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Icons of St. Melangell of
Wales
Feast:
Jan. 31, May 4
Top Icon: by the hand of Aidan
Hart, Oecumenical Patriarchate, UK.
Next
Icon: by the hand of Aidan Hart.
Next
Icon: by the hand of Aidan Hart.
Lower icon: by the hand of
Colette Kalvesmaki (the original is in the custody of Norell Mounger,
who so kindly provided this information).
LIFE OF
ST. MELANGELL
MELANGELL was a daughter of Cyfwlch, the son
of Tudwal, according to some accounts, but of Tudwal according to
others, and was descended from the Emperor Maximus and his British wife
Elen. Her mother was an Irish-woman.
The story goes that her father desired to marry her to a chieftain
under him, but either she disliked the man or the thought of marriage,
and determined to run away. Accordingly she found an opportunity to
escape, and secreted herself at
Pennant, one of the most lonely and lovely spots in Montgomeryshire, at
the head of the Tanat. Her story is represented on the frieze of the
carved oak screen of the church there.
In this spot, sleeping on bare rock, she remained for fifteen years.
One day Brochwel Ysgythrog, Prince of Powys, was hunting and in pursuit
of a hare, when it escaped into a thicket, and took refuge under the
robe of a virgin of great beauty, whom the huntsman discovered. She
faced and drove back the hounds. The huntsman then put his horn to his
lips, and there it stuck as if glued. Upon this up came the prince, and
he at once granted a parcel of land to the saint, to serve as a
sanctuary, and bade her found there a convent. This she did, and she
lived in a cell which still remains, though somewhat altered, at the
east end of the church. She was buried in the church, after her called
Pennant Melangell, and fragments of a very beautiful shrine remain
built into the walls, but sufficient to allow of its reconstruction.
The cell of Saint Melangell is, as said, to the east of the church, and
has no communication with it. It goes by the name of Cell y Bedd, or
Cell of the Grave, and it has a door and a window. In this originally
stood the shrine. Her gwely, or bed, lies on the opposite side of the
valley, a quarter of a mile south of the church.
Melangell is considered the patroness of hares, which are termed her
lambs. Until last century so strong a superstition prevailed that no
person would kill a bare in the parish; and even later, when a hare was
pursued by dogs, it was believed that if any one cried "God and
Melangell be with thee," it would surely escape.
In the Welsh calendars she is commemorated on January 31 and on May 4
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