List of Cornish saints

This is a list of Cornish saints, including saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

s more loosely associated with Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

: many of them will have links to sites elsewhere in regions with significant ancient British

Britons (historical)

The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...

 history, such as Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 or Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

.
For more information see the works of Canon Doble

Gilbert Hunter Doble

Gilbert Hunter Doble was an Anglican priest and Cornish historian and hagiographer.-Early life:G. H. Doble was born at Penzance, Cornwall on 26 November 1880. His father, John Medley Doble shared his enthusiasm for archaeology and local studies with his sons. He was a scholar of Exeter College,...

 (1880–1945) and Nicholas Orme

Nicholas Orme

Nicholas Orme is a British historian specialising in the Middle Ages and Tudor period, specialising in the history of children, and ecclesiastical history, with a particular interest in South West England....

's book, The Saints of Cornwall (2000).

List of some of the well-known Cornish saints

N.B. All these have dedications in Cornwall but not all have legends or traditions associating them with Cornwall.

Saint Austell Austol Saint Austol was a 6th century Cornish holy man who lived for much of his life in Brittany.He was a companion of Saint Meven in the foundation of the Abbey of Saint-Méen in Brittany. Meven is said to have been his godfather. The parish and village of St Austell in Cornwall is named in his honour... Saint Blaise Saint Blaise Saint Blaise was a physician, and bishop of Sebastea . According to his Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs, and beheaded... Saint Breaca Breage Breage, also known as Breaca, Briac, etc., is a saint venerated in Cornwall and southwestern Britain. According to her late hagiography, she was an Irish nun of the 5th or 6th century who founded a church in Cornwall... Saint Brioc Brioc Saint Brioc was an early 6th century Welshman who became the first Abbot of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany. He is one of the seven founder saints of Brittany.Very little is known about his early life, as his 9th century 'life' is not altogether reliable... Saint Budoc Budoc Saint Budoc of Dol was a Bishop of Dol, venerated after his death as a saint in both Brittany and Devon . Saint Budoc is the patron of Plourin Ploudalmezeau in Finistère where his relics are preserved... Saint Buriana Saint Buriana Saint Buriana was a 6th century Irish saint who was a hermit in St Buryan, near Penzance, in the kingdom of Dumnonia.Buriana ministered from a chapel on the site of the parish church at St Buryan. She is said to have been the daughter of an Irish king and travelled to Dumnonia from Ireland as a... Saint Carantoc Saint Constantine Saint Cuby

Saint Endelienta Saint Erc Saint Felec Felec of Cornwall Saint Felec or Felix of Cornwall was an obscure 5th or 6th century British saint active in the country's south-western peninsula. Saint Felix was said to have had the miraculous gift of being able to communicate with lions, cats, and other feline creatures. The church at Phillack, near Hayle is... Saint Gerren Geraint of Dumnonia Geraint was a King of Dumnonia who ruled in the early 8th century. During his reign, it is believed that Dumnonia came repeatedly into conflict with neighbouring Anglo-Saxon Wessex. Geraint was the last recorded king of a unified Dumnonia, and was called King of the Welsh by the Anglo-Saxon... Saint Gwinear Saint Ia Ia of Cornwall Saint Ia of Cornwall was a 5th or 6th century Cornish evangelist and martyr.Ia was said to have been an Irish princess, the sister of Saint Erc. She was a spiritual student of Saint Baricus and travelled as a missionary to Cornwall where she joined Saints Fingar and Piala... Saint Just Justus Justus was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury. He was sent from Italy to England by Pope Gregory the Great, on a mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, probably arriving with the second group of missionaries despatched in 601... Saint Kea Saint Kea Saint Kea was a late 5th-century saint from the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England... Saint Keyne Saint Keyne Saint Keyne or Cain was a late 5th century holy woman in the West Country, between Liskeard and Looe in SE Cornwall. She is not mentioned as being a saint in the official Catholic encyclopaedia - newadvent.org, so perhaps it's disputable if she is indeed a Catholic saint...

