Nigel Pengelly recounts the life and mysteries of Cornwall’s most popular saint.
In March each year, thousands of Cornish men, women and children join in a procession across Perran Sands and take part in the annual St Piran’s Day celebrations.
St Piran is the patron saint of tinners and is regarded as Cornwall’s national saint; although historically St Piran is one ofthree patron saints of Cornwall along with St Michael and St Petroc.
So how did St Piran become so popular - the Cornish national flag is St Piran’s Cross – and who was he?
The family origins of St Piran are obscure, but the tradition that he came from Ireland is strong.
St Piran is thought to be either St Ciaran of Saighir or St Ciaran of Clonmacnoise. The father of St Ciaran of Clonmacnoise was from Cornwall. St Ciaran of Saighir has a father called Domuel who was probably Prince Dywel ap Erbin of the Royal House of Dumnonia, which included Cornwall. So both Ciarans are contenders but St Ciaran of Saighir is the more likely as records show that St Ciaran of Clonmacnoise died aged 32 of yellow plague.
Scriptures show that Piran spent his younger days in South Wales, where he founded a church in Caer-Teim (Cardiff).
At the monastery of St Cadog in Llancarfon, Piran met St Finnian. As Piran’s mother was Irish, the two got on well and returned together to Ireland. Finnian founded six monasteries while Piran (or Ciaran to give the name an Irish spelling) lived with St Senan on Scattery Island.
Piran was blessed with the gift of healing that brought him to the attention of Irish pagans who, jealous of his powers, tied a millstone around his neck and threw him off a cliff and into raging sea.
As Piran touched the water, the storm settled and the millstone rose to the surface. With his new-found raft, Piran set sail for Cornwall. He landed at Perran Beach, to which he gave his name.
A lover of animals, Piran’s first converts to Christianity were the creatures that flocked to his warmth.
Before long, Piran had built himself a small oratory on Penhale Sands where he performed great miracles of healing, even bringing the dead back to life.
If this didn’t make him popular enough, St Piran presented another gift to the Cornish.
Piran made a fireplace from a black rock and was amazed to find that as the flames grew hotter, a trickle of white metal seeped from the stone.
The metal was tin and, upon sharing his find, provided the Cornish with a lucrative living.
Delighted at their new source of wealth, the locals held a sumptuous feast in Piran’s honour where the wine ran like water. Piran was fond of the odd tipple and he is still remembered today in the Cornish phrase ‘as drunk as a Perraner’. The trickling white metal upon its black background remains his most enduring memorial as the white cross of St Piran on the Cornish national flag.
Piran founded churches at Perranuthno, Perranarworthal and a chapel at Tintagel.
He was joined at Perranzabuloe by many of his Christian converts and together they founded the Abbey of Lanpiran.
Piran made trips to Brittany where he became an associate of St Cai. Here, Piran is remembered at Trézélidé, St Peran, Loperan and Saint-Perran. The Arthurian tradition states that Piran became chaplain to King Arthur and was made Archbishop of Ebrauc (York). Another name associated with the saint is Mount St Piran, a mountain in Banff National Park, Canada.
Piran lived to the ripe age of 206 and died at his hermitage on March 5, but his true feast day may have been November 18, as found in the Launceston church calendar.
St Piran’s Day is very popular and the week prior to his day is called Perrantide. Many Cornish-themed events occur in the Duchy and also in areas in which there is a large community descended from Cornish emigrants. Perranporth hosts the annual inter-Celtic festival of Lowender Peran, which is also named in Piran’s honour. There are calls to make St Piran’s Day a national holiday in Cornwall, a move that some businesses and organisations are already observing.
The largest St Piran's Day event is the march across the dunes to St Piran's cross which thousands of people attend, generally dressed in black, white and gold, carrying the Cornish Flag. A play of the Life of St Piran is performed. Daffodils are also carried and placed at the cross.
St Piran’s Oratory fell victim to the encroaching sand so a church was built as a likeness of the oratory around the 10th century. This church was built on the far side of a nearby stream, safe in the knowledge that sand does not cross water.
The church grew from a modest structure to a collegiate church in the 12th century and by 14th century was receiving hundreds of pilgrims passing through on their way to Compostella in Spain.
Sand began to become a nuisance again due to mining operations draining the stream and applications were made move the church to a secure site. The last wedding was held in 1795, yet burials were still held at the old church until 1835. The church followers dismantled the tower, windows and columns to a site inland although much was left behind.
This once proud church is not just a relic of our past, it represents the hope and the pride of the Cornish people when they gather round it in massive numbers to celebrate March 5.
BOXOUT
Who stole St Piran?
St Piran became a cult and his head was kept in a silver casket in the church and his relics regularly paraded on a feretory about the countryside.
When Henry VIII’s henchmen were looting religious artefacts following the reformation, it is rumoured that the wardens of the church took the head of St Piran from the church and buried in the old oratory.
In 1920, Thurstan Peter, a Redruth solicitor undertook an excavation. Beneath the oratory floor he found a head, with dried skin still attached, contained in a five slate kist. No headless skeleton was ever found.
The skull, along with other bones and artefacts, were placed in a locked shed overnight. The next day it was discovered that the shed had been broken into and the bones stolen. Suspiciously, only the bones were taken and not the artefacts. There were three stone heads, which dated from the first Oratory and were 800 years old; valuable artefacts yet were left behind.
There has been speculation as to why these particular remains were stolen. Some believe the relics were sold to private collectors or perhaps taken to prevent them being displayed at museums. Notions of witchcraft or ritual use have also been mooted.
In time gone by, religious artefacts, especially the remains of saints, were stolen from Cornwall and taken to England to in order to consecrate new religious sites although this in unlikely to have taken place as late as 1910.
Maybe a follower of St Piran had clandestinely returned the head of St Piran back to his home in the oratory?
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