Gwyddalus

Gwyddalus is the name of a saint preserved in Cardiganshire, with an uncertain history. At Llanwyddalus, in the parish of Dihewyd, there stood a church or chapel dedicated to Gwyddalus (Gwyddalys), known for a great fair held on 26 April (old style), later on 9 May.

Some regard him as a Welsh saint, but Browne Willis, Meyrick and others see in the name the Welsh form of Vitalis, whose commemoration they give on 28 April, and identify him with the martyr Vitalis of Ravenna, killed in the second century together with his wife Valeria. Baring-⁠Gould doubts this: he would hardly expect a rather obscure Roman saint to be honoured in Cardiganshire, and the name Vitalis could not have taken the form Gwyddalus in Welsh. The identification is nevertheless at least as old as the sixteenth century, and the church of Dihewyd is still given today as dedicated to Saint Vitalis.