Saint Mabyn | |
|---|---|
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| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Anglican Communion |
| Feast | 18 November |
| Patronage | St Mabyn |
Mabyn, also known as Mabena, Mabon, etc., was a medieval Cornish saint. According to local Cornish tradition she was one of the many children of Brychan, king of Brycheiniog in Wales in the 5th century. The village and civil parish of St Mabyn is named for her, and the local St Mabyn Parish Church is dedicated to her.
The earliest known source to mention Mabyn is the 12th-century Cornish Latin Life of Saint Nectan . She appears in the appended list of the various children of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, which includes Nectan himself and many other saints. [1] Brychan and his saintly children appear earlier in Welsh sources and were known also in Ireland and Brittany, though none of these sources mention Mabyn. [2] The fact that the Life includes Mabyn alongside several other saints with churches dedicated to them in the West Country suggests that St Mabyn Parish Church was already established when the list was written. [1]
There are several later medieval references to Mabyn and her church, but they offer little information about her, and two sources even describe her as a man. [1] Sabine Baring-Gould suggested that the true founder of St Mabyn's Church was actually the male Welsh saint Mabon, supposedly a brother of Saint Teilo and the founder of Llanvabon, and that the attribution to a female Mabyn came about after the true history had been lost. [3] At any rate the associations of Mabyn with the family of Brychan as it appears in the Life of Saint Nectan proved quite strong in Cornish tradition, and apparently survived until at least the 16th century. Nicholas Roscarrock records hearing, from people alive at the time St Mabyn Church was rebuilt around 1500, that at that time a "song or hymn" to Mabyn was sung that corresponded strongly with the list in the Life. He further records her feast day as 18 November. [1]
Mabyn is depicted in a 1523 (or 1528) [4] stained glass window in the local church in the nearby village of St Neot, which lies to the east of the village. The window portrays her wearing robes and a crown, carrying a book and a palm branch, a symbol of martyrdom. [1] She is one of six local Cornish saints to appear in the north-aisle windows, while those of the south aisle were reserved for internationally renowned saints and subjects of a more didactic nature. [5] Five of these six saints used to appear on windows donated by three single-sex associations: the wives of the western part of the parish, the "sisters" (probably unmarried women) and the young men. The wives were the donors of St Mabyn's window, which also features St Meubred of Cardinham. [4]
A credence table which survives at St Mabyn may originally have been the panel of a tomb raised in Mabyn's honour. [6] It is possible that all her sisters had tombs erected for them. [6]
Wenna was a medieval princess and Christian martyr who flourished in Wales and Cornwall. Later venerated as a saint, she is honored at multiple churches in Cornwall and Devon.
Breage or Breaca is a saint venerated in Cornwall and South West England. According to her late hagiography, she was an Irish nun of the 5th or 6th century who founded a church in Cornwall. The village and civil parish of Breage in Cornwall are named after her, and the local Breage Parish Church is dedicated to her. She is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church.
Brychan Brycheiniog was a legendary 5th-century king of Brycheiniog in Mid Wales.
St Mabyn is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated three miles (5 km) east of Wadebridge. The parish includes a hamlet called Longstone to the east and many small manor houses, including Tregarden, Tredethy, Helligan Barton and Colquite, all built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The area of the parish is 4,101 acres (16.60 km2).
Veep is the Cornish saint for whom the village and parish of St Veep were named.
Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time Brythonic-speaking, county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland is dedicated to him.
Melor was a 10th-century Breton saint who, in England, was venerated in Cornwall and at Amesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, which claimed some of his relics.
Morwenna is the eponymous patron saint of Morwenstow, a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, UK. Her name is thought to be cognate with Welsh morwyn "maiden", although the first name is also used in Wales and Brittany and said to be composed of "Mor" and "Gwenn", meaning "White sea" in both Welsh and Breton.
Trethevy is a hamlet in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
Saint Endelienta was a Cornish saint of the 5th and 6th century. She is believed to be a daughter of the Welsh King Brychan, and a native of South Wales who travelled to North Cornwall to join her siblings in converting the locals to Christianity. Legend says that she was a goddaughter of King Arthur, and that she lived as a hermit at Trentinney where she subsisted on the milk of a cow. The saint is commemorated in the church and village of St Endellion which bear her name; Endellion being an Anglicised version of her name. Her feast day is 29 April.
St Mabyn Church is a Grade I listed late 15th-century Church of England parish church in St Mabyn, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The church is dedicated to Saint Mabyn or Mabena, who was regarded in local tradition as one of the many children of Brychan, a Welsh saint and King of Brycheiniog in the 5th century.
Elwen was the name of an early saint or saints venerated in Cornwall and Brittany. The hagiographical material asserts that he came to Cornwall from Ireland in the company of Breage and six others, but this is attested late. A chapel at Porthleven in Sithney parish, Cornwall, dedicated to Elwen, existed from the 13th century until 1549, and in Brittany several sites and placenames are associated with possibly related figures.
Isfael or Ismael, often anglicised as Ishmael, was a 6th-century medieval Welsh bishop of Rhos and saint. He was allegedly also a Breton prince of Armorica.
Saint Enodoc, originally Wenedoc, was a sub-Roman Pre-congregational saint of Cornwall.
Saint Enoder, was a 5th-century Cornish saint from Brecknockshire in South Wales. He is venerated in the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.
Adwen or Adwenna was a 5th-century Christian virgin and saint. She is recorded as a daughter of Brychan, king of Brycheiniog in south Wales, in the Cornish Life of Saint Nectan and in Robert Hunt's collection of Cornish legends. These sources associate her with the establishment of the parish of Advent in Cornwall.
Tetha, also known as Teath, Tecla, and by a variety of other names, was a 5th-century virgin and saint in Wales and Cornwall. She is associated with the parish church of St Teath in Cornwall. Baring-Gould gives her feast day as 27 October, but this has been called a mistaken conflation with Saint Ia. In 1878, it was held on the movable feast of Whit Tuesday. Other sources place it on 1 May, 6 September, and (mistakenly) 15 January. It is no longer observed by either the Anglican or Catholic church in Wales.
Mybbard and Mancus were two Cornish saints of the 6th century.
