Deiniol


Unidentified Saint, late fifteenth century, Church of St Mary, Beaumaris
Deiniol is the patron of the cathedral and diocese of Bangor, and has been regarded as its first bishop. His death is recorded in the Annales Cambriae (the Annals of Wales) in 584.

Deiniolen, or Deiniol fab, is the patron of churches at Llanddeiniolen and Llanddaniel Fab, and has ben regarded as Deiniol's son. He appears in sixteenth-century calendars as a separate saint with a different feast day.

Feast Day: 11 September

Most calendars give the feast of Deiniol as 11 September. Other dates in September seem to have been celebrated, for example Edward Lhuyd observed that the parish wake at Hawarden was observed around the 15 September. Some sources give dates in December.

More information

Texts

A short Latin Life of Deiniol is found in MS Peniarth 225. A poem in praise of Deiniol was composed by Syr Dafydd Trefor at the time of the renovation of both the church and bishop’s palace in Bangor under the patronage of the bishop, Thomas Skevington.

Deiniol is mentioned in the Life of Dyfrig, in which Deiniol is consecrated as bishop of Bangor by the 'archbishop' Dyfrig.

Vita S. Dubricii

Legenda novem lectionum de S. Daniele Ep'o Bangoriensi

Short Latin Life found in MS Peniarth 225, 155–60.

Places

Church dedications and place-names related to Deiniol appear in three main clusters. One is centred around Bangor, and includes the dedications to Daniel Fab and Deinolen, and another is found in Pembrokeshire, echoing the claim in the Latin Life and in the poem by Dafydd Trefor that Deiniol was a hermit in Pembrokeshire. A further group is found in north-east Wales around Bangor-on-Dee, and are suggestive of the tradition that Deiniol was the son of Dunawd of Bangor-on-Dee.

Dedications are also found in Merioneth and Ceredigion, but one in Monmouthshire is an outlier, and the similarity of the personal name incorporated into the Welsh place-name Llanddinol (Itton) to Deiniol may be coincidental. There are tentative signs that his cult was known in Brittany, for example at S. Denoual near Matignon in Côtes du Nord, although, as at Itton, a separate tradition may have developed here around another individual.

  Church
Dedication		  Well   Placename Landscape
feature		 Modern Text

1. Bangor Cathedral, Bangor, (Dedication) Details
3. Church of St Deiniol, Worthenbury, (Dedication) Details
4. Church of St Deiniol, Llanuwchllyn, (Dedication) Details
5. Church of St Deiniol, Hawarden, (Dedication) Details
6. Church of St Deiniol, Llanddeiniolen, (Dedication) Details
7. Church of St Deiniol, Llanddeiniol, (Dedication) Details
8. Church of St Deiniol, Itton, (Dedication) Details
9. Church of St Deiniol, Llanddaniel Fab, (Dedication) Details
10. Church of St Deiniol, St Deiniols Chapel, (Dedication) Details
11. Church of St Deiniol and St Marcella, Marchwiel, (Dedication) Details
14. Church of St Mor and St Deiniol, Llanfor, (Dedication) Details
16. Ffynnon Daniel, Bangor-on-Dee, (Well) Details
17. Ffynnon Ddaniel, Llanfor, (Well) Details
18. Ffynnon Ddeiniol, Penbryn, (Well) Details
19. Ffynnon Deiniol, Bangor, (Well) Details
20. St Deiniol's Well, Penally, (Well) Details
21. Llanddaniel Fab, Llanddaniel Fab, (Placename) Details
22. Llanddeiniol, Llanddeiniol, (Placename) Details
23. Llanddeiniolen, Llanddeiniolen, (Placename) Details
24. Itton, Itton, (Placename) Details
25. St Deiniols Chapel, St Deiniols Chapel, (Placename) Details


Online sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Further reading

S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher The Lives of the British Saints (London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1908), 325⁠–31    View online

S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher The Lives of the British Saints (London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1913), 387⁠–93    View online

David Farmer The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 119

Elissa Henken Traditions of the Welsh Saints (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1987), 187⁠–8, 342

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), 258–60

K.M. Evans A Book of Welsh Saints (Penarth: Church in Wales Publications, 1967), 61⁠–2

Thomas Charles-Edwards 'Deiniol (d. 584)' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)    View online

Images

A figure of Deiniol (as Daniel) can be found among the tracery lights of the late medieval east window at Llandyrnog, located in a detached part of the diocese of Bangor. Modern images of Deiniol can be found in churches across the modern diocese, including at Bangor Cathedral, where a figure of Deiniol is found over the south porch, as is one of the figures of Welsh saints in the south aisle. Further images in stained glass are found in north-east Wales at Bangor-on-Dee, Wrexham and Hawarden, where there is also a figure of Deiniol over the porch.

Figures of Deiniol are consistently included in windows and groups of figures including representative saints from the four ancient diocese of Wales.

View images of Deiniol on the Stained Glass in Wales website