Cadoc

Categories: Arthurian legend | Religion in Wales | Saints

Saint Cadoc of Llancarvan, Abbot, ( died at Benevenna ) was one of the 6th-century Welsh saints whose life touched King Arthur. The Abbey of Llancarvan, near Cowbridge, Glamorganshire, which he founded ca 518, became famous as a center of learning. Cadoc was a student of the Irish saint, Tathai, at Gwent, Monmouthshire, who became a hermit. Cadoc then proselytized over a large area of Wales and Brittany.

He was a son of Saint Gwynllyw (Latinized Gundleus, a prince in South Wales, a robber chieftain who led a band of 300; his mother, Gwladus (Gladys) was the daughter of Brychan of Talgarth who had been abducted in a raid. Raised by an Irish monk; Cadoc's father had stolen the monk's cow, and when the monk came courageously to demand its return, the king decided in return to surrender the child to his care.

Cadoc lived as a hermit with Saint Gildas on an island in the Bay of Morbihan off Vannes, Brittany.

At Caerleon, a Roman center of Gwent, the much-rebuilt church dedicated to St Cadoc, though of Norman origin, stands on the foundations of the Roman legion headquarters, a sign of the Christianization of Roman sites after the legions departed Britannia, and appears to memorialize an early cell of Cadoc's.

Auchedd Cadog ("life of Cadoc") written by Lifris of Llancarfan ca. 1100, is without historical merit.

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