William Morgan, Welsh Bible Translator

Rev William Morgan was born near Betws y Coed in North Wales and educated at St John's College Cambridge. He became vicar of Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant and Llangarmon Myndd Mawr between 1578 and 1595. During this time he was also Rector of Llanfyllin and Pennant Melangell. He became Bishop of Llandaff in 1601 and Bishop of St Asaph in 1604.

He is remembered especially at St Dogfan's church in Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant (a place founded by Dogfan, a son of the Celtic King Brychan) for translating the Bible into Welsh and potentially saving the language from extinction. At the time the bards were using the Welsh language but gentry were seeing it as culturally inferior to English and a political disadvantage. However, the Bible translation into Welsh renewed the language and kept it alive.

I find it interesting this happened on the site of a previous Celtic prayer cell. Was it an ancient well reopening and creating the opportunity for something spiritually significant to be birthed? Mary Jones, a teenage Welsh peasant, walked across the Snowdonian mountains to obtain a Welsh Bible. Her diligence and earnest desire sparked the foundation of the Bible Society still providing Bibles worldwide. I see the links of a spiritual chain, a catalyst going back to the Celtic times.