Saint Canna
Encyclopedia
Saint Canna was a 6th century mother of 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 and eventual nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

 in south Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.

Canna was supposedly a Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 princess, the daughter of King Tudur Mawr, nephew of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

. She came to Wales with her husband, Saint Sadurn, and their son, Saint Crallo. Sadurn left her, however, to become a hermit on Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

 and she remarried and became the mother of Saint Elian Geimiad. However, these details of her early life are known only from the writings of the unreliable Iolo Morganwg
Iolo Morganwg
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg , was an influential Welsh antiquarian, poet, collector, and literary forger. He was widely considered a leading collector and expert on medieval Welsh literature in his day, but after his death it was revealed that he had forged a...

. In later life, she certainly seems to have become a nun and lived at Llangan, Pembrokeshire. She also founded churches at Llangan, Glamorgan where she was deemed important enough to have her image carved into the church cross. The nearby Ffynnon Ganna, Canna's Holy Well, was a site for pilgrimage for many centuries after her death. Her name also appears as part of two Cardiff suburbs: Canton (English translation of the Welsh Treganna, 'Saint Canna's Town'); and Pontcanna
Pontcanna
Pontcanna is a western district of the city of Cardiff, Wales. Its area is bounded approximately by Llandaff Fields to the north, the Riverside district and Cowbridge Road to the south, the River Taff to the west and the district of Canton to the east.Pontcanna is a very well to do area of wide...

 (Welsh for 'Canna's Bridge'). Canna's Feast day is celebrated on the 25 October.

A Masonic Lodge No. 6725, within South Wales Eastern
South East Wales
South East Wales is a loosely-defined region of Wales generally corresponding to the former counties of South Glamorgan, Mid Glamorgan and Monmouthshire...

Division, is named after Saint Canna.
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