Part 1

Transcribed from the 1897? edition by David Price, email [email protected]

[Picture: Book cover]

A RECORD OF ST. CYBI’S CHURCH, HOLYHEAD

* * * * *

And the Sermon preached after its Restoration, 1879, by ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D., Dean of Westminster.

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SIX ILLUSTRATIONS.

[Picture: South View of St. Cybi’s Church, with the Chancel Aisle added 1897]

A Record of St. Cybi’s Church

THE old Church of St. Cybi, at Holyhead, which contains so many memorials of the devotion and piety of former generations, has been in this Jubilee year of the reign of Queen Victoria enriched by many precious gifts. A new South Aisle, capable of containing 50 or 60 worshippers, has been added to the Church as a memorial to Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Stanley of Penrhos; and the beautiful window at the east end has been placed there in memory of Mr. Watson, Chairman and Managing Director of the City of Dublin Co., by his sons.

The connection of Mr. Stanley’s forefathers, the Owens of Penrhos, with the Church of St. Cybi, has been a very close one, and we are indebted to the archaeological lore and love of the locality which distinguished his family and himself, for the preservation of many beautiful traditions and interesting remains of long past ages.

Holyhead Island is rich in old-world treasures which appeal not only to the archaeologist and the historian, but to the artistic mind and eye of men like Matthew Arnold and the author of “The Stones of Venice.”

“Just on the other side of the Mersey,” Ruskin writes, “you have your Snowdon and your Menai Straits and that mighty granite rock beyond the moors of Anglesea, splendid in its heathery crest, and footplanted in the deep sea, once thought of as sacred—a divine promontory, looking westward; the Holy Head or Head Land, still not without awe when its red light glares first through storm.”

On that same mountain of Holyhead are the circular hive-shaped dwellings, of unknown antiquity, called locally “Cyttiau Gwyddelod,” or “Irishmen’s Huts.” These are excavated to a depth of some feet below the surface, 15 feet to 20 feet in diameter inside, the sides of the interior being lined with stones to prevent the earth from falling, and the dome-shaped roof only being apparent above the surface of the ground. In addition to the above are the curiously shaped querns, mullers, and other stone implements indicating the past life of the dwellers in these rude huts.

The great Cromlech at Trefignedd and the fine Monoliths at Plas Meilw also bear silent record to the existence of men, who, but for this lasting evidence might well be deemed mythical. At that great Cromlech, overlooking many miles of country, horrible scenes were enacted, according to tradition, scenes too ghastly for description; and now, cattle graze and children play in the sunshine among those giant stones.

Holyhead mountain has repeatedly been a witness to fierce struggles for mastery between the natives and invaders, who from time to time landed, and tried to make good their footing, on that wild picturesque coast, guarded as it is to the west by jagged rocks, and with only here and there a creek into which a boat might be pushed in calm weather. Even now, with all the help that modern invention and careful thought can give, there are tragic tales of shipwreck and loss of life on those cruel rocks; and what must it have been in ancient times, when there was nothing between daring men and death but their rough boats, which it would take little to dash into a thousand atoms?

Doubtless in those early days the island was wooded, as trunks of trees are found at low tide, half buried in the sand in Towyn-y-Capel Bay, on the west coast. Possibly, under cover of these trees, marauders were able to effect a landing unseen; but at present, when there is not a single stick or shrub of any kind, this is difficult to realise. Still, though the trees have perished, there remain the silent monuments of that great race, which are found in almost every land; the same cromlechs, the same monoliths, as exist in our own island, are traceable on the Continent of Europe, especially in Brittany, and even in remotest India.

If to searchers after Druidical and Ante-Druidical remains Holyhead affords such rich results, yet higher interest still attaches to its early Christian records. In it, and in its neighbour Anglesey, are traced some of the earliest evidences of the foundation of the Christian Church, its collegiate bodies and its organization; and from this cradle of the Church proceeded the men whose teaching appears to have effectually superseded the dying religion of the Sun and the Serpent; for we have evidence that a number of Druid priests were converted, and we have no record of any bitter animosity against the preachers of the Gospel.