Saint Levan Salomon of Cornwall Salomon was a late 5th century Cornish 'warrior prince', possibly a King of Cornwall.St Levan according to the Life of St Kybi was a Cornishman and the father of Kybi. In the department of Morbihan are four places probably connected to the same saint, who probably lived in the 6th or 7th century... Saint Mabyn Saint Materiana Saint Materiana Saint Materiana is a Welsh saint and princess of the 5th century who is patron of two churches in Cornwall and one in Wales. Alternative spellings are Madrun, Madryn, Merthiana, and Mertheriana: the name was corrupted to Marcelliana in medieval times... Saint Melor Melor Melor was a Breton saint who, in England, was venerated particularly in Wiltshire where he was titular of Amesbury Abbey, which claimed his relics.-Identity:Melor had a popular cult in Brittany, but his story has been obfuscated by a number of biographers who confused... Saint Meriasek Saint Meriasek Saint Meriasek was a 4th century Breton saint. The legends of his life are known through Beunans Meriasek, a Cornish language play completed in 1504, and a few other sources... Saint Morwenna Morwenna Saint Morwenna was an early 6th century saint from Morwenstow in Cornwall.Her name at Marhamchurch is recorded as Marwenne and she is also the patron saint of Lamorran. Morwenna is said to have been one of the many children of King Brychan of Brycheiniog... Saint Nectan Saint Nectan Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the English county of Devon, where the prominent Church of Saint Nectan, Hartland is dedicated to him.-Life:... Saint Padarn Padarn Saint Padarn is the eponymous founder of St Padarn's Church. Llanbadarn Fawr, near present day Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales, in the early 6th century...

Saint Petroc Saint Petroc Saint Petroc is a 6th century Celtic Christian saint. He was born in Wales but primarily ministered to the Britons of Dumnonia which included the modern counties of Devon , Cornwall , and parts of Somerset and Dorset... Saint Piran Saint Piran Saint Piran or Perran is an early 6th century Cornish abbot and saint, supposedly of Irish origin.... Saint Rumonus Tavistock Abbey Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and St Rumon, was destroyed by Danish raiders in 997 and... Saint Sennen Saint Tallanus Saint Ursula Saint Ursula Saint Ursula is a British Christian saint. Her feast day in the extraordinary form calendar of the Catholic Church is October 21... Saint Wenna Saint Wenna Saint Wenna was a Cornish saint and probably a Cornish queen. She founded the church of Morval. She was known in Wales as Gwen ferch Cynyr, the daughter of Lord Cynyr Ceinfarfog of Caer Goch in Pembrokshire. She married King Salomon of Cornwall and became the mother of Saint Cybi... Saint Winwaloe Saint Winwaloe Saint Winwaloe was the founder and first Abbot of Landévennec Abbey, literally Lann of Venec, or Monastery of Winwaloe...

Books about saints by Charles Henderson

Charles G. Henderson

Charles Gordon Henderson was a historian and antiquarian of Cornwall.Charles Henderson's only quarrel with Cornwall was that it had given him no more than a quarter of his blood. His father, Major J. S. Henderson, was half Scottish and half of the Irish family of Newenham: his mother was a...

Saint Carantoc 1928 Saint Clether 1930 Saint Cuby 1929 Saint Day 1933 Saint Euny 1933 Saint Gerent, Gerendus, Gerens 1938 Saint Gudwal or Gurval 1933 Saint Mawgan 1936 Saint Melor 1927 Saint Nectan, S. Keyne and the Children of Brychan in Cornwall 1930

Saint Neot 1929 Saint Nonna 1928 Saint Perran, Saint Keverne, & Saint Kerrian 1931 Saint Petrock 1938 Saint Rumon and Saint Ronan 1939 Saint Selevan 1928 Saint Senan 1928 Saint Sezni 1928 Saint Tudy 1929 Saint Winnoc 1940

Further reading

• Orme, Nicholas (1996) English Church Dedications: With a Survey of Cornwall and Devon, University of Exeter Press ISBN 0859895165
• Ellis, P. B. (1992) The Cornish Saints. Penryn: Tor Mark Press (A brief basic guide giving accounts of 120 saints)
• Bowen, E. G. (1954) The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press
• Baring-Gould, S.; Fisher, John (1907–13) Lives of the British Saints: the saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish saints as have dedications in Britain. 4 vols. London: For the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, by C. J. Clark
• Rees, W. J. (ed.) (1853) Lives of the Cambro British Saints: of the fifth and immediate succeeding centuries, from ancient Welsh & Latin mss. in the British Museum and elsewhere, with English translations and explanatory notes. Llandovery: W. Rees
• Wade-Evans, A. W. (ed.) (1944). Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae. Cardiff: University of Wales Press Board. (Lives of saints: Bernachius, Brynach. Beuno. Cadocus, Cadog. Carantocus (I and II), Carannog. David, Dewi sant. Gundleius, Gwynllyw. Iltutus, Illtud. Kebius, Cybi. Paternus, Padarn. Tatheus. Wenefred, Gwenfrewi.--Genealogies: De situ Brecheniauc. Cognacio Brychan. Ach Knyauc sant. Generatio st. Egweni. Progenies Keredic. Bonedd y saint.)

External links

• A - Z of saints by St Patrick's Washington DC