others swarmed off to Lanmeur, in the present department of Finistère, and founded a monastery at about a league from the present town at Locquirec, on the coast. Hence he has of late years been displaced as patron, and the church placed under the invocation of S. James the Great.

Desirous of more solitude, he abandoned the monastery and retreated to Ploudaniel in Léon, where he found a valley, called thenceforth Traoun-Guevroc, surrounded by dense woods. Here he built himself a chapel of interlaced branches, and spent here two years. S. Paul Aurelian hearing of him, paid him a visit, and the story goes that when the hermit came forward to meet him, the Bishop saw a radiance of supernatural light surround his head. Paul insisted on his not hiding his light under a bushel, and bade him accompany him to his monastery at Occismor. He remained there working under S. Paul for many years.

At some time, unspecified in the Life, but probably before he abandoned S. Tudwal, he must have made a foundation at Perros Guirec, a bare and rocky stretch of land north of Lannion. Here the soil is scantily drawn over a granite floor, and huge uncouth masses of rock, rounded by the sea winds and rain, strew the surface. The headland is still called Ploumanach, or the Plebs of the Monk. Five miles out to sea rise boldly out of the water the Seven Isles, one of which, l'Ile des Moines, was probably much resorted to by Curig and his party for solitude.

Curig himself, according to local tradition, loved to pray on a rock in the little bay, which is surrounded by the high tide. In memory whereof a small oratory of romanesque workmanship was constructed on the rock. It consists of a mere roof covering a statue of the Saint, supported on granite pillars.

It is somewhat singular that his settlement at Perros is not spoken of in the Life; and no hint is given us as to his reason for migrating from Tréguier and western Domnonia into Léon. It is possible that it may have been due to a difference with Tudwal. Between Perros Guirec and the mainland is a plantation of S. Kenan or Kea, and this may have annoyed Curig, and induced him to quit the neighbourhood.

It would seem, though it is not stated in his Life, that Curig was consecrated bishop by S. Paul, for he is invariably represented as a bishop.

Curig was engaged on one of his missionary expeditions when he fell sick at Landerneau, and died there. His body was transported by his monks to Locquirec and there buried.

He would seem to have exercised a roving missionary life, and at one time to have penetrated into what is now the department of Morbihan, for he is culted at Cleguier and at Cléguérec.

The story is told of him that one Sunday he saw a man cutting rushes wherewith to stop a gap in the fence of his wheat-field. Curig rebuked him, and told him that it would be better to get someone to watch lest cattle got into the field, than to do manual labour on the Lord's Day. The farmer turned on him and abused him soundly, whereupon, so says the legend, the bundle of rushes he had in his arms adhered to him, and could not be shaken off till he had made an ample apology.

According to popular tradition, the Chapel of Nôtre Dame de Kreisker in S. Pol de Léon was founded by Curig. He saw a girl washing clothes on a Holy Day, and rebuked her. As, shortly after, she was struck with palsy, she fancied that this was due to her having offended the Saint. So she surrendered to him a bit of land in expiation, and thereon he built a church in honour of the Blessed Virgin. This latter point is questionable, as dedications to Our Lady came in vogue among the Celts much later than the period at which lived Curig.

Curig died on February 17, but in what year is not known. It was probably during the lifetime of S. Paul Aurelian. There is no mention in his Life of the troubles caused by Conmore, regent of Domnonia, and we may set down his death as occurring shortly before 550.

The Breton Life gives no account of any events in the life of the Saint whilst he was in Wales. It is possible enough that the annoyances felt by him from the turbulence of Maelgwn Gwynedd may have determined him to quit Wales, coupled with the urgency of his fellow pupil Tudwal.

The following are the Curig dedications in Wales :-Llangurig, in Montgomeryshire; Eglwys Fair a Churig, in Carmarthenshire. Capel Curig (called in full, Capel Curig a'i fam Julitta), in Carnarvonshire, is dedicated to SS. Cyriacus and Julitta; and Llanilid (called also Eglwys Ilid a Churig), in Glamorganshire, to SS. Julitta and Cyriacus. Llanilid (also called Cray S. Ilid), in Brecknockshire, is dedicated to S. Julitta, as well as Llanelidan, in Denbighshire. In this latter we have the Elidan Julitta of Huw Cae Llwyd and the mediaval Welsh Calendars. The church of Porthkerry, in Glamorganshire, is usually regarded as dedicated to S. Curig. It is stated in the Iolo MSS.1 :—

=

1 P. 220. This, no doubt, is the origin of Curig being sometimes mentioned as the patron of Welsh mariners.

"S. Cirig founded Porth Cirig for the benefit of the souls of sailors, and as a port for them"; but in another passage in the same work 1 the place is associated with Ceri ab Caid, who is said to have lived there and to have been called Ceri Hir Lyngwyn, "because he had numerous fleets at sea." In the Taxatio of 1254 it appears as Portiri (for Portciri), and in that of 1291 as Porthkirey, forms which do not favour the Curig dedication.

In the parish of Llanilid (Glamorganshire), is a well called Ffynnon Geri, and the parish wake, Gwyl Geri, was formerly held about Midsummer. S. Curig's Chapel once stood at Langstone, near Llanmartin, Monmouthshire, and there was formerly a pilgrimage chapel, called Capel Curig, in the parish of Newport, Pembrokeshire. 2 It is very probable that the parish church itself (now S. Mary's) was once dedicated to him. The great annual fair there is called Ffair Gurig. Ffôs y Mynach (or Myneich), near S. David's, was at one time also called, according to Fenton,3 Ffôs Gyrig (his dyke). In the parish of Llangian, Carnarvonshire, was formerly a well called Ffynnon Fyw (the Living Well), now dried up, celebrated for the cure of rheumatism. It was supposed to be dedicated to S. Cyr, the martyr, whose chapel stood close by.

