Church of St Cynog
Ystradgynlais, Brecon
Diocese: Abertawe ac Aberhonddu/Swansea and Brecon (Former diocese: Tyddewi/St Davids)
OS Grid Ref.: SN78721005
Lat/Lng: 51.7759383666,-3.7592806876
Church built in 1861, close to a medieval predecessor.
Browne Willis, Rice Rees and A.W. Wade-Evans agree on the dedication of the church to Cynog, although there is no known evidence for the dedication prior to the eighteenth century.Theophilus Jones gave the dedication as Mary in 1809, although in his view the original dedication has been to Gwnlen or Gunleus, a tradition that persisted in the nineteenth century, as the church is dedicated to Gundleus on the recorded on first edition OS map, and Gynlais on the second edition OS map. Jones made the connection of the name Gunleus with the Welsh Gwynllyw, but this does not appear to have any early precedent. The place-name derives from the river name Cynlais, attested in the twelfth century.
More information
National Monuments RecordChurch Heritage Cymru
Stained Glass in Wales
Richard Morgan & R.F. Peter Powell, A Study of Breconshire Place-Names (Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 1999), 156
Sources
Browne Willis, Parochiale Anglicanum (London: 1733), 181
John Ecton, Thesaurus Rerum Ecclesiasticarum (London: 1754), 461
Ordnance Survey 6 inch map (1880s)
Rice Rees, An Essay on the Welsh Saints or the Primitive Christian usually considered to have been the Founders of Churches in Wales (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1836), 139, 327
Ordnance Survey 6 inch map (1891–1914)
A.W. Wade-Evans, 'Parochiale Wallicanum' in Y Cymmrodor (1910), 37
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