CONCERNING ST. KINEDUS, HERMIT & CONFESSOR,
IN WALES.
6th Century.
Collection concerning the age, cult & portentous deeds.
Kinedus, herm., conf., in Wales (S.)
BHL Number: 4664
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The Saint of whom we here treat, in many ways inflected Kinedus, Kynedus, Chinedus, Kenedus, & Kinethus, has of old obtained no lowest place among the Welsh or Cambrian Saints, ranged by Harpsfield with David, That he lived in the 6th century is certain enough, Theliaus & Paternus in Cambria, where he died on the Kalends of August. Concerning David it was treated long ago in our work on 1 March, concerning Theliaus on 9 February, but concerning Paternus on 15 April, who, since they all lived in the 6th century, most fertile in Britain of Saints, we now have thus far certain testimony concerning the age of St. Kinedus. But if king Arthur, under whom he flourished, is rightly named in the Legend, this too is certain, that it pertains rather to the beginning than to the end of that century; so that his death has been not ill assigned by our Alford to the year 529. Further, concerning his cult, received for many centuries, Capgrave testifies in the stupendous history of his Life, concerning which presently more, as also in the Life of St. Caradoc illustrated long ago at the day 13 April, when he is said to have gone to the church of St. Kinedus. In the first edition of the English Martyrology he had been referred to 10 December, from which day he had passed into the general Catalogue of Ferrarius; but the collector of that Martyrology, Wilson, in the later edition followed the natal day, which he found noted in Capgrave in these last words of the Legend: But leaving the lands, about to receive rewards in heaven, he migrated on the Kalends of August.
[2] Thus Wilson announces him on this day: On the same day at Glower (Glower or Gower) in the province of Wales of Glamorgan, rightly referred by Wilson in the Fasti to this day. the deposition of St. Kinedus confessor, who, sprung of noble stock among the Britons, renounced the world, & in the mountains of Glamorgan embraced the solitary institute, where in all sanctity of life he rested in the Lord. His body, buried at Glower, was of old preserved
in great veneration. In vain here shall I have heaped up more arguments to prove the cult of St. Kinedus: he is known even to Castellanus himself, who in his additions to the Roman Martyrology distinctly marks him with these words: In England, of St. Kinethus confessor, to whom is dedicated a church in the peninsula of Gower, that very one, namely, of which we said that the cited Life of St. Caradoc already made mention; where Henschen noted that it is exhibited in the maps of Camden; namely in the Glamorgan [map] at page 492, as below it will have to be said again. Further, as the whole Legend of St. Kinedus which exists in Capgrave is woven of portentous prodigies, so the place of which mention is here made is wondrously described; but let it be enough for us to have vindicated the sacred honors to our Saint: concerning the stupendous narration of incredible things, let us for now set before the reader the judgments of others.
[3] Our Alford, praised above, in his Annals of the Anglo-Saxon church, concerning the Legends of St. Kinedus & of various popular Saints of the like kind, thus at the year 516 number 10 candidly opines after others: A specimen of the Life, Those who collected their Life, & notably that of St. Kinedus, from various sources, stumbling into I know not what miracles, seem to have studied rather to beguile leisure than the truth of the deeds performed: which will become clear to everyone who shall have tasted the Capgravian medley even, as they say, with the tips of his lips. Alford confirms this again at the year 529 number 3, where from Capgrave he scarcely dares to report that St. David invited St. Kinedus to a synod convoked by him. Lo the words of the Legend: But the blessed David had proclaimed a universal synod to be held, & took care humbly to invite St. Kinedus thither. Who said: I, deservedly having my limbs curved, unworthy to have fellowship, am the more unworthy to be associated with such great men, & moreover the natural power to undertake the journey is lacking. St. David said: Let us pray Jesus Christ, that he may deign to raise thy limbs to accomplish the journey with us. And a prayer being poured out to the Lord, the leg is loosed from the thigh, according as the natural disposition ought better to have itself. And when, ready to take the way, they advanced together, the servant of God Kinedus, a prayer being poured out to God in the secrets of his heart, his leg, as before, clung to the thigh. And these things for the sake of a specimen: concerning the others we shall speak below; now let us return to Alford.
[4] from which the things that underlie are admitted, He dared not, I say, transcribe these things, because the writers of the middle time obscured rather than illustrated the Life of Kinedus by the multitude of miracles. In few words he contracts the elogium of the Saint: Let it suffice to say in this place, that Kinedus in the time of David filled Britain with the opinion of his sanctity. Then, the day of death being reported from Capgrave, he notes that on the same day too it is referred in the English Martyrology, as we have already shown above. But he says this was done: from the mind of the elders, of the Britons especially, among whom he had lived in that province of the Silures which is called Glamorgan: where there is a peninsula toward the Irish sea, which is called Gower to the west. There Kinedus lived an anchoretic life, perhaps in that place where even today there exists a monument of his name: a chapel, I say, called from him St. Keneth's chapel. Lo now what we promised from Camden, who, surveying that region, noted these things. Western Gower, the strait pressing in on both sides, becomes a peninsula, more to be praised for its crops than for its wealth, & for Kinedus, ranked among the saints, once famous, who led here a solitary life. Concerning whom, if you wish more, consult our Capgrave, who chants his miracles with full mouth. Certainly, but would that with greater faith than gaping wonder, by which he frightens off sound-hearted men from reading of this kind. Be thou thyself the judge.
[5] all the other portents being wholly rejected: He records that he was sprung of royal stock from a most base incest of a parent with his own daughter; whence his leg ever clung to his thigh, just as the daughter had been carnally subjected to her father. Scarcely born, the infant, cast into a wicker vessel or rather basket, was thrown into a river, & swiftly carried into the sea: whence sea-birds, flying about, with claws & beak snatched the boy, & setting him on a rock, composed of feathers a bed on which he might lie, to which after nine days an angel brought a bronze bell, which was to him in the manner of a breast, whence it is called a "breasted little bell." The cloths in which he was wrapped, in the manner of bark, grew ever clean to the size of the boy. Found by a rustic & carried to his wife, he was by great force ordered to be carried back again by the birds. A forest hind was daily solicitous to fill the breasted little bell. Then, taught by an angel with what foods he could feed, proceeding to the place shown him, he brought forth twenty-four fountains from the earth. Then things equally to be marveled at are subjoined, which were done with robbers & some servant; then indeed with irrupting enemies, whom he drove to mutual slaughter. You have finally what we touched above as done with St. David: so that anyone may easily understand that all that medley of idle men has been deservedly here passed over by us, which those curious of that kind of things will easily find in Capgrave.