Celtic and Old English Saints 17 July =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Cynllo of Wales * St. Kenelm of Mercia * St. Turninus of Antwerp =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Cynllo of Wales ------------------------- 5th century. Little is known of this saint who gave his name to several churches in Wales (Benedictines). St. Kenelm (Cynehelm), King of Mercia, Martyr at Gloucester ---------------------------------------------------- Died c. 812-821. According to a popular legend of the Middle Ages, Kenelm was seven when his father, King Kenulf (Coenwulf) of Mercia, died, and he succeeded to the throne. His sister Quendreda (Cynefrith or Quoenthryth) bribed his tutor, Ascebert, to murder him in the forest of Clent so that she could claim the throne. Ascebert did, but when the body was discovered and enshrined at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, all kinds of marvels occurred at his grave. All three are actual figures, but Kenelm did not die at seven and may even have died before his father. It is certain that he lived until his adolescence and may have been killed in battle (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopaedia). He was highly honoured in England during the Middle Ages as a saint and martyr, and still is venerated at Gloucester and Winchcombe, where his relics are enshrined (Encyclopaedia, Roeder). In art, Saint Kenelm is depicted as a young prince with a blossoming rod. The picture may also contain a dove with a letter in its mouth (Roeder). St. Turninus of Antwerp ------------------------------- 8th century. Saint Turninus, an Irish monk and priest, worked as a missionary in the Netherlands with Saint Foillan, especially in the area around Antwerp, where he died. His relics were translated to Liege, where they are enshrined in a monastery on the Sambre (Benedictines, Husenbeth). Sources: ======== Attwater, D. (1983). The Penguin Dctionary of Saints, NY: Penguin Books. Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The Book of Saints. NY: Macmillan. Bentley, J. (1986). A Calendar of Saints: The Lives of the Principal Saints of the Christian Year, NY: Facts on File. Delaney, J. J. (1983). Pocket Dictionary of Saints, NY: Doubleday Image. Encyclopaedia of Catholic Saints, July. (1966). Philadelphia: Chilton Books. Husenbeth, Rev. F. C., DD, VG (ed.). (1928). Butler's Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. London: Virtue & Co. Roeder, H. (1956). Saints and Their Attributes, Chicago: Henry Regnery. For All the Saints: http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/ss-index.htm An Alphabetical Index of the Saints of the West http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/saintsa.htm These Lives are archived at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints *****************************************
