CORNISH SAINTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1936, Page 4

CORNISH SAINTS

STORY OF THE RACE-NAMES. It is an old saying that “ there are more saints in Cornwall than there are in Heaven," writes A. K. Hamilton Jenkin, author of "The Cornish .Miner.” A visitor to the duchy observing the number of places beginning with the prefix ‘ St. might almost feel disposed to grant this. Though the majority of these saints are not, strictly speaking. Cornish, they are nearly all .of Celtic origin, which accounts for their unfamiliar names. During the fifth and sixth centuries, when the Romans had withdrawn from Britain. Christianity was mainly kept alive in the Celtic countries of Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. Between these centres •■here was a great deal of "saintly’ 1 coming and going, for each appears to have grave doubts (and in many cases not without reason.) of the other’s orthodoxy. The story of St. Sampson, who was a Welshman, illustrates this. About the

year 521 it is said that, an angel appeared to him in a vision counselling him to go overseas. Accordingly he took ship and landed near Padstow. Despite the fact that Cornwall at this time was professedly Christian, the saint, on his way across the county, came upon a crowd of people worshipping an abominable image. By a miracle lie persuaded them all to be baptised and thereupon commemorated his triumph over paganism by cutting a cross in a rock which stood nearby. From Cornwall he passed over to Brittany, where he founded the great cathedral church of Doi. This story, which dates from the seventh century, is regarded by scholars as being, in the main, authentic. A MIRACULOUS COW. The life of the Irish St. Fingar, or Gwinear as he became known in Cornwall, though les reliable, also contains some interesting early traditions. Fingar, who was of princely lank, set out from Ireland accompanied by no fewer than 777 men and seven bishops. A holy virgin named la, the founder of St. Ives, who had intended to sail with them, perhaps fortunately for herself, missed the boat and floated over on a leaf instead. The main party landed at. the Hayle River in West Cornwall. Here a. good woman pulled the thatch off her house to make them beds and offered them her only cow as food. By a, miracle Fingar subsequently restored the cow to life . whereafter she yielded three times as much milk as before and became the ancestress of a prolific breed. At length the whole party was massacred by a local prince, who cut off Fingar’s head with his own sword. Nothing daunted the saint picked it up ma carried it about with him for some time, until he suffered the final martryrdom which his life relates. Despite its many improbabilities, this story illustrates actual history iu so

tar as it shows the incursions of Irish, Welsh and Breton saints to Cornwall, and the subsequent clashes with the native chieftain which resulted either in his conversion or their martyrdom. 1 hat many of these early missionaries obtained permanent footing is shown by the dedications to Welsh or Irish saints which are so frequent in the churches of the Land’s End and the north coast. On the southern shore, as might be expected, and particularly in the Lizard district, the names of Breton saints predominate. In many cases the saints are also associated with existing “holy wells,” adjoining which they originally established their little oratories long before the present churches were built In the days when cleanliness came a very bad second to godliness, the water of these wells was commonly regarded as having been endowed by the saint xvitli magic healing properties,

THE HEALING WELL. Thus the wells of St. Buryan, St. I’iran and St. Cuthbert were thought to be good for rickets. St. LTiy’s well u Sancreed was resorted to for sores and wounds. Another of St. Uny’s wells at Redruth, prevented anyone baptised therein from the danger of being hanged. The well of St. Keyne was said to endow the husband or wife who first drank of it after marriage with the mastery throughout life. Such is the triumph of hope over experience that even widowers have been known to bring a bottle of its waters to church upon marrying for the second time.

'J o silt out the true story of the saints from these popular accretions is the work of scholars. Slowly that work is being done and to-day St. Mewan, St. Austell, St. Meryn, St. Alawes, .St. Clether, Sennen, Budoc, Crantock, Slithney and a score of others are more than just lovely names upon the map of Cornwall. As a. result of patient research we now know something of the actual lives of those men and women who by lonely hill tops and rocky headlands upheld the Christian faith in Cornwall 15'10 years ago. I