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/