Venerable Twrog of Meirionnydd

Saint Twrog’s Church, Maentwrog

The twenty-sixth of June is the feast day of Saint Twrog, one of the saintly companions of the holy Cadfan and one of the nine sons of the Breton prince Ithel Hael. Twrog is another of these Welsh saints that have larger-than-life legends attached to them, but his is too good a story not to tell. Some sources affiliate him with Saint Beuno, though this may have been the result of a clerical confusion in late mediæval Wales.

Saint Twrog was active in Ynys Enlli as one of Cadfan’s disciples, and built three churches in Wales. The first is the church at Llandwrog near Caernarfon in Gwynedd. The second is the church at Bodwrog on Ynys Môn. The third and most famous is the Church of St Twrog and St Mary in Maentwrog, Meirionnydd. When Saint Twrog arrived in Maentwrog it was still inhabited by heathen, and they worshipped a she-devil at an altar in the middle of the village. Twrog, who would not allow her to claim the souls of the villagers, challenged the she-devil to a wrestling match. For fully half a day they tussled in the clearing, and neither one could get the upper hand on the other. They called a temporary truce, and Saint Twrog withdrew himself.

While the she-devil sat in the midst of the clearing, Twrog ascended into the Moelwynion to pray and recover his strength. Hearing his prayers, a shining angel of God appeared before him, greeting him in Christ’s name. The angel led Twrog into a small lea where grew a færie ring of mushrooms, and bade him eat. Once Twrog had eaten the mushrooms, he found his physical strength had grown tenfold, and so too his eyesight. He could see the she-devil down in the valley from where he stood, and so he picked up a boulder and hurled it into the air at her. The massive stone hurtled through the air in a long arc, and smashed into the altar, wrecking it. It rolled to rest between the she-devil’s thighs.

Twrog’s opponent, knowing that he had received divine aid, flew into a rage. Her true nature was revealed as she sprouted horns and wings, and took to the air, never to return to that valley. Twrog founded his church where the boulder now stood. The boulder is still there, at the corner of the church in Maentwrog, with the handprint of the saint still pressed into it.

There is another folkloric connexion with this stone supposedly thrown down from the Moelwynion by the Saint, and that is that it marks the grave of Pryderi fab Pwyll, a key figure in the Mabinogion and a semi-legendary pagan king of Dyfed. A certain king of Gwynedd, Math fab Mathonwy, whenever he was not at war, had to rest his feet in the laps of two virgins or else he would die. Math’s nephew Gilfaethwy conceived a lust for one of the virgins assigned to this duty, Goewin. His brother Gwydion, a magician, conspired to lure Math away to war so that Gilfaethwy could have his way with her. This Gwydion did by tricking the king of Dyfed into giving away some enchanted swine he held for another, in exchange for some of the magic mushrooms of Moelwyn (which he had transformed into mighty war-steeds for one night). Pryderi beheld the next morning the nature of this trick, when he went to his stables and found mushrooms in place of the horses he’d acquired in trade.

Knowing now what had been done, the prideful Pryderi rode off to declare war on Gwynedd, and Math fab Mathonwy went off to meet him, leaving Goewin behind. The war was fearsome and the slaughter was great, with neither Pryderi nor Math able to gain the upper hand. Pryderi challenged Gwydion to single combat, and Gwydion slew him with magic in the Afon Glaslyn. On his return, Goewin was unable to serve Math as before, and she told him the reasons why. To spare her honour and to atone for his nephew’s crime against her, Math married Goewin himself. And the murderous and licentious deceit of his nephews being revealed, Math punished them by magically transforming them into brute beasts for three years. But Pryderi fab Pwyll was buried near where he fell, at Maentwrog, and Saint Twrog’s Stone marks the place.

Saint Twrog’s Stone, Maentwrog

These fanciful tales of Saint Twrog and his stone do inform us that the Breton missionary was indeed greatly beloved by the people of Meirionnydd. He was held in high regard both for his associations with the monastic complex at Bardsey, and for the deeds which he manifested among the people there. The association of his legend with a tale in the pagan Mabinogion shows that the Christian learning in Wales was only beginning to take root in Twrog’s time, and that also the tests of strength and magic between combatants like Pryderi and Gwydion were often the vehicle for detailing feats of ascesis or spiritual athleticism. Holy father Twrog, mighty victor in the spiritual contest, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!