Cathen

Unidentified Saint, late fifteenth century, Church of St Mary, Beaumaris

Saint associated with the church at Llangathen in Carmarthenshire. A poem by Dafydd Epynt describes the saint as formerly a warrior, and a son of Cawrdaf, who was a son of Caradog.

Feast Day: 17 May

None of the Welsh calendars give a date for the feast of Cathen, although Rice Rees gives his feast as 17 May, which is the feast of another sixth- or seventh-century bishop in Bute, listed in the Scottish calendars.

More information

Texts

A prayer to Cathen was written in verse by the fifteenth-century poet Dafydd Epynt, asking for a cure for ague. Cathen is given the same pedigree in a late version of the Bonedd y Saint written in the sixteenth century.

A Prayer to St Cathen of Llangathen to Cure the Poet of Ague

Poem written in the second half of the fifteenth century.

Places

Only a single church is known to have been dedicated to Cathen, at Llangathen, and even here the dedication seems to have given way to Michael in the eighteenth century according to Browne Willis.