Seintiau – The Cult of Saints in Wales

Nyd oes wlad yn holl Gred o gymaint o dir a chymaint o saint ynddei ag oedd gynt ymhlith Cymbry

There is not a land of like size in all Christendom with so many saints in it as were of old among Welshmen

Saints populate the landscape of Wales in place-names, church dedications and holy wells. From St Fagans to Llandudno, St Davids to Pennant Melangell, the names of saints are bound up with the very fabric of the country. Some, like David and Beuno, are well known, but many are forgotten.

Seintiau is a site dedicated to research on the saints of Wales. Since 2013 the ‘Cult of Saints in Wales’ and ‘Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae’ projects have been creating digital editions of many of the medieval texts, in Welsh and Latin, about saints. Our work has been to provide reliable modern texts with detailed notes and English translations, making a discrete Welsh hagiographical tradition available for study both inside and outside Wales.

In addition, we have been working on a ‘seintiadur’, an encyclopedia of information about the saints and the churches dedicated to them. Related to this is a large and growing collection of images of the saints as they have been sculpted, painted and depicted in stained glass over the centuries.

More information about the project

Stories of the Saints Exhibition

Saints in Medieval Wales
Verses to the Saints
Lives of the Saints
Genealogies of the Saints
Saints in Modern Times