Earliest Found MADOCS in
History
The
Madoc name first appeared in Wales with mention of St. Madoc who lived in the 3rd
or 4th century AD. St. Madoc
was a Culdee, a mystic group in today’s England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland,
who claimed to have been organized by disciples of the Apostle John. These disciples had fled anti-Christian
Romans and apparently mixed their Christinaity with Druidism. Church historian, Eusebius (264-340),
referred to Christians in Britain.
The second
known Madoc was St. Madoc/Maidoc, born about 525 AD. His father was Gildas, the famous Welsh monk, prophet and
historian who wrote De Excidio Britanniae on the Roman
invasion and Anglo-Saxon conquest. In
Brittany, he founded Gildas Monastary near Vannes. Gildas was buried in Glastonbury Abby Ireland. St. Madoc
is reported to have been the founder of St. Madoc’s Church in Llanmadoc,
Wales (see photo above). See also http://www.the-gower.com/placesofworship/Church/llanmadoc/llanmadoc.htm
for more. Also http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/swanbrec/churches/gower/5824.html Llanmadoc is a town in Swansea County,
formerly part of Glamorgan County, Wales.
The
third known Maedoc (also spelled Moedhog, Mogue, Aeddan Foeddog, Aidus, and
Hugh) was born about 558 in Brackley Lough, County Caven, Ireland. He was the son of Sedna, a chieftain of
Connaught. In his youth he went to
Wales and became a pupil of St. David, the Patron Saint of Wales. In later years he returned to Ireland where
he founded several monasteries at Brentrocht in Leinstar. The most famous was Ferms built on land
given him by Brandubh, King of Leinster, where he was made bishop about
598. He died in 626.
St.
David lived in Dyfed near the sea.
That area encompassed the counties of Carnarvonshire, Cardiganshire and
Pembrokeshire, which was re-united in the 20th century to once again
be called Dyfed. Today there is a
church on the location where his monastery was and where Maedoc sat at his
feet. See http://www.stdavidscathedral.org.uk/