Saint Cybi Felyn and Saint Seiriol Gwyn
The eighth of November is the feast-day of two great British saints of late antiquity, the prince and founder of churches Cybi Felyn (or ‘the Tawny’) of Caer Gybi on the Holy Isle of Anglesey, and Holy Father Tysilio of Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany.
Cybi Felyn was born in Cornwall to the British warrior-prince Selyf and his wife Gwen. The two of them raised him in the Christian faith and gave him a fine education – he quickly developed a pious and studious disposition as a result. At the age of twenty-seven, Cybi made pilgrimages to Rome and to Jerusalem, and while on pilgrimage became a priest. When he returned home, he found that his father Selyf had died, and that he had been left as the legal king of Cornwall. However, he was set on continuing a life of holiness and relinquished his claim to the throne, leaving Cornwall in the care of the British kingdom of Dumnonia to the east.
Saint Cybi founded four churches in Cornwall: Duloe, Tregony, Cubert and Landulph. After founding these four churches, he travelled northward across the Bristol Channel into Llanddyfrwyr in the company of his uncle, Prince Cyngar ap Geraint, where he set about preaching and teaching as a mendicant priest. He fell foul (as Welsh saints seem wont to do) of the local kinglet, Edelig ap Glywys, who tried to have him kicked out of his demesne. Cybi confronted Edelig, and scolded him so roundly that Edelig was cowed into giving him two parcels of land, on each of which he founded a church: one at Llanddyfrwyr-yn-Edeligion and another at Llangybi-on-Usk (which, as seen, took its name after him). The two men were not long able to stay in southeastern Wales, and soon sought the shelter and aid of Saint Dewi.
Saints Cybi and his followers, including Saint Cyngar, set sail for Ireland where they undertook the establishment of yet more churches – including ones in Aran Mor, Meath and Mochop. Yet again, however, they were hounded out by local potentates and elders, and were forced to make their way back to Wales. They landed in the Eifionydd region of Gwynedd; and Saint Cybi lived and established a Christian community in Llangybi near Pwllheli. There was a holy well there, Ffynnon Gybi, which tradition holds was able to give maidens inspired advice on their love lives. A girl looking to know if her swain was truthful would throw her handkerchief in the well. If the wind blew the handkerchief to the south side of the well, she would know his intentions were honourable. If the wind blew it to the north side, she would know he was toying with her affections.
Saint Cybi again came across the local king of Gwynedd, Maelgwn Hir ap Cadwallon, while he was out hunting a wild goat. The goat ran across Cybi’s path and he was quickly followed by the king. The king, though angry at finding a Christian settlement on his land without his permission, was quickly calmed and persuaded by Saint Cybi’s deft diplomatic tongue. As with Edelig, Maelgwn was convinced to give Saint Cybi one of his palaces on Holyhead, which became Caer Gybi. Saint Cybi and his followers settled in this dwelling and converted it into a thriving monastery.
Caer Gybi Church and Fort at Holyhead
As for Saint Cybi Felyn, he became a steadfast spiritual friend of the hermit Saint Seiriol Gwyn of Penmon – with whom he is often venerated together in Orthodox liturgics. Saint Seiriol lived on the Eastern Peninsula of Ynys Môn – the opposite side from Saint Cybi – but the two would nonetheless meet regularly at the Clorach Wells at Llandyfrydog, which sat at the centre of the island midway between them, and there converse in a brotherly spirit on the ways of Christ and on the holy things of Him. The two saints would set out early in the morning to walk to Llandyfrydog from their respective corners of Ynys Môn, and return to their cells in the evening. Because Cybi was walking east in the morning and west in the evening, the sun always would be on his face during his walks, and he got heavily tanned. Because Seiriol was always going west in the morning and east in the evening, the sun was never on his face, which remained pale. Thus Saint Cybi earned the cognomen ‘Felyn’, meaning ‘tawny’, and Saint Seiriol was called ‘Gwyn’, meaning ‘white’.
Saint Cybi Felyn founded another church in Ceredigion in the Welsh West, late in his life. He also attended the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi in 545, condemning Pelagianism. While there, he was visited by many Welsh priests seeking to make pilgrimage to the Isle of Bardsey, fearing attack from English pirates on the roads. Saint Cybi replied to them, that if their faith in God was firm, He would not abandon them in what they sought. Saint Cybi reposed in the Lord on the eighth of November, 555, and was buried on the Isle of Bardsey.
