The English county of Cornwall is dotted with villages and
small towns that take their names from long-forgotten Celtic saints. One of
these is St Mawes, on the eastern side of the Fal estuary, that is noted for
its 16th century castle.
The stories of saints such as Mawes date from the “dark
ages” between the departure of the Romans and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons,
and owe much to oral tradition. The extent to which they are legend as opposed
to fact is therefore a matter for conjecture.
Mawes was supposed to have born, in the 6th century, in a
barrel floating in the sea after his pregnant mother had been thrown in it off
the cliffs of Brittany. Five months later mother and child were washed up on
the coast of Ireland. What proportion of legend to fact would you assign so
far?
When he grew up, Mawes decided to return to Brittany but
visited Cornwall en route, which is where he founded the community now named
after him. He gathered several followers during his activity of open-air preaching,
and these followed him across to Brittany where he landed on a small island
(Ile Modez) that became the site for a monastic community.
Mawes is reputed to have rid the island of snakes and other
vermin by burning off all the dry vegetation, although this would presumably
also have killed many creatures that could not be considered vermin, so whether
this action should be applauded is debatable. There is also a question over
whether this legend has simply been attached to St Mawes because of his Irish
connection, with St Patrick having already been credited with ridding Ireland
of snakes.
Another legend, which is also highly dubious, concerns what
happened when the last fire on the island was accidentally extinguished. Mawes
sent a boy to walk across to the nearby mainland at low tide to fetch a flame.
As he came back, the boy was caught by the incoming tide and took refuge on a
rock. He prayed fervently and the rock rose up out of the sea to keep the boy
alive and the flame from going out. Believe that one if you like!
© John Welford
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