The imagery of saints was once commonplace in all churches in Wales, and by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries painted and carved images of local and international saints would have been found on altars, screens, on the walls and in glazed windows of churches. Larger standing figures would have also been a feature of medieval…
We are delighted to announce a new year-long project bringing the work of the ‘Cult of Saints in Wales’ and the ‘Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae’ projects to a wider audience. The ‘Visualizing the Saints of Wales’ project will create a new digital interface with the ambition of transforming public engagement with research into the saints of…
The Yale manuscript, Beinecke Library Osborn fb229 came to prominence in 2018 with its rich range of texts, including a unique version of the Latin Life of Cybi. Gruffudd Antur, who works with Daniel Huws on his Repertory of Welsh Manuscripts and Scribes, has now discovered that the scribe responsible for copying the volume was…
A new book, Depicting St David, seeks to foster a better understanding of the images of St David in all their colour and variety. Images of St David can be found in many of the nation’s churches, mainly in the form of nineteenth and twentieth-century stained glass and sculpture. This book is the first to…
Past and present members of the project team were busy presenting papers at several international conferences this summer. The project organised three full sessions at Leeds International Medieval Congress on 1 July 2019, amounting to nine papers in all, by past and present members of the project team: I: Welsh Saints in Wales Barry James…
The Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae project is very excited to announce the discovery of a new medieval Life of St Cybi. David Callander (research associate on VSC 2017–8) came across the Life while researching the Jesuit scholar William Farrar. The Life survives only in Yale, Beinecke Library, Osborn fb229, a manuscript previously unknown to Welsh scholarship,…
Two poems to St David now published Iolo Goch, Mawl i Ddewi Sant This long cywydd by one of the foremost poets of the fourteenth century is a clear indication of the national importance of the cult of St David. Iolo Goch was a poet from north-east Wales, and in stating his intention to undertake…
The project arranged an afternoon of talks in the Chapter House at Gloucester Cathedral on 3 November 2018. The importance of Gloucester as the focus of the collection of traditions relating to saints in Wales has long been recognised, and the inclusion of the Lives of Cadog, Gwynllyw, Padarn and others in the Cotton Vespasian…
This is ‘Canu i Gadfan’ (a song for Cadfan), an extensive poem (178 lines) sung by Llywelyn Fardd about 1150. It is the earliest of three poems composed by twelfth-century Welsh poets to the saints: ’Canu Tylisio’ by Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr and ‘Canu i Ddewi’ by Gwynfardd Brycheiniog will appear shortly on the website. ‘Canu…
At the colloquium on 20 October 2018 Martin Crampin will give a paper on ‘The Imaging of Saints in Medieval Wales’, and Ann Parry Owen will deliver a Keynote Lecture on ‘Cain awen gan awel bylgaint – Canu Beirdd y Tywysogion i Gadfan, Tysilio a Dewi’ (Fine poetic inspiration brought by the dawn breeze: the Poets of…
