed dominated by its dark brown boxed pews , oak choir stalls and an absolutely enormous three decker pulpit and sounding board, which made it ‘feel’ more like a Non conformist chapel, the altar being a simple wooden table. One wonders, as in so many churches, whether the original Norman altar complete with consecration crosses may be interred under the present table dated about 1650, in the height of the Cromwellian period, with Laudian rails and Housel bench, part of the changes ordered by the Anglican Archbishop Laud. The table is surrounded with rails, allowing the Communicants to gather around it. Some of the choir stalls are beautifully carved with flowers and dragons, but the overall effect quite cold with its brown and white.

There was another restoration in the twentieth century and when the Anglican Revd F.G.Llewellyn arrived in 1916, he found the church virtually a ruin and he raised money to repair and restore the fabric of the church, which was vitally important for its survival.

The font is still that of the old Catholic church and dates from 1290, made of hand cut stone,but quite small, standing on a shaft as big as the bowl.

The priest’s door is still there on the South Wall. Known as the ‘monks’ door’it would have been used by them when they said Mass or came in for the daily office. The oak door is oak studded and dates from a much later date. As in Orthodox churches today, there would have been a rood screen or loft (which were torn down during the sixteenth century)and so the priests would have entered the sanctuary (where the Blessed Sacrament was held in the Tabernacle) and they believed this area was holy and only the ordained could enter. Likewise, no sanctuary lights to show Christ present at all times.

The two plinths at the south side of the arch are empty. It is sad to think of the hatred which smashed the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom the angel so honoured. She is missing, along with a representation , no doubt of St Clydawg the martyr, similar to those in nearby Kilpeck Church.

In 1645 Scots pillaged the valley and stole the communion plate, since the earliest now there was dated to 1695, so must have been made for the seventeenth century restoration. There are three chests made out of a single log in which records were kept. That of St Peter’s in Longtown (now a private house) was probably the place of the third chest’s origin.

The Gallery was built in 1700 to house the village orchestra and choir and is large, with a music stand, seats for musicians and the choir benches are raked so those behind could see. The large scale of the church is obviously due to its pilgrim status in Mediaeval times, and it now looks a very different church from that appreciated by the pilgrims.

The joyful colours of heaven seemed to be gone from the church in the brown and white. I know villagers would have grown up and love their church, but coming from Wales, it looked more like a chapel. It is going to be interesting how the present congregation will refurbish the church to hand on to the next generation. I hope there will be more colour, having seen St Teilo’s wall paintings at St Ffagans in the Welsh Heritage Museum, you can see how beautiful these churches would have been in the fifteenth century. Only my opinion though, as it is clearly a well loved and cared for church.

MYSTIC MOCCAS AND THE SECRET TEMPLAR

2010-10-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

OS reference:SO356433
A 485

The Church of St Dubricius' foundation at Moccas , originally a mud and wattles or even wood monastery of the early British type, talked about so much in this blog, is now named after St Michael of the flaming sword, the angel so much loved in Wales and to whom many mountain churches are dedicated. Moccas is not really a mountain church, but sited at the village of Moccas, which can be reached from just below Pontrilas, where there is the turn off at Belmont Abbey.(A438) I believe the Saxons renamed it after re-establishing the monastic centres on their conversion to Christianity.

Moccas named after the Welsh Moch-ros or 'swine moor'. It has been owned from the end of the thirteenth century by four families.The de Fresnes, the Vaughans, the Cornewalls and the present owner Mr Richard Cheston Master whose father was the cousin of Sir William de Cornewall in 1962.Hugh de Fresne was licensed to fortify his manor house near the present deer park in 1294 but the Vaughans lived in Brewardine Castle and Moccas Castle fell into ruins.

According to tradition, an angel told St Dyfrig to establish a monastery where he would find a white sow with her piglets. He named it 'Mochros' 'moor of the pigs'. Moccas had a moor covered with acorns and oakleaves and the moor was cleared,Around 600AD there was also a plage which finished its status as a monastery and it then became just a church after the end of the Viking emergency.The monastery had been laid waste by the Saxons in 600AD and it seems when the Saxons rebuilt it onl a church remains in the Charters, patronised during Norman times by Hereford Cathedral.

It reappears in Norman times as a Church of St Guthlac's Priory in Hereford and curiously also 'Nigel the Physician. In Pope Gregory's Taxatio it appears as owing £6.0.0 in taxes a huge amount, and the Prior of St Guthlacs 3 shillings of this.The present church was built of local stone in 1130, but during the 16th century it was found to be run down, with everything unrepaired, windows unglazed and not convenient. In 1294, Hugh de Fresne was licences to fortify his manor house near Moccas Park but the castle now has no visible remains.

