Tysilio

 ( People From Powys ) 

Saint Tysilio (also known as/confused with Saint Suliac; ; died 640 AD) was a Welsh people bishop, prince and scholar.

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Sources The 12th century poet Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr wrote "An Ode to Tysilio". Owen, Ann Parry. "Canu Tysilio", National Library of Wales There is a genealogy of Tysilio in the Bonedd y Saint, and he is mentioned in the 14th century vita of Beuno.

Although there is no extent vita of Tysilio, apparently in the 15th century some Bretons clerics used details from the life of Tysilio to construct a legenda for their own Saint-Suliac. Brett, Caroline et al., Brittany and the Atlantic Archipelago, 450–1200: Contact, Myth and History, Cambridge University Press, 2021, p. 267 Thus, they indirectly preserved some information regarding Tysilio (and also caused some confusion between the two). Bowen, E. G., "Tysilio, a 7th century Celtic saint". Dictionary of Welsh Biography, (1959)

"Suliau" has been used an alternate variation for Tysilio and has sometimes led to his being confused with the Cornish saint Saint Sulien.

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Life Tyslio was the second son of the reigning King of Powys, Brochwel Ysgithrog, "Llandysilio - St. Tysilio's Church, Anglesey History. and the maternal nephew of the great Saint Dunod of Bangor-on-Dee. He took part in the affairs of Wales during the distressful period at the opening of the 7th century.

Tysilio probably started his career in Trallwng Llywelyn (Welshpool) and afterwards took up residence in Meifod where he studied under Gwyddfarch.Rees, Elizabeth. Celtic Sites and Their Saints: A Guidebook (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2003), p. 121.

Around 630, Tysilio moved to an island in the Menai Strait, (now called Ynys Tysilio, where he established a hermitage, and preached throughout Anglesey for the next seven years. He then returned to Meifod, where he talked the aging abbot out of making a pilgrimage to Rome. Baring-Gould, Sabine. A Book of North Wales(Library of Alexandria, 2016) Eventually, Tysilio succeeded Gwyddfarch as abbot.

King Brochwel, who was fond of hunting, spent his summers in the Vale of Meifod. On his visits to Mathrafal, he often visited the shrine of Saint Gwyddfarch. Brochwel bestowed the bishopric of that part of his kingdom on his son, Tysilio.

He founded the second church in Meifod—the Eglwys Tysilio. His feast day, or gwyl-mabsant, was 8 November which was also the date of the patronal festival and "wakes" in the nearby parish of Guilsfield, where a holy well was dedicated to him—the Fons Tysilio.

Tysilio is traditionally said to be the original author of the Brut Tysilio, a variant of the Welsh chronicle Brut y Brenhinedd,Brynley F. Roberts, Brut y Brenhinedd, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1971, pp. xxiv-xxxi although Brynley F. Roberts has demonstrated that the Brut Tysilio originated around 1500 as an "amalgam" of earlier versions of the Brut y Brenhinedd, which itself derives from Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century Latin Historia Regum Britanniae.

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Place names Today Tysilio's name is remembered in several church and place names in Wales, including Llandysilio in Powys, Llandissilio in Pembrokeshire, Llandysiliogogo in Ceredigion and Llantysilio in Denbighshire with Llantysilio Hall, a Grade II listed building.

It appears in the longest place name in the United Kingdom, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll llantysiliogogogoch, part of which (shown bold here) means "the Church of St. Tysilio". That name, however, is a late 19th-century invention for the burgeoning tourist industry in the area.

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Bibliography

• Roberts, Brynley F. (ed.). Brut y Brenhinedd (Llanstephan MS 1), Brut y Brenhinedd. Llanstephan MS. 1 version. Selections. Mediaeval and Modern Welsh series 5. Dublin, 1971. Extracts and discussion.
• Simpson Jones, T. and Owen, R. (1901), "A History of the Parish of Guilsfield (Cedigva)", Montgomery Collections; 31, 129–200.

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Further reading

Categories: People From Powys, Welsh Princes, Welsh Royal Saints, 640 Deaths, Year Of Birth Unknown

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