Saint Illtud of Llanilltud Fawr
On the sixth of November we commemorate Saint Illtud Farchog, one of Wales’s great national saints. A student, and likely a kinsman, of the Gallo-Roman Saint Germain of Auxerre, Illtud was one of the most formidable scholarly minds of his day and was tutor to the great flower of the Welsh sainthood, including Saint Dewi, Saint Samson, Saint Pedrog, Saint Derfel, Saint Seiriol Gwyn, Saint Gildas the Historian and Saint Paul Aurelian. According to the Life of Saint Samson:
Illtud was of all the Britons the most accomplished in all the Scriptures, namely of the Old and New Testaments, and in those of philosophy of every kind, of gæometry namely, and of rhetoric, grammar and arithmetic, and of all the theories of philosophy. And by birth he was a most wise magician, having knowledge of the future.Saint Illtud was born to a Brythonic prince named Bigan Farchog ap Aldrien and his young bride, Rheinwylydd ferch Amlawdd. Illtud had a bright mind and a thirst for knowledge, which his parents indulged by sending him to study under Saint Germain in Gaul. However, Illtud had other plans for his life than a career in the Church. He fell away from the faith, entered the military and served as the retainer of a British King. Tradition has it that he served King Arthur, and then moved to the court of King Pawl ap Glywys of Penychen. He took a wife named Trynihid during this time. He was much-beloved of the kings he served on account of his profound learning and quick wit, and was made chief commander of the retainers for King Pawl.
Apparently this power went too much to Illtud’s head. On one occasion he led his men, who were wont to get their own way wherever they went, to the dwelling-place of Saint Cadog Ddoeth. Illtud high-handedly demanded of the saint that he and his monks give them all food and drink, which he did. But as they were making to leave, the monks chased Illtud’s war-band into a fen, where all of them drowned but Illtud. Saint Cadog cornered Illtud and upbraided him, telling him to put off his arms and armour and resume the clerical career he had once forsaken. Illtud took this rede to heart, and left the court of King Pawl as well as his wife Trynihid behind.
Saint Illtud then went out to seek out Saint Dyfrig, to whom he presented himself on his knees, weeping over his sins in repentance. Saint Dyfrig put a penance on Illtud, cut his hair and put the cowl over his shoulders. Illtud then went to the Hodnant Valley and built for himself a cell called Llanilltud Fawr – what is now Llantwit Major in Glamorgan. There Saint Illtud kept a course of strict ascetic discipline which lay more emphasis on hard manual labour than on fasting. He prayed continuously. His wisdom, not being able to be hidden, led many local Welshmen to send him their sons to be taught, and all of them would come back a thorough comprehension of the seven liberal arts, and with deep stores of wisdom that they had not possessed before.
Saint Illtud’s hermitage was discovered by the king of Glamorgan, Merchwyn ap Glywys, as he was chasing down a stag who fled as if for sanctuary into the hermit’s cell. The hart lay down at Illtud’s feet as though tame. Merchwyn’s hounds, baying for blood, followed – and they too lay down at Illtud’s feet, their rage being calmed. At last the king himself strode through Saint Illtud’s door and beheld this wondrous sight. Merchwyn was, however, at first most displeased with Saint Illtud for having set up his abode on a site which he deemed more suitable for hunting – and demanded that the saint hand over the stag to him to be slain. Saint Illtud refused, but bade the king sup with him as befit a guest. The king ordered fish to be brought to him, and demanded of Saint Illtud bread and salt which then he did not have, sneering in disdain at the poor hermit when this admission was drawn from him. Illtud prayed to the Lord that the king might be satisfied with the fish as though he were dining on a full three-course repast; which, as the king sat down and ate, he found to his delight that the fish was as filling as a full banquet with not only bread and salt but a myriad other kinds of food. The king then demanded wine from Illtud, but the saint, not having any, placed water before him with the same prayer he had just prayed over the food. The king drank of the water, and found that it tasted of strong wine and mead.