Early legends affirm that James, the son of Zebedee, came with his mother Salome into Britain, six years after our Lord’s Ascension, and preached the Gospel to willing ears; others say St. Paul himself visited these Islands after his imprisonment by Nero.

How far these legends are literally true is not of great consequence; the certainty remains that the Gospel was preached throughout the country, and that the fabric of the holy Church was raised and organized here after the same manner as the Eastern Churches.

As a proof of Christians having visited the Island, a medal was found in one of the Druid Mounds in Anglesey bearing the inscription, “This is Jesus Christ the Mediator,” and as the Romans had routed the Druids, this medal must have been there before the demolishing of the mound by Suetonius Paulinus, thus verifying in part the words of Tertullian an age later, who relates the sudden progress of the Christian Faith, which anticipated the Roman sword in the celerity of its conquests.

The first school of “Christian learning” to supply the province with clergy was apparently founded at Bangor, Anno Domini 182, and it is supposed that according to the usual plan of organization there were seven bishops under an archbishop in this province of Britain. Some of these were bishops of endowed sees, others were consecrated “Sine Titulo.”

The clergy in general appear to have lived with their bishops, forming collegiate bodies, and they were sent out by their superiors into various districts allotted to them as occasion required.

It does not appear that they had any settled parishes in Mona for many years after this period nor were there many churches; but they “assembled the people together to hear the Word of God preached in some convenient place, either at oratories or at the manor-houses of their respective Lords and Masters, who probably had their own chapels for sacred use and service. Most of these churches and chapels were dedicated to such early Christian names as St. Mary, St. Peter, St. Michael, &c.” (see “Mona Antiqua.”)

After the departure of the Romans in A.D. 390 the Picts tried to regain their former possessions, and the country was sorely ravaged by them until there stood up two families of eminent rank who laid claim to the British Sceptre. The one was headed by Octavius, grandson of the Duke of Cornwall; the other was descended from Cynetha Weledig, and nearly related to Constantine the Great.

For many years struggles continued between these rival Princes; but at length the descendant of the Cornwall family gave up the contest and retired to the Duchy of Cornwall. Cynetha’s descendants having routed the Picts who had invaded Mona, made head also against the Saxons. For a long time they withstood them victoriously, having secured all the ancient “Brittannia Secunda” (now called Wales) from the ravages of these invaders, and to them the poor Britons, and more especially the clergy, fled for protection.

It is difficult to trace the exact date of the foundation of the church of St. Cybi at Holyhead, but it appears to have been founded by Cybi the son of Selyt, or Solomon, about 550 A.D. He afterwards, according to tradition, became Bishop of Anglesey.

Sir John Stanley upheld the theory that a Roman Temple originally existed within the present churchyard walls, and that on the departure of the Romans it was occupied or used as a church. Whether this were so or not, it is clear that in the days of Caswallan Llaw Hir, Son of Cynetha, there was a burial-place within the fort at Holyhead, inside the present walls encircling the churchyard.

Here Caswallan routed and slew with his own hand Sirigi, the Irish giant, who, with a following of Irish Picts, had a short time before forced a landing and had built a place or town called first Llan-y-Gwyddel, then Caer Gybi, and now in English, Holyhead. Within the enclosure where Sirigi was slain stood a chapel, on the south side of the church, some remains of which (conspicuous among them a Gothic arch) are still extant, and here, it is affirmed, the Irish giant was buried. This was called Eglwys-y-Bedd, the Church of the Grave, and Capel Llan-y-Gwyddel, or the Chapel of the Irishman.

It appears, from leases of the collegiate church, that this chapel was endowed with distinct revenues in the reign of Edward III. Some of the ruins were removed in the last century to render the entrance to the present church more convenient, and in digging, a stone coffin was found under an arch, on the north side of the chancel, containing bones of a large size, and this probably was the shrine of Sirigi, who was canonized by the Irish. According to an old chronicle, they carried off his body and deposited it in their cathedral in Dublin; but the finding of the coffin with the gigantic bones seems to render this part of the story improbable.

