Cadoc, St.

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Cadoc, St. A leading 6th-cent. Welsh scholar. Trained by an Irish monk in Wales, he sought further instruction in Ireland, allegedly under Mochuta, abbot of Lismore, returning to study rhetoric at Llanspyddyd. His principal foundation at Llancarfan became a centre of religious and literary learning. Cadoc is known for his use of didactic aphorisms (e.g. ‘conscience is the eye of God in the soul of man’), possibly reflected in a 17th-cent. collection of early Welsh sayings entitled ‘The Wisdom of Cadoc’. An 11th-cent. biographer claims travels and foundations in Scotland, Cornwall, and Brittany. Cadoc's reported martyrdom in Italy is doubted.

Audrey MacDonald