Cenydd

Saint Cenydd
Died	6th century
Honored in	Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Church in Wales

Cenydd (also known as Keneth, modern Welsh Cennydd, modern English Kenneth, French Kinède) was a Christian hermit saint who lived in Britain in Gower and in France in Brittany, probably in the 6th century. He should not be confused with Saint Kenneth (Saint Canice), the Irish saint popular in Scotland.

According to the unreliable Iolo Morganwg, Cenydd was a son of Gildas, and married and had a son before entering Llanilltud Fawr as a monk under Saint Illtud. But place-name evidence indicates only that he was the founder of the church of Llangennith on the Gower Peninsula and travelled to Brittany, where his cultus is centred around Languidic. He also had a chapel at Ploumelin.

Legend

St. Cenydd's Church, Llangennith

Cenydd's unusual legend was collected in the 15th century by John Capgrave from Welsh sources, and is found in the Nova Legenda Angliae. According to this, the saint was a Breton prince, the son of King 'Dihoc' (presumably Deroch II of Domnonée) born of incest apparently at Loughor in Glamorgan while his father was attending King Arthur. As an unwanted cripple, Cenydd was placed in a cradle made of osiers, cast into the estuary of the River Loughor and eventually landed on 'Ynys Weryn' or Worm's Head island. Here seagulls and angelic interventions, involving a miraculous breast-shaped bell, ensured that he survived, and that he was educated as a Christian. He became a hermit, his only companion being an untrustworthy servant, whose dishonesty was revealed when he stole a spear from one of a group of robbers who had been hospitably received by his master. According to the legend Saint David later cured Cenydd of his deformity while travelling to the Synod of Brefi in 545 but the hermit preferred to remain as he was born and prayed for his previous condition to be restored. The story breaks off abruptly at this point.

Historicity and veneration

Liturgical calendars and place-name evidence suggest the historical existence of Cenydd. His legend, however, appears to be pure fabrication.

Cenydd's feast day is 5 July (colloquially referred to as his 'Mapsant day', from the Welsh words 'sant' - holy, and 'mab' - son: see also 'dydd Gŵyl Mabsant'). Cenydd's feast day is is traditionally celebrated with the displaying of an effigy of a bird from a pole on the church tower, symbolising the legendary birds who cared for the infant Cenydd, and the consumption of whitepot or 'milked meat' a dish made of flour, milk, sugar and dried fruits, not unlike a rice pudding or bread and butter pudding (see also Cuisine of Gower). William Worcester also records the feast of his translation, apparently to somewhere in North Wales, on 27 June.

References

• Baring-Gould, Sabine & Fisher, John. (1907). Lives of the British Saints. The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.
• Farmer, David Hugh. (1978). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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