Another Croine, Virgin, was of Tallagh, in the County of Dublin, and is commemorated on February 25.

Another Croine Becc, or Croine the Little, on July 7; she was of Tempull-Croine in Donegal.

Another, again, on October 15, of whom nothing is known, not even to what part of Ireland she belonged.

But Crewenna is certainly the first of these. Not only do the Irish Saints who settled in Cornwall all belong to the south of Ireland, but the feast is observed in the Octave of the day on which Croine of Kilcrony is venerated in Ireland.

But who this Croine was is not so easy to determine. Leland distinctly asserts that she came over with Breaca and Germoc, and that migration took place about 500.

Some of these Saints went on to the Continent and visited Rheims

in 509, and among those whose names are given by Flodoard is Promptia. One is disposed to equate Promptia with Crewenna, as the hard C of the Gaelic would become P in Brythonic.

There was a Croine sister of Ainmire, King of Ireland 568-71, and daughter of Setna MacErc. She is invoked in S. Moling's poem on

the Saints of Leinster—

O nun of Cethanladet,

O highly happy nun,

O Croine, daughter of Setna,
Bless the track of my way!

But this cannot have been the Croine who crossed over with Breaca. Again, in the Life of S. Molua, of Clonfert, we have a story relative to a Croine, his sister; they were the children of Carthach the Red. Molua had been on a visit to Wexford. On his return to his own people, the Hy Fidgeinte, in Kerry, he found his sister Croine dead, or apparently so, and women were weeping around her.

"May the everlasting joy be for thee in heaven, sister," exclaimed S. Molua. Hearing his voice, she opened her eyes and smiled.

Then he bade her rise and accompany him to the church, where he celebrated the Eucharist, and communicated her. And when he had so done, she said, “ I am aweary, let me enter into my rest.” So she returned to her bed, laid herself down, and died.1

S. Setna, disciple of Senan of Iniscathy, was a friend of Molua, and the latter may have entrusted his sister to Setna, or to Senan, to bring over to Cornwall. But Molua's death in 608 is too late to allow that his sister can have come across with the first swarm of Irish

1 Vita S. Lugidi (Moluæ), Acta SS. Hib., Cod. Sal., col. 280.

Saints, unless she was very much older than himself. confessor to Aidan of Ferns, disciple of S. David.

Molua was

On the whole, therefore, it is impossible to equate Croine, sister of Molua, with the Croine or Crewenna who settled in Cornwall, for just a century intervenes between her settlement there and Molua's death. We are rather disposed to think that Crewenna is the Croine of Kilcrony in Wicklow, of whom, unhappily, nothing is known. There would seem, however, to have reigned great confusion between the saints of the same name. The Saint of Kilcrony is supposed to have been the sister of Ainmire. But this she cannot have been if she be

the same as Crewenna.

Croine of Kilcrony is commemorated in the Martyrology of Donegal, in that of Tallagh, in that of O'Gorman, but not in the Félire of Oengus. It is remarkable that Croine should be venerated on the day before Aedcobran, who was one of the party that left Ireland, visited Cornwall and crossed into Brittany, and thence went on to Rheims, where they were received by S. Remigius in 509.1

Whytford, in his Martiloge, gives on April 24 "The feest of Saynt Crowne a virgyn."

S. CRISTIOLUS, Confessor

CRISTIOLUS was a son of Hywel Fychan ab Hywel Faig (called also Hywel Farchog) ab Emyr Llydaw, and the brother of S. Rhystud. He is occasionally said to have been son of Hywel ab Emyr Llydaw.2

He is the patron of Llangristiolus, in Anglesey, and also, it is said, of Eglwys Wrw and Penrhydd or Penrieth, in Pembrokeshire. For Eglwys Wrw, see under S. GWRW. Ecton attributes also to him, but wrongly, the church of Clydai, in the latter county.

The Festival of S. Cristiolus is November 3, and his name is entered against that day in a great many of the Welsh Calendars.

