268 CORNISH DEDICATIONS, 



S. HiERETHA, "Virgin, Abbess. 



This saint had a shrine at Chittlehampton, in Devon. 

 Leland (Coll. iii, 408) says, "In vico qui Chitelhampton vocatur, 

 gta Hyeretha, virgo, quiescit." The name is locally pronounced 

 Urith. I give an account of her here, as having in all likeHhood 

 formed one of that party of Irish settlers which made 

 ecclesiastical foundations throughout the West. 



We must dismiss the idea that she is the same as Hereswith, 

 daughter of Ereric, and sister of S. Hilda, and wife of Ethelhere, 

 King of the East Angles, who was killed in 655. Hereswitha 

 died at Chelles, in Erance, in 670. Leland says that Hieretha 

 was a Virgin, and I can find no ground for associating an 

 Anglian widowed Queen with Devonshire. Had Hieretha been 

 identified with Hereswitha, Grrandisson would not have ignored 

 her in his Calendar and Legendarium, as the Eoman-Saxon 

 Saints were perkonm gratce with the Latin Church. 



I am inclined to think that she is Hered, or Airidh (the 

 worthy one), who, with the diminutive suffix nait^ is known to 

 the Irish Martyrologists. She was the daughter of King 

 Cinnachta in the North of Ireland. 



Hered is only known to us through the life of S. Eintan of 

 Dunbleisc. Eintan had established himself at Tulach Bennain, 

 in Limerick, a place that can not now be identified. His mother's 

 sister was Eina, of Grrian Cleach (the -Land of the Sun), in 

 Leinster, and Eina was the sister of S. Itha who was settled at 

 Killeedy also in Munster. Seven British ecclesiastics came to 

 Tulach and drove Eintan away. Thereupon he cursed them, 

 that their names should fall out of rememberance, and that 

 Tulach should be occupied by a holy woman from another part of 

 Ireland, who would honour his sanctity in that spot. The Saint 

 then departed, and after a while the British clergy, for some 

 reason unknown, got into trouble and had to decamp. Then 

 came Hered out of the North and settled at Tulach Bennain. 

 It is most probable that she had before this become a member of 

 the community of S. Itha, and that when the site at Tulach was 

 again free, Itha sent her there to secure it for her community. 



Now Itha had numerous daltha or daughter establishments 

 in Devon and Cornwall. If Bridget had hers there for the 



