Att text: Rees (1840) preserves a tradition attributing the wider Book of Llandaff to Galfrid, brother of bishop Urban, but provides no evidence that he authored the Life of Saint Clitauc. Guy (2025) does not attribute the text to a named individual, instead locating the text within an anonymous Llandaff redactional milieu that reworked earlier Clodock traditions.

Guy, B. (2025) Vita Sancti Clitauci (Liber Landavensis / Vespasian A. xiv): Introduction, manuscripts, and transcripts. Cult of Saints in Wales.
Rees, W.J. (1840) The Liber landavensis, Llyfr Teilo, or, The ancient register of the cathedral church of Llandaff. Llandovery: W. Rees.

¹ While King Clitauc, son of Clitguin, was in his kingdom keeping peace and the rigour of justice, he was made a martyr through virtue and merits and with the crown of heavenly glory together with the palm of bodily chastity. A certain maiden, the daughter of a powerful man, fell in love with him, telling those who asked her that she would marry no one but the illustrious man Clitauc. Once the girl’s answer had been heard — she refused everyone, as was her habit — one of the king’s companions, to whom the maiden’s womb was closed, swollen with an evil spirit and with the spirit of womanly passion, and taking his foundation from the dregs of recklessness and the malice of lust, on a certain day during a hunt killed the innocent King Clitauc like a meek lamb, beside the river Mingui, while he was awaiting the gathering of the huntsmen and nonetheless meditating with the utmost devotion on the words of sacred eloquence. When he was dead, his retainers and fellow-countrymen and the people of his most noble kindred began to carry the body away from the place on biers with oxen yoked to them, and to cross the ford of the Myngui. And at another part of the river the yokes of the oxen began to break apart and the oxen stood still, so that they could never move the body from that place on account of the body’s excessive heaviness, however often the bands and ropes were tied and innumerable ones broken. As though a globe of fire stood in their way, the oxen never moved a step, though the goad was applied again and again. And with everyone watching and marvelling, the body remained in the place divinely prepared for it. And at once the people gave praise to God on account of the outstanding life which they had foreseen in the holy man, and his holiness, and the end that led to the crown of martyrdom, and, after his end, the body’s miraculous lightness and secondly its excessive and immovable heaviness. And on the following night a column of fire was seen above the tomb after his burial, pleasing to God; and at once, on the counsel of the bishop of Llandaff and the clergy, an oratory was founded there and blessed with the sprinkling of water in honour of the martyr Clitauc. And from that day the place began to be venerated on account of the blessed martyr.

² One day two men from Lannerch Glas, who were at odds with one another, came and said: “Let us be reconciled and make our way to Matle, to the church of St Dubricius, and let us swear together upon his altar, so that, the gall of envy forgotten and a covenant instead joined, we may from now on always be firm friends in brotherly peace.” While they were on the road making their intended journey, one said to the other: “Let us go to that place of the martyr — that is, Clitauc’s — and to his tomb, shortening our journey while keeping to the same plan; and let us be reconciled over his mound, and confirm the peace that is to remain firm between us from now on for ever.” And when the covenant had been confirmed, one of them on the return journey, breaking the peace and violating the faith, killed the other by treachery — or rather, he killed himself, as it is said: “Whoever contrives to wound another will first strike himself with his own javelin.” And immediately, the murder done — and, as I might put it, the perjury with it — he pierced himself in the belly with his own lance, the wound leading him to destruction; his companion, I mean, had been led away to everlasting joy.

³ After an interval of time, two brothers, Lybiau and Guruann, and their sister’s son Cinuur came from the region of Pennichenn, leaving their homeland on account of a feud and choosing elsewhere to lead the hermit’s and solitary life, at the place where the body of the blessed martyr Clitauc had been laid, on the bank of the Myngui in Euias. And there they led their life, and they founded a church, improved by the counsel and help of the bishop of Llandaff. And when the whole territory on either side of the Myngui — Pennbargaut — had been given to them by King Morcannuc in everlasting consecration, without any payment to any earthly man, and with every common right given to those inhabiting and those who would inhabit the territory of the church, in field and in woods, in water and in pastures, they led out their lives to the end. And the two brothers led a chaste life, while their sister’s son begot five sons; hence the territory has always remained divided into five portions for the brothers and for their descendants and survivors for ever.

