Cuckoo for the 7th April

Courtesy of Countryfile

A story associated with Saint Brynach is about the cuckoo, and of course birds are very much a part of the druidic Celtic religion of the Iron Age,  that first call in mid April that we still look forward to was still coming all the way from Africa hundreds of years ago, perhaps it also came at the time when the prehistoric stones were raised and the stone people would here its famous cry on the wind.

 The story of Brynach's feast day was that on the 7th April, this was the  day  the cuckoo would fly back and perch on the great Celtic cross at Nevern Church and this would be the signal for the priest to say mass. 

But one year it was late, and everyone waited patiently for several hours to appear, when it eventually appeared the poor bird was so exhausted after its long flight that it dropped down dead. According to the legend it had battled its way through storms to reach the church because it knew it could not fail its ancestors who had the honour of starting mass on St.Brynach's day.

10th Century Celtic Cross at Nevern.  Wiki attrib.

Saint Brynach (d.c.570 AD) Was an interesting person.  Irish by birth, he was chaplain to a warlord King Brychan but the daughter of a ruling nobleman seems to have fallen in love with Brynach and tried to seduce him with a love potion of wolfbane and he fled, so she sent men after him to kill him and he fled the country.

But he must have been a handsome fellow because when he eventually arrived in Pembrokeshire he was met by "propositioning" women and just to tell another portion of his story a portable stone altar.

It is said that he sailed to Milford Haven on a 'stone', so perhaps rather than taking this literally, he would have had his stone altar in the boat.

He is mentioned in many Welsh churches, the names roll off the tongue descriptively as they name the landscape.

Cym-yr-Eglywers (Valley of the Church), which is just above the Gwaun valley.  The church is now ruined but it was here that St.Brynach was said to talk to angels in the prehistoric fort on  Carn Ingli (Rock of Angels).

There seems to be another church in this area dedicated to him in Pontfaen.  According to his 'Life' he seems to have fled from here chased by evil spirits (women again?) to Nevern.

In fact he had many churches named after him, and as Pembrokeshire is alive with prehistoric history so this 6th century saint stirred up many stories of his own.  I am quite sure that the history of Pembrokeshire is a fascinating story of a Christian religion that chased across the prehistoric monuments as the so called saints tried to stamp out paganism.  

The dear old cuckoo story was related in medieval times by George Owen.