Gwrfyw Explained

Saint Gwrfyw, was a pre-congregational saint of medieval Wales.

Family

He was the son of Pasgen ab Urien Rheged, of the family of Coel Godhebog,^[1] and father of Saint Nidan.^[2]

A single manuscript holds that he had brothers Mydan and Llamined who the Venedotian Tribes of Collwyn ab Tangno and Marchweithian traced their descent through him.^[3]

Career

He is said to have a church dedicated to him in Anglesey, but its situation does not appear to be now known. There was formerly a Capel Gorfyw at Bangor,^[4] but it has long since disappeared. The only written evidence of him is as a witness to a land grant in Monmouthshire.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Rice Rees, An Essay on the Welsh Saints Or the Primitive Christians, Usually Considered to Have Been the Founders of the Churches in Wales (Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1836) p. 103.
2. Rice Rees, An Essay on the Welsh Saints Or the Primitive Christians, Usually Considered to Have Been the Founders of the Churches in Wales (Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1836) p. 295.
3. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924092447808/cu31924092447808_djvu.txt The Lives of the British Saints; the saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish saints as have dedications in Britain
4. Book: A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines. Smith. William. Wave. Henry. J. Murray. 1880. 829.
5. S. Baring-Gould M.A., & John Fisher, B.D., The lives of the British saints; the saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish saints as have dedications in Britain, (The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1911); vol. 3.