Rumon of Tavistock

Last updated

Saint

Rumon of Tavistock
Died6th century
Venerated in Catholic Church
Anglican Communion
Orthodox Church
Canonized Pre-Congregation
Major shrine Abbey of St Mary & St Rumon (destroyed)
Feast 5 January (translation of relics)
1 June (Brittany)
22 July (Ireland)
28 August (England)
30 August (Western Orthodox)
Patronage Tavistock, Devon, England
Romansleigh, England
ControversyIdentity

Rumon of Tavistock (also Ronan, Ruadan, or Ruan) is a saint venerated in the traditions of the Catholic, Anglican Communion, and Western Orthodox churches.

Contents

Biography

Rumon was likely a missionary originally from Ireland. [1] According to Alban Butler, Rumon was a bishop, though it is not known of what see.

Antiquary John Leland said that a manuscript discovered at Tavistock at the time of the dissolution claimed that Rumon emigrated from Ireland in the fifth or sixth century and established a hermitage near Falmouth, Cornwall.

Some authorities believe him to be the same historical figure as Ronan who is venerated in Brittany on 1 June. [2] A "Life of St. Rumon", likely written at Tavistock sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, adapts the Life of St. Ronan. Historian Nicholas Orme considers the only accurate part is that pertaining to Ruan Lanihorne and Tavistock. [3] A sanctum vita of Rumon in a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Ducal Library of Gotha, Germany is also based on a tenth-century Life of the Breton saint Ronan. Portions of this text relating to Rumon are quoted in the fourteenth-century Catalogus sanctorum in Anglia pausancium, a list of the resting places of English saints. [4]

Veneration

St. Rumon Church, Ruan Lanihorne RuanLanihorneChruchCornwallUk.jpg
St. Rumon Church, Ruan Lanihorne

In 974, Ordulf, Earl of Devon, established the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon at Tavistock. [5] On 981, the relics of Rumon, minus his head, were translated from the Celtic monastery at Ruan Lanihorne to Tavistock. [6]

Henry I of England granted the abbey the privilege of a fair for three days at the feast of St. Rumon. [7]

In the Catholic Church, the feast of Saint Rumon is observed on various dates in different British locations. The translation of Saint Rumon is celebrated on 5 January in both the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. [8] The Holy Hierarch Rumon is venerated on 30 August according to the Julian Calendar in Western Orthodoxy.

Rumon is the patron of Tavistock and Romansleigh [9] in Devon and of Ruan Lanihorne in Cornwall. Ruan celebrates its patronal festival every year on the last Sunday in August. [10]

Rumon is depicted as a bishop in a stained glass window in the Lady Chapel of St Eustachius' Church, Tavistock. [11] Several churches in Devon and Cornwall are named after him [12] as well as the village of Romansleigh.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Piran</span> Cornish abbot and saint

Piran or Pyran, died c. 480, was a 5th-century Cornish abbot and saint, possibly of Irish origin. He is the patron saint of tin-miners, and is also generally regarded as the patron saint of Cornwall, although Michael and Petroc also have some claim to this title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tavistock</span> Town in Devon, England

Tavistock is an ancient stannary and market town and civil parish in the West Devon district, in the county of Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy, from which its name derives. At the 2011 census, the three electoral wards had a population of 13,028. The town traces its recorded history back to at least 961 when Tavistock Abbey, whose ruins lie in the centre of the town, was founded. Its most famous son is Sir Francis Drake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Petroc</span> Sub-Roman abbot and saint

Petroc or Petrock was a British prince and Christian saint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brychan</span> Welsh king and saint

Brychan Brycheiniog was a legendary 5th-century king of Brycheiniog in Mid Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)</span>

March 4 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - March 6

Kea was a late 5th-century British saint from the Hen Ogledd —the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. According to tradition he was chiefly active in Cornwall, Devon and Brittany, and his cult was popular in those regions as well as throughout Wales and the West Country. Fili or Filius, to whom the parish church of Philleigh is dedicated, probably came from Wales and is said to have been a companion of Kea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruan Lanihorne</span> Village and civil parish in south Cornwall, England

Ruan Lanihorne is a civil parish and village in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles (6.5 km) east-southeast of Truro between the River Fal and its tributary the Ruan River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Lide</span>