Saint Cybi’s kinsman, Saint Cyngar, was Cybi’s steadfast comrade in his holy work throughout most of the former’s adult life, accompanying him to Edeligion, Mywys, Ireland, Eifionydd and Anglesey. While on the island of Aran Mor in Ireland, Cyngar was afflicted with a condition whereby he could no longer eat solid food. Saint Cybi bought his uncle a cow and a calf, so that he would always have milk to drink while he was thus afflicted. At one time, however, the calf was weaned such that the cow stopped producing milk. As a result, Cyngar very nearly starved to death. Saint Cyngar founded the monastery at Holyhead jointly with Saint Cybi, and from there struck out on his own and established a hermitage and kirk at Llangefni. It was there that he reposed in the Lord, on the seventh of November during the middle of the sixth century, probably several years before his nephew did. Holy Father Cybi, founder of churches and monasteries, pray unto Christ our God to save our souls!
By thy journeyings, O Hierarch Cybi,
Thou dost teach us the virtue of making pilgrimages.
Wherefore, O Prince of Ascetics and all-praised Wonderworker,
We entreat thee to intercede for us
That Christ our God will not find our lives to be utterly worthless
And will show us great mercy.
Church of Saint Cyngar at Llangefni
~~~
Saint Gwyddfarch of Meifod and Saint Tysilio of Brittany
Saint Tysilio [i.e. Suliac], also commemorated today, hailed from the region of Powys in Eastern Wales. The younger son of Brochwel Ysgrithrog ap Cyngen Glodrydd, King of Powys, he sought for himself a life of Christian asceticism. However, his father was most unwilling to oblige him, such that he had to flee Brochwel’s household and seek sanctuary on the altar-cloth at Meifod Abbey under the Venerable Gwyddfarch. He begged Abbot Gwyddfarch to let him become a monk. Later, a war-band from Powys sent by his father came to claim young Tysilio back, for it was his father’s intention that he lead Powys’s men in war. It was only with difficulty that Brochwel King was persuaded to let Tysilio stay with Gwyddfarch and study the ascetic life.
Under Abbot Gwyddfarch, Meifod Abbey became renowned as a centre of learning and holiness. It was during his time as a monk of Meifod that Tysilio met and befriended Saint Beuno at the court of Cynan Garwyn. However, Saint Tysilio still feared that his father’s men from Powys would come and claim him, and so he left Meifod to settle on a small island near Ynys Môn – Church Island in the Menai Strait.
(Fun language factoid: it was this church that lent one section of the outlandish name of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to that village, about a mile west of the island itself.)
He lived on Church Island for seven years, teaching and preaching in Ynys Môn for that time. While there he established several churches in Clwyd, in Ceredigion, in Dyfed and on Ynys Môn. At the seven years’ end, he returned to Meifod to succeed the recently-reposed Saint Gwyddfarch as abbot. Saint Tysilio was a wise abbot who ruled Meifod with a gentle hand, prayed fastidiously and kept up a strict ascetic discipline for himself. He was close friends with the saintly cousins (the grandchildren of Saint Pabo), Deiniol of Bangor and Asa of Tegeingl.
Things were peaceful there, but he was soon visited by another temptation. Tysilio’s brother, who had succeeded their father Brochwel as king, died, leaving the throne of Powys empty. His beautiful sister-in-law Gwenwynwyn went to Meifod to make him two propositions: she would wed him in his brother’s place, and she would put him on the throne as king. The holy man turned down both proposals. The spurned Gwenwynwyn did not take his refusal lying down, but used her position to put substantial political pressures and burdens on Meifod Abbey. Knowing that this persecution was on account of him and his rejection of worldly luxury and power, Saint Tysilio reluctantly left Meifod and embarked on a voyage that took him to Brittany in northwestern Gaul.
Saint Tysilio landed in what is now Ille-et-Vilaine, on the inlet of Rance in Brittany, some fifty miles south of the isle of Jersey on the northern coast of France. There he established a monastery and became its first abbot. He cared deeply about the poor folk of Brittany, the Celtic cousins of the Cornish and Welsh people, and in his old age he undertook missions among them to do works of corporal mercy. He reposed in the Lord on the eighth of November in the year 640, and was buried in the Breton monastery that he founded. Holy Father Tysilio, devoted priest, monk and missionary, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!
Princely dignity was set at nought by thee, O Father Tysilio,
For thou didst put aside the glory of this world,
Preferring to serve God in monastic poverty.
Wherefore we pray thee, intercede for us,
That with courage we may renounce mammon
And live only in Christ for the salvation of men’s souls.
Church of Saint-Suliac, Brittany
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