Parish Church of St Illtyd, Llantwit, Neath

Saint Illtud and the College He Founded in the 5th Century in Wales

Legend has it that a church in Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan on the southern coast of Wales was founded by St. Illtud as a place of learning less than a century after Rome withdrew from the island to fight the barbarians attacking the empire in Europe.

Little is known of St. Illtud, but he is thought to have been a cousin of King Arthur, a disciple of St. Cadoc, and may have been one of the three Knights of the Holy Grail.

By the year 490, the church he founded was a center for training Christian missionaries who spread the faith throughout Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany.

According to the BBC, “While no traces of the college now remain, the current church—named after Illtud, the founder of the university—dates from the 13th Century….”

Former archdeacon of Margam Philip Morris, who authored the book Llanilltud: The Story of a Celtic Christian Community, says there is scant information on the saint, but his name Illtude is “far more widely venerated in place names and churches in Brittany than in Wales, through the influence of his students on early Christian development,” but that legend holds that St. Patrick was among the early Christian devotees to have studied at the College.

According to the church’s website, Saint Illtud was believed to have been built over the site of the original Celtic Church by the Normans in the 12th century. “The only existing Norman remains are the archway over the south door and some fragments of masonry. In the 13th century, the east church was built, and it was subsequently modified in the 14th century to include a tower. The west church was rebuilt in the 15th century, and the Galilee Chapel was added on as a chantry chapel through an endowment by Sir Hugh Raglan.

Photo credits: Parish Church of St Illtyd, Llantwit, Neath by Jaggery via Wikimedia Commons.
CC BY-SA 2.0.