Saint Afan

Saint

Afan of Builth
Saint ; Afan of Builth
	St Afan's Church in Llanafan Fawr
Bishop
Born	5th or 6th century
Died	6th century; Llanafan Fawr
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Major shrine	Llanafan Fawr ; Llanafan
Feast	16 or 17 November (lapsed)
Patronage	Llanafan Fawr ; Llanafan

Last updated November 01, 2024

Afan of Builth (Welsh : Sant Afan Buellt; Latin : Avanus) was an early 6th-century Welsh bishop, martyr, and saint. His feast day is generally placed on 17 November, although the Demetian Calendar formerly used in southern Wales placed it on the 16th;^[1] it is no longer observed by either the Anglican ^[2] or Catholic church in Wales.^[3]

Name

Afan as a man's name in Wales is probably a loan from the Latin Amandus .^[1] In Welsh, he is sometimes known as Esgob Afan ("Bishop Afan") from his title and as Afan Buellt or Buallt from his diocese around Builth in Brycheiniog.^[1]

Life

Afan was the son of Cedig ap Ceredig, son of Cunedda Wledig, king of Gwynedd.^[4]^[5] Through this line, he was a cousin of David, patron saint of Wales. Afan's mother is variously given as Dwywai,^[6] Degfed ("Tenth"),^[7] Tegfedd, or Tegwedd,^[1] all said to have been daughters of Tegid the Bald, a lord of Penllyn in Meirionnydd who was the husband of the sorceress Ceridwen in Welsh legend.

Afan was the founder of a Llanafan in Ceredigion and two others (Llanafan Fawr and Llanafan Fechan) in Brecknockshire. He is recorded as a bishop, although his diocese remains unknown.^[1] He may have been the third bishop of Llanbadarn in Ceredigion,^[1]^[8] bishop over Builth with his seat at Llanafan Fawr,^[1]^[9] or held the title without any purview beyond his own parish.^[1] His death was credited to martyrdom at the hand of Irish or Danish pirates on the banks of the River Chwefru.^[1] He was claimed as an ancestor of the 10th-century bishop Ieuan who was also martyred by Viking marauders.^[10]

Miracles

A miracle recounted by Gerald of Wales claimed that the Anglo-Norman lord Philip de Braose was struck blind and saw his hunting dogs go mad when he disrespectfully used St Afan's church in Brecknockshire as a makeshift hostel one night.^[12] He was told that his vision would only return if he resolved to leave his estates and fight in the Crusades. Some say his sight was restored upon his pledge^[10] but Gerald records that he traveled to the Holy Land and fought blind, where he was "immediately struck down by a blow from a sword and so ended his life with honour".^[11]

Legacy

Afan was said to have founded the parish of Llanafan in Ceredigion (now Llanafan y Trawsgoed), whose present church serves as the chapel for the village of Llanafan and the nearby Trawsgoed Estate. Its grounds house the family crypt of the earls of Lisburne.

Two churches were dedicated to him in the deanery of Builth: Llanafan Fawr ("Great Llanafan") and Llanafan Fechan or Fach ("Lesser Llanafan"), which eventually became known as Llanfechan.^[1] His relics are claimed by Llanafan Fawr, which served as a pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages. Afan's grave in the churchyard there is inscribed HIC IACET SANCTUS AVANUS EPISCOPUS ("Here lies Saint Avan, bishop") in deeply cut, slightly ornamented Lombardic script. The present tomb, however, is not older than the late 13th century.^[1]

Browne Willis also considered the "Saint Afran" honored at Llantrisant on Anglesey to be a corruption of Afan.^[1]

Related Research Articles

Until 1974, Brecknockshire, also formerly known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon, was an administrative county in the south of Wales, later classed as one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. Named after its county town of Brecon, the county was mountainous and primarily rural.

Ceredig ap Cunedda, was king of Ceredigion in Wales.

Llanddewi Brefi is a village, parish and community of approximately 500 people in Ceredigion, Wales. The village is notable for the famous Synod of Brefi held here in the sixth century. A number of miraculous events are said to have occurred during the synod, most notably by Saint David Welsh: Dewi Sant, patron saint of Wales. Today, it is one of the largest parishes in Wales and lies 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Lampeter between Tregaron and Llanfair Clydogau. It is in the electoral ward of Llangeitho.

Llanafan Fawr is a village and community and ecclesiastical parish in Powys, Wales. Located in the former cantref of Buellt (Builth) and historic county of Brecknockshire, the community includes the former parish of Llanfihangel Bryn Pabuan.

Saint Padarn's Church is a parish church of the Church in Wales, and the largest mediaeval church in mid-Wales. It is at Llanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion, Wales.

Thomas Huet was a Welsh clergyman and translator of the Bible.

Llantrisant is a hamlet in Anglesey, Wales. It is in the community of Tref Alaw.

Llan and its variants are a common element of Celtic placenames in the British Isles and Brittany, especially of Welsh toponymy. In Welsh the name of a local saint or a geomorphological description follows the Llan morpheme to form a single word: for example Llanfair is the parish or settlement around the church of St. Mair. Goidelic toponyms end in -lann.

Trawsgoed is a community and an estate in Ceredigion, Wales. The estate is 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Aberystwyth, and has been in the possession of the Vaughan family since 1200. The Vaughans are descended from Collwyn ap Tangno, founder of the fifth noble tribe of North Wales, Lord of Eifionydd, Ardudwy, and part of Llŷn, who had his residence on the site of Harlech Castle.

Cadfan, was the 6th century founder-abbot of Tywyn and Bardsey, both in Gwynedd, Wales. He was said to have received the island of Bardsey from Einion Frenin, king of Llŷn, around 516 and to have served as its abbot until 542.

