The date 3 September might not be one that is immediately recognisable, at least not to most people, but it is a significant one, both in the history of Wales and in the subsequent development of 19th century tourism.

On 3 September 1536 the great abbey at Tintern on the Welsh bank of the River Wye was dissolved by the commissioners of Henry VIII.

The destruction of the abbey was part of Henry's dissolution of the monasteries following his break from Rome. It was also part of an enormous money-making scheme that brought wealth and land to the monarchy.

Tintern Abbey © Pam Brophy, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons licence

On the morning of 2 June 1982 history was made when Pope John Paul II became the first reigning pontiff ever to come to Wales, flying in to Cardiff Airport and then moving on to the capital city itself.

The Pope made his historic visit as part of a pastoral trip to Britain between 29 May and 6 June 1982. It was a visit that was nearly cancelled before it began because of the Falkland Islands war that had erupted just a few weeks previously.

Political sensitivities meant that he did not meet the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and also strenuously avoided any political statements or gestures during the visit.

However, having made the decision to come, it was a phenomenally successful trip that saw Pope John Paul meet the Queen, head of the Church of England, and take a joint service with the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was estimated that over two million people flocked to see the Pope, including 80,000 who attended a service at Wembley Stadium.

The visit to Cardiff was to be one of the highlights of the trip. The Pope arrived at Cardiff Airport early in the morning of 2 June. He then began an impromptu walkabout that was well received but which rather delayed his itinerary.

From the airport the Pope was driven to Pontcanna Fields where thousands were waiting to greet him. Many of them had been there all night, over 4000 people with disabilities having been bussed in during the early hours.

While waiting, the crowd had been entertained with hymn singing and other music. Cardiff entertainer Frank Hennesey had written a song of welcome which he performed along with David Burns, whose family originally came from Newtown, a Catholic area of the city that was for years known as Little Ireland.

Pope John was greeted with enthusiastic applause as he drove in his famous Popemobile across a specially constructed bailey bridge over the Taff. He then took an open-air mass during which peals of thunder and heavy rain failed to dampen the spirits of the crowd.

If his visit wasn't already a success, Pope John Paul captured the hearts of the Welsh crowd when he called out "Bendith Duw Arnoch – The blessing of God be on you." His use of Welsh virtually brought the house down, as they say! Thirty children then received their first communion from the Pope and as he drove away the crowd sang "We'll keep a welcome in the hillside."

From Pontcanna the Pope went to Ninian Park, then the home of Cardiff City Football Club, where he conducted a youth service. In his public address after the mass he made an appeal for world peace.

During his visit the Pope was presented with various gifts including a miner's lamp and a book of Welsh poetry. In the only faintly political gesture of the whole trip to the UK, he was offered and received the freedom of the city of Cardiff.

The Pope's visit to Wales was an unmitigated success. Hundreds of thousands gathered just to see him drive past. In that one brief visit he probably did more for Anglo-Catholic relations than a year of formal talks and nobody who saw him on that momentous day will ever forget it. It was, quite literally, history in the making.

This Christmas will be unlike any other the Reverend Steve Bunting has known before. It will be his first in the pulpit of his own parish church, preaching to a congregation.

Christmas is a busy time in any church and for Steve it will be a case of juggling the needs of the community and a busy service schedule with those of his own three children.

He is a relatively new convert to Christianity, having taken up his faith in 2003, waiting a few years to make the decision to be ordained and then beginning his training in 2009.

During his final year he was followed by television cameras for the four part BBC documentary Vicar Academy, an experience which he felt helped show the work of the church in a more positive light.

Steve Bunting

Steve Bunting

Richard Gwyn, executed on 15 October 1584 for his adherence to the Catholic faith and, therefore, his refusal to recognise the Anglican Church, was the first Welsh Catholic to be executed for his beliefs during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st.

Canonized by Pope Paul V1 in 1970 as one of 40 martyrs of England and Wales, he was a man of firm, unshakable belief who did not go willingly to his death but knew that sooner or later it was inevitable, given his adherence to the “old faith".

