CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. II. — S. PETROCK. 9 



monastery which those holy men helped to establish occupied the 

 site of Petrock's former cell, and must have been an institution of 

 considerable magnitude as well as zeal, for no less than twelve 

 ancient Churches in Devon and Cornwall owe their foundation to 

 it, and are even now called by, or associated with the name of S. 

 Petrock.* After his death, his memory was gratefully revered ; 

 and when centuries had gone by, and superstition had mingled 

 with the simplicity of the early faith, a beautiful shrine in the 

 parish Church of Bodmin marked the place of his interment, and 

 pilgrimages were, wont to be made to it for the adoration of his 

 relics. In such estimation were they held, that in the year 1177 

 a Canon of the Abbey of Bodmin, by name Martinus, stole the 

 bones of the Saint and carried them to the Abbey of Mevennus 

 in Brittany ; t and, so great was the loss supposed to be, that 

 Roger, the Prior of Bodmin, went with his brethren to King 

 Henry II, and implored him to aid them in recovering the sacred 

 body. The King granted their request. A band of armed men 

 were sent to the Abbey of S, Mevennus, who insisted on the 

 restoration of the body ; and the Abbot and Monks v/ere com- 

 pelled to take an oath on the relics belonging to their Church, 

 that they had not retained any part of the remains, but had re- 

 stored them unaltered and complete. They were doubtless brought 

 back to the scene of the Saint's early devotions and final labours, 

 and restored to their early tomb ; and, though no vestige of the 

 sepulchre now remains, the place will always preserve the memory 

 of the holy man, and Cornwall will evermore enrol his name 

 amongst the greatest and best of her Christian heroes. 



in Irish, "Kevin." Ecc : Hist: of Ireland, Vol. 2, p. 46. The name, in 

 fact, is sometimes written " Keivin." Leland and Whitaker assert that he 

 was identical with Piran ; but Dr. Borlase argues that he must have been a 

 different person, chiefly on the ground that different parents are ascribed to 

 them. He adds also that in Domesday Perranzabuloe is called Lanpiran ; 

 whereas S. Keverne is called Lannachebran, i.e., Lan-a-Chebran, the Church 

 of Chebran. There were formerly considerable ruins to be seen near the 

 parish Church of S. Keverne, at a place called Tregonin, which, according to 

 tradition, were the remains of an old Chapel and Priory. Leland's Itin : III, 

 24. — Whitaker'' s Cathedral of Cornwall, II, 10. — Borlase, 388. 



* They are, in Cornwall : Padstow, Bodmin, Little Petherick or S. 

 Petrock Minor, and Tfevalga ; and in Devon : West Anstey, South Brent, 

 Clannaborough, S. Petrock, HoUacombe, Lidford, Newton S. Petrock, and 

 Petrockstow. — Lobineau informs us that Petrock is the titular saint of a 

 Church in France also. 



f Roger de Hoveden. Benedictus Abbas. 



