Saint of the Day – 1 November – Saint Cadfan (c530-c590) Founding Abbot of Bardsey Abbey in Wales, Missionary, Founder of many Monasteries. Born in c530 in Brittany (in modern France) and died in Wales in c590 of natural causes. Patronage – of Llangadfan names after St Cadfan. Also known as – Gideon or Cadfan of Wales, Caden, Cadoan, Cadouen, Caduan, Cadvan, Catamanu, Catamanus, Catman, Catouan, Catuuan, Catvan, Gadfan, Kavan. Additional Memorial – 1 January as one of the Breton Missionaries to Britain.
Most of the information we have of Cadfan’s life is from the Vita by Llywelyn the Bard in the 12th Century.
Cadfan was a French nobleman, the son of Eneas Ledewig and Princess Gwen Teirbron. As a young man, he was drawn to a life in the Church, probably through the influence of his elder half-brother, St Winwaloe.
He founded places of worship in Finistere and the Cotes-du-Nord before leading a large band of missionaries to Western Wales with his cousin, St Tydecho and friend, St Cynllo.
In Wales, Cadfan founded a renowned Monastery at Towyn in Meirionydd, in northern Powys but later moved to the seclusion of Bardsey Island. The Monastery he established there, which he dedicated to Our Lady as St Mary’s Abbey, became a spirtitual destination for holy men and royalty alike. Cadfan’s confessor was St Hywyn who lived just across the water in Aberdaron.
It is said that, not only his original followers but some 20,000 further Saints were subsequently buried in the Abbey’s graveyard.
Cadfan died on 1st November, sometime in the late 6th Century. He was succeeded as Abbot of Bardsey by St Lleuddad who buried him in the Abbey Church. Centuries later, his body was translated to a more fitting Shrine in Llandaff Cathedral.
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