Saint Cadoc or Cadog (Medieval Latin: Cadocus; also Modern Welsh: Catawg or Catwg; born c. 497[2] or before) was a 5th–6th-century Abbot of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorgan, Wales, a monastery famous from the era of the British church as a centre of learning, where Illtud spent the first period of his religious life under Cadoc's tutelage.

He is known as Cattwg Ddoeth, "the Wise", and a large collection of his maxims and moral sayings were included in Volume III of the Myvyrian Archaiology.

On a sudden impulse, or perhaps guided by divine inspiration, Gwynllyw decided Cadoc would go to live under the monk's care, and he was sent away to be educated at Tathyw's monastery in Caerwent.

Cadoc picked up a basic knowledge of Latin and received a rudimentary education that prepared him for further studies in Ireland and Wales.

[8] Maches (Latin: Machuta), the sister of Cadoc according to tradition, was killed by robbers who were stealing her finest ram.

He settled there on an island in the Etel river, now called L'Ile de Cado, where he built an oratory, founded a monastery and devoted himself to spreading the Gospel.

According to Huddleston, most Welsh writers assign the founding of Llancarfan to the period of St. Germanus's visit to Britain in A.D. 447, stating further that the first principal was St. Dubric, or Dubricius, on whose elevation to the episcopate St. Cadoc, or Cattwg, succeeded.

On the other hand, he notes that the Life of St. Germanus, written by Constantius, a priest of Lyons, about fifty years after the death of the saint, says nothing at all of any school founded by him or under his auspices, in Britain, nor is mention made of his presence in Wales.

[14] An alternate tradition holds that Llancarvan monastery or "Church of the Stags", in Glamorgan, and not far from the Bristol Channel, was founded in the latter part of the fifth century by Cadoc.

The spot at first seemed an impossible one, an almost inaccessible marsh, but he and his monks drained and cultivated it, transforming it into one of the most famous and attractive religious homes in South Wales.

Furious, he forced the monks back to manual labour, dragging timber from the woods to begin the work of reconstruction.

[16] About 528, after his father's death, Cadoc is said to have built a stone monastery in Scotland probably at Kilmadock, which was named for the saint, north-west of Stirling,[17] where the Annant Burn enters the River Teith about 2 miles upstream from Doune.

Similar incidents are often described in mediaeval biographies such as those of Carannog, Padern and Goeznovius: miracles in dealings with temporal authority bolster the case for church freedom.

A certain miraculous spot associated with Cadoc had a reputed healing effect until the time of king Hiuguel (Hywel vab weyn, who died in his old age ca.

[16] According to Serenus de Cressy this Cadoc died AD 490, is buried in France, and is commemorated in the Calendar on 24 January.

The epithet of Doeth (Welsh for wise) induced some writers to confound him with St. Sophias (Greek for wisdom), bishop of Beneventum in Italy.

[22]In the 2004 edition of the Roman Martyrology, Cadoc is listed among saints thought to have died on 21 September, with the Latin name Cadóci.