Saint Padarn's Church is a parish church of the Church in Wales, and the largest mediaeval church in mid-Wales. It is at Llanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion, Wales.

Founded in the early sixth century, St Padarn's Church has gone through many changes, from a Welsh monastic centre (a clas), a Benedictine priory, a clas again, a royal rectory, a church controlled by Chester's Vale Royal Abbey, and since 1538 a parish church under a vicar.

History

Although its origins are obscure, the site of the present ancient church has been used for Christian worship since it was settled in the early sixth century, probably by Saint Padarn,E. G. Bowen, A History of Llanbadarn Fawr (a limited edition published under auspices of the Ysgol Cwmpadarn Centenary Celebration Joint committee/Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1979). after whom it was named.Llanbadarn Fawr means "great church of Padarn"; cf. Llanbadarn Fawr, Powys; http://www.cpat.org.uk/ycom/radnor/llanbadarnfawr.pdf. Much of the early history of the church must remain speculative rather than definitive, due to the absence of documentary or archaeological evidence.Gerald Morgan, Ceredigion: A wealth of History (Gower, Llandysul, 2005), p. 99. However, there are certain elements which are reasonably clear.The standard history, E. G. Bowen, A History of Llanbadarn Fawr (a limited edition published under auspices of the Ysgol Cwmpadarn Centenary Celebration Joint committee/Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1979), remains useful though it is now outdated.

Origins of the foundation in the sixth century

Whilst the exact date Saint Padarn founded the church is uncertain, it seems clear however that Llanbadarn Fawr was an early sixth-century foundation, a Celtic clas church. The church may have been the seat of an abbot or bishop during the years immediately following Saint Padarn, who was traditionally said to be its first bishopD. P. Kirby, "The Coming of Christianity" in J. L. Davies and D. P. Kirby (eds), Cardiganshire County History (Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society, 1994), vol I, pp. 365–177, at pp. 370–1. (as a clas church, it was not a cathedral as we understand the term today, but closer to a collegiate churchChurch buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appear in Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa in the fourth century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the twelfth century. Also, as Pearson observed "Before the eleventh century Welsh dioceses in the fixed territorial sense were not the norm: a major centre of ecclesiastical power, the clas church or monasterium, exerted influence through daughter-houses, and the area of this influence waxed and waned with the power that the local ruler could exert over his neighbours. The term clas, plural clasau, probably derived from classis, meaning a gathering or group of people, a corpus or collegium. Perhaps of monastic origin, such churches were headed by either a bishop or an abbot, and were usually regarded as mother-churches, although the term could be applied to smaller ecclesiastical institutions. Claswyr, or those clerics who normally lived within the church, were usually styled canons; however, this title is a post-Norman usage which reflects the conditions of that period." See "Introduction: The Welsh cathedrals 1066–1300", in M. J. Pearson (ed), Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 9, the Welsh Cathedrals (Bangor, Llandaff, St Asaph, St Davids) (Institute of Historical Research, London, 2003), pp. xix–xxiv http://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1066-1300/vol9/xix-xxiv. Pearson relied on Giraldus Cambrensis, book III, page 153; Llyfr Iorwerth: a Critical Text of the Venodotian Code of Medieval Welsh Law mainly from B. M. Cotton Titus D. ii, ed. A. R. William (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1960), pp. 43–4; N. Edwards and A. Lane, "The archaeology of the early Welsh Church in Wales: an introduction" in N. Edwards and A. Lane (eds), The Early Church in Wales and the West (Oxbow Books, Oxford, 1992), Oxbow Monograph xvi, pp. 1–10, at p. 3; J. W. Evans, "The survival of the clas as an institution in medieval Wales: some obs ervations on Llanbadarn Fawr", ibid. pp. 33–40, at pp. 33, 36; Sir John Edward Lloyd, History of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co, London, 1911), vol I, p. 205; H. Pryce, "Pastoral care in early medieval Wales", in J. Blair and R. Sharpe (eds), Pastoral Care before the Parish (Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1992), pp. 41–62, at pp. 48–50; Pearson, Bangor chapter pp. 168–9; Huw Pryce, Native Law and the Church in Medieval Wales (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993), pp. 165–74, 191–2 [accessed 10 April 2015].), nor did it necessarily possess any substantial buildings.Generally, see Heather James, "The Archaeology of Early Christianity in Cardiganshire" in J. L. Davies and D. P. Kirby (eds), Cardiganshire County History (Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society, 1994), vol I, pp. 397–407. Bowen noted that there might have a dozen monks, living in individual beehive-shaped cells; E. G. Bowen, A History of Llanbadarn Fawr (a limited edition published under auspices of the Ysgol Cwmpadarn Centenary Celebration Joint committee/Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1979), p. 18. It was one of the leading clasau of early Christian Wales, and the one we know most about, partly because of the significant role it played as a literary centre.

