Tyfai

Saint Tyfai the Martyr is a Welsh saint of the undivided Church. According to the Life of Saint Oudoceus he was the son of Budic of Armorican Cornouaille and of Anauved, sister of Saint Teilo, and was born in Dyfed. He was a brother of Saints Ismael and Oudoceus. The Life of Teilo says that he was first a disciple of Saint Dubricius and then joined Teilo when the latter returned from Brittany after the Yellow Plague.

The Book of Llan Ddv tells of his death differently. As a child at Penally in Pembrokeshire he rushed between a swineherd and Tutuc, a wealthy man in a fury, who was about to strike the serf with his lance. The lance pierced the child and he fell dead. King Aircol Lawhir intervened: Tutuc gave Teilo two villages, Ciltutuc and Penclecir, and went himself into perpetual servitude. Tyfai was buried at Penally.

The churches of Lamphey in Pembrokeshire and of Llandyfeisant near Llandeilo Fawr are dedicated to him, and by some reckonings so is Foy on the Wye in Herefordshire. Baring-⁠Gould remarks that the two accounts of him do not fit together easily.