Lide, also known as Elide or Elidius, is a saint associated with the early medieval Christian settlement at St Helen's, Isles of Scilly. The ecclesiastical foundation on St Helen's was first attested in writing in the 12th century as "the island of St Elidius" when it was granted to Tavistock Abbey. The site was a pilgrimage destination throughout the medieval period, and Pope Pius II granted an indulgence to visitors of "the chapel of St Elidius". William Worcester in 1478 described him as a bishop and son of a king, and wrote that his feast was celebrated at Tavistock Abbey on 8 August.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audomar</span> Bishop of Thérouanne

Audomar, better known as Omer, was a bishop of Thérouanne, after whom nearby Saint-Omer in northern France was named. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tavistock Abbey</span> Ruined Benedictine abbey in Devon, England

Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. The Abbey was surrendered in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 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 rebuilt under Lyfing, the second abbot. The church was further rebuilt in 1285 and the greater part of the abbey between 1457 and 1458.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ia of Cornwall</span> Cornish evangelist, saint, and martyr

Ia of Cornwall was an evangelist and martyr of the 5th or 6th centuries, flourishing in the area of St Ives, Cornwall. She is said to have been an Irish princess, the sister of Erc of Slane.

Juthwara or Jutwara was a virgin and martyr from Dorset. According to her legend, she was an eighth-century Saxon, and sister to Sidwell, though some historians have theorised she was a Briton living in the sixth century. Her relics were translated to Sherborne during the reign of Ethelred the Unready. Nothing further is known with certainty about her life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melor</span> Medieval Breton saint

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.

Branwalator or Breward, also referred to as Branwalader, was a British saint whose relics lay at Milton Abbas in Dorset and Branscombe in Devon. Believed to come from Brittany, he also gives his name to the parish of Saint Brélade, Jersey. "Brelade" is a corruption of "Branwalader". He is also known as Breward or Branuvelladurus or Brélade and Broladre in French.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Cornwall</span> History of Christianity

Christianity in Cornwall began in the 4th or 5th century AD when Western Christianity was introduced as in the rest of Roman Britain. Over time it became the official religion, superseding previous Celtic and Roman practices. Early Christianity in Cornwall was spread largely by the saints, including Saint Piran, the patron of the county. Cornwall, like other parts of Britain, is sometimes associated with the distinct collection of practices known as Celtic Christianity but was always in communion with the wider Catholic Church. The Cornish saints are commemorated in legends, churches and placenames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Credan</span> 8th-century abbot of Evesham Abbey and saint

Saint Credan of Evesham is a saint in the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is also known in Latin as Credus or Credanus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)</span>

August 29 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - August 31

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Teilo</span> Early medieval Welsh bishop and saint

Saint Teilo, also known by his Cornish name Eliud, was a British Christian monk, bishop, and founder of monasteries and churches. He was from Penalun (Penally) near Tenby in Pembrokeshire, south Wales.

Robert de Champeaux was the abbot of Tavistock Abbey, Devon, England from April 1285 to 1325. He was known for his "piety and zeal for improvement" and has been described as probably "the greatest and wisest" of "the abbots in the later monastic period".

References

  1. Hunter-Blair, Oswald. "Tavistock Abbey." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 5 December 2021 PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  2. "Keltic Kalendar", in The Cornish Church Guide. Truro: Blackford; pp. 9-16
  3. Orme, Nicholas. The Saints of Cornwall OUP Oxford, 2000, p. 226 ISBN   9780191542893
  4. Jankulak, Karen (2000). The Medieval Cult of St Petroc. Studies in Celtic history. Vol. 19. Boydell & Brewer. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-85115-777-1.
  5. Freeman, Mary (2012). "Ordulf's Shadow in Tavistock". In Bliss, Jane; et al. (eds.). Aspects of Devon History. Devon History Society. pp. 23–36. ISBN   978-0-903766-02-9.
  6. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints 5th rev. (David Farmer. ed.) OUP, 2011, ISBN   9780199596607
  7. "Notices of Tavistock and its Abbey", The Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 100, Edw. Cave, February 1830, p. 117
  8. "Calendar Search: January 18 / January 5". Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church: a Parish of the Moscow Patriarchate. Retrieved 30 January 2025. Translation of the relics of St. Rumon, bishop, to Tavistock.
  9. Harris, Helen. A Handbook of Devon Parishes, Tiverton. Halsgrove, 2004, p. 142 ISBN   1-84114-314-6
  10. "Ruan Lanihorne, St Rumon". Cornwall Historic Churches Trust.
  11. "The stained glass of Tavistock, St Eustachius". Cornish Stained Glass.
  12. Anna Powell-Smith. "Tavistock (St Mary & St Rumon), abbey of | Domesday Book". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 2 August 2018.

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Tavistock Abbey". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.