Merchwyn stayed overnight in the hermit’s cell and was visited by an angel of God, who rebuked him for his worldly pleasures, his cruel temperament and his wanton hunts. The angel bade Merchwyn to let the hermit stay in Glamorgan, where he would do greater service to his soul than if he kept the land solely for his own idle amusements. When Merchwyn rose in the morning, it was in a much more chastened mood, and he spoke to Illtud much more gently than he had before. Merchwyn gave Illtud his leave to live there in undisturbed solitude, and his protection besides, as long as he lived.
From this cell at Llanilltud Fawr would spring a monastic complex and cathedral that has been called the ‘Westminster Abbey of Wales’, and indeed probably rivaled Paris in terms of the sheer quality of its intellectual and spiritual output. From this site, on the orders of Saint Dyfrig, Illtud resurrected the College of Emperor Theodosius (Cor Tewdws in Welsh) – certainly the oldest college in Great Britain and possibly in the world, from which the truth of Orthodoxy was proclaimed throughout it. After Illtud’s refoundation of the school it would continue to produce incredible scholarship and sanctity for the next four hundred years until it was destroyed by waves of Danish and Norman incursion.
As he was teaching the newest crop of Welsh saints amidst these ruins of a Roman school whose flame he was rekindling, Saint Illtud was also doing much besides. The school was not merely a school under his rule. It was also a refuge for the hunted; a safe hostel for travelers; a hospital for the sick; and a house of charity for the poor and homeless. No one who came wanting to the doors of Saint Illtud’s cell was turned away – save one, but we’ll get to her momentarily. Saint Illtud personally attended to these: healing the sick, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger and visiting those in prison as though they were Christ Himself, as our Lord Himself assured us that in a real sense they are. As the monastery grew in renown, so too did the gifts it received from notables both nearby and far-off. Abbot Illtud did not churlishly reject these gifts, but instead gave them again freely to whomever had need of them. He kept no steward of his abbey’s assets, but was most generous with all.
There are several wonders associated with Saint Illtud; some of these have to do with the situation of the Vale of Glamorgan against the Bristol Channel. The hermitage that Saint Illtud had set up had a graveyard facing the ocean, and the tides would come too close to the graves for his liking; and so he built a dike to fence it in. However, the waves disintegrated his wall, not once nor twice, but three times. Despairing, Saint Illtud planned to leave his hermitage for higher ground. But an angel appeared to him that night and told him that God forbade him to flee – instead he should go to the seaside with his crozier in hand, and drive the waves back with it, and they would obey him. Saint Illtud rose the next morning and did as he was commanded. To his own wonderment, not only did the waves obey him and flee from his crozier; but where his crozier struck the rocks, there flowed a pure fountain of sweet, fresh water. This well was doubly wondrous, both because it sprang up so near to the brine of the Channel, and because its waters had healing properties.
Another wonder is related about Saint Samson and Saint Illtud. One harvest season a great flock of birds began destroying the crops of the hermits and their students, such that they feared they would not be able to eat. Saint Illtud posted guards around the fields, armed with stones to scare the birds away. Saint Samson was given one such watch. Saint Samson, being not a very sure shot with his arm, prayed to God for the means to keep the fields safe. And when his watch came, he found the birds without, but none of them were capable of flight further than a hop, as though they were being held to the ground by an invisible net. Saint Samson took pity on the birds, and drove them into a stable reserved for the sheep. They obeyed him meekly. Later Saint Illtud took pity on the birds and released them, but warned them before that they were to stay away from the crops. No longer were the crops molested. It was shortly after this that Saint Samson was chosen to become bishop.
Sometime after this, Saint Illtud’s erstwhile wife Trynihid attempted to visit him, for she had become a nun and longed to hear words of consolation from her former husband, whom she knew to be a wise man. According to her hagiography, her motives were blameless – she was fully committed to Christ and had no ulterior motives for visiting Illtud other than spiritual counsel. Still, Saint Illtud, fearing temptation, avoided her. And she was punished for attempting to seek him out: she was stricken blind. The hagiography has it that it was Saint Illtud’s prayers that restored her sight to her, and she went away from him and never sought him out again.