Caswallon had apparently a very fierce conflict with the Irish Picts before he gained his victory, and moreover could not have had much confidence in his own men, for we read that he tied them together in couples, with horse fetters, to prevent their breaking their ranks when fighting with Sirigi. This prince settled himself after his victories at Llaneillan, and was submitted to as Chief or King of Anglesey. There are remains of a strongly fortified camp near the summit of Holyhead mountain, still called Mur Caswallon or Caer-y-Twr.

Caswallon’s son was the famous Maelgwyn Gwynedd, the hero of many battles and the terror of the Saxons. He erected the See of Bangor about the year 550, where, a short time before, Daniel, the son of Dionothus, Abbot of Bangor-is-Coed, had built a college for North Wales clergy. Maelgwyn Gwynydd founded the college and the three canonries of Bangor, Penmon and Caer Gybi. Others say that Llywarch-ap-Bran founded the Prebendaries. His arms, the three crows, are in the porch of St. Cybi’s Church, at Holyhead.

[Picture: South Doorway, Holyhead Church, Anglesey (1862)]

Tradition makes St. Cybi a contemporary of St. Seiriol, who lived at Penmon, while St. Cybi lived at Holyhead. These saints met frequently in the centre of the island to hold holy converse together. They left their homes early and parted at mid-day, so that the rising sun always shone on the face of St. Cybi as he travelled eastwards in the morning, and he met the rays of the setting sun as he journeyed homeward in the evening, while on St. Seiriol’s face the sun never shone, hence St. Seiriol is represented as fair and white, while St. Cybi is depicted as dark and sunburnt. (“Gybi Felyn.”)

This legend has been commemorated in the following verses by Mr. Matthew Arnold:—

EAST AND WEST.

In the bare midst of Anglesea they show Two springs which close by one another play, And “Thirteen hundred years agone,” they say, Two saints met often where those waters flow.

One came from Penmon westward, and a glow Whiten’d his face from the sun’s fronting ray; Eastward the other, from the dying day, And he with unsunn’d face did always go.

“Seiriol the bright, Cybi the dark!” men said; The seer from the east was then in light, The seer from the west was then in shade. Ah! now ’tis changed. In conquering sunshine bright The man of the bold west now comes array’d; He of the mystic east is touched with night.

It is highly probable that St. Cybi did found the church that bears his name, though the structure as it stands is no doubt of later date. The original fabric was probably used as a school or college as well as for public worship. St. Cybi also founded other chapels: Capel-y-Llochwydd (meaning a desolate place), on the mountain, and Capel-y-Golles, at the east end of which there was a spring; and another at Towyn-y-Capel, on an artificial tumulus or mound by the sea-shore, about two and a half miles from Holyhead, called St. Fraid (or Capel Bridget). The legend states that St. Bridget, escaping from her persecutors, floated across from Ireland on a green sod which, on her landing, became a firm hillock, on which the chapel was built. Traces of a chapel can still be remembered, but these have now disappeared, owing to the encroachment of the sea, together with the mound on which they were discernible. There was also a fourth chapel in the hamlet of Criccist.

The following account of Capel-y-Llochwydd, from the pen of the late Bishop Stanley, will be of interest. (“Blackwood’s Magazine,” 1830.)

