Cadog (Cadocus)
Click to show suggested citation for this record
https://saints.wales/saint/4 (accessed 19 Sep. 2024)
Feast Day: 24 January
Welsh medieval calendars give the feast day of Cadog as January 24, and the same date was celebrated at Padstow in Cornwall, while English medieval martyrologies give January 23. French sources give November 1 and September 21 or 23. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints gives 25 September, a date not mentioned by Baring-Gould & Fisher in their Lives of the British Saints.More information
Texts
The Life of Cadog, written by Lifris, is the longest of the Lives included in MS Cotton Vespasian A xiv.
Places
Church Dedication | Well | Placename | Landscape feature | Modern | Text |
Further reading
S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher The Lives of the British Saints (London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1908), 14â –42 View online
David Farmer The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 71
Elissa Henken Traditions of the Welsh Saints (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1987), 89â –98, 327â –31
Nicholas Orme The Saints of Cornwall (Oxford: 2000), 79â –82
K.M. Evans A Book of Welsh Saints (Penarth: Church in Wales Publications, 1967), 23â –6
Thomas Charles-Edwards ' Cadog [St Cadog, Cadoc, Cadfael, Cathmáel]' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) View online
E.G. Bowen 'Cadog, saint (fl. c. 450)' in Dictionary of Welsh Biography (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1959) View online
Saints in Scottish Place-Names (2013), saint.h?id=34 View online
Images
Lost images from the churches dedicated to Cadog at Llancarfan, Cadoxton-juxta-Neath and Llanmaes are attested, the head at Llancarfan being drawn and photographed in the 1890s. In Britanny, Baring-Gould and Fisher note lost painted scenes from his Life at a chapel in Gouesnac'h, near Fouesnant, in Finistere, and illustrate a statuette at Lampaul-Guimiliau (38â –9).Numerous images of Cadog were made for churches from the later nineteenth century, although only the large modern window at the church dedicated to him at Cowbridge incorporates more than a passing reference to the Life of Cadog. A scene of the saint attending Cain at her death is found at Brecon Cathedral, and his martyrdom at the hands of Saxon horsemen is depicted in the east window of the Church of St Cadoc, Caerleon.
In several instances Cadog is shown in combination with his saintly mother and father, Gwynllyw and Gwladys, including a depiction of him as a boy with Gwyladys at Bargoed. At Brecon, and on the pulpit at Pentyrch, he is shown with a mouse, and at Caerphilly, in a window also depicting Gwynllyw and Gwladys, he is shown with a stag.
View images of Cadog on the Stained Glass in Wales website