Life of Christ - St Asaph Cathedral - Denbighshire, Wales
N 53° 15.438 W 003° 26.517
30U E 470517 N 5900984
Eglwys Gadeiriol Llanelwy - The Welsh name for the Cathedral in St Asaph. The Life of Christ stained glass window dates from 1864 in memory of Bishop and Mrs Carey. St Asaph is the episcopal seat of the Bishop of St Asaph, Church of Wales.
Waymark Code: WMP11T
Location: North Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/07/2015
Views: 2
Saint Asaph Cathedral (Eglwys Gadeiriol Llanelwy) the home of the William Morgan Bible, a historic link with Welsh culture and literature. The Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Diocese of St Asaph, one of the six dioceses of the Church of Wales.
The cathedral dates back to 560 AD, which means worship has taken place at this site for over 1,400 years.
The current cathedral building dates from the 13th century, and is the smallest ancient Cathedral in Great Britain.
"The ancient glass was destroyed during the Civil War in the 17th Century. The East window dates from 1864 in memory of Bishop and Mrs Carey. In the Chancel (north side) there is a window in memory of the poet Mrs Felicia Hemans (“The Boy stood on the burning deck”). The 20th Century West window is a memorial to the first Archbishop of Wales. The Armorial shields in the Lady Chapel (south) window represents families who assisted in the restoration of the Cathedral in the 18th Century." Text Source: (
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"Llanelwy is the Welsh name for the place called St Asaph. It means the sacred religious enclosure on the banks of the River Elwy. It is impossible to give an historically accurate account of the beginnings of Christianity in the early settlement at Llanelwy. Legend and tradition are confusingly mixed and there is no archaeological evidence or written record before the twelfth century. The legend of the founding of the church and monastery between the year c.560 and c.573 is to be found in ‘The life of St Kentigern’ written by Jocelyn, a monk of Furness Abbey c.1180. St Kentigern was the bishop of Strathclyde; he was driven into exile and founded a monastery at Llanelwy where he remained until his return to Scotland in 573. There are no local commemorations to Kentigern. St Asaph replaced him as abbot-bishop when he died in 596.
The site chosen at Llanelwy was in a perilous position being on the ‘war path’ of the Welsh Princes and English Kings. How much destruction the new building suffered in the thirteenth century is not known. Some of the early building work begun by bishop Hugh (1235-40) has survived in the gables and chamfered buttresses on the west front, the south west corner buttresses, and the walls of the early choir." Adapted from: (
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More reading on Medieval Wales & Stained Glass: (
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