Born in approximately 1537 in the county of Mongomeryshire, Richard Gwyn went to Oxford to study when he was 20 years old. He did not complete his degree but soon moved on to Cambridge where he found solace and support in the shape of the Catholic master of St John's College, Dr George Bullock.

When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, Bullock was forced to resign his post and Gwyn also decided that Cambridge was not for him. He went to the University of Douai for a number of years before returning to live and work as a teacher in the Wrexham area. Married with six children, only three of them outlived their father.

In his free time Richard Gwyn continued to study and develop his beliefs, becoming increasingly convinced that the only chance of salvation lay in belief in and acceptance of “the old faith".  He soon became widely known as a Catholic, publicly avowing his support for the missionary priests who were beginning to flood into Britain.

Because of his outspoken criticism of the Elizabethan Reformation and Church, Gwyn was forced to move house – and his school – many times in order to avoid fines and/or imprisonment. Persecution became a way of life for him and his family.

Despite the regular moves, in 1579 he was arrested by the vicar of Wrexham. He managed to escape and was a fugitive for the next 18 months. Then he was recaptured and held in a number of prisons for the next four years before his eventual execution in 1584.

Shackled and berated

In May 1581, in an effort to break his spirit and make him change his ways, Gwyn was shackled,  chained and carried to the font in the church at Wrexham where he was berated and subjected to a sermon by the local vicar. Gwyn would have none of it.

He shook his legs so violently that the noise of the chains rattling completely drowned the preacher's voice. As a result he was put in the town stocks where he was taunted by the Anglican clergyman who claimed to have been given the keys to heaven by St Peter. Gwyn's response was that only St Peter held the keys to Heaven, what the man had been given were the keys to the beer cellar.

A year later Richard Gwyn, along with two other recusants, John Hughes and Robert Morris, were again berated by the Anglican minister. This time the three men heckled so loudly and so effectively - one in Welsh, one in Latin and one in English – that the exercise was abandoned.

When he was fined £280 for recusancy and a further £150 for “brawling,” Gwyn was asked how much he would pay. His reply was simple – sixpence.

Sentenced to death

Eventually – and perhaps inevitably – Richard Gwyn was brought before the chief justice of Chester, accused of High Treason. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered, as custom and the laws of the land then demanded.

The sentence was duly carried out at the animal market in Wrexham on 15 October 1584. In the face of his terrible ordeal, Gwyn showed rare courage and the executioner even pulled on his shackled legs in order to kill him more quickly and so ease his suffering. It did not work. Despite seeming to be dead, Gwyn revived just as the disembowelling began – he remained conscious until he was finally beheaded.

Richard Gwyn was not just a protester. He composed five free verse carols in Welsh, all of them supporting and promoting the Catholic faith.

There are many stories or legends about the man, in one of them the judge who pronounced the death sentence being struck dumb in court. In another, the clerk of the court who read out his indictment suddenly went blind. These supposed miracles may have added to his legend but, ultimately, they did not help Gwyn himself.

Religious relics of Richard Gwyn can be found in the Catholic church of Our Lady, the seat of the Bishop of Wrexham. As a renowned teacher, Gwyn would probably be prouder of the fact that two schools, both called the Richard Gwyn High School, now exist in Flintshire and in Barry in south Wales.

It was during our annual college day trip to the beach in Barry last year that two of the staff members at St Michael's College in Llandaff approached me to ask if I would be interested in being filmed as part of a programme documenting people going through a "life-changing" year. This idea later developed into the four-part documentary Vicar Academy, which makes its debut tonight on BBC One Wales.

Dr Rowan Williams, Steve Bunting and Dr Barry Morgan

Steve Bunting's children with his brothers Paul and Philip

The term 'Quaker' is the name given to members of the Religious Society of Friends, one of the most interesting and intriguing sects to emerge from the post-Civil War chaos of 17th century Britain.

The movement spread across the whole of the United Kingdom but, for a brief period at the end of the century, Wales seemed to be something of a haven for this persecuted and widely misunderstood group of devout men and women.

The original Quakers were a small group who broke away from the established Church of England, under the leadership of George Fox, a weaver's son from Leicestershire. Fox believed that it was possible to experience Christ without necessarily having the intercession or benefit of clergy – in effect a “priesthood of all who believed".

