| St Melangell's Church | |
|---|---|
 Church and churchyard | |
  St Melangell's Church Location within Wales | |
| 52°49′39″N 3°26′59″W / 52.82750°N 3.44972°W | |
| Location | Pennant Melangell, Llangynog, Powys |
| Country | Wales |
| Denomination | Church in Wales |
| Website | stmelangell |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | St Asaph |
| Deanery | Mathrafal[1] |
| Parish | Mission Area of Tanat-Vyrnwy[2] |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Designated | 31 January 1953[3] |
| Reference no. | 7634 |
St Melangell's Church (Welsh: [meˈlaŋeɬ]) is a Grade I listed medieval church of the Church in Wales located in the former village of Pennant Melangell, in the Tanat Valley, Powys, Wales. The church was founded around the 8th century to commemorate the reputed grave of Melangell, a hermit and abbess who founded a convent and sanctuary in the area. The current church was built in the 12th century and the oldest documentation of it dates to the 13th century. The building was renovated several times, including major restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1980s the church was in danger of demolition, but under new leadership it was renovated and a cancer ministry was started. In 1958, and again between 1987 and 1994, the site was subject to major archaeological excavations, which uncovered information about prehistoric and medieval activity at Pennant Melangell, including evidence of Bronze Age burials.
St Melangell's Church contains the reconstructed shrine to Melangell, considered the oldest surviving Romanesque shrine in northern Europe. The shrine dates to the 12th century, and was a major centre of cult activity in Wales until the Reformation. It was dismantled at some point, probably in the early modern era, and reconstructed in 1958 out of fragments found in and around the church. In 1989 the shrine was dismantled again and restored in 1991 according to newer scholarship. Pennant Melangell has continued to attract pilgrims of various backgrounds and motivations into the 21st century.
The church is built of multiple types of stone and has a single nave and a square tower. On the east end is an apse, known as the cell-y-bedd,[a] which contains Melangell's traditional grave. The interior of the church holds numerous objects of historical value, including a 15th-century rood screen depicting Melangell's legend, two 14th-century effigies, and various paintings and liturgical fittings. The churchyard contains thousands of graves—the majority unmarked—and several yew trees.
- ^ "Mathrafal". Church in Wales. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
- ^ "Mission Area of Tanat-Vyrnwy". Church in Wales. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
- ^ a b "Full Report for Listed Buildings – Church of St Melangell". Cadw. 31 January 1953. Archived from the original on 12 December 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
- ^ Edwards 2002, pp. 234–235.
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