Llancarvan

Llancarvan

Llancarvan, Glamorganshire, Wales, was a college and monastery founded apparently about the middle of the fifth century. Most Welsh writers assign it to the period of St. Germanus's visit to Britain in A.D. 447, stating further that the first principal was St. Dubric, or Dubricius, on whose elevation to the episcopate St. Cadoc, or Cattwg, succeeded. On the other hand the Life of St. Germanus, written by Constantius, a priest of Lyons, about fifty years after the death of the saint, says nothing at all of any school founded by him or under his auspices, in Britain, nor is mention made of his presence in Wales. The other tradition, supported by the ancient lives of St. Cadoc, assigns the foundation of Llancarvan to that saint, which would place it about a century later than the former date. As, however, these lives confound two, or possibly three, saints of the same name, nothing really certain can be gathered from them. In the "Liber Landavensis" the Abbot of Llancarvan appears not infrequently as a witness to various grants, but none of these is earlier than the latter part of the sixth century. The Abbot of Llancarvan assisted at a council held at Llandaff in 560, which passed sentence of excommunication upon Meurig, King of Glamorgan.

G. ROGER HUDLESTON