Cawrdaf

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

Saint venerated at Abererch in Llŷn and the subject of a fifteenth-century poem. The name Cawrdaf has been associated with other forms such as Cowrda and Cwrda, which has suggested links with several places and churches across Wales.

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Feast Day: 5 December

The feast day of Cawrdaf is listed as 5 December in the majority of calendars and eighteenth-century almanacs, while other calendars give 21 February, where the saint appears in the form Cowrda.

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Texts

Hywel Rheinallt wrote a cywydd in praise of Cawrdaf in the late fifteenth century, which forms the greater part of our knowledge of the saint, as no prose Life of the saint has survived.

Cywydd Cawrda Sant

Late fifteenth-century poem by Hywel Rheinallt.

Places

The few places associated with Cawrdaf are widely dispersed, and three places with the best evidence for a medieval cult of Cawrdaf are located near the coasts in Anglesey, Llŷn and Ceredigion. Not far from the church at Abererch there is also a holy well and a stone, Cadair Cawrdaf.

The medieval patrons of other churches at Jordanston and Llanwrda that now have dedications to Cawrdaf, or variants of the name, are poorly attested, and his association with Alltygawrddu in Glamorgan appears to have been fabricated in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.