Saint Petroc of Cornwall

Having just read about "Katholic Kernow" (Catholic Cornwall) in Lest We Be Damned, I was happy to see that St. Petroc of Cornwall's feast is today. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Church of England, and the Orthodox Church.

In fact, I will cite the post from the Orthodox Christianity website for Saint Petroc:

Cornwall, the peninsula in the south-west of England and now one of 48 ceremonial English counties, was in ancient times a part of the kingdom of Dumnonia, which comprised territories of the present-day counties of Cornwall, Devon and part of Somerset and Dorset. The Gospel was brought to Cornwall in the fifth century or even earlier, and monastic life began there in 475. At that time Cornwall became known as “the land of saints” or “the Thebaid of saints”. Indeed, between the fifth and seventh centuries Cornwall produced so many saints, ascetics, hermits, abbots, missionaries, holy bishops and kings, that nearly each town and village in the region has its own patron-saint.

Christian life and the monastic tradition of Cornwall were similar to those of Wales and Brittany and many ascetic customs were indeed derived from the desert fathers of Egypt, the “Thebaid”, and Syria. Unfortunately, the lives of many ancient Cornish saints were lost at the Norman Conquest or else after the Reformation. And today, though veneration for them continues and many churches and holy wells are dedicated to them, we can say very little about most of these saints. The most venerated saint in Cornwall, who is considered to be one of the main enlighteners of Dumnonia, is St. Petroc (Petrock/Peter), who together with the Archangel Michael and St. Piran, has for many years been the patron-saint of Cornwall. Though two later medieval versions of his life are not very reliable, they are mainly based on ancient traditions, so we can outline the major events and activities of his life.

Please read the rest there, as the post includes many excellent pictures of the Church of St. Petroc in Bodmin. The stained glass window pictured above--public domain--is from St. Petroc in Bodmin, now an Anglican church. Of course, it was a Catholic church before the English Reformation, and was the abbey church of an Augustinian Priory of the Canons Regular of the Lateran (the Priory of Saint Mary). That priory was suppressed in 1538 and all the buildings except the church destroyed. Thomas Sternhold, Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII and translator of 51 of the Psalms into metrical English, received the land. The ruins of a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas Becket still stand precariously on the grounds of the Anglican parish.

The Canons Regular of the Lateran left England after the suppression and did not return until 1884 to establish a new Priory in Bodmin, also named Saint Mary's, granted that status in 1953. Evidently, however, the canons left Bodmin for Birmingham and St. Michael's Church at the request of Archbishop Longley in 2013. The site for the parish church of St. Mary's in Bodmin is here.

I cannot let the feast of St. Petroc of Cornwall pass without mentioning the historical fantasy Brother Petroc's Return about a survivor of the Prayer Book Rebellion in Cornwall, written by S.M.C., a Cornwall native!

Saint Petroc of Cornwall, pray for us!