Urban (bishop of Llandaff)

Urban (1076–1134) was the first bishop of South East Wales to call himself 'bishop of Llandaff'. He was of a Welsh clerical family and his baptismal name in the Welsh language is given in charter sources as Gwrgan. He Latinised it to the papal name 'Urban'.

Urban came from one of the dominant Anglo-Welsh clerical dynasties of what was called in the eleventh century the diocese of Glamorgan. Two of his brothers are known: one called Caradoc the priest and the other, Gwrgan of Llancarfan. This would indicate that his family origins derived from the important clerical community of Llancarfan. The petition of the 'clergy and people' of Glamorgan in support of his election as bishop says that he had been consecrated priest in the English diocese of Worcester. This more than hints that Urban, as with several other known clerics from the southern Welsh dioceses, had been sent to England to be educated. He was already a leading cleric under his Anglo-Welsh predecessor, Bishop Herewald (1056–1104), occupying the office of archdeacon of Llandaff. At the time of his election as bishop in 1107 he was said to be thirty-one years of age, which if true would give a date of birth of 1076.

Urban was consecrated bishop 'of the church of Glamorgan which is to be found in Wales' on 11 August 1107 by Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, making a profession of obedience to the archbishop at Canterbury. The contemporary chroniclers Eadmer and William of Malmesbury likewise call him bishop of Glamorgan. But between 1115 and 1119 Urban re-invented his diocese, taking the title of 'bishop of Llandaff' settling his see on the clerical community beside the river Taff, some miles north of the castle of Cardiff, the centre of political power in Glamorgan. Urban made great efforts to increase the prestige of Llandaff. With the permission of Gruffudd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd, he translated the relics of St Dyfrig from Bardsey Island and reburied them at Llandaff. In April 1120, he began the reconstruction of the small church of the Llandaff community as a substantial Romanesque cathedral church, some impressive work from which still survives in the modern fabric. By that time Urban was at work on his master-plan, the compilation of a dossier of documents by which he could pursue some major territorial claims against the neighbouring dioceses.

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