Returning to Britain from France Collen landed in Cornwall, came to Glastonbury Abbey and took the religious habit. Within 3 months he was chosen as Abbot. ‘Later he became angry with the men of the land for their wrong-doing, and cursed them.’ His choleric temper now drove him to Glastonbury Tor, and “there he made himself a cell under a rock in a secret place out of the way.’
After his encounter with Gwyn ap Nudd Collen prayed God that he might have a place to dwell in for the rest of his life. He was bidden to go a journey until he met a horse, which he was to mount. As much ground as he could compass that day should be ‘his sanctuary until Doomsday.’ He met the horse at a place called Rhysfa Maes Cadfarch (The Course of the Charger’s Field) and ” he rode it round his parish, and in the centre of the sanctuary made his cell,” in which he spent the remainder of his days, and within it was laid to his rest.
But was St Collen’s cell located on the site of the present church? The Rural Dean’s Report for 1749 mentions that ‘A building lying to the west of the tower called the ‘Old Church’ should be taken down, the stone to be used for the building of the present tower.’ It was said that the remains of St Collen lay in the demolished building. In 1927 W.T. Simpson said ‘In the Church was formerly a recimbant figure in alabaster, vulgarly called St Collen. The unshapely remains of this monument are still to be seen in the belfry, where it has been thrown.’
Another suggestion is that Collen’s original cell may have lain to the west of the present town in the area known as Cilmediw. Cil is the Welsh word meaning a ‘retreat’ and Meudwy means a ‘Hermit’. So does Cilmediw/Cilmeidw mark the site of St Collen’s original cell?
