Saint Dyfrig of Erging
In the Orthodox Church today we celebrate the sixth-century Saint Dyfrig [i.e. Dubricius or Devereux], a British – that is to say, Welsh – bishop and evangelist who worked in what are now the shires of Hereford, Gloucester and Pembroke in southwest England and southeast Wales. His story is first found in the Norman-era Book of Llandaff, and probably contains a few embellishments given the distance in time between the events it accounts and its publication. However, given his attestation in the earlier Welsh hagiographies of, for example, Saint Samson, his existence and the broad contours of his life may be considered historical fact.
Dyfrig was born to an unwed mother, Efrddyl, the daughter of Peibio Clafrog, King of Erging by an unnamed daughter of Saint Custennin – who suffered from a skin ailment thought to be leprosy. When the king returned one day from a battle, he ordered his daughter to wash his head. As his head was near her belly, he found he could hear two heartbeats. The king became enraged, and ordered his daughter to be tied in a sack and drowned in the River Wye as punishment for fornication. She survived this attempted execution, and so the king ordered her to be burned at the stake. However, this too she survived, and when king went the next day to retrieve her ashes he beheld her, alive and whole, atop the burnt-out pyre nursing her newborn child. The place where this happened is now called Chilstone (that is, ‘Child’s Stone’) in Madley.
Fearing this marvel of God against his own cruelty, Peibio ordered them to be set free. Efrddyl brought her newborn to kiss his grandfather, and again wondrously at the touch of the infant’s lips upon his cheek, Peibio was cured of his skin disease. The hardened heart of the king was touched, and he grew to love the young Dyfrig as befit the feelings of a grandsire for his grandson. When the young boy came of age, the king gave to Dyfrig the whole of that territory, which he had named for his daughter – Ynys Efrddyl.
As a child, Dyfrig was hailed for his formidable intellect and his diligent habits of study, and it was no surprise to anyone that he chose for himself the monastic life. He founded two monasteries: the first at Henllan (now Hentland in Hereford), and the second seven years after, in Moccas. These two monasteries were noted for their vast libraries and, eventually, as places of towering scholastic accomplishment. It was here that the flower of the mediæval Celtic sainthood were largely taught – including, notably, Saint Teilo of Carmarthen and Saint Samson of Dol, whom Saint Dyfrig later anointed as bishop.
Abbot Dyfrig was soon elected bishop in the Celtic tradition over Erging, and later over the westward sees of Gwent and Glywysing (what would later become the shire of Monmouth). Tradition has it that he was elevated to Archbishop of Wales by Saint Germain of Auxerre, and in that office was the one who consecrated Saint Deiniol Bishop of Bangor Fawr. A still more far-fetched legend has it that he was the one who anointed King Arthur. Saint Dyfrig was close friends with Saint Dewi and also Saint Cadog Ddoeth.
Saint Dyfrig was a great opponent of the hæretical doctrines of his fellow Welshman Pelagius, and went to the Synod of Llandewi Brefi in order to condemn them, along with Saint Deiniol. The two of them called upon Saint Dewi and asked him to attend as well, and eventually he did so. At the Synod, it was in fact Dewi who gave such stirring, bardic arguments against Pelagianism. Dyfrig, in fact, was moved to relinquish his see and bestow it upon Dewi, for his steadfast and heartfelt love of Christ’s truth. Dewi took up residence at Mynyw while Dyfrig spent his last years on the Isle of Bardsey as a simple monk in the Abbey there. He reposed peacefully in the Lord on the fourteenth of November, probably sometime around the year 550. Holy Hierarch Dyfrig, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!
Thou art worthily honoured as father of Welsh monasticism, O Hierarch Dyfrig,
Labouring to establish true asceticism with thy brother in the Faith, Samson of Dol
Whom thou didst raise to the dignity of the episcopate.
In thy pastoral love, O Saint,
Pray for us that despite our unspiritual lives
Christ our God will grant us great mercy.
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