Persecution in the 17th century

In a time of religious fervour, such a belief system inevitably brought Fox and his followers into conflict with the established church and with central authority. Quakers were widely persecuted under the Clarendon Code, and laws such as the Quaker Act (1662) and the Conventicle Act (1664) were used to abuse, imprison and inhibit their movements.

Such persecution did not stop them following their beliefs. And it did not stop the movement growing either. It is estimated that by 1680 there were as many as 60,000 followers in Britain.

The name Quaker stems from the early days of the movement. In the opinion of some, it originates from a time when George Fox was brought before magistrates to be questioned about his beliefs and made them tremble at the word of the Lord.

Early Welsh Quakers

From the late 1650s onwards the movement spread quickly into Wales. In the early days the main spokesman was John ap John - he, like other Quakers, would have deplored use of the word Leader. John, a follower of the great Morgan Llwyd, was zealous in his belief that Christ himself was a proponent of the concept of universal priesthood.

Anti-slavery

Other famous Welsh Quakers included Richard Davies from Welshpool and Thomas Wynne of Caerwys. Like all of the Quakers they were adamant that slavery should be abolished and were equally clear that they would never fight in war. They refused to swear oaths, to pay tithes to support the church or doff their hats to supposed superiors.

The Quakers in America

With such beliefs, persecution was both inevitable and draconian. As a result, from the 1680s onwards many Quakers chose to leave Britain and start a new life in America. Many of them joined William Penn who was then trying to create an ideal society in what became Pennsylvania.

What that meant, of course, was that many of the more dynamic and forward-thinking Quakers left their native lands. This was particularly the case in Wales. According to the Encyclopaedia of Wales: "The Quaker cause in Wales fared so poorly in the 18th century that even its supporters referred to themselves as the 'remnant'."

Sweet success

There were successful Welsh Quakers, of course, people such as the Lloyd family from north Wales, iron masters who went on to found Lloyds Bank, but there were very few people of the significance of the great English Quaker merchants like Fry, Rowntree and Cadbury.

Pacificsm and anti-war

The Quaker movement in Wales experienced something of a revival in the years following World War One when their pacifism and anti-war stance gained them new adherents. During the Depression the Maes yr Haf settlement at Trealaw was established in the Rhondda.

The Quakers were an important part of social care provision in the 1920s and 30s, a time when there was little state intervention or help for people in desperate social and economic positions:

“Unemployment had been a real problem, especially in the Rhondda and south Wales. That's why the Quakers were there, to help relieve unemployment. The Settlement supplied all sorts of services such as crafts, dressmaking, Boys and Girls Clubs. It wasn't called social work at the time but Maes yr Haf became a centre for all sorts of activity. It was quite an outstanding example of service to others.” (Barrie Naylor, quoted in Wales at War, Gomer Press.)

These days there is little need for the Quakers to offer social care to the needy but Quakers still meet regularly in Wales, their meeting houses being unadorned and very simple. It is the same with their graveyards, having no ornate crosses or memorials, but being incredibly moving and atmospheric because of that.

St Cadoc's Church in Llancarfan has been awarded a £541,900 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The grant will safeguard its important medieval interior and enable the training volunteers to share its heritage with visitors.

Nonconformist chapels in Wales form a key part of the Welsh landscape, whether rural or urban. During the last two centuries, over 6,500 chapels were built in Wales, and chapels have a strong cultural and social importance to the heritage of Wales.

Interior view of Ebenezer Chapel, Tumble (Photo: Crown copyright)

Today chapels are one of the classes of building most at threat of closure in Wales. They are disappearing almost as quickly as they appeared in their heyday.

Over the last few years, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, in conjunction with Capel has been carrying out a systematic programme of collecting and analysing information about these building. One important aspect of the project is to record what is happening to chapel buildings today.

This survey aims to establish the status of each chapel, if it is still in active use, or whether it has been converted, demolished, is lying disused or derelict, or in another state.

Where a chapel conversion has taken place the Royal Commission are recording new uses, and are also noting any chapels which are in a transitional phase of being for sale or in the planning process.

