St. Illtud’s Church in Llantwit Major is a place of great historical and spiritual significance, representing a continuous link of Christian worship and witness stretching back over 1500 years. It is often referred to as ‘The Westminster Abbey of Wales’. Founded in around 500 A.D. by St. Illtud, the Church site is one of the oldest Christian locations in Britain and is, according to the Guiness Book of Records, Britain’s earliest ‘seat of learning’, where many well-known Celtic saints were educated, including reputedly St. David and St. Patrick. The site is thus known as the ‘Cradle of Celtic Christianity’, where the faith was kept alive after the Romans left Britain and from where it was taken to Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland and South-West Scotland.
St Illtud’s Church is a Grade I listed building “…of exceptional national interest” according to Cadw, and, when John Wesley visited in 1777, he described it as, “abundantly the most beautiful as well as the most spacious church in Wales”. The architecture reflects a rare complete history of Welsh Christianity, comprising basically three buildings, an East Church, a West Church and a restored Galilee chapel, where a highly significant collection of Celtic crosses, dating back to the 8th to 10th centuries, are now displayed.
St. Illtud’s is a very active Church with a growing congregation. Besides regular Sunday and weekday services, it also serves as a very vibrant community hub for various types of meetings, social events, art exhibitions, festivals, concerts and conferences.
The building now requires urgent maintenance work and modernisation, particularly to prevent the water ingress in the tower, to restore the porch and to preserve the valuable wall paintings. The Local Church Council, in association with the Diocese and its architects, has drawn up a Master Plan for a whole range of projects to develop the Church and the site, and is currently applying for grants to contribute to this work, which is estimated to be in the region of £0.5 million.