Owing to the popularity of SS. Cyriacus and Julitta among the Normans it is not possible to assert that all the churches dedicated to SS. Cyriacus and Julitta, or to them severally, have supplanted foundations of Curig. Some may have been entirely new and be Norman foundations, but in purely Welsh districts the Curig churches are undoubtedly to be attributed to S. Curig and not to Cyriacus, and the Ilid churches certainly in Brecknockshire, Glamorganshire, and north-east Cornwall to Ilud, the daughter of Brychan, and not to Julitta of Tarsus. We cannot be assured that the Kirik or Guevroc of Brittany is identical with the Curig of Wales, but it is most probable that they are the same, as the Breton Life makes Kirik come to Armorica from Wales.

Possibly, as already said, we may trace the course pursued by Curig on his way to Brittany, by foundations in Devon and Cornwall. There is a Newton S. Cyres near Exeter, now regarded as dedicated to S. Cyriacus. Coryton on the Lyd is apparently Curigtown. The church is now esteemed to be under the patronage of S. Andrew. Near it is a Holy Well. At Eglos Kerry, near Launceston, he has 1 P. 7. Browne Willis, Llandaff, 1719, append. p. 2, gives the church as dedicated to S. Curig, with festival June 16.

2 George Owen, Description of Pembrokeshire, i, p. 509. In the Valor of 1535, iv, p. 374, the oblations in " Capella Sancti Ciriaci at Langstone are entered

as 20s.

3 Pembrokeshire, 1811, p. 131.

not been displaced. Calstock Church is dedicated to SS. Cyriacus and Julitta, and Luxulyan, which seems to be a corruption of Lan Sulian, is now held to be under the invocation of SS. Cyriacus and Julitta, but was possibly a foundation of S. Sulian or Sulien.

In Brittany he is patron of Perros Guirec in Côtes du Nord; of Launeufret (that bears the name of Meubred ?) in Finistère, formerly also of Locquirec in the same department, where Curig had his monastery and was buried; and of Cléguérec in Morbihan. He has supplanted S. Geraint at S. Géran near Pontivy. He has chapels at Goulven, in Léon, and Ploubezre near Lannion in Côtes du Nord, and at Ploumanach in Perros Guirec. Chapels as well at Plounérin and Trédrez, in Côtes du Nord. He is invoked for the cure of abscesses and strumous swellings, just as formerly Curig in Wales was thought to be efficacious in these diseases. At Ploumanach is his statue in stone, of the thirteenth century, representing him in sacerdotal vestments with a crozier in one hand, an open book in the other. At Perros Guirec he is mitred and holds a crozier with one hand, and is giving benediction with the other.

On account of his having in Wales been fused with S. Cyriacus, his day is June 16, that attributed in the Roman Martyrology to SS. Cyriacus and Julitta; but his day in Brittany is February 17, the day on which he died. Breviary of Léon, 1736, Breviary of Quimper, 1835, and Albert le Grand.

Although the statues of the Saint in Brittany give him without a distinguishing symbol, it would be suitable to represent him as a bishop carrying a bundle of bulrushes.

S. CWYAN, Martyr

AMONG the Iolo MSS.1 genealogies occurs the following:-"S. Cwyan, whose côr or choir' was Llangwyan, in Glamorgan, where he was slain by pagan Saxons." The place meant is Llanguian, in the parish of Llanblethian, but there do not appear to be any ecclesiastical remains there now. The parish of Llanblethian, comprising the manors of Llanblethian and Llanguian, were confirmed by charter in 1180 to Tewkesbury Abbey, the chapel of the latter manor being mentioned as the chapel of S. James of "Landcoman "—later Llancovian and Llanguian. The ruins of its castle are still plainly marked just to the east of Stalling Down.2 See the next article.

1 P. 109.

* Green, Churches of Llandaff, Aberdare, 1907, pp. 35, 61. Read “Landcouian" for "Landcoman."

S. CWYFEN, Confessor

CWYFEN, or Cwyfan, was the son of Brwyneu Hên and was descended from Caradog Freichfras. His mother was Camell or Cainell, of Bod Angharad, a township of the parish of Llanfwrog, in the commote of Coleion, Denbighshire. He is the patron of three churches-Llangwyfan, in Anglesey (subject to Trefdraeth), Llangwyfan,2 in Denbighshire, and Tydweiliog, in Carnarvonshire. The Anglesey old Eglwys Gwyfan, as it is generally called locally, is situated on a small

rocky island, formerly a promontory, called Ynys Gwyfan, in Carnarvon Bay, and is connected with the mainland by a causeway of about 200 yards, which is often covered by the tide. The islet, which now measures about a quarter of an acre, is being gradually worn away by the sea. When the church was inaccessible, especially in winter, the services were held in a room at Plâs Cwyfan, but it was

1 Hafod MS. 16 (but text corrupt); Cardiff MS. 25, p. 36; Myv. Arch., p. 420; Iolo MSS., p. 123.

2 In the terrier of this church, dated 1793, a part of the glebe is called "Erw Telpin Gwyfan."