The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): JanuaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
Immediately after the period occupied in the annals of Wales by King
Arthur and the monk-bishop David, appears S. Cadoc, a personage
regarding whom it is difficult to make a distinction between history and
legend, but whose life has left a profound impression upon the Keltic
races. His father Gwynllyw Filwr, surnamed the Warrior, one of the petty
kings of South Wales, having heard much of the beauty of the daughter of
a neighbouring chief, had her carried off by a band of three hundred
vassals, from the midst of her sisters, and from the door of her own
chamber, in her father's castle. The father hastened to the rescue of
his daughter with all his vassals and allies, and soon overtook
Gwynllyw, who rode with the young princess at the croup, going softly
not to fatigue her. It was not an encounter favourable for the lover:
two hundred of his followers perished, but he, himself, succeeded in
escaping safely with the lady. Of this rude warrior and this beautiful
princess was to be born the saint who has been called the Doctor of the
Welsh, and who founded the great monastic establishment of Llancarvan.
The very night of his birth, the soldiers, or, to speak more justly, the
robber-followers of the king, his father, who had been sent to pillage
the neighbours right and left, stole the milch cow of a holy Irish monk,
who had no sustenance, he nor his twelve disciples, except the abundant
milk of this cow. When informed of this nocturnal theft, the monk got
up, put on his shoes in all haste, and hurried to reclaim his cow from
the king, who was still asleep. The latter took advantage of the
occasion to have his new-born son baptized by the pious solitary, and
made him promise to undertake the education and future vocation of the
infant. The Irishman gave him the name of Cadoc, (Cattwg,) which means
warlike; and then, having recovered his cow, went back to his cell to
await the king's son, who was sent to him at the age of seven, having
already learned to hunt and fight. The young prince passed twelve years
with the Irish monk, whom he served, lighting his fire and cooking his
food, and who taught him the rudiments of Latin grammar. Preferring the
life of a recluse to the throne of his father, he went to Ireland for
three years, to carry on his education at Lismore, a celebrated
monastery school, after which he returned to Wales, and continued his
studies under a famous Roman rhetorician, newly arrived from Italy. This
doctor had more pupils than money; famine reigned in his school. One
day poor Cadoc, who fasted continually, was learning his lesson in his
cell, seated before a little table, and leaning his head on his hands,
when suddenly a white mouse, coming out of a hole in the wall, jumped on
the table, and put down a grain of corn; then Cadoc rising, followed the
mouse into a cellar, one of those old Keltic subterranean granaries,
remains of which are found to this day in Wales and Cornwall. There
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