Currently there is a variation in the data coverage of Wales that the Royal Commission survey has collected. In Anglesey, for example, the survey is only missing the status for three chapels, representing less than 2% of the original total.

Unfortunately, in the urbanised historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth, the picture is more complex and less than a half and a third respectively has been recorded.

Can you help the Royal Commission to record the present use of chapels? They are aiming to complete this element of the research by the end of December 2011.Lists of chapels for which they are looking for information are available from anne.harris@rcahmw.gov.uk or susan.fielding@rcahmw.gov.uk

Huw Lewis, Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, has announced that some of Wales' most important historic buildings are set to benefit from Welsh Government grants ranging from £11,200 to £75,000.

The grants awarded to historic buildings across Wales will pay for essential repairs and restoration work.

Speaking about the repair and restoration funding, Huw Lewis said: "The grants will ensure that some of our most important buildings are restored and maintained for the enjoyment of future generations."

The story of Mary Jones and her Bible used to be part of the staple diet of all Welsh children. It is doubtful, these days, if many of the younger generation have ever heard of her - or her amazing journey. Yet it remains a tale well worth telling.

In these days of easy commercialism and clear scepticism in all matters theological, it is hard to conjure a picture of Wales in 1904 and 1905 when, for many months, the whole country was gripped by a religious revival that swept like a tidal wave across the land. The man at the head of that revival was a young trainee minister called Evan Roberts.

.Most of us could probably be excused for failing to note 14 April 1188 as an important date. It's hardly one that springs to mind when you consider great moments in the calendar of Welsh history. But this was the day when Giraldus Cambrensis finally finished his mammoth 600 mile trek around Wales, a trek that led to him writing Descriptio Cambriae, one of the earliest of all travel books.

Giraldus Cambrensis in Latin, Gerallt Cymro in Welsh, Gerald of Wales in English - the man had as many names as he had careers.

Born in Manorbier Castle on the south coast of Pembrokeshire in approximately 1146, Giraldus came from a mixed Norman-Welsh background. His father, William de Barri, was one of the leading Anglo-Norman barons while his uncle, David Fitzgerald, was bishop of St Davids.

Giraldus was the grandson of Gerald de Windsor, constable of Pembroke Castle during the early years of its existence, and of Princess Nest, the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdr. So his pedigree as a well-to-do nobleman left nothing to be desired. However, with an uncle as bishop of St Davids it was, perhaps, inevitable that his education should have a religious bias.

He went, first, to school in Gloucester, then to Paris to finish his education. He returned to Britain somewhere around 1172 and was immediately employed by the archbishop of Canterbury on a number of ecclesiastical missions in his native Wales.

The reign of Henry VIII was significant for many reasons, not least the break from Rome. This abandoning of Catholicism and the creation of the Anglican Church - fuelled by nothing more than Henry's need to sire a son - ushered in a period of religious and social discord that, ultimately, lasted for over 100 years.

Henry's religious settlement was, at best, a lukewarm affair. His interest was not theology, only to secure the Tudor succession, but during the short and tempestuous reign of that son, Edward VI, the Protestant religion was firmly established in Britain. So when, after Edward's death in July 1553, the Catholic Mary Tudor came to the throne it was clear that great troubles lay ahead.

Mary quickly re-established the Catholic religion, re-introducing the Catholic mass and requiring everyone to acknowledge the authority of the Pope in Rome. Committed Christians, many of whom had only really known the Protestant religion, were faced with a terrible dilemma - a dreadful death, burnt at the stake for failing to recant, or the death of their immortal souls for accepting a creed in which they did not believe.

During Mary's reign nearly 300 people were burnt, including 55 women and a number of children. Many more died in prison whilst awaiting trial or execution.

The queen's revenge touched everyone, rich or poor alike. Archbishop Cranmer, architect of Henry's religious reformation, was one of them. And so, too, was a poor fisherman from Cardiff, by the name of Rawlins White.

White was executed on 30 March 1555, the fire that took his life being built outside Bethany Church in the centre of Cardiff. The site of the old church is now occupied by James Howells Department Store; a plaque on one interior wall of the shop marks the spot where White breathed his last.

