Saint Caradoc

Caradoc or Caradog (died 1124) was a reclusive Welsh priest, widely respected for his sanctity. An inquiry into his qualifications for sainthood was commissioned in 1200 and, although such inquiry did not proceed, he has long been venerated as if papally canonised. Prior to canonisation of the Forty Martyrs in 1970, he was regarded as the last Welshman to become a saint.

Recorded life
A native of Brecknockshire, Caradoc obtained a place at the court of Rhys ap Tewdwr who ruled much of South Wales in the late eleventh century. At court he played several musical instruments, most notably the harp, and was admitted to considerable intimacy with Rhys. However, when he lost two of his master’s most valuable greyhounds, Rhys threatened him with mutilation and death.

Caradoc responded by declaring “I will go and serve another Master who values men higher than hounds” and embarked upon a celibate and monastic life. Making a staff from his lance, he journeyed to Llandaff with some companions and there received the clerical tonsure from Bishop Herewald.

For some time afterwards his devotions were conducted at the church of St Teilo (at what is now Llandeilo) but, seeking a more isolated place in which to practise his faith, he removed to the deserted shrine of St Cenydd at Llangennech. There he cleared the thorns and thistles from a site next to the burial-ground and constructed a dwelling that served as his first oratory.

His reputation for sanctity became widespread and he went to St David’s (then known as Meneva) either in response to a summons from Bishop Bernard or in submission to divine instruction. At St David’s he was ordained a priest and displayed supposed healing powers when, by a touch of his hand, the edema of a young woman was dispersed.

He next withdrew to “the island called Ary” on the Pembrokeshire coast. After he and his companions were briefly carried off Ary by Norwegian pirates, Bishop Bernard appointed him to a more secure base at Haroldston St Issells in the cartref of Rhos where he remained from about 1105 until his death. He is sometimes spoken of as “Caradoc of Rhos”. The thirteenth century parish church of Lawrenny, about eight miles from Haroldston by river route, is dedicated to him.

During his time in Rhos the local countryside was, at the instigation of Henry I, increasingly settled by Flemish immigrants. Influential among these was one Tancred who built, near Haroldston, a castle that became the nucleus for the town of Haverfordwest. Tancred and his wife sent Caradoc frequent gifts of food, and these were carried to Haroldston by their son Richard FitzTancred who hunted in the district. Caught in a downpour of rain during one hunt, Richard sought shelter with Caradoc but, despite much shouting and coaxing, was unable to persuade his hounds to enter the holy man’s habitation. However, by a slight gesture of his hand Caradoc drew the dogs into his home.

Death and bodily remains
It is said that, in April 1124 while he was preparing for Easter, two men in glittering stoles entered his church; between them they carried a golden altar on which was written “Follow us, we have meat to eat that thou knowest not of.” To Caradoc’s question of when he would feast with them, they replied that it would be “at the Lamb’s high banquet.” He was taken with fever four days later and died on Low Sunday.

His last wish was to be buried at St David’s (which in the previous year had been declared a centre of pilgrimage for the Western world) but his body was seized by Tancred. Tancred promptly fell ill and, fearing his sickness was retribution for the seizure, ordered release of the corpse; he immediately recovered but it was only after this sequence of events had been twice repeated that Caradoc’s remains proceeded to St David’s. As the funeral cortege crossed Newgale Sands, torrential rainfall caused the whole countryside to run with water; it was afterwards said that when those in the funeral retinue emerged from shelter they found Caradoc’s bier, which was covered by a silken pall, to be completely dry.

The body was first interred with great honour in the left aisle of the church at St David’s beside the altar of the protomartyr St Stephen. A few years later it was exhumed for transfer to a newly-built church in the settlement and was reportedly found in a remarkable state of preservation, “uncorrupt and undefiled”. Among those witnessing this was William of Malmesbury who, overcome by devotion, tried to break off a finger from Caradoc’s hand; by William’s own account he was terrified when, as he unclasped the closed fist into an open palm, the whole hand withdrew into the sleeve of Caradoc’s funeral shroud.

