Tudno

Saint Tudno was a Welsh saint of the sixth century, the patron of Llandudno (whose name comes from his) and the founder of the original parish church on the Great Orme peninsula.

He is said to have been one of the seven sons of King Seithenyn, whose legendary kingdom, Cantref y Gwaelod in Cardigan Bay, was swallowed by the sea. According to one tradition, Tudno studied at Saint Dunawd's college in the monastery of Bangor Iscoed, to make amends by his own life for his father's fault.

Seeking a place to live the religious life, he came to the limestone headland of the Great Orme to bring the Christian message to its people. At first he lived as a hermit in a small cave by the shore, Ogof Llech, which had a spring, Ffynnon Llech, and from there he built a church. Nothing remains of the sixth-⁠century church, but the present twelfth-⁠century church stands on the same site and has been in continuous use. Its patronal festival is still kept on 5 June, the day on which he is also commemorated in the Orthodox calendar, as a saint of the West before the Great Schism (a saint of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.