After the reformation, the Church became part of Henry VIII new Anglican church and gradually the church fell into bad repair . there was a restoration by a Mr Westmacott at the end of the last century.He also re-built the bell cote .The effect of the church upon entry is of astonishment at the Norman arch and the large effigy of the Knight Templar lying in the circular apse, a very early style of Church and a very ethereal and mysterious atmosphere! The Knight Templar, believed to be Richard de Fresne, with his legs crossed to show he has been on Crusade lies facing the altar of his Lord. The Apse has been rebuilt in Victorian times, but in a similar style and there are interesting stained glass windows of Victorian age. The Choir stalls are unusually constructed in a kind of box formation in the chancel around the 'sleeping' crusader.

The nave is large and spacious allowing in much light. There are monuments to

the families on the walls, and at the rear is a huge organ, richly painted in dark green, red and also in gold. One imagines that the family managed to save this monument, when the iconoclasts of the Civil War began smashing most churrch monuments. Possibly the very remoteness of this castle and church saved it from severe damage.
However the rood has been removed as the rood loft and stairs.The altar is plain and there are less holy images of the saints than of the family.

The Church was built on the site of Dyfrig's monastery at Moccas, but the current Church is still in frequent use, even though you have to take the road to Moccas Court from the main road and then turn left to go to the church.

On the other hand, the organ is richly painted and a good quality instrument, the church is well cared for and maintained and for that we should be thankful. So mancy ancient churches are not that lucky, that four families have maintained it so well throughout the ages.

It seems there is a lively congregation, however care must be taken as there is no stone path and in wet weather, I found the path slippery.

The font is Norman , but is also a plain style. It is 12,13 century with a 17th century cover but a modern stem.The church was restored by Mr George Gilbert Scott Jnr. The church and apse was restored to this original design.The chancel and apse were raised again and the windows were restored. About half of it is new. The Chancel arches were cracked and crumbling and were taken down and restored. the porch was raised and details imitated from a nearby Church. In the porch is a

tympanum over the door (12th century) it has decayed human beings carved and beasts on both sides of the tree of life. The blocked doorway tympanum in the North door has details of a scrolled ornament and beast. It is similar to that of the 12 century Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture.

In the nave, the organ was built in 1872 into the West End. the organ was painted bby Thomas Kempe and the case was designed by Geroge Gilbert Scott Junior . High up in the nave walls are two round headed Norman windows. Two others are 14th century a d the fourth one with original glass and tracery are similar to the north window in the chancel.

There are two bells ,one from 1674 in the restoration
JOHN GOPH WALTER DAVIES C WARDENS was cast by John Palmer of Gloucester.

The second Bell GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO 1635 was cast by John

Finch.

The Crusader, Richard de Fresne died in 1375. His feet being crossed shows he was a crusader and also the dog at his feet showed he had died at home.

The Fresne arms are a helm with two green birds.

George Gilbert Scott said of the unusual side seats in the chancel .'I intended the side seats for the general use, the returned one for any clergy present. It does not look nice to see a clergyman in his surplice sitting side by side with the ladies and genrtlemen.' Many of thes ewould have been members of the Cornwell family.

The diary of Francis Kilvert describes these details.
' I feel those grey old men of Moccas, thouse grey gnarled, low-browed, low browed, knock kneed,bowed,bent huge strange long-armed deformed misswhapen oak men that stand wiaint and watching century after century, biding God's time with both feet in the grave and yet tiring down and seeing out generation after generation with such tales to tell, as when they whisper to each other in the midsummer nights make the silver birches weep and the poplars and aspens quiver and the long ears of the hares and rabbits stand on end. No human hand set those oaks. they are 'The trees the Lord hath planted'. They look as if they had been at the beginning and making of the world, and they will probably see its end.'
This is quoted from the guide book of the church by K.R.Chew.

Holy Hentland in the land of Ergyng and St Dyfrig's HOLY WELL

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Location: Off A49 going from Ross on Wye(junction ofM50) to Hereford. Turn Right to Hoarworthy. When you reach (after about a mile) a sharp turn to left, turn right and Hentland is signposted. Drive to the end of the road. From Hereford, obviously turn left to Hoarworthy.

Hentland Church is one of the oldest in the area of Ergyng/Glwyssing. Most of today's (now Anglican) church exists from the 13th and 14 centuries, but back in the sixth century, the famous saints Dyfrig (Dubricius) trained from a young child as a religious went to this charming little village and gained land,possibly the gift of his grandfather and founded his first 'llan'-a small early British monastery.Dyfrig was to do more and more in the way of evangelisation and the fact Churches are dedicated to him throughout Ergyng, Glamorgan and Gwent is testimony to his popularity . This llan is said to have been one of the first two he created , here in Ergyng, now on the border between Herefordshire and Gwent. (Glywyssing) and the other at Moccas, also in Ergyng.

