蜜芽传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with the Reverend Doctor Stephen Wigley.

Today is the Feast day of the seventh Century Welsh saint, St Curig of Llanbadarn. There are a number of famous Welsh saints but it鈥檚 fair to say that Curig is not one of them, and there is little definitively known about his life. One story is that he was a warrior with the Welsh prince Maelgwn Gwynedd who converted to Christianity, and when challenged caused Maelgwn and his men to go blind until he was given land and settled at Eisteddfa Gurig, Curig鈥檚 seat, just a few miles inland from Aberystwyth. This piqued my interest because we lived for a while in Aberystwyth and I used to drive past Eisteddfa Gurig, and the larger village of Llangurig when going to and from Aberystwyth.

We don鈥檛 know a lot about Curig, but we do know that his name and influence travelled across Wales. As well as the ancient Church at Llangurig, there are other churches which bear his name, at Capel Curig, north Snowdonia, and Porthkerry, south in the Vale of Glamorgan. We know that he was associated with healing miracles, and Gerald of Wales in his Journey through Wales , mentions a gilt covered staff with healing properties which once belonged to Curig; and more recently, there is a Welsh language school in Barry dedicated to him. So although we don鈥檛 know a huge amount about Curig, we do know that his influence travelled widely and left a mark on the landscape of Wales, that he was associated with healing miracles, and that he is remembered to this day as a patron of education. And maybe that鈥檚 not a bad record, even a source of encouragement to the rest of us, who know that being a lesser-known saint is perhaps something we can reasonably aspire to.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life and witness of St. Curig; we ask that his example may encourage us in finding our own calling among the lesser-known saints of your Kingdom.

Amen.