The Church of St Illtyd is a
Grade II* listed building in the city and county of
Swansea
Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe).
The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
in south
Wales. It is close to
Oxwich
Oxwich is a village on the Gower Peninsula, in the city and county of Swansea in south Wales. Oxwich is part of the small community of Penrice which extends from the village of Horton to Oxwich Bay, and as of 2001 recorded a population of 454 i ...
village, on a site overlooking
Oxwich Bay and reached by the
Wales Coast Path. It has a square churchyard with a stone wall and a modern gate. The church was originally listed on . The church was originally dedicated to Hylledd, and no reason is known as to why it was changed.
Illtud is venerated as the founder-
abbot and teacher of the divinity school known as
Cor Tewdws
Cor or COR may refer to:
People
* Cor people, an ethnic group of Vietnam
* Cor (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Jon Cor (born 1984), a Canadian actor
Places
* Cor, Templeport, a townland in County Cavan, Ireland
* Californ ...
, located in
Llanilltud Fawr
Llantwit Major ( cy, Llanilltud Fawr) is a town and community in Wales on the Bristol Channel coast. It is one of four towns in the Vale of Glamorgan, with the third largest population (13,366 in 2001) after Barry and Penarth, and ahead of Cowb ...
(Llantwit Major) in the county of
Glamorgan
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
. He founded the monastery and college in the 6th century, and the school is believed to be Britain's earliest centre of learning.
His feast day and commemoration is celebrated on 6 November.
National Calendar for Wales
accessed 6 February 2012 There are many churches throughout Wales and Brittany dedicated to St Illtyd.
A Celtic Church stood on this site before it was demolished and a wooden, Christian church was built in the first half of the 5th century. The first written reference to this church, however, only dates back to the 9th or 10th century. The round church yard is indicative of this early Celtic period.
The Church was rebuilt by the sheep farming Cistercian monks
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 B ...
in the late 12th century, and most of what we can see today dates back to this period.
In 1957 the church was closed due to opencast mining, opencast coal working in the vicinity.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penrice, Illtyd, Saint, Church
Grade II* listed churches in Swansea