S. CUBY, see S. CYBI

1 See under S. ACHEBRAN.

At

2 Cambro-British Saints, p. 269; Iolo MSS., p. 133; Myv. Arch., p. 420. the last reference he is also given as son of Owen ap Yner o Frydain Fach," clearly a misreading.

S. CUHELYN, Confessor

CUHELYN, or Cyhelyn, was a son of Caw, and bore the epithets Bardd and Moel. He is no doubt the same person as Celyn Moel. He is said to have been a member of Cadoc's Choir at Llancarfan,1 but nothing is known of him. He may have been the Cuelinus, a clericus of Dubricius, who witnessed the grant of Porth Tulon, in Gower, to the Church of Llandaff. He is not to be confounded, at any rate, with the bard Cuhelyn, who lived in the eleventh century, and to whom two poems in the Black Book of Carmarthen are ascribed. See also under S. CELYN FOEL.

3

S. CUNEDDA

THE name of Cunedda Wledig, like those of Brychan and Caw, is entered among the Welsh Saints more as the ancestor of one of the three great lines of Saints than for any other claim that he may have had. Some of the most illustrious of the Welsh Saints David, Teilo, and Seiriol-were descended from him. the kings of Gwynedd.

for instance So were also

He was the son of Edern ab Padarn Beisrudd, and his pedigree is traced up to Beli Mawr. His mother was Gwawl, the daughter of Coel Hên, the ancestor of another powerful race. His pedigree would lead one to suppose that he had Roman blood in his veins.

According to the Old-Welsh genealogies in Harleian MS. 3859, he was the father of nine sons-Tybion, Osfael, Rhufon, Dunod, Ceredig, Abloyc, Einion Yrth, Dogfael, and Edern. They were all warriors, and none of them come within the category of Saints.

Welsh tradition says that Cunedda and his sons came to Wales from the North, where he defended the Roman Wall with a cavalry of 900 horse. He is spoken of as a man from Coelin, probably Kyle, in Ayrshire. Nennius also describes him and his sons as coming from the North-from Manaw Gododin, a district near the Firth of

1 Iolo MSS., pp. 109, 116, 136, 142–3.

2 Book of Llan Dâv, p. 76.

3 Ed. Dr. J. Gwenogvryn Evans, 1906, pp. 9-17. 4 Y Cymmrodor, ix, pp. 182-3. There is a list of his sons in Vita S. Carantoci (Cambro-British Saints, pp. 100-1), where they are also said to be nine. The names are given in the same order, but with variations in spelling. Later lists occur, e.g. in Jesus College MS. 20, and Peniarth MSS. 129 (circa 1500), and 75 (sixteenth century). The old form of Cunedda's name was Cunedag. Possibly his name has survived in the name of the hill, Allt Canadda (Cenadda, Cynedda), in the parish of Kidwelly.

Forth. This Cuneddan occupation of Wales took place in the early fifth century, and was of the nature of a tribal migration.

The later form of the tradition 1 says that Cunedda "sent sons to Gwynedd against the Goidels which came with Serigi the Goidel to Anglesey, and other places, and had taken the greater portion of that country from the inhabitants, where there were no princes over them." They succeeded, we are told, in expelling the Goidels, and " then the men of Gwynedd gave those princes possession of the lands which they had won." Each district was re-named after its conqueror, but some names occur which do not appear in the foregoing list of sons. The conquered country, comparing the various accounts, was apportioned thus

Tybion, the eldest son, having died in Manaw Gododin, his son Meirion, as chief of the Cuneddan family, divided the territories among his uncles. He himself had Meirionydd; Arwystl, Arwystli; Ceredig, Ceredigion; Donod, Dunodig (the commotes of Ardudwy and Eifionydd); Edeyrn, Edeyrnion; Mael, Dinmael; Dogfael, Dogfeiling; Rhufon, Rhufoniog; Coel, Coeleion (the last four in Denbighshire); Oswael, Osweilion (round Oswestry); and Einion Yrth, Caer Einion. Another son, Gwron, is sometimes given to Cunedda, but this is probably a mistake for Corun, his grandson. His daughter Gwen was wife of Amlawdd Wledig.