In his Itinerarium Cambriae of 1191, Gerald of Wales reported that in their new resting place Caradoc’s remains were “the cause of many miracles, and so it will continue to be in the future”. Nevertheless, in 1538 Bishop William Barlow, seeking to suppress what he regarded as idolatry, had all saintly relics cleared from their shrines in St David’s Cathedral.

In 1866, during restoration work at the Cathedral, what were thought to be the bones of three humans were discovered behind a blocked-up recess. The bones were subsequently placed in a casket and buried beneath the Cathedral’s floor, and in the 1920s a belief sprang up that they might be the remains of Saints David, Justinian of Ramsey Island and Caradoc. The belief persisted and in the 1990s the casket was disinterred so that the bones might be subjected to radiocarbon dating. This process established them to be, by several centuries, of more recent origin than the time of Saints David and Justinian but they included the bones of “an 11th or 12th century man who ate a lot of fish” – allowing, it was said, the possibility that this was Caradoc.

Investigation for sainthood
In May 1200 Gerald of Wales obtained from Pope Innocent III a letter commissioning inquiry into the qualifications for canonisation of “the Venerable Caradog whose honourable behaviour during his life and the miracles performed after his death have long since come to the notice of the Holy See”. The commissioners appointed were the Abbots of Whitland, St Dogmaels, and Strata Florida, but the first two of these procured the suppression of the letter on account of their jealousy of Gerald’s claims to the St David’s bishopric, and the inquiry did not proceed.

In his Epistola ad capitulum Herfordense de libris a se scriptis, Gerald claimed to have written a Life of Saint Caradoc (Vita Sancti Karadoci). Probably compiled in support of the canonisation initiative, this has not survived, but the biographical accounts of Caradoc in Nova Legenda Angliae and Acta Sanctorum may be excerpts from it.

Reputation and legacy
When his remains were removed to a new resting place, probably during the 1130s, Caradoc was a widely venerated figure, as evident from William of Malmesbury’s recorded presence at the translation. According to Sir John Lloyd, the holy man’s “learning” had been renowned throughout Wales some two decades earlier, but this assertion seems to rely on his being “Magister Caradog… the most learned in all Wales, skilled in the knowledge of both ancient and modern law,” who had visited Bardsey Island around 1115. Such identification is most probably erroneous, and other sources suggest Caradoc’s reputation during his lifetime was limited to his religious devotion, perhaps coupled with healing powers.

Indications of the manner in which he practised his devotion vary. In the Welsh language, he is styled Caradog Fynach, that is “Caradog the Monk”, emphasising his membership of a religious community. Perhaps more frequently, as in Nova Legenda Angliae and Acta Sanctorum, he is described as a hermit, but accounts of his life before 1105 reveal that he lived with “companions” and, if he was truly the “Magister Caradog” who visited Bardsey, his purpose there was to rescue the local hermit from eremitic life. Sir John Lloyd, Caradoc’s principal modern biographer, categorised him as a recluse.

Folklore supplements ancient record in present-day portrayal of Caradoc and, though the saint was once a musician at the court of a Welsh prince, there is no authority for claiming he afterwards enjoyed celebrity as a harpist. The suggestion that he possessed “unusual power over the lower animals” probably has no greater justification than his mustering of Richard FitzTancred’s hounds. Nevertheless he is now widely regarded as the patron saint of harpists and of dog-lovers.

What is believed to be Caradoc’s tomb is behind the choir-stalls and open to the north transept of the present St David’s Cathedral. Between the shelf and the arch of the tomb is a tapestry embroidered with symbols and images traditionally associated with the saint.

A 13th century calendar of saints in the Cotton MSS indicates that Caradoc was originally venerated on 14 April, but his feast-day is now 13 April which is traditionally said to have been the day of his death. He is commemorated in the name of one of the three houses to which pupils are allocated under the house system at Rougemont School in Monmouthshire.