“A singular fissure, cleaved in a direct line from the summit to the base, forms, or rather did form, a passage of communication, of no small celebrity in ancient days, and retaining its odour of sanctity till a very recent date. It is known by the name of Ogof Llochwyd, ‘Ogof’ signifying a cave. A spring of crystal water, filtering through the deep strata, formed a deep well at the bottom of this chasm. Situated just at the higher opening of the gorge was a chapel for the accommodation of pilgrims, called Capel-y-Llochwyd, which name a considerable remnant of ruins at the head of the gorge still retains. Till within 60 years the lonely chapel and its well were from time unknown the resort of the lads and lassies of the island, who, at a certain annual festival called ‘Suliau-y-Creiriau’, or ‘The Sundays of the relics,’ corresponding to the wakes of the northern counties of England, and held during three successive Sundays in July, assembled in troops to ascertain the contingencies awaiting them. Each diviner into futurity descended the chasm to the well, and there, if after having taken a mouthful of holy water and grasped two handfuls of sand from the charmed font, he or she could accomplish the re-ascent with them safely, each would obtain the wish of their heart before the close of the year. About 60 years ago (1770) the chapel was reduced to ruins, and the well was concealed by filling it up with rubbish, but till twenty years ago (1810) the walls to the height of seven or eight feet remained sufficiently entire to convey a tolerable idea of the perfect building, which is represented to have been a substantial though rude and simple edifice, composed of unhewn stones, cemented with mortar, the windows and door-frames excepted, which were well wrought by the chisel, with considerable labour, from some very obdurate material, the whole apparently consisting of one chamber of oblong form not exceeding a few yards in length. Of the well, however, not a trace was left, though its existence was proved beyond a shadow of doubt, a few years ago, by a party who landed and at length succeeded in detecting the spot from which, after removing a quantity of sand and loose stones, again gushed the fountain of pure water in its pristine vigour and doubtless inherent virtues!”

Holyhead or St. Cybi became the centre for all these chapels, and there priests and holy men could assemble in conference and also preach the Word of God. “Most of these saints had their Nauddvan or Sanctuaries, in ancient times supported by certain tenures and lands which were held of neither Prince nor Lord, but of certain saints or patrons of churches calling themselves abbots. Of these there were seven in Anglesey that were entitled (_in capite_) to several tenures, viz.: St. Beuno, St. Cybi, St. Cadwallader, St. Peirio, St. Cyngar, St. Marcutus or Mechell, St. Elian, this last being largely endowed in land. These tenures were so bestowed in order that places of refuge or sanctuaries might be provided, and that the persons taking refuge therein might have their privileges and rights preserved and kept inviolate.” (See “Mona Antiqua.”)

[Picture: Collegiate Church Holy head, Anglesea (June 1, 1772)]

After the dissolution of the monasteries the revenues of Holyhead, Bodedern, Llandrygarn, and Bodwrog parishes came to Dr. Thomas Gwynn, whose heir, about A.D. 1648, gave them to Jesus College, Oxford.

Grose, in his “Antiquities of England and Wales,” in 1786, writes:

“St. Cybi, the Collegiate Church of Holyhead, stands at the extreme western corner of Holyhead Island, in a quadrangle measuring 220 feet by 130 feet, three sides of which are enclosed by strong walls, seventeen feet high and six thick. The fourth side is open to the sea, having only a parapet, but is defended by steep rocks. At each corner of the wall is an oval tower (two of which are seen in the accompanying view). The entrance to this area is through a rude stone gate, the masonry of which, and also of the walls and towers, is said by Mr. Pennant to be ‘evidently Roman.’ ‘Along the walls,’ he adds ‘are two rows of round holes, about four inches in diameter, which penetrate them. They are like those of Segontium (Caernarvon), and nicely plaistered within.’ The church is dedicated to St. Cybi. It is a handsome embattled edifice, built in the form of a cross. The inside of the porch and the outside part of the transept are rudely ornamented with grotesque figures. On the outside of the last are dragons, and a man leading a bear with a rope, or as some suppose it, Balaam and his Ass, with other now shapeless sculptures.”

“Maelgwyn Gwynedd, who lived about A.D. 580, is said to have founded a college here. This Prince was styled ‘Draco Insularis.’ Perhaps the dragon engraven on the church may allude to him. Others assert that the founder of this college was Hwfa Cynddelew, Lord of Llys Lliven in this island, and of one of the fifteen tribes who lived in the time of Griffith-ap-Conan, Prince of North Wales, and Owen, his son, about the former part of the twelfth century. It certainly was in being before the year 1291, because it was rated in the Lincoln taxation.”

