CADOC was son to Gundleus, a prince of South Wales, by his wife Gladusa,
daughter of Braghan, whose name wax given to the province now called
Brecknockshire. His parents were not less ennobled by their virtues than
by their blood, and his father, who some years before his death
renouncing the world, led an eremitical life near a country church which
he had built, was honored in Wales among the saints. Cadoc, who was his
eldest son, succeeded in the government, but not long after followed his
father's example; and embracing a religious life, put himself under the
direction of St. Tathai, an Irish monk, who had opened a famous school
at Gwen{t}, the ancient Venta Silurum of the Romans, afterwards a
bishop's see, now in ruins in Monmouthshire. Our saint made such
progress both in learning and virtue, that when he returned into
Glamorganshire, his own country, he spread on every side the rays of his
wisdom and sanctity. Here, three miles from Cowbridge, he built a church
and a monastery, which was called Llan-carvan, or the Church of Stags,
and sometimes Nancarvan, that is, the Vale of Stags. The school which he
established in this place became most illustrious, and fruitful in great
and holy men. By our saint's persuasion St. Iltut renounced the court
and the world, and learned at Llan-carvan that science which he
preferred to all worldly treasures. He afterwards founded the great
monastery of Llan-Iltut. These two monasteries and that of St. Docuinus,
all situated in the diocese of Landaff, were very famous for many ages,
and were often governed by abbots of great eminence. St. Gildas, after
his return from Ireland, entered the monastery of St. Cadoc, where he
taught for one year, and copied a book of the gospels, which was long
preserved with great care in the church of St. Cadoc, and highly
reverenced by the Welsh, who used it in their most solemn oaths and
covenants. After spending there one year, St. Gildas and St. Cadoc left
Llan-carvan, being desirous to live in closer retirement. They hid
themselves first in the islands of Ronech and Echni. An ancient life of
St. Cadoc tells us, that he died at Benevenna, which is the {216} Roman
name of a place now called Wedon, in Northamptonshire. Some moderns take
it for Benevento, in Italy, where they suppose him to have died.
Chatelain imagines this St. Cadoc to be the same who is honored at
Rennes, under the name of Cadoc, or Caduad, and from whom a small island
on the coast of Vennes is called Enes-Caduad. St. Cadoc flourished in
the beginning of the sixth century, and was succeeded in the abbacy of
Llan-carvan, by Ellenius, "an excellent disciple of an excellent
master," says Leland. See the Acts of St. Cadoc, in Capgrave; Usher's
Antiquities, c. 13, p. 252. Chatelain's Notes on the. Martyr. p. 399.