Saint Dogmael - Wooden Sculpture - Pembrokeshire, Wales. - Outside Wooden Display Carvings on Waymarking.com

Saint Dogmael - Wooden Sculpture - Located in the Village with two names, St Dogmaels or Llandudoch, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.

There is a small brass plaque at the base of the Wooden pillar which has a bilingual inscription in Welsh & English, as follows:

"THIS STATUE OF ST DOGMAEL
WAS COMMISSIONED BY IAN GOLLOP,
TO COMMEMORATE THE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF
HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II
ON JUNE 2ND 2002
SCULPTED BY JOHN CLARKE"

From the Catholic online website:
"Saint Dogmael was a Welsh Monk of the House of Cunedda, he preached in Pembrokeshire, & then Brittany, Several churches in Wales & France are named after him." Text Source:
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"This triad of themes find a connection to a memorial space I encountered last year when I visited St Dogmael’s Abbey, Pembrokeshire. As well as exploring the abbey and adjacent churchyard, I encountered a very distinctive memorial space. The focus of the memorial area, between the lane and a house behind, adjacent to the duckpond and the small car park for the Visitor Centre and abbey ruins, is a stone circular platform. To its left, is a tripartite memorial.
The first part is a wood carved pillar loosely inspired by early medieval sculpted stone crosses of the 10th to 11th centuries like those from Nevern and Carew but perhaps given its fall pillar-like form, Llanbadarn Fawr.

I’m intrigued by the personal naming of the commissioner, since this in itself reflects the formula of early medieval stone monuments like the Pillar of Eliseg. This St Dogmael’s memorial is like the early medieval monuments that inspired it, as much about who commissioned it as what the memorial commemorates. This is a memorial commemorating an early Welsh saint, situated adjacent to the Tironian abbey that bore his name, that commemorates the reigning monarch. Founding saints and royal anniversaries are a powerful commemorative combination linking early times to present concerns and legitimising the latter through the former. The same kind of transtemporality is exhibited here as I have argued for the Pillar of Eliseg!

This leads us to the sculpture to the right of the pillar, of which the pillar is presumably illustrative of early Christian memorials and is intended to be read as companion or backdrop to the anthropomorphic sculpture of a bearded man in monkish apparel. The figure looks serious, determined but rather anonymous: he could be anyone. Given we know so little about St Dogmael, that is probably for the best. Anonymity through generic Christian symbols and dress are a common theme in modern representations of early Christian saints.

To the left of the sculpture and pillar there is a slate tablet, inscribed with Welsh first, English below. This is also a memorial linking place to UK royalty, for it is commemorating the visit of the Price of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall on 3rd July 2006 to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday." Text Source:
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Great Photo: (visit link)

Type of wood carving: Combination of carving tools Artist's Name: John Clarke Approximate size/height: 7 feet Type of wood: unknown Other type: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
All logs must be the result of an actual visit to the wooden carving.
"Visited" only remarks will not be accepted.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   10/15/2016 veritas vita visited it