St Cynfelin (also known as St Matu) is reputed to be the founder of St Mary's Church in Welshpool, during 'the age of the saints in Wales' in the 5th and 6th centuries.
The church was originally built c. 1250, but only the lower courses of the tower now remain from that date. The current building is largely as rebuilt or restored in 1871 by George Edmund Street. The nave was rebuilt in the 16th century, and with the whole building was substantially restored in 1871.
The 15th century chancel ceiling may have come from Strata Marcella Abbey, about five miles away, and a stone in the churchyard is said to have been part of the abbot's throne. A memorial in the church commemorates Bishop William Morgan, translator of the Bible into Welsh, who was the vicar from 1575 to 1579.
The churchyard contains seven Commonwealth war graves, of five British soldiers of World War I and a soldier and airman of World War II.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.