SAINT OF THE WEEK: St Asaph – 5 May
Saints often beget saintly circles around them, and it was in the 6th-century milieu of St Mungo – also called Kentigern – that we first find mention of a man named Asaph. When the wicked King Morken was stirring up trouble against the Christians of Strathclyde, Mungo fled to Wales, where he founded a monastery at a place called Llanelwy (literally ‘the church on the river Elwy’).
Mungo was given to putting himself to rather severe tests, including saying his prayers while standing in the icy cold river. Asaph attended to him, and the older saint requested that he bring a burning piece of wood to help warm him once his riverine prayers were completed. Instead, Asaph arrived bearing a pile of live burning coals in his unburnt and untarnished apron, miraculously.
