Merthyr. The beautiful Victorian church of St Martin and St Enfail in the old parish of Merthyr near Carmarthen is keeping alive a Christian tradition unbroken since the days of saints and martyrs. A Dark Age settlement became the site of a mediaeval, monastic outpost and, for more than 480 years, a thriving  parish church.  Merthyr is part of the Brosanclêr Local Ministry Area in the St Davids Diocese of the Church in Wales. All services are bilingual. Everyone is welcome.

Services in December 2024

1st December, Advent 1, 11.15am Morning Prayer.

8th December, Advent 2, 11.15am Holy Eucharist.

15th December, Advent 3, 9.45am, Holy Eucharist.

22nd December, Advent 4, 3pm, Carol Service.

24th December, Christmas Eve, 8pm, Holy Eucharist.

Our Bishop Parry Bible dating from 1620.

Vestry cupboard hid ‘precious’ Welsh Bible forgotten after 400 years. 

A Bible printed in 1620, one of the first to be produced in Welsh, has been discovered by chance in a vestry cupboard in St Martin and St Enfail’s.

Mari James, Library Development Officer at St Davids Cathedral describes the Bible as ‘quite a treasure’ and ‘a precious part of west Wales’ history of Christian worship’.

Archdeacon, now Bishop Dorrien Davies, personally delivered the Bible to the Cathedral Library for expert examination after former churchwarden Huw Evans found it forgotten and unrecognised among candles, communion wine and linen in the back of the cupboard. 

Copies of the Bible, known as the Bishop Parry version, were distributed to all churches in Wales to comply with Queen Elizabeth the First’s instruction that everyone should be able to read the Scriptures in their own language. This was the main Reformation project in Wales, intended to consolidate Protestantism. The volume was based on the 1588 translation by William Morgan, Bishop of Llandaff and St Asaph. The Old Testament was translated directly from the original Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek. Some of the work was carried out in St Davids. 

Mari James says the Bible is large and heavy because it was designed to be set up on a lectern or pulpit.

She says, ‘It must have been an exciting moment for congregations to hear the Bible read to them in a language they could understand, rather than in Latin’.

These developments led to an upsurge in literacy and education, pioneered in Wales by social and religious reformer John Vaughan of Derllys in Merthyr. Another link with John Vaughan and his celebrated daughter Madam Bevan is a Welsh Book of Common Prayer dating from 1710 in the reign of King George the First.  A total of five historic books found languishing in the same vestry cupboard are in the Cathedral Library for examination pending restoration. They include a 1770 Bible printed by Peter Williams in Lammas Street, Carmarthen.  This was one of the first Welsh Bibles to be printed in Wales rather than London, Oxford or Cambridge. 

A rare Welsh book of Common Prayer discovered in the vestry cupboard. This 1710 version was commissioned and authorised by the Bishops of St Davids, St Asaph, Llandaff, Bangor and Hereford. 

Our Romano-British stone features prominently in 'Time to Tell. St Davids Diocese in 100 objects'. The book provides a chronological snapshot of approximately 1600 years of Christian worship through 100 objects in the Diocese of St Davids. The author, the Revd Dr Caroline Jones  is Diocesan Officer for the Year of Pilgrimage in 2023. This is what she says:

'The Romano-British carved boulder is kept just inside the porch. It was found under several meters of soil when workmen were digging the foundations for the replacement church. Luckily the men realised its significance and it has been preserved for posterity. It is an inscribed grave marker very possibly for an early Welsh Chieftain such as Cadwr ap Ednyfed ap Macsen or Cadwr ap Bernach. The Welsh archaeologist Victor Erle Nash-Williams dated the stone to the 5" century. Donald Moore in Monuments of Early Christianity in Wales says that there are several hundred ancient inscribed stones like this one scattered across Wales. The proliferation of Christian pilgrimage at that time caused an increase in sea crossings from Brittany, Ireland and Cornwall to and from Wales which led to a sharing of Christian doctrine, culture and practices, and these ancient stones share many common features such as their size and the way they have been inscribed with Latin minuscules that record certain genealogical references in a kind of Brythonic shorthand. This inscription is typically enigmatic. It reads;

CATURGI FILI LOVERNACI. The philologist John Rhys has translated this to mean ONE WHO DELIGHTS IN BATTLE, THE SON OF HIM WHO ABOUNDS IN FOXES.

The stone is a good size and heavy. There are few clues about the sort of people who used it as a grave marker but we do know they chose durable dolerite that had to be axe-hewn into this particular shape. Then a literate person had to compose a memorial verse which was then inscribed onto the stone. The Latin line of text informs us the man had been a keen warrior who may have died in battle. The second part of the inscription is equally enigmatic, having a connection to the deceased's father and foxes. No one actually knows what this inference means. But, in Luke's Gospel Jesus refers to Herod, the Roman tetrarch of Galilee, as 'that fox'.  And in that specific context (Luke 13:32) it was used to insult  Herod's questionable bloodline rather than his slyness. Old Testament tests occasionally allude to foxes as sly, destructive and unclean, but on this stone the word is qualified by the verb 'abounds'.  So perhaps the unknown warrior's father was part of a group of men who were clever at evasion tactics in batle and for that likened to foxes. Brythonic people revered foxes as a wildlife species because of that specific skill as well as recognising them as highly intelligent animals.

Notably there is no cross on the stone. Crucifixion, as a torturous method of Roman execution had only ceased a century earlier, and so in those nascent Christian communities the symbol was not used'.

'Time to Tell. St Davids Diocese in 100 Objects' is available for £30 direct from the author, Revd Dr Caroline Jones on 07530 959547 (call or text) or caroline.jones08@btinternet.com The book is also for sale in St Davids Cathedral, The Ivy Bush  Royal Hotel, Carmarthen (ask at desk) and Carmarthenshire Museum, Abergwili. 

John Vaughan 'a Saint'

John Vaughan of Derllys deserves to be recognised as a saint, according to a former Bishop of St Davids.  The Rt Revd Wyn Evans believes the pioneer of free education should be commemorated with a special day in the Church Calendar.  Bishop Wyn was speaking at a service to mark the 300th anniversary of John Vaughan's death on November 16th 1722. The full text of the Bishop's sermon is on our John Vaughan page.