St Cadog’s Church, Llancarfan

Artistic and spiritual pilgrims alike can marvel at the treasured heritage of St Cadoc’s church, with its rediscovered medieval wall paintings, visited by the St Thomas Way

‍Highlights

• ‍‍Monastic site of St Cadoc

South Wales needed as many monastic schools as it could get in the 6th century. Their combined missionaries had to cover not only the whole of Wales, but beyond into Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, and France. St Cadoc set up his monastic school at Llancarfan in the early 6th century. It was established a few decades after the more famous centre of learning at Llantwit Major, which is only 6 miles to the west (listed on the opposite page). One of St Cadoc’s pupils was St Canice, also known as St Kenneth. He worked in both Scotland and Ireland, where he is still revered as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

Nothing survives of St Cadoc’s early community, which he founded around 518. Its location is thought to lie a short distance to the south of the parish church, probably about 200m away beyond the village houses. Llancarfan is 2½ miles from the sea and was destroyed by a Viking raid in 987. The community was rebuilt but closed down shortly after the Norman Conquest for reasons unknown.

The current parish church was built shortly after the monastery’s closure, around 1200. It is located in a valley beside a stream and has some interesting medieval wall paintings discovered in 2008 and undergoing long-term restoration work. The newly uncovered scenes include the most complete set of images from the life of St George in any British church. England’s patron saint, with his military credentials, was not always the most welcome guest in Wales, making this church’s artworks even more of a surprise.

Llancarfan means ‘church of the stags,’ referring to a Celtic-style animal miracle. One day, St Cadoc asked some labourers to dig the field, but they refused. Two stags emerged and started to do the work with their antlers. St Cadoc was the son of St Gwynllyw and St Gwladys, who founded Newport’s cathedral (page 491). His saint’s day is 25 September.

Directions‍

St Cadog’s Church, village centre, Llancarfan CF62 3AD‍

www.stcadocs.org.uk‍

W3W: files.edgy.soggy‍

GPS: 51.4228N 3.3660W

The church was open when I visited but has been closed for long-term restoration.