Tewdrig

Holy Martyr Tewdrig (Tewdrig son of Teithfallt, in Latin Theodoricus) was a king of the post-⁠Roman kingdom of Glywysing, with lands also in Gwent. He was a patron of the church at Llandaff and known for success in battle. In old age he gave up the throne to his son Meurig and withdrew to a hermit's life at Tintern, a rocky place by a ford of the River Wye.

When the Saxons threatened the kingdom, he returned to lead the defence. He was victorious, but in a clash at the ford called Rhyd Tintern he was mortally wounded. He asked to be taken to Ynys Echni (Flat Holm) for burial but got no further than Mathern, on an inlet of the Severn estuary, where he died after a short time. King Meurig built a church on the spot, buried his father's body there and gave the surrounding land to the Bishops of Llandaff. Because he led a life of prayer and died defending a Christian kingdom against pagans, he came to be counted a martyr and a saint. The only fuller source is the twelfth-⁠century Book of Llandaff. His feast is kept on 1 April (new style, Western calendar). He is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured locally.