“The head of the college was called Penclos, or Pencolas, and was one of the three spiritual Lords of Anglesey. The Archdeacon of the Isle, and the Abbot of Penmon were the two others.”

“The Latin title of the superior of this college was Rector, as appears by an ancient seal inscribed ‘Sigillum Rectoris et capituli ecclesia de Caer Gybi.’ The number of prebendaries of which this college consisted is not known; but it is certain there were twelve at least, that number being found in the Pension List in 1553 at £1 each. Before the dissolution, the Rector, or Provost, for so he is also styled, had thirty-nine marks; one chaplain had eleven, and the other two the same between them. At the dissolution (26 Henry VIII.) the whole revenues were valued at no more than £24, as stated by both Dugdale and Speed.”

“The King had the gift of the Provostship, which Edward III. bestowed on his chaplain, Thomas de London, under the denomination of the ‘Provostship of his free chapel of Caer Cybe,’ for which the King, in 1351, dispensed with him for services to himself. This college was granted, 7 James I., by that King to Francis Morris and Francis Phillips. It became afterwards the property of Rice Gwynn, Esquire, who, in 1648, bestowed it on Jesus College, Oxford, the great tithes for the maintenance of two fellows and as many scholars; and since that time the parish has been served by a curate nominated by the college. The living is a donative, not in charge, the certified value £35.”

Since Mr. Grose described the Church of St. Cybi with pen and pencil 111 years ago many changes have taken place. The shore below the church has been reclaimed from the sea, the lower churchyard has been added to the original enclosure, a broad road separates it from the present harbour, and where the tide once flowed, under the old churchyard wall, the extensive buildings of the London and North Western Railway Company now stand. Steamers and trains laden with passengers and merchandise passing to and from Ireland and America crowd the once lonely shore; and the town and its population have grown with the growth of trade. The very aspect and dress of the people have changed, the picturesque high-crowned hats and long cloaks have disappeared, only the Welsh language remains, “Yr hen iaith Gymraig,” nor does it diminish its hold on the affections of the people.

The successive changes which the country has undergone have left their mark on St. Cybi’s Church, the most enduring of all the buildings in Caer Gybi. It was rebuilt during the 14th century, during the reign of Edward III., as appears by the arms of England and France cut out in a stone near the porch, and stones are in the walls worked as if belonging to a former building. The east window is of that date. The church was practically rebuilt again in the time of Henry VII., though the beautiful plan then conceived was not fully carried out. The Tudor cognizances are carved on the frieze of the church, under the battlements, with St. Cybi’s name, and the inscription on the north side is still quite legible, “Sanctus Kebius ora pro nobis.” The steeple was rebuilt in the 17th century. The choir in 1713, when the tomb of Roderic ap Owen was discovered, and on the coffin a small brass bell curiously wrought through network; the date of his death was 1175. {16}

The ruins of the chapel (Capel Llan-y-Gwyddel) mentioned as standing south of St. Cybi’s Church, within the enclosure, were converted into a public school by Chancellor Edward Wynn, LL.D., of Bodewryd in Anglesey, who by bond, bearing date November 25th, 1748, endowed it with a capital of £120; “the interest whereof is to be paid annually on the 24th November to a schoolmaster, who is to teach six poor boys of the town to read and write.”

[Picture: Collegiate Church, Holy Head. Pl. 2 (Nov. 6, 1785)]

Light is thrown upon the wants and difficulties of the last century, in matters of education, by some letters from the Rev. T. Ellis, Rector of Holyhead, to Chancellor Wynn’s sister, Madame Owen of Penrhos.

In January, 1745, he writes:—“There’s nothing my heart is so much set upon as seeing ye Chancellor’s school brought to perfection, which I hope in God, it will be soon, thro’ yr means, and I really believe it would be ye best work that has been done in ys county for perhaps three hundred years past . . .