Derfel Gadarn

Saint Derfel Gadarn (Derfel the Mighty) was a Welsh warrior who became a monk in the sixth century. Local legend holds that he was a warrior of King Arthur. By old Welsh tradition he was related to Hywel, the legendary king of Brittany, a brother of Tudwal and Arthfael and a cousin of Saint Cadfan. Reputedly born around 466, he was one of the seven warriors of Arthur who survived the battle of Camlan, surviving by his strength alone.

After Camlan, Welsh tradition holds that he entered the religious life, perhaps after a time as a wandering hermit, at the monastery of Llantwit. He is linked with Llandderfel in Gwynedd, named after him and said to have been founded by him. He is also said to have been abbot of Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), succeeding his cousin Cadfan, and to have died of natural causes on 6 April 560.

For centuries he was venerated at Llanfihangel Llantarnam, which claimed a relic of him, and at Saint Derfel's church at Llandderfel, which had a wooden image of him, depicting him as a warrior in full armour on horseback. In the English Reformation the image was removed by order of Thomas Cromwell and, the story goes, was used in 1536 at Smithfield in London to burn the Franciscan friar John Forest. The horse of the statue survives at Llandderfel. He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 5 April (new style; 18 April in the old style).