Saint Cynog of Powys
On the seventh of October, the Holy Orthodox Church also commemorates another of Wales’s great national saints, Cynog Ferthyr of Powys. The first of Brychan Brycheiniog’s formidable and holy brood of offspring, Saint Cynog also led the way in terms of the missionary work and the spiritual witness of his earthly brothers and sisters.
Saint Cynog was the by-blow of an illicit relationship between Brychan and Banhadlwedd, the daughter of Banadl King of Powys, whom he seduced and impregnated whilst being kept as Banadl’s hostage at Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant. He later carried her off with him as a mistress – Cynog was born to Banhadlwedd at Brychan’s court in Aberhonddu. When he was born, he was given a gold-inlaid iron torc (or neckband) by his father, wrought together from four quarter-circle pieces of malm and joined by the figure of a dog’s head, which he always thereafter wore on his head. Several miraculous tales are attributed to this torc. In Welsh poetry, Saint Cynog is said to have done battles with monsters and giants with this torc upon his head, and that it gave him exceptional strength. One smith was said to have handled Saint Cynog’s torc, and sought to disprove its sanctity by giving it a blow from his tools. However, for his impiety, a fragment of metal flew up and hit him in the eye, blinding him.
His maternal grandfather Banadl may have been excommunicated at one point by Saint Germain, and chased into Ireland. Cynog was offered a royal dominion there as Banadl’s heir, but refused. However, he often stood as regent for his father Brychan when the latter went off on military excursions or was elsewhere occupied.
As a youth, he had a fondness for hunting game – especially deer and fowl – and fishing. Perhaps out of hope that he would become less frivolous, he was given to a holy man and hermit named Saint Gastayn for his education, and from Saint Gastayn he learned the ways of Christ and of self-denial. Gastayn made such a great impression on the young Cynog that the latter left his father’s court in Brecon and built a hermitage about a mile off, and lived a life of service to the people around him. He travelled broadly both in Wales and in Cornwall, and about a dozen churches were dedicated to him throughout both countries, and even one in Saint-Malo in Brittany – though mostly in Powys, where his cultus was most firmly established.
He eventually settled down, not in his old eremitical cell, but atop a mountain in the Brecon Beacons called Y Fan Oleu, beneath a sheer rock just under the precipice. The hermits there had no water except that which they hauled up the mountain on foot from the stream below.
Saint Cynog undertook the work of fetching and carrying water joyfully and without complaint. But a couple of his fellow monks, who were envious and given to thoughts of akedia, thought the task was beneath them. They became resentful of the saint. When later a holy well appeared at the top of the hill, the two jealous monks took up axes and cut off Saint Cynog’s head, martyring him. Other sources say that Saint Cynog was cut down by pagan barbarians rather than by wicked monks. Saint Cynog’s body took up his head, walked with it to a bramble-bush nearby, and set it down beneath. At once he was recognised to have been a holy man, and various priests and folk from Brecon tried to move his relics into a church. However, these churches in which his relics were housed all blew or burned down. The only remedy was to take his relics back to the bramble-bush where his head lay, and build the church at Merthyr Cynog atop it. Saint Cynog is still recognised as a saint in Powys. Holy martyr Cynog, establisher of many churches, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
Spurred on by their impiety,
God-hating barbarians sought to destroy thee, O holy Cynog,
But by death thou didst gain the victory.
Pray for us, that we too may triumph over evil
By faithfulness unto the end,
That we may be granted great mercy.
Church of St Cynog, Merthyr Cynog, Powys
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