Cynllo

Saint Cynllo is a British saint of Wales who lived in the late fifth and early sixth centuries. He is generally described as a brother of Saint Teilo. He was known for the sanctity of his life and the austerity of his manners.

The genealogy Bonedd y Saint calls him the son of Usyllt and the brother of Teilo, and later genealogies make him a grandson of Coel Hen. The title "Cynllo Vrenin" (Cynllo the King) suggests that he held his ancestral dominions before devoting himself to the religious life. The imprints of his knees, made as he said his devotions, are said to be seen in a rock near the farm of Felin Gynllo, close to Llangoedmor in Ceredigion. A medieval Welsh poem attributed to the infant Taliesin says, "The prayer of Cynllo will not be in vain."

Several churches in Wales bear his name, among them those at Nantmel and Llangynllo in Radnorshire (now Powys), and near the church of Llanbister there was a spring called Pistyll Cynllo. He was so popular that at Rhayader the locals went on keeping his feast even after the Normans changed the dedication of the church. By the fifteenth century his day had been set at 17 July; Baring-⁠Gould, following a sixteenth-⁠century manuscript, gives 8 August. He is commemorated on 17 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.