St Uny’s Church, Lelant, Cornwall
The Sunday nearest the calends of February, which in this case happened to be yesterday (the second of February), is kept as the feast day of Saint Ia’s brother, Saint Euny of Lelant. Unfortunately, little information at all exists of this saint’s life, but his cultus is particularly strong in Cornwall, with five separate attested sites of veneration. The foremost of these is his resting-place at Lelant.
Saint Euny [also Uny, Ewny, Euinus or Euninus] is attested, as mentioned before, as the brother of Saint Ia and Saint Erc. This would place his birth sometime in the latter half of the fifth century, and his repose possibly in the mid sixth century. It would also mean that he was an Irish missionary to Britain and likely to have been a student and disciple of Saint Padrig. Also, based on the fact that his feast-day has been kept constantly on a local basis for fourteen hundred years, it seems reasonable to assume that the first of February really is the anniversary of his death.
Other than that, we know very little for sure about Euny, except that his missionary and church-founding activities seemed to be centred on Penrith and Kerrier. At Lelant, the place of his repose, there is St Uny’s Church, as well as the Færie Well – his holy well. There is also St Euny’s Church in Redruth. He has a holy well at Merther Euny near Trevenen (the Brythonic toponym implying that he may have been martyred there), two holy wells at Carn Euny near Sancreed (whose waters had the gift of curing wounds and lesions of the skin), and a fourth just below Carn Brea.
Carn Brea is a particularly interesting place in Cornwall, and one of peculiar antiquity. It’s the site of a Neolithic tor enclosure dating back 5900 years, and a settlement dating back nearly as long with two or more long-houses. Between 100 and 200 people would have lived there. Archæological digs have unearthed axe-heads, coins (including Gaulish gold staters) and other artefacts which date back to the Stone Age and as recently as Roman times. It is supposed based on local lore that Saint Euny visited Carn Brea when it was still ruled as a heathen holy site by a Romano-British chieftain, and performed a wonder of God that resulted in or was commemorated by the holy well there.
He may also have visited Brittany. His sister, Saint Ia, is commemorated in Finistère with the toponym of Plouyé. Likewise, Saint Euny may have given the village of Plévin in Côtes d’Armor its name. His name was a common one for christening young boys in Cornwall down the centuries. Holy Saint Euny, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
St Euny’s Church, Redruth, Cornwall
No comments:
Post a Comment