Righteous Custennin of Cornwall, King of Dumnonia

Ruin of St Constantine’s Chapel, St Meryn, Cornwall

Given the identical names, the feast-days which are only two days apart and their overlapping fields of activity, it is little wonder that the saint for today, the ninth of March, Saint Custennin of Cornwall, is often confused with the much-younger Saint Custennin of Strathclyde and Gowan, the son of Rhydderch Hael. Indeed, it seems that the hagiographies of the two Saint Custennins are muddled in a nearly-hopeless fashion, and that a great deal of careful effort and discernment has been needed by a number of people over the centuries to untangle the knot. Even now there are elements of these hagiographies which are confused! At any rate, these are two separate people, and therefore a separate treatment is needed for each.

Custennin was born to Cado, a British sub-king of Dumnonia whom tradition holds to have been one of the trusted retainers and close kin of the high king Arthur. Both Cado and his teenage son were said to have fought at the Gwaith Camlan in which Arthur was mortally wounded by his treacherous nephew Medrawd. Cado also perished in the fighting, and Arthur supposedly entrusted his crown to the young Custennin before he was carried off the field.

Custennin ruled at first, to all appearances, as a tyrant. He was criticised in particular by Saint Gildas the Historian, who called him ‘the unclean whelp of the lioness of Dumnonia’. The reason for Gildas’s rebuke was an incident in which Custennin disguised himself as a bishop to gain entrance to a church, where his two young nephews were kept in hiding. Having gained entrance to the church, Custennin slew the two infants to secure his claim to the high kingship. Later hagiographers slightly exculpate this blasphemous act of kinslaying murder in the sanctuary of the Church, by making these nephews out to be the children of Medrawd.

The following point may be a commonality between the two Saint Custennins, or it may be an instance of the confusion of their hagiographies. Custennin of Dumnonia’s wife passed away when he was an elderly man. This led the grieving elder Custennin to begin reflecting on his own mortality, and taking more seriously the consolations of Christ’s death and resurrection. It led him to a drastic change in character and a sincere repentance for his sins. One day while he was out hunting a deer, the animal took shelter in the cell of Saint Pedrog. This is a commonplace trope of many Celtic hagiographies, yet nonetheless it appears that Custennin did become acquainted with the hermit, and that Saint Pedrog left a profound impression on the king. It was on Pedrog’s account that Custennin converted to Christianity.

Legend has it that he co-founded with Saint Pedrog his monastery at Padstow. Custennin gave Pedrog his ivory hunting horn, left the kingdom in the hands of his son Bledrig, and took up the monastic life. While a monk at Padstow in discipline under Padrig (and possibly before, while he was lately still king), Custennin apparently took up with zeal the cause of founding new churches. There are churches dedicated to the memory of Saint Custennin in St Meryn (where his holy well also once was), in Constantine and in Illogan.

The repentant king, who had willingly abdicated and relinquished his crown, left Padstow and found his way to Mynyw where he sought out Dewi Sant, possibly with Saint Pedrog’s recommendation. He lived as a monk at Mynyw for many years, and founded churches at Cosheston and Cosmeston near Cardiff (now a reënactment village). Saint Custennin lived out the rest of his days in Dyfed, though it is possible that he preached in Galloway and was martyred by brigands in Kintyre. Here too is another point of confusion, as Kintyre was close indeed to where the Cumbrian saint, Custennin ap Rhydderch Hael, did much of his missionary work. The year of the Cornish Saint Custennin’s repose is given as 576, and his feast-day is kept on the ninth of March. Righteous Custennin, repentant king and humble monk, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!