Saint Padarn

Very little is known of Saint Padarn (or Paternus to use his Latin name), and almost nothing with any degree of certainty; the earliest literary reference to him is by Rhygyfarch in about 1097.E. G. Bowen, A History of Llanbadarn Fawr (a limited edition published under auspices of the Ysgol Cwmpadarn Centenary Celebration Joint committee/Gomer Press, 1979), p. 26. However, it is possible to construct a general outline of his life from the little that we do have.

Following the general custom of Europe in the late classical and early Middle Ages, he was popularly recognised after his death as a saint, along with several hundred other Welsh men and women.Generally, see Elissa R. Henken, Traditions of the Welsh Saints (D. S. Brewer, 1987); Elissa R. Henken, The Welsh Saints: A Study in Patterned Lives (Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, 1991). But the date and circumstances of the foundation of the church, and of Padarn's life were long forgotten when it was decided in the twelfth century that he should be commemorated in a Vita or Latin Life, following the example of the Life of St David written at Llanbadarn about 1090.A. W. Wade-Evans, Life of St. David (SPCK, London, 1923). That in turn had followed a European tradition of writing such lives. They are not biographies as we understand them today.Hagiographic works, particularly those of the Middle Ages, can often incorporate a valuable record of institutional and local history, and evidence of popular cults, customs, and traditions. Instead they were hagiographies, designed to elevate the saint's status as a holy person of miraculous achievements.See Thomas J. Heffernan, Sacred Biography: Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992).

Traditionally Padarn was said to come originally from Brittany, but he may have come from south-east Wales.Butler believes that he was probably born and educated in south-east Wales; Peter Bartrum, Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1966), reprints ByS 21, which recounts the tradition that Padarn was, like David, descended from Ceredig ap Cunedda, in Padarn's case through his mother Gwen ferch Ceredig ap Cunedda. This is certainly possible, and would have helped him secure a strong base from which to evangelise Ceredigion. See also Alban Butler and Paul Burns, Butler's Lives of the Saints: April (A. & C. Black, London, revised edition, 1999), p. 102. He was said to be both abbot and bishop (the distinction was not so great then as it later becameDioceses were fluid at this time in Wales, and equally, a bishop did not necessarily have the territorial attributes the ecclesiastical rank was later to obtain. Bishops were, as Lewis described them, "a kind of missionary bishop"; Frank Lewis, "The history of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire in the later middle ages" (1938) 13 Transaction and archaeological record: Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society 15–40, at p. 16; Sir John Edward Lloyd, History of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co, London, 1912), vol I, p. 208.) for many years, and from his base at what is now known as Llanbadarn Fawr (great or high church of St Padarn) he evangelised the neighbouring countryside.Traditionally with the help of the eight hundred and forty-seven monks (doubtless a grossly exaggerated number) he was said to have brought with himthe accounts suggest that he founded a community 120 strong at Llanbadarn Fawr; this figure is almost certainly a gross exaggeration; as noted above, Bowen suggest that there might have a dozen monks; E. G. Bowen, A History of Llanbadarn Fawr (a limited edition published under auspices of the Ysgol Cwmpadarn Centenary Celebration Joint committee/Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1979), p. 18.