It is at this point in the narrative that Saint Illtud’s relations with the mercurial Merchwyn ap Glywys begin to deteriorate. A tyrannical steward of Merchwyn’s, Cyflym, for attempting to extort wealth from the monks – ostensibly for Merchwyn’s coffers, but in reality for his own aggrandisement – is chastised by God by having his flesh melt from his bones like hot wax. When Merchwyn heard of this, he ordered that Saint Illtud be killed, and so Illtud fled to a cave on the Afon Ewenny some five miles northwest of Llanilltud Fawr, where he remained in seclusion for over a year before daring to venture out again, being called forth by the tolling of a beautiful bell crafted for Saint Dewi by Saint Gildas.
Upon his return to the monastery, however, he found that the replacement steward of Merchwyn, Cyfygydd, was even greedier and more shameless than the last. He enclosed the pastures and threatened the abbey lands. For these offences against Saint Illtud and his monks, Cyfygydd was swallowed up by the marshy ground in a nearby fen. Merchwyn, hearing of this and again moved to wrath against Saint Illtud, rode out himself in force of arms, only to be swallowed up himself by the marshy ground. After this, Illtud found life in the hermitage to be intolerable, and he again fled to a place of seclusion still further north, at Llwydarth. There he remained for three years in solitary prayer.
When Abbot Illtud returned to Llanilltud Fawr, he set about putting the affairs of the household in order, and soon found that he had a bumper crop of grain, with which he was able to fill three granaries. He was that very season taken with a desire to visit the Mont-Saint-Michel in his homeland of Brittany. This was before the arrival of the Normans, who lay waste to the Breton holy places, but when he came the whole area was afflicted with such grievous poverty, with many who might otherwise be healthy on the verge of starving to death, that the holy saint was moved to tears. He sent for all of the grain he had stored up at home to be delivered at once to the Breton lands, and prayed to God that it might be swiftly delivered. All the grain arrived ahead of schedule, and at once Abbot Illtud had it distributed to quell the immediate needs of the deprived there. Whatever was left, he had distributed to the farmers that they might sow it and reap the following season.
Saint Illtud reposed in the Lord on the sixth of November, and was buried at a place now known as Mynydd Illtud. His grave is marked by a mighty ring cairn which still stands: the Bedd Gwyl Illtud in the Bannau Brycheiniog.
There is also a legend of Saint Illtud’s bell being plundered in a punitive expedition against Glamorgan by the armies of Éadgár King of England. The legend has it that the bell was placed around the neck of the king’s best horse. However, Éadgár was given to see a dreadful vision of himself being impaled by the spear of some unseen assailant, and he was moved to compunction. He restored everything, including the bell, that had been plundered from Llanilltud Fawr, and in addition had a kirk blessed and consecrated to Saint Illtud. This occurred very shortly before his own repose in the Lord. Another legend holds that Saint Illtud showed himself in spirit to the men of Yr Hen Ogledd in the Brythonic North during William the Bastard’s genocidal campaign against Northumbria, and that Saint Illtud’s intercession spared the Cumbric lands from William’s impious harrying.
This eremitical British saint who embodied both martial and scholarly virtues, is well worth remembering dearly. Despite some of the more unfortunately Gnostic turns of his mediæval hagiographer, it’s still worthy of note that he deeply furthered education in the British Isles, and also firmly and steadfastly resisted the first movements of capitalist primitive accumulation by the agents of the Welsh kings. He educated the Welsh people and clearly had a great impact even on the English further east. Holy Father Illtud, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
O Illtud the wise and most learned of men,
You trained many disciples to be holy and Christ-like.
Such men and women are needed as never before.
Pray continue your intercession for us all!
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