Asaph of Llanelwy

Saint Asaph was a Welsh bishop, traditionally the first bishop of the diocese of Saint Asaph in Wales, and fell asleep on 1 May 596. He is venerated in the Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Churches, in the last on the third Sunday after Pentecost, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Britain and Ireland. His memory in the Roman Martyrology is on 1 May, and in the calendar for Wales on 5 May.

Beginnings

There is no Welsh Life of Asaph, but he is well attested through place names. Local tradition points to many places linked with him: his ash tree, his church, his well and his valley. Many names bear "asa": Onnen Asa, Ffynnon Asa, Llanasa, Pantasa, all near Holywell in Tegeingl in Flintshire, which suggests that he may once have had a hermitage there. He is regarded as founder of the church of Llanasa. According to the Bonedd y Saint he was a son of King Sawyl Penuchel of the Old North, and his mother was Gwenaseth, daughter of Rhufon of Rhufoniog.

Disciple of Saint Kentigern

The want of a Welsh Life is made up in part by the Life of Saint Kentigern by Jocelyn of Furness, of 1185, about Kentigern, called also Mungo, founder of the diocese of Glasgow. In his exile, around 545, Kentigern came to Wales and founded there the Celtic monastery of Llanelwy, "the church on the river Elwy", as the Welsh still call the city of Saint Asaph. It is among the best documented Celtic monasteries: the church was said to be built "of smoothed wood, after the fashion of the Britons, seeing that they could not yet build of stone". The 965 disciples, among them Asaph, were divided in three: 300 unlettered farmed the outlying lands, 300 did the offices around the monastery, and 365, the number of the days of the year, attended to the divine services. Of these the oldest assisted Kentigern in governing the diocese, and the rest were in three choirs: "As soon as one choir had ended its service in church, another entered and began it; and when that ended, another entered." Kentigern often prayed standing in the icy river. Once, suffering greatly, he sent Asaph, then a boy attending him, to bring a blazing brand to warm him. Asaph brought live coals in his apron, and the miracle revealed to Kentigern the holiness of his disciple.

Bishop

When the old man was recalled to Strathclyde, after the battle of Arfderydd, in 573, Asaph was consecrated bishop in his place and was the first Welsh bishop of the see. He is said to have died in 596. In 2004 the Roman Martyrology calls him simply "bishop and abbot of Elwy in Wales, after whom the see is named". Several streets in different countries bear his name, and a hymn tune of 1825 is called "St Asaph".