Venerable Pabo ‘Post Prydain’, King and Hermit

Eglwys Pabo Sant, Llanbabo

The ninth of November is the feast-day of a pre-Schismatic Western saint of Britain, Saint Pabo, who was king of the Pennines in northern Britain. He converted to Christianity in his adulthood and, as seems to have been a trend among the British kings, he retired from his throne in favour of a hermitage in his old age.

Pabo was the son of Cenau, the son of Coel Hen. As a ruler, he was a fierce warden of his land and – at first – a stout believer in the old Celtic trow. His cognomen, ‘Post Prydain’ or ‘Pillar of Britain’, indicates that he had achieved renown as a successful defender of the Romano-British North – Yr Hen Ogledd – against the invading Picts and Scots. He was the father of the proud princelings Dynod Bwr and Sawyl Ben Uchel, and by them respectively, the grandfather of Saints Deiniol of Bangor and Asa of Tegeingl.

Pabo converted to Christianity late in his life, and that conversion appears to have had a significant impact on his life. He bequeathed his inheritance yet living upon his sons, who split the kingdom between them in the traditional legal custom of cyfran, or gavelkind – and so ‘died to the world’. He took up the wandering life and made his way south and west through the kingdom of Gwynedd to Ynys Môn (or Anglesey), where he founded a hermit’s cell for himself at Llanbabo, which became the Church of Saint Pabo. It was there that he reposed in the Lord on the ninth of November, 530 – obscure in the eyes of the world but glorious in the eyes of Christ.

Holy and righteous Pabo, king and confessor, pray to Christ our God for us sinners!