Elfodd, Elvodug or Elfoddw ( la, Elbodus or ''Elbodius''; died 809) was a Welsh bishop. He induced the Welsh church to accept the Roman

computus As a moveable feast, the date of Easter is determined in each year through a calculation known as (). Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (a fixed approxi ...

for determining the date of

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

endorsed elsewhere in Britain at the

Synod of Whitby In the Synod of Whitby in 664, King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practiced by Irish monks at Iona and its satellite ins ...

in 664. This was after centuries of continuing the practice. Elfodd appears to have been associated with the monastery at

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

as a young man and must have still been comparatively young when in 768 he persuaded the Welsh church to come into line with Rome as regards the method of calculating the date of Easter. The annals

Brut y Tywysogion ''Brut y Tywysogion'' ( en, Chronicle of the Princes) is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. ''Bru ...

state: "Eight years after that 68Easter was moved for the Britons, and Elbodius the servant of God moved it". Elfodd's death is recorded under the year 809.

describes him as "archbishop of Gwynedd", making him

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 ...

Nennius Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the ''Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considered ...

, who says in the ''

History of the Britons ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Br ...

'' that he was a pupil of Elfodd's,II. The Apology Of Nennius. “Here begins the apology of Nennius, the historiographer of the Britons, of the race of Britons. 3. I, Nennius, disciple of St. Elbotus” Translated by J. A. Giles, an asterisk is attached to the name “St Elbotus” stating “Or Elvod, bishop of Bangor, 755 AD, who first adopted in the Cambrian Church, the new(Roman) cycle for regulating Easter describes him as a "most holy bishop" and reveals that Elfodd studied the works of

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

. One later source states that he was consecrated as a bishop in 755, but may not be reliable.

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 ...

''A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest'' (Longmans, Green & Co.) * Thomas Jones, ed. ''Brut y Tywysogion: Peniarth MS. 20 version'' (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1952) {{authority control 809 deaths Bishops of Bangor 9th-century Welsh bishops Year of birth unknown

See also

References