Saint Gwynllyw, also known as Gwynllyw Filwr, was a Welsh king and religious figure. He was King of Gwynllŵg in South Wales and is the legendary founder and patron saint of the City of Newport living around the 5th century. According to medieval tradition he was a feared warlord and raider who knew King Arthur, but later found religion and became a hermit founding St Woolos Cathedral in Newport. He was the father of one of the most revered Welsh saints, Saint Cadoc the Wise.
Saint Gwynllyw was the son of King Glywys, whose powerful kingdom of Glywysing was centred on Glamorgan. The kingdom was split on Glywys’ death amongst his sons, of whom Gwynllyw was the eldest and most powerful, and he was overlord over the others. The central area of his rule consisted of the cantref of Gwynllwg that was named after him and later known in English as Wentloog hundred.
The saints’ lives portray King Gwynllyw as an active and merciless warrior who attacked and raided nearby kingdoms. He was described as “very partial to thieves, and used to instigate them somewhat often to robberies” but other accounts of his life insists he was a just and fair ruler.
King Gwynllyw then had a dream in which an angel spoke to him and he saw a vision of a white ox with a black spot on its high forehead. Gwynllyw went forth and when he saw the same ox as in his dream he founded a hermitage there on what is now Stow Hill in Newport, South Wales which he built out of wood. Gwynllyw said of the spot: “There is no retreat in the world such as in this space which I am destined now to inhabit. Happy therefore is the place, happier then is he who inhabits it.” Saint Gwynllyw’s decision to abandon his kingship and retire to a religious life seems to have been a common theme amongst Welsh saints and even his violent past was not unusual.
Saint Gwynllyw entered into a hermit’s life with his wife, Gwaldys. For a while they lived together on Stow Hill, fasting, eating a vegetarian diet, and bathing in the cold waters of the Usk to prove their piety. A miraculous fountain started on the hill when Gwynllyw prayed for water. Later they moved further apart, Saint Gwladys founding her own hermitage at Pencarn.
When Gwynllyw was dying he was attended both by his son Cadoc and by Saint Dubricius, who administered the last sacrament to him.
