CARADOG FYNACH
(d.
1124
),
recluse
,
was born of a good family in
Brycheiniog
and received a literary education. His accomplishments, which included the
playing of the harp
, and his companionable temper, led to his entering the service of
Rhys ap Tewdwr
(q.v.)
. He rose high in the
prince
's favour, but entirely forfeited it when he had the misfortune to lose two valuable greyhounds entrusted to his care. His master's indignant threats drove him from the court and he resolved to embrace religion. He first found a foothold at
Llandaff
, where he was tonsured by
bishop
Herwald
; ere long, he was attracted to the solitary life and made a home for himself as
monk
at the deserted and overgrown church of
Llangenydd
in
Gower
. His next move was to
S. Davids
, where he was ordained
priest
; the
‘island’ of Barry
(
Llanrhian
) on the north coast of
Pembrokeshire
, which was to be his next place of retreat, he found too open to
Scandinavian
attack, and the
bishop of S. Davids
gave him instead a hermitage at the church of
S.
Ismaels
in
Rhos
, now known as
Haroldston S. Issels
. Here he spent the rest of his life, though room must be found for a visit to
Bardsey
, if he is to be identified with the ‘master
Caradog
, a very learned man’ who came to the island to see the
hermit
Elgar
about this time. Early in the reign of
Henry
I
a change took place in the local population;
Flemish
settlers dislodged the native
Welsh
of
Rhos
and
Caradog
's relations with his new neighbour,
Tancard
of
Haverford West
, proved none too
easy. He d. on
Low Sunday (13 April), 1124
; despite the efforts of
Tancard
to retain the body, it was taken to
S. Davids
and buried in the north transept of the cathedral. A cross and chapel long marked the spot on
Newgale
sands where a halt was made on the journey.
Giraldus Cambrensis
wrote a life of
Caradog
, not now extant, but probably represented in substance by that contained in
Nova Legenda Anglie
,
1901
, i, 174-6. He took it to
Rome
and read it to
Innocent III
, in an endeavour to secure his countryman's canonization and was so far successful as to obtain a letter from the
pope
appointing the
abbots
of
Whitland
,
S. Dogmaels
, and
Strata Florida
, a commission to inquire into the case (
8 May 1200
). The first two were not inclined to do anything to enhance the credit of their antagonist in the fight for
S. Davids
, and accordingly the matter got no further.
Lawrenny
on
Milford Haven
has a church named after
Caradog
, and a well near
Haroldston
was sacred to his memory.
Bibliography:
-
The Lives of the British Saints
, ii, 75-8;
-
Liber Landavensis. The Text of the Book of
Llan Dâv
, 1893
, 2, 279.
Author:
Sir John Edward Lloyd, D.Litt., F.B.A., F.S.A. (1861-1947), Bangor
