history of the diocese
Bangor is the most ancient of the Welsh dioceses: it is the oldest territorial diocese in the United Kingdom and its Cathedral site is the oldest in continuous and unbroken use.
St. Deiniol and his monks came to Bangor in 525A.D. and built the first church, enclosing a wide area around it with a wattle fence, (a "bangor") in which a mixed community of monks, married secular clergy and lay families (mainly artisans, tradesmen and agricultural workers) lived together in community, the standard pattern for a Celtic monastery or "Clas", and quite unlike the monasteries of the Norman period. In or before 546 A.D., Maelgwn, King of Gwynedd, invited Deiniol to be Bishop of "all my kingdom". Hence, unlike all other Celtic sees, Bangor was a territorial diocese from the first. From the original small "Clas", the present city gradually grew around the Cathedral, under the patronage of the Welsh princes. From the security and protection they provided, the monks went out, in the traditional Celtic pattern to evangelize the kingdom. Other Celtic saints established cells in the area, including Cybi (at Holyhead), Seiriol (Penmaenmawr and Penmon), and Cadfan at Tywyn.
During the mediaeval period there were three archdeaconries: Anglesey, Bangor and Meirionnydd. More recently, the Archdeaconries of Bangor and Anglesey have merged to leave two Archdeaconries: Bangor (and Anglesey) and Meirionnydd, each with seven and six Rural Deaneries respectively. Diocesan boundaries have hardly changed at all.
St Deiniol and Bangor
We know beyond reasonable doubt who Deiniol was: Deiniol son of Dunawd son of Pabo Post Prydyn - Pabo defender of Prydyn in the Old North, the name given to northern England and southern Scotland - a member of a cadet branch of a royal family often mentioned in early pedigrees and poetry. His ancestors migrated to north Wales about mid fifth century (the exact date is much debated), his grandfather being commemorated at Llanbabo in Anglesey. They, and many of their fellow migrants, may well have been Christians, converted by St. Ninian, his followers and their descendants.
Judging by the testimony of inscribed stones, dating from the late fifth or early sixth century, there were Christians in north Wales before Deiniol's time: SANCTINUS and BIVATIGIRNUS, commemorated at Eglwys Rhos and Trescawen (Llangwyllog) respectively, are called sacerdos, priest or possibly bishop, while the stone originally on Mynydd Anelog, now in Aberdaron church, denoted the burial place of SENACUS, a priest (presbyter), CUM MULTITUDINEM FRATRUM, together with a multitude of brothers, implying a religious settlement.
Christianity took a long time to take root and spread; for the first centuries it was confined to small, scattered groups. In the early fifth century we begin to sense organised missionary activity, spreading westwards and northwards from south-east Wales, where Illtud, 'the refined master of almost all Britain', had settled at a place later to be known as Llanilltud Fawr. It may be possible to trace the journeyings of the saints by the churches dedicated to them.
After much wandering - to Gwent, Penfro, Ceredigion, possibly up to the Dyfi valley and over to the river Dee, Llanuwchllyn, Llanfor, Bangor Iscoed, Worthenbury, Marchwiail, Hawarden - Deiniol and his followers arrived in Maelgwn's kingdom of Gwynedd, at the eastern entrance to the Menai Straits. Having been given land, in all probability by king Maelgwn who, whatever his faults, was generous to the saints, Deiniol enclosed it with a fence, constructed by driving posts into the ground and weaving branches in between them; the technical Welsh term for this type of fence was bangor. Here he built a little church and a cell in which to live; and all his followers, individuals and families, would build their own dwelling places within the enclosure. Thus a Celtic monastery or clas was established.
There would be family life in a clas, Celtic and Welsh priests were free to marry if they desired. Not all the men would be priests; farmers and craftsmen would be needed for the well being of the community. Those who were priests were not cloistered monks; they went out into the surrounding countryside to evangelise, sometimes going far afield, staying away for a time and founding new churches, but probably remaining within Maelgwn's kingdom. From time to time they would return to their leader, for spiritual guidance and encouragement, so that Bangor became the mother-church of Maelgwn's kingdom of Gwynedd, and Deiniol, its spiritual father, became its bishop.
Since Maelgwn died of the terrible pestilence that swept the country in 547 A.D., Deiniol must have been consecrated bishop before that catastrophe, hence the suggested date of c. 546 A.D. for the founding of the Diocese. It may have been a little earlier; it cannot have been later. From its origin the Diocese of Bangor was a territorial unit, coterminous with the then kingdom of Gwynedd, making it probably the oldest territorial diocese in the country.
Dr Enid Pierce Roberts