Fugatius and Damian

Saints Fugatius and Damian are, by tradition, missionaries sent from Rome to Britain in the second century. Fugatius is also called Fagan, and Damian Deruvian. They are commemorated on 26 May.

The legend says that the pope sent them to answer King Lucius's request to be baptized and to receive Christianity, and they are sometimes counted as the apostles of Britain. King Lucius's letter does not appear in sources older than the sixth century, and the names of the bishops sent do not occur in sources older than the early twelfth century, when the story was used to support the independence of the bishops of St Davids and the antiquity of the abbey at Glastonbury. It became widely known through Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose account is now held wholly implausible; some scholars, however, think the stories preserve a more modest memory of the conversion of a Romano-⁠British chieftain by Roman emissaries. Fagan is patron of a number of churches and gives his name to the village of St Fagans near Cardiff. His feast does not appear in any medieval Welsh calendar of the saints.