Darvellgadern

The name of a wooden image of Saint Derfel in the diocese of St. Asaph in the Principality of Wales, which was the object of daily pilgrimage before the Reformation. Darfael or Derfel Gadarn was a sixth-century British monk, the son of Hywel Mawr ab Emyr Llday, and a warrior of great might and prowess. In local legends he was one of Arthur's warriors, one of the six who survived the Battle of Camlann. He is regarded as a saint and is the patron of Llandderfel, Gwynedd.

The veneration of the image is mentioned by Hall the Chronicler, and also in a letter from Ellis Price to Secretary Cromwell, dated 6th April 1538. There appears from Hall to have been a prophecy current that the image should set a whole forest on fire; and this was supposedly fulfilled when the image was burned in Smithfield with a friar so named (John Forest), in May 1538. The image was held in great veneration by the Welsh.

A passage from Michael Wodde's Dialogues between two neighbours (1554) reads: If the Welchman wold have a pursse, he praied to Darvel Gatherne.

❧