The circular nature of this early British monastery can immediately be seen, including an interesting water spring ad Holy Well.
The Well is outside the llan and has a lip for humans and also another for animals. It is in a mysterious little dip next to the present Norman church, although the main part of the Church now dates to the 13th and 14th century. Dyfrig's founding of the llan here though dates the first little mud and wattles or wooden church to the fourth or fiffth centuries and definately by the sixth century it would have been thriving. The Spring would have been a useful place to build a llan and the water is clear and pure.

The name Hentland is an anglicization of 'Hen Llan' 'Old Holy Place'. Dyfrig, or Dubricius as he was known in Latin, was not a legendary figure. He was Bishop of Llandaff. He was responsible for bringing St David from his hermatage at Capel Dewi in Llanthony to the Synod of Llandewi Brefi to defend the Catholic Church's teaching against the wrong teaching of Pelagius-another Briton, also with Druid influence in his thinking. Dyfrig was also responsible for receiving St Gwynlliw of Newport into the Church and for shriving and giving him Extreme Unction before that saint's death. As such he was closely connected with St Cadoc, Gwynlliw's son. As Bishop of Caerleon as was his job description, he also revitalised the disused and neglected Roman college at Caerleon. It was David who took the Bishopric to Menevia finding Caerleon too noisy.After Llandewi Brefi, Dyfrig relinquished the Bishopric to David, believing it needed a younger man such as David to control the Druids and Pelagian thinkers. Dyfrig had founded monasteries in many places and then withdrew to the monastery (Llan) on the river Taff (llan daf)or Llandaff near Cardiff.

The beautiful stained glass of the saint was dedicated by a forner Anglican Vicar William Poole (1854-1902) There was another monastery at Llanfrawther (Llanfrother-Church of the Brethren) Worship has gone on here for over 1,600 years. Stained glass of Dyfrig is also in evidence from the 15th century, also depicting Dyfrig.

The organ is startlingly brightly coloured and its pipes provides a rich addition to the colour in the chancel/Sanctuary. In a restoration programme of 1853, a design of polychromatic decoration was put on the walls, it seems obscuring the earlier mediaeval wall paintings, but we don't know the state of those. It is just a design like a stem with leaves but there are words on it in rectangles which are hard to read.

Interesting was the modern(1920!) wheeled funeral bier and a 17th century chest with original lock plate recently restored.There is a Jacobean (James I) carved chair, 17th century pulpit, 19th century screen but the poppy heads on the choir stalls are pre 'reformation'.

The Tower is original with one mediaeval bell (other 3 1628) Tower needs strengthening before the bells can be rung, which is major work.

There is a mediaeval lantern cross (14 century) with four facets
1 The Madonna and Child (East)
2 Saints Mary and John (West)
3St Teilo (South)
4 St Dyfrig (North)
It is unusual in Britain to find them all in their original positions.

The font is late 16th-17th century.There is a stone credence and piscina in the sanctuary. To the left of the sanctuary is the entrance to the Rood Loft. There under the crucifix the penitents would come for confession. Unfortunately this appears to have been taken down by the authorities, and it would have been a most beautiful sight, judging by the beautifully painted rafters, in green and red and gold above the sanctuary.The words over the arch of the 19th century screen could not have compared, with the picture of the Doom with its bright colours, dire warnings and glorious scenes of salvation.

The yew trees in the yard are very old and common in llans being both sacred for the early British and useful for Elizabeth I's bowmen. The one by the gate into the lane was planted in Shrove Tuesday 1615 according to records.

Pax Cakes

On Palm Sunday each year, the ancient custom of the blessing and distribution of Pax Cakes takes place paid for with money from a local titled lady. with the Blessing of 'Peace and Good Neighbourhood.'

The Way to the well is simple. From the grassy church car park. Turn left and walk back a little way to the small track which leads you gradually down the slope. You walk through a track of wild flowers, garlic and nettles-not on path towards the stream. There is a small wooden bridge over the stream. the well is up on the right hand side.

A delightful place to sit and pray-as no doubt St Dyfrig would have found.

