April 13th. St. Caradoc.

This Welsh saint (died 1124) was a native of Brecon. As a young man he served at the court of Rhys, prince of South Wales, one of the Tewdwr (Tudor) family, as a harp-player. This story goes that one day he was responsible for losing the prince's favourite greyhounds, and was dismissed. Taking his lance, he broke off the end, so - as Isaiah says - turning his sword into a ploughshare, for he made of the remainder a walking-stick with which he made his way to the service of the Bishop at Llandaff (now in the outskirts of Cardiff). He was to live a hermit's life, firstly in the Gower peninsula near Swansea, then at the place now known as St. David's (where he was ordained priest) and finally on an island off the Pembroke coast. On his death he was buried in St. David's Cathedral; bones there traditionally believed to be those of St. David and recently investigated are now believe to be those of St. Caradoc. He was never formally canonised, despite a plea to Rome by the famous chronicler Gerald of Wales, but in the popular mind he was regarded as a saint certainly from the early 13th. century onwards.