Wilgyth of Cholsey was a 6th-century Catholic female saint [1] from Anglo-Saxon England who was venerated locally in Berkshire. [2]
Wilgyth of Cholsey was a 6th-century Catholic female saint [1] from Anglo-Saxon England who was venerated locally in Berkshire. [2]
Very little is known of the life of this saint who is known to history through the hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript, [3] and Manuscript R.7.13. held in Trinity College (Cambridge) Library. [4]
She had a (step)brother Bana, founder of a monastery at Le Relecq-Kerhuon in France, and sisters Saints Juthwara and Sidwell, [5] and Eadwara (possibly a nickname of Juthwara [6] ) She possibly had other brothers, Paul Aurelian [7] a bishop, Gulval another saint, [8] [9] Pautel and Nautel. [10] If a sister of Paul Aurelian, she would have been the daughter of a Cornish/Welsh chieftain named Perphirius from Penychen in Glamorgan. Legend holds that her mother died while she was quite young and that following the later death of her father, two of her sisters were murdered by her stepmother.
Samson of Dol was a Welsh saint, who is also counted among the seven founder saints of Brittany with Pol Aurelian, Tugdual or Tudwal, Brieuc, Malo, Patern (Paternus) and Corentin. Born in southern Wales, he died in Dol-de-Bretagne, a small town in north Brittany.
Petroc or Petrock was a British prince and Christian saint.
Salomon was a late 5th century Cornish 'warrior prince', possibly a King of Cornwall. His feast day takes place on the 18 October. He was the father of the Cornish bishop Saint Cybi.
Paul Aurelian was a 6th-century Welshman who became first bishop of the See of Léon and one of the seven founder saints of Brittany. He allegedly died in 575, rumoured to have lived to the age of 140, after having been assisted in his labors by three successive coadjutors. This suggests that several Pauls have been conflated. Gilbert Hunter Doble thought that he might have been Saint Paulinus of Wales.
Saint Meriasek was a 6th-century Cornish and Breton saint. The legends of his life are known through Beunans Meriasek, a Cornish language play known from a single surviving manuscript copy dated 1504, and a few other sources. He is the patron saint of Camborne, and according to his legendary will his feast day is the first Friday in June.
Gulval is a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Although historically a parish in its own right, Gulval was incorporated into the parishes of Ludgvan, Madron and Penzance in 1934, and is now considered to be a suburb of Penzance. Gulval still maintains its status as an ecclesiastical parish and parts of the village church date back to the 12th-century. Together with Heamoor, Gulval still retains its status as an electoral ward. The ward population at the 2011 census was 4,185.
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.
St Ewe is a civil parish and village in mid-Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, which is believed by hagiographers to have been named after the English moniker of Saint Avoye. The village is situated approximately five miles (8 km) southwest of St Austell.
Winwaloe was the founder and first abbot of Landévennec Abbey, also known as the Monastery of Winwaloe. It was just south of Brest in Brittany, now part of France.
Saint Cybi (Welsh), or Cuby (Cornish), was a 6th-century Cornish bishop, saint, and, briefly, king, who worked largely in Cornwall and North Wales: his biography is recorded in two slightly variant medieval 'lives'.
Gilbert Hunter Doble was an Anglican priest and Cornish historian and hagiographer.
St Kew is a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is also the name of the civil parish, which includes the church town, St Kew, and nearby St Kew Highway.
Erc mac Dega, also known (incorrectly) as Herygh, was an Irish saint. He was active in Cornwall. Tradition ascribes the foundation of the original monastery on the Hill of Slane to him.
Laneast is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies above the River Inny valley, about six miles (11 km) west of Launceston. The population in the 2001 census was 164, increasing to 209 at the 2011 census.
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.
Urith was a Christian woman from the Westcountry of Great Britain who was alleged to have been martyred in the 8th century, and subsequently revered as a saint. The name is still common in the English county of Devon. Her feast day is 8 July and her shrine is located in the North Devon village of Chittlehampton. Her name is also known in Latin as Hieritha and occasionally corrupted to Erth.
Sidwell was a virgin saint from the English county of Devon, She is the patron saint of Exeter and sister to Juthwara.
Beunans Meriasek is a Cornish play completed in 1504. Its subject is the legends of the life of Saint Meriasek or Meriadoc, patron saint of Camborne, whose veneration was popular in Cornwall, Brittany, and elsewhere. It was written in the Cornish language, probably written around the same time and in the same place as Bewnans Ke, the only other extant Cornish play taking a saint's life as its subject.
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.
Saint Gudwal was a Welsh bishop and confessor.