Madley-A Huge church with a crypt, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the Crypt in which the miraculous statue stood

2010-09-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I visited St Dyfrig

Above is the Madonna of Llanllowell near Usk. A Statue of the Virgin stood in the above recently restored CRYPT

.(Dubricius') birthplace at Madley and the present Church on 21.9.10

This is the second of my posts about Dyfrig. However, the size of the church at Madley, his birthplace is that first thing, that takes your breath away. We know this area of what is modern Herefordshire (but then in the Welsh kingdom of Ergyng) was devastated by Saxons and taken by them in 577AD, when the Battle of Deerham routed the local British. There was no thick Forest of Dean or Arden to scare them off and Hentland, Moccas and Madley were destroyed or may even have been made into pagan places for a while, the British Church being driven underground, the people enslaved or killed, and many refugees fleeing to Wales as the Book of Llandaff tells us. So following on the re-conversion of Britain in the Mission to the Saxons by St Augustine of Canterbury, with the Saxons themselves converting, the ancient churches began to be rebuilt, usually as stone structures now, and there was certainly an earlier Saxon structure here, still dedicated to St Efrydyl. After the Norman Conquest, however, this was strengthened and a church of some size built. The link with Dyfrig made this church a powerful place of pilgrimage and in 1250 AD the church was greatly enlarged in an early English style, with more new features around 1320 , which give us the church we see today.

The Norman Church

The Norman features can be seen in the North porch, with its Norman window and door and part of the first Norman church built 1050-1100AD. There are also parts of the original Norman wall, the original church having been cross shaped (cruciform). There is also more Norman wall in the Chilstone Chapel. The font is also Norman.There were still slit shaped windows which were there in case the village needed to defend itself against the welsh, who were trying to get their lands back. Churches were often defensive buildings, with food and weapons stored in the tower to withstand siege. Most of the building then is early English, large, spacious as befits a Church of pilgrimage to Dyfrig, and thousands came here at a time when all people loved the saints and prayed for his prayers to add to their own.
The Tradition of Pilgrimage to St Dyfrig, and to the Blessed Virgin

The Norman church was dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and there was said to be a special statue here to the Virgin Mary, who gave flesh to the Lord. This being a powerful place to pray, poor St Efrydyl having been set aside by the Saxon clergy, many miracles are said to have happened here, and many healings from sickness especially with a holy well nearby, which belonged to the church and would have been known to Dyfrig. There is no doubt he and his mother continued to pray for the people of Ergyng. The mother church for the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was Hereford Cathedral. However there is no representation of the Blessed Virgin in the Church today, and no representation of Hereford’s greatest saint in Hereford Cathedral. However his effigy and tomb still are to be seen at Llandaff Cathedral albeit the bones being desecrated by the Protestants. We know about the pilgrims and the statue from records in the cathedral from 1318AD.

Madley Church does have Wall Paintings, which would originally have been all over the church. These are high up over the chancel arch and were preserved from the wrecking of the sixteenth century by being whitewashed. These paintings were restored in 1992. They are possibly pictures of the Last Judgement or the Doom, so faithfully restored at St Teilo’s Church in St Ffagan’s Welsh Heritage museum, where their richness and glory tell of the wonderful visual experience of going to church in the middle ages.

There are many features from the later history of the Church after the break with Rome. A wooden pew, many monuments to worthy people and so forth. The sedillia (seating for the priests and deacon ) and the piscina where the vessels for mass were washed and sent directly to the earth after Mass are still to be seen as is the stained glass from the glorious past of the church’s pilgrimage days. The Chancel and Sanctuary area (the rood screen seems to have disappeared, but an opening arch still remains where the choir ascended for Mass on those Pilgrim days) are in the shape of an apse rather than a standard square shape. This has much ancient stained glass which has been preserved. Possibly the ‘model army’ iconoclasts destroyed much of the glass in the seventeenth century, which were lovingly gathered up after they had left. Nevertheless it is a majestic view.On the altar was a beautiful and rich decoration, which may have been a tabernacle, but am unsure.
It should be noted that the rood loft, was the place where many attended confession under the crucifix by the light of the candle, ominously showing the picture of the glories of heaven and the pains of hell in glowing colours.
Crypt Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Only in 2007, the Crypt was restored to be used now for prayer , meditation and meetings. It was originally the place where the statue of the Blessed Mary was kept for the veneration and requests for prayers .The pilgrims, says the guide book would have come down the one set of stairs , prayed and then departed by means of the other stairs. This was quite common in mediaeval times and I have seen the stone coffin of St Radegunde at Poitiers placed in a similar position.Following its use as a Protestant Church, it was for some time used as a coal boiler house. Thankfully no more

The Chilstone Chapel (Effigies are in the Chilstone Chapel) was built about 1330 and in it a monument to Richard Williston and his wife (around 1575). This was added after the ‘Reformation’ period. They underwent considerable damage, Richard’s face seems to have been sawn off completely and half his effigy is missing.On the side of the monument are arches and kneeling figures possibly of his children. He was probably quite a beneficiary of the Church. It seems, however the same wwreckers who destroyed the stained glass also destroyed his monument. The monument is surrounded by large light decorated windows, which were much lighter, and at this time the larger larger leaded windows were added all around the church.
The Tower is open (as the church is every day) and there is a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside
But where is St Mary’s Well?
I was unable to find this on my first visit, but would be most interested to see it.If anyone can furnish me with some directions.