St Cewydd y Glaw (St Clewydd of the Rain)

The following article has been researched by John Wilks as part of the CHG Castle

project:

St Cewydd y glaw (St Clewydd of the rain)

Several publications quote the original dedication of Cusop church being to St Cewydd. St

Cewydd is the Welsh rain saint corresponding to the English St Swithin, his Feast Day was

the 2 nd Sunday in July.

According to Iolo Morganwg, (not a completely reliable source) St Cewydd was said to be

one of the many saintly sons of Caw of Prydyn, a Pictish king in the Strathclyde area of

modern Scotland. He was born around AD 490. With the rest of his family, he would have

moved south in Edeimion in Wales around the early 6th century. It is claimed Cewydd

became a monk in St. Cadog’s Monastery at Llancarfan and there are places in South Wales

named after him.

Elsewhere, place name evidence shows that Cewydd eventually settled in Elfael

(Radnorshire) where he made a number of foundations. The churches of Aberedw and

Dissserth are both dedicated to him. Cewydd’s Retreat, Cil Cewydd, appears in the adjoining

parish of Llanfihangel Bryn Pabaun and his hill slope, Rhiw Gewydd is a mountain track

above Llandilo Graban, possibly leading to his brother Meilig’s home in Llowes.

I have been unable to find definitive evidence of Cusop’s dedication to St Cewydd; we have

a letter from Rev’d Canon W E T Morgan, Canon of Brecon Cathedral dated 1932 stating that

the church was originally dedicated to St. Cewydd but he does not reveal his source.

Similarly, Cusop is mentioned as dedicated to St Cewydd in many guide books and in

Wikipedia but all without naming a source. Kelly’s directories for 1941 and 1937 even

suggest the origin of the name Cusop is Cewydd’s hope.

Many churches in Wales were rededicated to saints of wider reputation as a result of the

Norman Conquest and back in 1911, Prof. J E Lloyd described this as "The subjugation of the

Welsh Church". Eighty years later R R Davies in his book ‘Conquest, Coexistence and Change’

expressed a similar opinion "Towards the native church the Normans showed scant respect".

A local example is Glasbury where St Cynidr was ousted by St Peter.

However, in 2011 John Reuben Davies of University of Glasgow, History Department

expresses a different reason for the change of dedication of a number of Welsh churches. In

his paper ‘The cult of saints in the early Welsh March: aspects of cultural transmission in a

time of political conflict’, he shows how rededication coincided with rebuilding or other

important event such as a change of patron and often the local saint was supplemented by

the addition of an international colleague. Examples of this rededication include where St Andrew pushed St David into second place at the cathedral of Dewi himself and St Peter took precedence over St Teilo at Llandaf.

Cusop church must have existed long before 1290, the date we have for our first Rector,

David de Merchyant. The question raised is ‘was Cusop church site known as St Cewydds

prior to a new stone church being built around 1290 when it was rededicated to St Mary?’

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