Cunedda's power was great. He was the Gwledig (Over-king), or Dux Britanniæ, and had his court at Caer Liwelydd, or Carlisle. His house in the sixth century was so powerful that Maelgwn Gwynedd (Insularis Draco, as Gildas styles him) held sway over the whole of Wales, and also Cumbria to some extent. After Maelgwn's death, "Greater Wales" gradually shrank, but the Cuneddan dynasty only ended with Llywelyn ab Gruffydd.

There is an elegy on Cunedda in the thirteenth century Book of Taliessin.2

One of the documents printed in the Iolo MSS.3 mentions a “S. Cunedda Hên, a man of Israel, who came as bishop to S. Lleurwg (Lucius) ab Coel ab Cyllin, from Rome," but he is quite apocryphal.

S. CURIG, Bishop, Confessor

CURIG LWYD is famous in Wales. He is mentioned repeatedly by

1 Iolo MSS., pp. 121-2.

2 Skene, Four Ancient Books, ii, pp. 200-2.

3 P. 136. A Cunedda ab Henwyn, prince of Cornwall, occurs in Geoffrey's Brut, and a tv elfth century Cunedda ab Cadwallon in Brut y Tywysogion.

the Welsh bards. These generally style him Curig Lwyd, the Blessed, and occasionally Curig Farchog, or the Knight.

The Welsh saintly genealogies do not pretend to give his pedigree.1 Lewis Morris, in the middle of the eighteenth century, says—“ We are told that this Curig was a foreigner, and that it was on the top of this hill (in Llangurig parish) he first rested, after he had landed. at Aberystwyth; from hence he perceived a fine valley (of the Wye) before him, where he determined to build a church in a sheltered spot." It consisted at first, as we may gather, of a humble cell and chapel, which subsequently became a church, though not yet of spacious dimensions, celebrated for the beauty of its architecture and the elegant carving and design of its roof. The rock on the hill whereon the pilgrim sat, is to this day called Eisteddfa Gurig, his Seat. The hill is 1,358 feet above the sea.

"2

After the Norman occupation of Wales, the conquerors where possible displaced the native Saints as patrons of the churches, and placed them under the invocation of Saints in the Roman Calendar. S. Curig had everywhere to make way for Cyriacus, the boy martyr, with his mother Julitta. This produced confusion in the minds of the Welsh, and the legend of Curig Lwyd got vitiated by being mixed up with that of the youthful martyr of Tarsus.

There exists in Welsh a translation of a Latin Life of S. Cyriacus, which has a noteworthy appendix.3 It runs-" Know all men how S. Ciric came to be honoured in Wales, and obtained his glory and honour on account of his miracles. There is a township (or parish) in Wales, called Llan Giric, on the confines of three countries, to wit, Arwystli, Melienydd and Ceredigion. In that township there was an uncle to Ciric, named Maelgwn, who was a monk; and he sent his servants to Ceredigion to collect his provisions. When they were coming homewards with their horses and burdens, the huntsmen of Maelgwn Gwynedd met them and laid hands on them, intending to break into the sacks and steal the food. Their hands got stuck to the sacks, and they were dragged (by the horses) as far as to Maelgwn the monk's cell; and the Saint with difficulty loosened them by his

1 Iolo MSS., p. 145, give Cirig Sant as son of Urien (or Arawn) ab Cynfarch, but the name is a misreading of Ciwg.

2 Cambrian Register (1799), ii, p. 491.

3 Buchedd Ciric occurs in Llanstephan MSS. 34 (end of sixteenth century) and 104 (early eighteenth century). In MS. 164 is a poem in which Curig and other Welsh Saints are invoked, written by Rhisiart ab Rhys, of Llanharan (fifteenth-sixteenth century), but it adds nothing to our knowledge of the In the Hystoria Gweryddon yr Almaen, in Peniarth MS. 182 (c. 1514), it is said that, in the time of S. Ursula, there was a Pope in Rome, descended from the Britons, whose name was Kiric."

Saint.

VOL. II.