THE LEGACY OF ST. ILLTUD

At Llantwit Major, Llanilltud Fawr, about the year 500, St. Illtud created a church, monastery, school and mission centre of national and wider importance in the "Age of the Saints".  This religious foundation has been central to the life of the town since that time.  As Patrick Thomas has explained, our knowledge of our Patron Saint comes largely from the "Life of St. Samson".

The author, probably a monk at Dôl, says, "I have been in his magnificent monastery”.  It must, by then, have become a large establishment.  Celtic monasteries were not the large buildings of medieval times, but a group of small, separate buildings - church, school and houses - the monks could be married and have children. The monastery was a community where life consisted of prayer, study and work. The monks worked in the fields, or as craftsmen. They also tended the sick and gave hospitality to visitors.   Some were scribes who compiled manuscripts.  The number of carved Celtic stones in the church and its surroundings suggest that there was a school of masons here.

But the main activities of the monks were prayer and worship.  Llantwit Major was one of only three monasteries, with Old Sarum and Glastonbury, which offered "perpetual praise” - prayer and praise twenty four hours of every day in the year.

Llantwit Major was an important mission centre.  Illtud himself, or his disciples, travelled throughout South Wales establishing churches which were dedicated to Illtud.  There is also one in North Wales and seven in Brittany.

The status and prestige of St. Illtud's Church is shown by the Celtic crosses and stones in the west church, one of the finest collections in the country. Two of the stones have names which have been identified as kings of Glywysing (which extended in the early medieval period from the Tawe to the Usk) and Gwent.

With the coming of the Normans, the status of Llantwit Major declined as the invaders introduced dioceses and parishes into the church, and built up the importance of the cathedral at Llandaff.  St. Illtud's continued as a community of priests, a clas (mother) church.

The Lord of Glamorgan, Robert Fitzhamon retained the manor of Llantwit for his own use, and gave the church to the Abbey at Tewkesbury which he had endowed.  The land between Llantwit and St. Donat's was given to Tewkesbury, and it was farmed from a grange on the hill overlooking the church. The gatehouse still stands, though the other farm buildings have disappeared.

Nothing remains of the Celtic settlement, but around 1100 the Normans rebuilt the old church, erecting what is now the West Church.  As the manor increased in size and prosperity, the East Church was added in the thirteenth century, and the south  porch was built.  In the fifteenth century the West Church was re-built.  The West Church became the parish church and the East Church was used by the ‘clas’.  In the fifteenth century also, the Raglan family came here.  They endowed a chantry in the chapel at the western end of the church (the Galilee) and built a house in the churchyard for the chantry priest.

The onset of the Reformation had important consequences for Llantwit Major.  The Tewkesbury lands were sold off to the Stradlings of St. Donat's.  Chantries were abolished, and the Puritans removed altars, effigies and statues from the church and painted over the murals - but introduced pews for the long sermons they preached!

Gradually the strict Puritanism of the 17th century was transformed into the Nonconformist sects of the 18th, though the causes did not take root immediately.  On 25th July, 1777, John Wesley preached in St. Illtud's and wrote in his journal, "About eleven, I read prayers and preached in Llantwit Major church to a very numerous congregation.  I have not seen either so large or so handsome a church since I left England.  It was sixty yards long, but one end of it is now in ruins.   I suppose it has been abundantly the most beautiful as well as the most spacious church in Wales”.

There were Methodists in Llanmaes and Llantwit Major before this time, but the first Nonconformist meeting house to be erected was Bethesda'r Fro in 1807.  Then came Tabernacle erected for Calvinistic Methodists in 1822.  Bethel Baptist Chapel was erected for "Particular Baptists" in 1830, and the Wesleyan Chapel was opened in 1847. The Independents met between 1815 and 1829, but became established in Ebenezer in 1855.

Catholics had no local meeting place until 1920, when Lewis Turnbull opened the chapel in the Ham for worship, and later mass was celebrated at R.A.F. St. Athan.  The Church of Our Lady and St. Illtyd was opened in 1950 and rebuilt in 1965.

Thus the tradition of worship established by St. Illtud has been continued to the present day. The celebration of 1500 years of worship has reminded the town of the importance of Christianity in its history, and the continuing significance of worship in the life of the town.

Vivian Kelly