Cadwgan also known as Cadwgan of Llandyfái or Martin (died 11 April 1241) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

cleric who was

Bishop of Bangor The Bishop of Bangor is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Bangor. The see is based in the city of Bangor where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Cathedral Church of Saint Deiniol. The ''Report of the Commissioners appointed ...

from 1215 to 1236. According to

Giraldus Cambrensis Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taugh ...

, Cadwgan was the son of an Irish priest and a Welsh mother. The annals state that he was the son of a priest famous for the eloquence of his

preaching. He was Abbot of the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

Abbey of

Whitland Whitland (Welsh: , lit. "Old White House", or ''Hendy-gwyn ar Daf'', "Old White House on the River Tâf", from the medieval ''Ty Gwyn ar Daf'') is both a town and a community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Description The Whitland community is ...

. Cadwgan is sometimes referred to as Martin, which may have been his monastic name. He was consecrated as Bishop of Bangor by the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

on 21 June 1215 at Staines. Cadwgan probably owed his election to

Llywelyn the Great Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually " Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wales" (in 1240). By a combination of war and d ...

, who was determined to have a Welsh rather than a Norman or English bishop and was by now powerful enough to get his way. In 1234 he brought a shipload of corn from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to feed the poor of his diocese. He entered the Cistercian abbey of Dore in

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

in 1236 to live there as a monk, and died there on 11 April 1241. He wrote a theological work entitled ''De modo confitendi''.

References

John Edward Lloyd Sir John Edward Lloyd (5 May 1861 – 20 June 1947) was a Welsh historian, He was the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, ''A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest'' (1911). Ano ...

(1911) ''The history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest'' (Longmans, Green & Co.)

External links

Royal Berkshire History: Cadwgan of Llandyfai, Bishop of BangorNotes on Cadwgan at www.british-history.ac.uk
1241 deaths Bishops of Bangor 13th-century English Roman Catholic bishops Welsh abbots Year of birth unknown Welsh Cistercians {{UK-RC-bishop-stub