CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 31. 



We must reject as untenable the assertion made by Dr. 

 Oliver, and others after him, that Levan is Livinus or Liafwin, 

 apostle of the Frisians, who died in 773 ; concerning whom a 

 " Life " was forged in the 11th century. 



Levan is the L-ish Leobhan. The Irish hh is pronounced as 

 a V. He was a saint at Killevan in Clonfert and Kilmore, where 

 are three chapels dedicated to him. Killevan was his monastic 

 foundation. 



Li the Egerton MS. list of the four and twenty persons in 

 holy orders who were with S. Patrick, he is classed as one of his 

 smiths. "Mac Cecht (Laeban) of Domnach Laeban — it is he 

 that made the [bell called] Findfardech." Which means "the 

 sweet-toned." Colgan also holds that Leobhan and Mac Cecht 

 (son of a plough) are one and the same. But in the list of S. 

 Patrick's household in the " Sjpotted Book" he is distinguished 

 from Mac Cecht, erroneously we think. 



As so very little is known of him in L'eland, — so completely 

 does he disappear from among the disciples of the apostle, that 

 we may suspect that he, like Carantog, left him, and that more- 

 over at an early period in Leobhan' s career. The Welsh form 

 of his name is Llywan or Llywyn, and we are informed that he 

 was a friend of the Armorican Cadvan, and was with him for 

 a while in Bardsey. 



We next hear of him as associated with Paul of Leon when 

 he left Wales and came to Brittany. Then he accompanied S. 

 Tugdual to Paris, with eleven other disciples. On that occasion, 

 as none of these Celtic monks could speak the Frank tongue, 

 they asked S. Albmus of Angers to serve as their interpreter. 

 The object of Paul and Tugdual going to the Frank King, 

 Childebert, was to obtain a coutirmation of their several grants 

 of land. S. Albinus, or Aubin, was a native of Vannes, and 

 therefore able to speak the British tongue. In 538-40 Conmore 

 usurped the regency of Domnonia, and it was probably then 

 that Tugdual and Paul visited Childebert. 



This same Loevan, or Levan, wrote the life of S. Tugdual, 

 a life that is still extant,"^'' that was originally written in Irish. 

 Tugdual died in or about 553 or 559. 



* De la Borderie, Saiut Tudual, Textes des trois vies, vita Ima, Meinoires de la 

 Soc. Archeol. des Cotes du Nord, 2nd ser., T. II, p. 84. 



