Saint Cadoc

Saint Cadoc
Saint Cadog as represented at Belz in Brittany
Abbot
Born	c. 497 traditionally Gwynllwg,Monmouthshire, U.K.
Died	580, traditionally 21 September Beneventum (see text)
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church; Eastern Orthodox Church Anglican Communion
Major shrine	Llancarfan Abbey (now destroyed)
Feast	25 September, formerly 24 January
Attributes	bishop holding a spear, crown at feet, sometimes accompanied by a stag, a pig or a mouse
Patronage	Glamorgan; Llancarfan; famine victims; deafness; glandular disorders
Controversy	place of death (see text)

Saint Cadoc or Cadog (Medieval Latin: Cadocus; also Welsh: Cattwg; born c. 497 or before) was a 5th-6th century Abbot of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorganshire, South Wales, a monastery famous from the era of the British church as a centre of learning, where Illtud spent the first period of his religious life under Cadoc's tutelage. Cadoc is credited with the establishment of many churches in Cornwall, BrittanyDyfed and Scotland. He is known as Cattwg Ddoeth, "the Wise", and a large collection of his maxims and moral sayings were included in Volume III of the Myvyrian Archaiology. He is listed in the 2004 edition of the Roman Martyrology under 21 September. His Norman-era "Life" is a hagiography of importance to the case for the historicity of Arthur as one of seven saints' lives that mention Arthur independently of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.

Cadoc's story appears in a Vita Cadoci written shortly before 1086 by Lifris of Llancarfan; "it was clearly written at Llancarfan with the purpose of honouring the house and confirming its endowments," Consequently, it is of limited historical merit though some details are of interest. Llancarfan did not survive the intrusion of Norman power into South Wales, being dissolved about 1086.

Cadoc began life under a cloud of violence. His father, Gwynllyw the Bearded, was one of the lesser kings of Wales, a brother of Saint Petroc, and a robber chieftain. He wanted to propose to Princess Gwladys, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, a neighboring chieftain, but Brychan turned away the envoys asking for Gwladys' hand. Wildly in love, Gwynllyw and Gwladys eloped from her father’s court at Brecon and escaping over the mountains in a raid in which 200 of Gwynllyw's 300 followers perished.