The glory of mid-Wales is without doubt the remote church of Pennant Melangell in a valley in the Berwyn mountains in Denbighshire. Here is the shrine of St Melangell (Monacella) another royal virgin fleeing a suitor.
Her ‘cell y bedd’ (the cell of the grave) can still be seen in the apse; before it now stands the truly awesome restored shrine, pieced together from the fragments reused after the Reformation for walls. Bones found under the floor of the ‘cell y bedd’ are now in the casket within the shrine. An effigy of the saints lies to one side. In the churchyard are 2400 old yews. Words cannot describe this place. It is another of the secrets of the Living Tradition in Wales.
Troparion Tone 8
You preferred Christ to marriage and status,
and you bore with the ardours of long prayer a night.
You were found worthy of the bridegrooms crown
and were filled wit his love and joy.
We are awed and amazed at your beautiful shrine,
O Holy Melangel prayer for us today!