Rawlins White was a fisherman who had little reading and probably spoke only Welsh. However, he was extremely religious and with the aid of one of his sons read the Holy Scriptures every night.

He was also profoundly influenced by the itinerant preachers who travelled the country and regularly came to Cardiff during the reigns of Henry and Edward. He certainly had a good memory and happily passed on the stories and doctrines that had been given to him by these preachers.

Once Mary had instituted her reforms, the Bishop of Llandaff, now strongly Catholic once again, tried to prevent Rawlins White from talking to the people - preaching to them would be too strong a word. White refused to stop, believing he was doing God's work. And, more importantly, he refused to accept the authority of the Bishop in Rome.

Faced by such a refusal, the Bishop had little alternative, although it has to be asked if, over time, White's nuisance value would simply have gone away. Rawlins White was arrested and imprisoned, first, at Chepstow and then in Cardiff Castle. He languished there for a year, the authorities clearly hoping he would change his mind and recant his Protestant views. The Cardiff fisherman did nothing of the sort.

Eventually, White was sent to a prison in Cardiff called the Cockmarel where conditions were at best primitive, at worst appalling. He still refused to recant and was eventually convicted of heresy and of spreading such heresy to others. His fate was to be burnt alive.

On 30 March 1555 White was conducted to the site of execution. He was escorted by many soldiers and apparently commented that they were not needed; he was not proposing to go anywhere. He showed no fear as he was chained to the stake but asked the jailers to make sure that the chain was tight in case his flesh was weak once the flames began. As preparations continued, White carefully arranged the wood and straw around his body in order that the flames should do their work as quickly as possible.

He wept when he saw his wife and children in the crowd but not once did he show signs or give any indication that he recanted his views.

The fire was lit, to cries of "Burn him, let the fire be lit" from the hundreds of watchers. It must have been a terrible death, the pain and anguish only too easy to imagine. White's legs burned quickly and his body slumped forward over the chain into the fire. Whether or not he was already dead will never be known.

Rawlins White was one of only two Welsh heretics burnt at the stake during the reign of Bloody Mary. The other was Robert Farrar, Bishop of St David's, who died on exactly the same day in Carmarthen.

The two executions mark an appalling and dreadful period in Welsh and British history when religion and the belief of many were used and abused to further the ends of the state and of those with the ultimate power - the power of life and death over their fellow men.

At the end of the 19th century she was known as the Welsh Fasting Girl and regarded as a miracle: the little 12-year-old who had not eaten for over two years.

In an age where spirituality clashed with the new teachings of science, she was an undoubted phenomenon, but whether or not her "miracle" was of her own making or something that was forced on her by manipulative parents remains unclear.

However you view it, the story of Sarah Jacobs is one of fascinating and tragic proportions. In the end she was killed by her own fame, a fame that, to begin with at least, she seemed more than eager to grasp.

Sarah Jacobs was born on 12 May 1857 on a farm just outside the village of Llanfihangel-ar-Arth in Carmarthenshire. Her parents, Evan and Hannah Jacobs, held respectable positions in this rural community, Evan having been a deacon in the local chapel. At the age of nine Sarah fell ill with convulsions of some type.

As she recovered she was allowed to sleep in her parents bedroom, a warm and comfortable environment compared to the loft where she would otherwise have spent her days. There was no denying that lying in bed all day, composing poems and reading the Bible, was far preferable to looking after the animals on the farm.

Spoiled and cosseted, she began to refuse food. She was genuinely religious but whether her refusal to eat had spiritual undertones or was simply the machinations of a manipulative anorexic has never been clear.

She was a self-possessed and bright child and, whatever the cause, she soon began to see the value in what she was doing. Perhaps her parents encouraged her in what was clearly a deception that fooled virtually everybody. Evan and Hannah later claimed that their daughter had had no food whatsoever from 10 October 1867 until her death two years later in December 1869.

As the fasting went on Sarah became something of a local celebrity, with people from the village wondering at her refusal to either eat or drink. And so it might have remained if the local vicar had not written to the newspapers about this amazing miracle that was occurring in his parish.

