Church of St Mor and St Deiniol
Llanfor, Merionethshire
Diocese: Llanelwy/St Asaph
Photo © Martin Crampin
OS Grid Ref.: SH93833670
Lat/Lng: 52.917192820012,-3.5804548974153
Church rebuilt on a medieval site in 1874, dedicated to Mor and Deiniol. It was closed in 1992.
Wade-Evans notes that Rice Rees suggested that Mor was also a former patron of the church, and cites a poem by Lewys Glyn Cothi in support of a cult of St Mor being current in the fifteenth century. The place-name is given as Llanfawr by Browne Willis, which would dispense with the need for a possible patron with the name Mor to explain the place-name. He gives Deiniol alone as the patron.The name in the poem by Lewys Glyn Cothi (Moliant Siôn ap Rhys ac Elsbedd) is given as Mair (Mary) in Dafydd Johnston's edition of the poem, following the text in Peniarth 109, written in the poet's own hand. However, it is odd that the poet repeats nawdd Mair (the patronage of Mary) in line 61 and 62, when the name of a different saint might be expected. The notes on Mor given by Rice Rees strongly depend on his reading of lines by Llywarch Hen quoted in the Myvyrian archaiology, referring to churches at three places named Llanfor.
The name of the church is given as St Mor's Ch. on the early six inch OS maps.
More information
National Monuments RecordStained Glass in Wales
S. Baring-Gould & John Fisher, The Lives of the British Saints (London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1911), 498–9 View online
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), 117–8, 341
A.W. Wade-Evans, 'Parochiale Wallicanum' in Y Cymmrodor (1910), 108
Sources
Browne Willis, Parochiale Anglicanum (London: 1733), 222
John Ecton, Thesaurus Rerum Ecclesiasticarum (London: 1754), 488
Ordnance Survey 6 inch map (1880s)
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