Llangollen is named after the 7th century saint who founded the town. Llan is the Welsh word for enclosure and the name, therefore, means Collen’s Enclosure. It was a common practice amongst the early Christian saints to leave their church and establish a cell in some other location in order to help spread the Christian story.
Everything that we know about St Collen comes from Welsh manuscripts recording the ‘Buchedd Collen’ or ‘Life of St Collen’. The earliest of these dates to the mid 16th century, nearly 1000 years after the events they are describing.
Collen ap Gwynnawg ap Clydawg ap Cowdra ap Caradog Freichfras ap Lleyr Merim ap Einion Yrth ap Cunedda Wledig was Welsh by birth and of illustrious ancestry. His father was Gynnawg (or Gwynog) and his mother Ethni, daughter of Matholwch, an Irish lord. When he was a youth he was sent to France to study at Orleans, it is said with Julian the Apostate. Here there is a conflict of dates, as Julian the Apostate is known to have lived in the 4th century, whilst St Collen is 7th century. The tale says that Collen slew a Pagan champion who challenged the best man amongst the Christians.