Sarah's fame was assured almost overnight. Soon people were coming from far afield, from the English cities as well as Wales, catching the train to Pencader and walking over two miles to the farm to stand gazing in wonder at this young girl who was defying the laws of nature. They brought gifts and money for her, dropping their sovereigns onto the bedspread as she lay, surrounded by flowers, reading and quoting the Bible.

Everyone marvelled at her appearance, one visitor remarking: "Her eyes shone like pearls, as alert as my own - - - She had rosy cheeks and looked like a lilly amongst thorns."

To live for over two years without food or water is, clearly, impossible but in the Victorian Age people really believed they were witnessing a miracle. How Sarah got her food is not known.

Some believe her sister was feeding her, passing titbit's from her mouth whenever they kissed. Others are inclined to the view that Sarah fed herself, climbing out of bed when the rest of the house was asleep.

Her body would have become used to reduced amounts of food, and she had often refused to eat her lunch in the past. When at school she had asked her classmates not to tell anyone, her parents in particular.

With her case attracting more and more interest, the vicar and the medical profession decided to mount a watch over Sarah. This was to last for a fortnight. Evan Jacob agreed but the watch did not last both day and night and the findings were unclear.

As Sarah grew fatter and plumper, reaching full maturity despite her lack of food, people began to suspect fraud. Dr Phillips of Guy's Hospital decided to organise another vigil. Six nurses were brought in to mount a 24 hour watch on the girl.

And now Sarah's position became really untenable. If she had previously been able to slip out of bed to find food in the night, now it was impossible.

She could not admit to fraud or lying; pride or religious conviction, or even her undiagnosed medical condition, would not let her. And so she simply lay there, waiting to die, as the nurses watched and made notes in their diaries.

The experiment was cruel: the nurses were instructed not to treat or help, simply to mount a watch. If Sarah asked for food they were to give it but otherwise they were to do nothing. And, of course, she did not, and the tragedy was to be played out until the bitter end.

The Lancet, the main journal of the medical profession, later commented that practitioners everywhere should be "filled with feelings of shame and indignation."

After four or five days Sarah lapsed into semi-consciousness and on 12 December 1869 she died. The 'miracle' was over.

An autopsy was held at the Eagle Inn in the village and a sticky substance and the bones of a small bird or fish were found in Sarah's stomach. Clearly, she had eaten something.

More tragic, however, were the grooves found on her toes - as if she had been trying to open the cap of the stone water bottle that had been placed in her bed, a desperate attempt to get water.

Evan and Hannah Jacob were subsequently convicted of manslaughter and spent 12 and six months, respectively, in Swansea prison. No-one could prove that they had deliberately starved and, eventually, killed their daughter but they - like the medical profession, although the doctors and nurses were never prosecuted - were certainly guilty of doing nothing to protect her. Perhaps they really believed they were witnessing a miracle?

So, Sarah Jacobs? A genuine miracle or a cynical exercise in fraud?

Many people call her Wales' first anorexic - and there are certainly elements of that awful condition in her history. But above all, this is the tragic story of a young girl on the threshold of life, a young life that was, because of her own personality or because of pressure from outside, cut brutally short.

A 14th century Bishops' manuscript containing music notation and Latin text for religious services was put on show yesterday at Bangor Cathedral.

The Pontifical - a book of forms for ceremonies performed by a bishop - has returned to Bangor from the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, where it was conserved and rebound.

Senior clerics, including the Dean of Bangor, Rev Alun Hawkins, and the Bishop of Bangor, Rev Andrew John, attended a service where several plainchant melodies from the 700-year-old manuscript were performed.

The manuscript was put on display for just one day, and will now be kept safely in the archive of Bangor University. You can also view it on the university's website.

Speaking about the website, Dr Sally Harper from the university said: "We've had the book digitised by a specialist team from Oxford and you can actually see every page in glorious detail on the website which we are now developing.

"We're going to have parallel translations of the Latin text and there will also be musical notation and sound files. So you'll be able to click on a melody and hear it."

Read more about this unique document on the BBC North West Wales website.