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Unlike
sites chosen by many hermits, Illtud's monastery had good
communications and fertile agricultural land. Assuming it
occupied the site of the present church it was located in
the valley of the Ogney ( a corruption of Hodnant) stream, a
tributary of the Colhugh river.
Here the broad open basin provided good farmland as well as
shelter from westerly gales. Only two miles away was the
coast, and the small port of Colhugh (destroyed by a storm
in the 16th century).
The actual site had the
advantage that whilst being close to the coast, the bend in
the valley made it invisible from the sea and the pirates
who periodically raided this coast. Illtud (Breton:
Ildut) went to Brittany and many sites are linked with him.
His cult is very ancient and he has always been greatly
honoured. |
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In the ossary of Sizun parish are two statues of Illtud, one
coming from the now disused church of Locildut (where there
is a well of Iltut in the churchyard). The earlier dates
from the 16th century and is very primitive in design.
Both statues of Illtud show him in the robes of a Medieval
abbot holding a book. Some legends say he died here. The
church at Landebaeron claims that the skull contained in its
silver reliquary is that of St. Ildut, as recorded in a
parish inventory of 1683.
The most reliable information we have about Illtud comes
from the Life of St. Samson, written a century after Illtud's
death, and a very important early source about the spread of
the Celtic Church. Mention is also found of Illtud in the
Lives of other of his disciples, especially the 9th century
life of St. Gildas. |
