Vicar plans major celebration of town's patron saint

* The carving of St Collen which will take
 pride of place during the celebration on August 4.

Llangollen vicar Father Lee Taylor is planning a major event in August to celebrate the town's patron saint.

Father Lee has commissioned local artist Christian Lancaster to carve an image of St Collen, whom Llangollen is also named after, and it's the first one ever done of a Welsh saint, he believes.      

The statue will be dedicated and blessed during a service at St John's Church in Abbey Road on Sunday August 4, starting at 10.30am.

The blessing will be followed by a colourful procession through the town up to St Collen's Church for a celebratory mass and refreshments afterwards. 

Father Lee said: "The saint will be carried aloft on a carrier with wreaths of flowers.

"Llangollen Silver Band, a choir and local dignitaries and representatives from the town will join in the procession. It will be an important day for the town."

Saint Collen was a 7th-century monk who is said to have arrived in Llangollen by coracle and founded a church beside the river. 

As there are no other churches in Wales dedicated to St Collen, it is possible that this St Collen may also have connections in both Colan, Cornwall, where Colan Church is dedicated to him, and Langolen in Brittany.

St Collen died on May 21, probably sometime in the early 7th century. He was buried in his chapel. 

For centuries it was known as the 'Old Church' and stood immediately to the west of the present medieval church of St Collen in Llangollen.