Post by Peter on Jul 12, 2019 1:12:12 GMT
The Pilgrims Cross at Nevern is on and associated with the pilgrim route to St Davids. It is carved into the rock face which also has an area built in stone bricks which appear to seal the entrance to a cave.
After the publication of the book The Holy Kingdom by Gilbert Wilson and Blackett in the 1990's there was an in surge of interest in the site and a person or persons removed stone bricks on the right hand side of the face and by looking through two holes it was possible to see that there was a second wall some three feet further back. These holes were subsequently filled by CADW operatives and it has now been classified as a heritage site.
In the Holy Kingdom book it is suggested that the True Cross of Christ or at least a piece of it had been brought to west Wales and its final destination is recorded in the kings lists drawn up for the wedding of Owen son of Hywel Dda the great Welsh king of the 10th Century. They are part of the Harleian 3859 collection of manuscripts written about 920 AD and they say that the Cross was in Dyfed south west Wales. Pilgrims were said to pray at the cross and hope for a vision of the True Cross.
There has been a tradition that Nevern has been considered a holy place long before St Davids was built in the 6th Century and in the area houses and hamlets whose names are redolent of Christianity including Dinas Cross (city of the cross) Jericho, Gethsenabe and Bethlehem are to be found. There is also Constantinople and Hywel Dda refers in his kings lists to the Empress Helen residing at Constantinople. The Helen referred to is almost certainly Helen/Elen the second wife of the Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus and after he was killed in 388 AD her second marriage was to St Rhedys (Ridicuis) whose family held lands in west Wales while Carmarthen castle was one of the great castles of Wales under her control.
Could she have owned a substantial piece of the True Cross at one time? Her first husband Magnus Maximus was the great grandson of the Empress Helen of Constantinople who had supposedly found the 'True Cross' in Jerusalem circa 320 AD. Elen (Helen) could have inherited a piece from her husband Magnus when he died which could have been handed down to him. The many place names in the Nevern area which part comprise the word 'groes' would suggest that she took it on tours of the area.
In the Mabinogian story of Peredur (son of Eurawg) one of his adventures which is actually quite different to his others, sees him come across a beautiful valley with many pavilions and water and windmills where he meets someone who says he is the 'head miller' and who tells him that the Empress of Constantinople lives there and that her many followers need the mills to provide their food. The village of Felindre Farchog a mile from Nevern means 'mill town of the knight' in English. The farms along side the river Duad valley which leads into Felindre Farchog all have cut water channels into the rock for watermills and water holding pools or leats and to this day they are well known for their good corn growing. While a house called Constantinople dating from the early 18th Century is almost two miles from Felindre Farchog near the hamlet of Cilgwyn. A large amount of big stones in the woods behind the present house could be where the original Constantinople stood and the name remained in the area. Also the afon Bannon river flows through Nevern and could be translated as the 'river of the Empress'.
After the publication of the book The Holy Kingdom by Gilbert Wilson and Blackett in the 1990's there was an in surge of interest in the site and a person or persons removed stone bricks on the right hand side of the face and by looking through two holes it was possible to see that there was a second wall some three feet further back. These holes were subsequently filled by CADW operatives and it has now been classified as a heritage site.
In the Holy Kingdom book it is suggested that the True Cross of Christ or at least a piece of it had been brought to west Wales and its final destination is recorded in the kings lists drawn up for the wedding of Owen son of Hywel Dda the great Welsh king of the 10th Century. They are part of the Harleian 3859 collection of manuscripts written about 920 AD and they say that the Cross was in Dyfed south west Wales. Pilgrims were said to pray at the cross and hope for a vision of the True Cross.
There has been a tradition that Nevern has been considered a holy place long before St Davids was built in the 6th Century and in the area houses and hamlets whose names are redolent of Christianity including Dinas Cross (city of the cross) Jericho, Gethsenabe and Bethlehem are to be found. There is also Constantinople and Hywel Dda refers in his kings lists to the Empress Helen residing at Constantinople. The Helen referred to is almost certainly Helen/Elen the second wife of the Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus and after he was killed in 388 AD her second marriage was to St Rhedys (Ridicuis) whose family held lands in west Wales while Carmarthen castle was one of the great castles of Wales under her control.
Could she have owned a substantial piece of the True Cross at one time? Her first husband Magnus Maximus was the great grandson of the Empress Helen of Constantinople who had supposedly found the 'True Cross' in Jerusalem circa 320 AD. Elen (Helen) could have inherited a piece from her husband Magnus when he died which could have been handed down to him. The many place names in the Nevern area which part comprise the word 'groes' would suggest that she took it on tours of the area.
In the Mabinogian story of Peredur (son of Eurawg) one of his adventures which is actually quite different to his others, sees him come across a beautiful valley with many pavilions and water and windmills where he meets someone who says he is the 'head miller' and who tells him that the Empress of Constantinople lives there and that her many followers need the mills to provide their food. The village of Felindre Farchog a mile from Nevern means 'mill town of the knight' in English. The farms along side the river Duad valley which leads into Felindre Farchog all have cut water channels into the rock for watermills and water holding pools or leats and to this day they are well known for their good corn growing. While a house called Constantinople dating from the early 18th Century is almost two miles from Felindre Farchog near the hamlet of Cilgwyn. A large amount of big stones in the woods behind the present house could be where the original Constantinople stood and the name remained in the area. Also the afon Bannon river flows through Nevern and could be translated as the 'river of the Empress'.
Later there is a record of King Arthur sending to Dinas for the Cross so that it could be carried on his shield at the battle of Badon. Dinas Cross is about 5 miles down the coast from Nevern. It would have been possible to gain access to the cave behind the Pilgrims Cross via the tunnel, now fallen in, leading to Nevern castle some 130 yards away. There had been fortifications on the present site of the castle since the Iron Age and it would also have been a powerful guardian of the Pilgrims Cross cave. When the front of the area and the surrounding area of the Pilgrims Cross was scanned by a very expensive and powerful mining detector machine it picked up a iron structure roughly triangular in shape and rising to a height of about 5 feet immediately behind the first wall. When two local psychics Geoffrey Stevens and Heather Ward were taken to the Pilgrims Cross site Geoffrey Stevens in what was his first visit and with no prior knowledge traced the 5ft outline on the cave face corresponding to that of the detector machine. He then said that a "very very holy man is encased in a metal casket in an upright position and the upper part of his body has fallen forward". He also thought that he was probably held a position in a monastery corresponding to an abbot. Heather Ward struggled for breath every time Geoffrey touched the rock face which might well suggest that he died of respiratory problems. The Empress Helen would probably have had her main court at Arberth (Narberth) a far more central and populated site than Nevern. Her cremation ashes are interred at Redstone Cross just north of Arberth. However there is much history and local evidence and tradition to suggest that a piece of the True Cross is indeed enclosed in a casket behind the Pilgrims Cross with the skeleton of a holy man in close attendance perhaps intending to guard it.
Of particular note is the fact that the Cross is not carved into the hillside rock, as is often described. Instead, the rock face has been removed, leaving the Cross. Even the lower part of the Cross extends over the sealed cave, to further disguise the entrance.
There is a step in the rock, worn by thousands of feet. Christine placed her Awen ring in the cross, that had been carved into the footprint.