Saint Afan's Church (SN68387192) is located in Llanafan, 8 miles (13 km) east of Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buellt</span> Welsh medieval cantref

Buellt or Builth was a cantref in medieval Wales, located west of the River Wye. Unlike most cantrefs, it was not part of any of the major Welsh kingdoms for most of its history, but was instead ruled by an autonomous local dynasty. During the Norman era it was associated with Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, a region independent of the Welsh monarchies and controlled by Norman Marcher Lords. In the 16th century, it was reorganized as a hundred and joined with the former kingdom of Brycheiniog to form the county of Brecknockshire.

Llanafan is a small village between Tregaron and Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, in Wales. Llanafan is around ten miles from Aberystwyth and Tregaron. It is named for its parish church, St Afan's, which serves as the chapel for the nearby Trawsgoed Estate. Its eponymous saint supposedly founded the settlement in the 7th century. The village also has a hall and primary school founded in 1856 by Ernest Vaughan, 4th Earl of Lisburne, for which it was originally known as the Earl of Lisburne School.

Merthyr Cynog is a hamlet and a community in the modern county of Powys, Wales, in the historic county of Brecknockshire. The population of the community at the 2021 Census was 245.

Cavall was King Arthur's dog, used in the hunt for the great boar, Twrch Trwyth.

Llanafan may refer to any of:

Llanfechan is a small church settlement in the community of Treflys, consisting of a church and a farm, and the surrounding area, it is beside the A483 on the north side of the Irfon Valley near Cilmeri, about 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) west of Builth Wells, Powys, Wales.

A Saint Ilar is listed among the 6th-century saints of Wales and is the probable namesake of Llanilar in Ceredigion and its former hundred of Ilar. His feast day is variously given as 13, 14, or 15 January, but is no longer observed by either the Anglican or Catholic church in Wales.

Saint Meleri was a late 5th century Welsh saint and Queen of Ceredigion.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Baring-Gould, Sabine (1907). The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish Saints as have Dedications in Britain. London: Charles J. Clark, for the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. pp. 114–115.
↑ The Church in Wales. "The Book of Common Prayer for Use in the Church in Wales: The New Calendar and the Collects". 2003. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.
↑ The Catholic Church in England and Wales. "Liturgy Office: November 2015". Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, 2014. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.
↑ Rees, Rice. An Essay on the Welsh Saints Or the Primitive Christians, Usually Considered to Have Been the Founders of the Churches in Wales, p. 208. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1836.
↑ He is sometimes also erroneously given as a son of Ceredig himself.^[1]
↑ Bromwich, Rachel (ed.) Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, pp. 506 f. University Of Wales Press, 2006. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.
↑ Wade-Evans, A. W. Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae: The Lives and Genealogies of the Welsh Saints. 1944.
↑ Enwogion Cymru 1852: 29
↑ "St. Afan". Saints and Angels. Catholic Online. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
1 2 Jones, Terry. "Afan". Patron Saints Index. Archived from the original on 2008-01-01. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
1 2 Gerald of Wales (1978). The Journey Through Wales and the Description of Wales. Penguin Classics. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0-14-044339-8.
↑ "At this point I must tell you what happened, in the reign of Henry I, King of the English, to the castellan of Radnor castle, in the territory of Builth, which is not far away, being adjacent to his own lands, which he himself conquered. He had gone into the church of Saint Afan, called Llanafan in Welsh, and there he had spent the night with his dogs, which was a foolish and irreverent thing to do. He got up at first light, as hunters are wont to do, but he found that all his dogs had gone mad and that he himself was blind. He had lost his sight completely and he had to grope his way out with his hand..."^[11]

Williams, Robert (1852). Enwogion Cymru: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen, from the Earliest Times to the Present, and Including Every Name Connected with the Ancient History of Wales. England: Oxford University.

External links

Llanafan Fawr at Castles of Wales, including photographs of Afan's tomb

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[sabi-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Baring-Gould, Sabine (1907). The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish Saints as have Dedications in Britain. London: Charles J. Clark, for the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. pp. 114–115.

[2] The Church in Wales. "The Book of Common Prayer for Use in the Church in Wales: The New Calendar and the Collects". 2003. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.

[3] The Catholic Church in England and Wales. "Liturgy Office: November 2015". Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, 2014. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.

[4] Rees, Rice. An Essay on the Welsh Saints Or the Primitive Christians, Usually Considered to Have Been the Founders of the Churches in Wales, p. 208. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1836.

[5] He is sometimes also erroneously given as a son of Ceredig himself.^[1]

[6] Bromwich, Rachel (ed.) Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, pp. 506 f. University Of Wales Press, 2006. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.

[7] Wade-Evans, A. W. Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae: The Lives and Genealogies of the Welsh Saints. 1944.

[8] Enwogion Cymru 1852: 29

[cathon-9] "St. Afan". Saints and Angels. Catholic Online. Retrieved 2007-12-30.

[patron-10] 1 2 Jones, Terry. "Afan". Patron Saints Index. Archived from the original on 2008-01-01. Retrieved 2007-12-30.

[description-11] 1 2 Gerald of Wales (1978). The Journey Through Wales and the Description of Wales. Penguin Classics. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0-14-044339-8.

[12] "At this point I must tell you what happened, in the reign of Henry I, King of the English, to the castellan of Radnor castle, in the territory of Builth, which is not far away, being adjacent to his own lands, which he himself conquered. He had gone into the church of Saint Afan, called Llanafan in Welsh, and there he had spent the night with his dogs, which was a foolish and irreverent thing to do. He got up at first light, as hunters are wont to do, but he found that all his dogs had gone mad and that he himself was blind. He had lost his sight completely and he had to grope his way out with his hand..."^[11]

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