A LAND OF SAINTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23055, 4 December 1936, Page 20

A LAND OF SAINTS

THE HOLY CORNWALL SOME OLD HISTORIES 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," in the Daily Express. 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 During the fifth and sixth centuries, when the Romans had withdrawn from Britain, Christianity was mainly kept alive in the Celtic countries of Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany.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 there was a great deal of " saintly" 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 he 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 Dol. 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 less reliable, also contains some interesting early traditions. Fingar, who was of princely rank, 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 mas-

sacred by a local prince, who cut oft' Fingar's head with his own sword. Nothing daunted, the saint picked it up and carried it about with him for some time, until he suffered the final martyrdom which his life relates. Despite its many improbabilities, this story illustrates actual history in so far 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. That 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. ASSOCIATED WITH WELLS 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 with magic healing properties. Thus the wells of St. Buryan, St. Piran and St. Cuthbert were thought to be good for rickets. St. Uny's well in Sancreed was resorted to for sores and wounds. Another of St. Uny's wells at Redruth protected anyone baptised therein from the danger of being hanged. The well of St. Keync 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. To sift 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. Me wan, St. Austell, St. Meryn, St. Mawes, St. Clether, Sennan, 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 1500 years ago.