Every year I like to post an entry about St Dwynwen’s – the Welsh patron saint of friendship and love. January the 25th is the feast day of Saint Dwynwen the Welsh equivalent of the more popular St Valentine.

A few years ago you would not hear much about St Dwynwen’s Day in Wales with the exception of a few cards on sale in a few specialist Welsh shops, the high street retailers preferring to focus on the more profitable Valentines cards. That was actually a good thing as you could buy flowers, chocolates and go out for meals on the 25th January and not have to pay “Valentine” prices.
I have posted the story of St Dwynwen before on the site but think it is appropriate to add it to this post.

Dwynwen lived during the 5th century and was, by all accounts, one of the prettiest of Brychan Brycheiniog's 24 daughters. (Obviously before the days of TV)

The story goes that Dwynwen fell in love with one Maelon Dafodrill, but unfortunately her father had already arranged that she should wed another. Maelon was so outraged that he raped Dwynwen and left her.

In her grief Dwynwen fled to the woods, where she begged God to make her forget Maelon. After falling asleep, Dwynwen was visited by an angel, who appeared carrying a sweet potion designed to erase all memory of Maelon and turn him into a block of ice.
God then gave three wishes to Dwynwen. First she wished that Maelon be thawed; second that God meet the hopes and dreams of true lovers; and third, that she should never marry.

All three were fulfilled, and as a mark of her thanks, Dwynwen devoted herself to God's service for the rest of her life.
Remains of Dwynwen's church can be seen today on the island of Llanddwyn, off the coast of Anglesey. (North Wales)

Also situated on the island is Dwynwen's well, wherein allegedly swims a sacred fish, whose movements predict the future fortunes and relationships of various couples. Visitors to the well believe that if the water boils while they are present, then love and good luck will surely follow.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.