In Search of St. Piran
E.W.F. Tomlin
Lodenek Press
ISBN 9780902899995
Someone on twitter mentioned Saint Piran, and a pilgrimage to sites related to him. I do not recall having ever heard the name before and asked for some recommendations for reading. This was the first I could lay my hands on. And it is a fascinating read. The subtitle of this volume is: ‘an account of his monastic foundation at Perranzabluoe, Cornwall, and its place in the Western or Celtic Church and society.’. The volume has almost as many pages of images and plate prints as it does text.
The contents of this volume are:
Preface
I The Origin and History of St. Piran’s Oratory and the
Monastic Community associated with it
I The Fate of the Oratory-Chapel since 1895
III The Old Parish Church
IV The Latest Developments
V The Western or Celtic Church and Cornwall, and the
Nature of Early Monastic Communities
Notes
Appendix I Maps
Appendix II: Chronology
The list of Illustrations and maps it contains is:
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece The Oratory Chapel as excavated
(before the building of the concrete shell)
St. Piran’s Cross
The oratory-chapel, 1910
The stone head, said to represent St. Piran
Three stone figureheads
Artist’s impression of St. Piran’s altar stone
Ground plan of the oratory-chapel, by Michell
Letter to the West Briton, by Michell, 1835
The oratory-chapel from the south (Haslam)
The oratory-chapel, exterior (Haslam)
South door of oratory-chapel (Haslam)
Haslam’s altar slab
Interior of oratory-chapel (Dexter)
Oratory-chapel with bulkhead (Dexter)
North and East walls, oratory-chapel, 1910
The restored altar, oratory-chapel, 1910
Interior of oratory-chapel before 1910
The oratory-chapel under concrete cover
Site of the oratory-chapel, 1981, marked by commemoration stone
The Old Parish church with cottage (Haslam)
Exterior of North wall of chancel, Old Parish church (Dexter)
The excavated chancel, Old Parish church (Dexter)
Sketch of Chancel, Old Parish church (Dexter)
Present Parish church, Lambourne
The Hoskyn tablet, present Parish church (removed from the old
Parish church)
Perran Round: the adapted iron-age fort
Hypothetical plan of monastic site.
Maps
The Saints, Route from Ireland to Brittany
The Pilgrims, Way
The Manor of Tywarnhayle
I highlighted a few passages while working through this volume and some of them are:
“This is not a guide to the Oratory of St. Piran. It is rather an attempt to provide the visitor or the general reader with a brief account of its long history, its vicissitudes, and its place in the Western or Celtic Church and Society. For in view of what has happened in the past, and what is taking place in the present, there attaches to it, in Nikolaus Pevsner’s words, ‘‘something of great historical poignancy’’.”
“Until recently, St. Piran’s Oratory (sometimes called ‘The Lost Church’) was held to be “the oldest place of Christian worship in England (sic) with parts of its four walls still standing’’. If this description were correct, the present oratory, or the ruin now hidden from the public, would date from the 6th or the early 7th century; and it might reasonably be supposed to have been built by St. Piran himself and his companions. Strictly speaking, the word “oratory” is a misnomer.”
“Recent archaeological opinion suggests that very few chapels in the country, and probably none in Comwall, antedate the 8th century. What remains of St. Piran’s oratory-chapel must therefore be assigned to a later and perhaps to more than one century, and the oldest part may be either 9th or 10th century, though a date not far from 800 is not impossible. On the other hand, the present building, such as it is, almost certainly stands on the site of the original chapel of St. Piran, which was probably erected in the 6th century, and it may preserve its original form.”
“So much we can say with confidence, because there is every reason to suppose that St. Piran was an historical figure. And if, as we may assume, he founded the monastic community associated with his name, the entire site remains of considerable interest.”
“Who was St. Piran? He was probably born in the first half of the 6th century, and he may have lived into the 7th century. As a means of taking our historical bearings, it is worth recalling that when he set up his mission on the north Cornish coast, none of the great cathedrals of Europe existed, but that between 532 and 537 the Byzantine Emperor at Constantinople, Justinian, was building the magnificent church of the Holy Wisdom (Santa Sophia), which antedates by many centuries St. Peter’s Rome, and that about 530 he was building — or rather rebuilding — the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem.”
“Although the region in which he settled may have been wild and desolate, it did not lack some form of local organisation. In fact, St. Piran was born a subject of the kingdom of Dumnonia, a loosely organised British realm covering approximately the Cornish peninsula, present-day Devonshire, and perhaps Somerset up to the river Parrett.”
“A century later, Bede (c. 673—735), who relied on Gildas to some extent, and who might be regarded as having a better claim to be called the Father of British History, was remarkably well informed about events both in his own country and in Europe — where he himself enjoyed a high reputation — and even in a land as remote as Palestine.”
I believe those few quotes will give you a feel for the volume. The information on the back of the book states:
“E.W.F. TOMLIN is the author of a number of books on philosophical, literary and historical subjects. He has known Cornwall since his childhood and is a student of Celtic history and culture. He has held professorships in the United States and in France. For his earlier career in the public service he was awarded the OBE in 1959 and the CBE in 1965. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
This study of St. Piran is addressed to the general reader and to those who wish to pursue the subject. It concludes with an essay on the Celtic Church which places the monastery of St. Piran in its historical context and lends the work an added dimension of interest.”
And though this volume was a fascinating read to be honest it left me wanting more. I want to know more about the man, his ministry, his mission. As much as this volume provided some answers it left even more unanswered. If the name of the saint picked your interest this could be a good starting point. I myself am off to look at some volume on Welsh saints looking for more about this saint.
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