Merthir Clitauc #

¹ Iudhail son of Morcant, king of Gleuissicg, with the word of his sons Fernuail and Mouric and the consent of the hereditary tenants Iudhail and Freudur, offered to God and to Saints Dubricius, Teliaus and Oudoceus, and to the martyr Clitauc, and to Bishop Berthguinus and all the bishops of Llandaff, the whole territory of Merthir Clitauc, just as it had most fittingly been given to the martyr Clitauc and the three hermits Libiau, Guruan and Cinuur, the first inhabitants and cultivators of that place after the martyrdom of the martyr Clitauc, and with all its liberty and every common right given to the inhabitants and those who will dwell there, in field and in woods, in water and in pastures, and without any payment, great or small, to any earthly man except the church of Llandaff and its pastors in perpetuity, and like an island set in the sea, free from every service and without an heir except at the will and for the use of the bishop of Llandaff and the canons of the same church, and with refuge given at the fugitive’s wish without limit: for as long as he should wish to remain, he shall remain safe under its asylum, as if he were within the protection of Llandaff. Of the clergy the witnesses are: Bishop Berthguinus; Dagan, abbot of Caruani Vallis; Elgoid, abbot of Ilduti; Saturn, abbot of Docunni; Iouan; Guorcuiidh; Heliguid; Ili. Of the laity: King Iudhail; his sons Fernuail and Mouric; the hereditary tenants Iudhail and Freudur; Elfin; Mabsu; Conuc; Gaudbiu; Gundon; Eudom; Guaidnerth. Whoever would protect it, may God protect him. But whoever separates it from the church of Llandaff, let him be anathema. Amen. Its boundary is: the stone in Guoun Breith. Along the ridge as far as Rui i Curum, to the stone on the ridge of the hill. Along a ridge upwards as far as the stones opposite Nant Trineint. Downwards along it as far as the Elchon. Downwards along it as far as Ynys Alarun at its top end, to Main Tillauc, to the hillock, to the other hillock, to the Mynui. Through the Mynugui to the mouth of Nant Cum Cinreith. Along the stream as far as Minid Ferdun on the hillside. Along Minid Ferdun to Luch Ferdun. Along the mountain as far as the source of the Hilin. Along the Hilin as far as the Mingui. Along the Mingui downwards as far as the mouth of Finhaun Bist, as far as its source. From its source to the ridge. Straight upwards to make for Guoun Breith on the ridge of the mountain, as far as the stone where it began.

² Iudhail son of Edeluirth, a certain powerful man in Eugias, coming with his wife to St Clitauc’s on the Lord’s day to hear the divine service, was moved by devilish suggestion and the goad of lust to lie with his wife in a certain meadow on the bank of the Mingui. And so it was that, in that same act of intercourse, when he wished to be separated once the sin had been committed, he could in no way be parted; rather, he remained inseparably joined to his wife. And he cried out in a loud voice and said to his companions: “Go to the tomb of the martyr Clitauc and, on my behalf, place upon the holy altar of Clitauc this meadow, which I unjustly seized from him by force, laying your joined hands in pledge upon it, as when a gift is given, upon the four gospels placed there beforehand, and so proclaiming it free and quit of every lay service from now on except only daily prayer; and with a greeting sent from me to the clerics of the church, let them pray earnestly to God for me, so that by the martyr’s intercession and their prayer I may swiftly be delivered from this intolerable sin and horrible bond alike.” And at once, the alms having been made and rendered together with a promise to amend his life henceforth in fasting, prayer and almsgiving, he was separated from the troublesome union in the sight of all the people, giving praises and thanks to God for so welcome a deliverance. And what he had earlier done through his envoys, he now did himself in person once made whole, laying his own hands upon the altar of the martyr and confirming it with the holy gospels set before him, and by the word of the kings of Morcanhuc and the counsel of the princes, free and without any claim, for Saints Dubricius, Teliaus and Oudoceus, for the martyr Clitauc and for all the bishops of Llandaff, in perpetuity.

³ The sons of Cinbleidiou offered Lech Luit to the martyr Clitauc and the church of Llandaff. The boundary of Lechou Lition: the Mingui on one side and within the two streams. The boundary of Lennic: within the Myngui and the Mingui as far as their confluence. Lech Eneuris on the other side towards the northern region.